How to Create Worm Castings? Step by Step Process

Surely you have ever heard of earthworm humus or vermicompost. It is a type of fertilizer that stands out for how cheap it is to do it and because it provides very beneficial properties to any substrate. In fact, it is considered by many to be the best or one of the best natural fertilizers. If you want to learn how to create worm castings, keep reading us in this article in which we tell you all about this natural product for your plants.

How to create worm castings?

Although making worm castings is very cheap in the long run, initially you need to get hold of their legitimate producers: worms. The best thing for this is to buy Californian red worms, which are preferable for their great capacity to devour organic matter and produce humus quickly, in addition to their high speed of reproduction.

It will also be necessary to prepare a vermicomposter or composter for earthworms. There are many ways to prepare your own vermicomposter, but one of the cheapest and simplest is to use polystyrene or polystyrene boxes. They are simple boxes to obtain from many shops such as greengrocers or fishmongers. Furthermore, with this system, you will produce both solid and liquid humus. You will need two boxes of similar size and with a lid.

Follow the steps:

1. When you have the aforementioned material, make holes in the lid and in the bottom of the upper box, to provide ventilation and breathability to the container. A common punch is sufficient, somewhat thicker than an earthworm.
2. Then, in the lower tray, prepare a drain to take advantage of the liquid component of the humus. In one of its lower ends, make a hole the size of a plastic bottleneck, and then fit the cut neck itself so that it is as tight as possible. You can then seal the edges with glue or silicone to avoid loss.
3. Once this is done, take advantage of the ass of that same bottle to nail it in the center of this same lower tray. The function of this is to form an “island” for the worms that fall down.
4. Once the compost bin is done, place it in a ventilated place and prepare a layer of peat in the upper tray, where you will put the worms next to a few vegetable waste. From here, you just have to put the vegetable waste to the vermicomposter, if possible cut or crushed slightly, and the earthworms will elaborate the humus in a few weeks.
5. In this way, the vegetable residues and the peat remain in the upper tray, and the hummus will fall into the lower tray, from which you can separate the liquid component thanks to the drain placed at the bottom. If you are wondering about the best way to make liquid earthworm humus, this is the simplest, elaborating both the solid and the liquid at the same time.

As a final note, it is important to add crushed eggshells to the worm, to prevent the humus from becoming too acidic. It is important not to let the mixture dry out excessively, adding some water if the hummus stays too dry.

Use earthworm humus in plants

Applying earthworm hummus is as easy as mixing the solid humus with the substrate before planting. If you want to apply as fertilizer to a plant already planted, simply apply a thin layer directly on this land, or around it and raked if it is large fruit trees.

Regarding liquid humus, applying it is even easier, since you only have to apply it with common irrigation, mixed with water. Follow the recommended fertilization rates according to the type of plant you are strengthening, and enjoy the many benefits of this very complete organic and ecological fertilizer now that you have started in vermiculture.

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