Worm castings is a brilliant way to provide your plants organic nutrition. Live worms help break down bacteria and fungi into nutrients that your plant's roots can absorb. However, dead ones are even more beneficial for your soil as they are a natural fertilizer for your plants.

Continue reading to learn more about using worm castings to supplement your plant feeding routine. However, before we get into the specifics, let us discuss what exactly worm castings are.

Understanding Worm Castings

Worm castings are known to amend the soil and can act as fertilizer or even plant food. Also known as Vermicast, worm cast contains active bacteria enzymes, remnants of plant materials, and earthworm cocoons.

Are worm castings a fertilizer?

Worm castings are a great supplement to your regular fertilizer but might not be adequate for your plant on its own. If you use worm castings, make sure you add other nutrients such as bone meal and fish fertilizer.

When using worm casting, make sure you use a recipe containing all the nutrients your plant needs. Check out our super soil recipe to find everything your plant will need to grow healthy.

Worm castings do contain three primary three nutrients essential for plant growth -Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus, as well as some secondary nutrients such as:

Nitrogen

Phosphorous

Potassium

Calcium

Magnesium

Worm castings also have the ideal levels of micronutrients and minerals for your plants. To ensure that your plant has a well-balanced nutrient ratio, ensure that you have the following:

Manganese

Copper

Zinc

Iron

Carbon

Cobalt

Borax

Worm castings is the best base for additional nutrients that your plants specifically need if you are new to gardening. This way, you can add a combination of quick/slow-release fertilizers.

The NPK of worm-castings

We know that worm castings contain the three most essential nutrients for your plant, but have you wondered what the NPK ratio of this organic fertilizer is?

As not all worm castings are same, the answer to this question can get quite tricky. The ratio of the three compounds varies from brand to brand. Therefore, it helps to look at the brand's ingredients and proportions before making your buying decision.

Some brands might not add these ratios on their packaging, but generally, most brands have a 5-5-3 rate. For this reason, worm castings make an excellent base for a fertilizer.

Benefits of Using Worm Castings for your plants

Now that we know what worm castings are and what they can do, so let's discuss their many benefits of them:

Fights off Harmful Toxins

Some toxins and bacteria are beneficial for your plant; however, others present in your soil can wreak havoc in your garden or grow room.

Worm castings are great because the Humus in worm castings can help fight the soil's harmful toxins by tying up with them. This way, the soil is free from building these toxins detrimental to your plant's health.

Acts as a Buffer for PH and Heavy Metals

Worm castings can act as a buffer for pH and heavy metals. They do this by preventing the uptake of more chemicals than necessary. Doing this improves the taste of your fruit and prevents extensive cellular damage caused by excess chemicals.

Additionally, worm castings can balance soil that is higher on the acidic or alkaline side of the pH scale. To ensure your plants grow at their ideal pH, do not forget to test your soil pH.

Improves Water Retention

Apply them as a root drench or add them directly to your soil to improve your soil's moisture retention. However, the small-sized particles, worm castings, act as mineral clusters that prevent water erosion, requiring you to water your plant less frequently.

This point might not seem like a big deal to you, but consider how much water and resources people living in drought-prone regions can save.

Stimulates Plant Growth

Aside from being a buffer and a way to improve water retention, perhaps the most sought-after property of worm castings is that it is an excellent and inexpensive source of nutrition for your plant.

Worm castings ensure that your plant gets the nutrients it needs to thrive in any environment during the veg and bloom phases alike. Thanks to the Humic acid in the worm castings, your plant can stimulate explosive growth as well as soil colonization!

Using Worm Castings in Potted and Garden Bed Plants

Now that the magic of worm castings has you convinced, let us move on to how you can maximize this organic fertilizer's utility.

Below is an extensive guide on using worm castings to reap the various benefits that we just discussed. We already briefly mentioned how you could either mix it directly into your soil or apply it as a root drench.

Worm castings As a Soil Amendment/ Slow Release Fertilizer

Before we begin, it is essential to mention that worm castings' application depends on what kind of soil you are dealing with. You will have to make adjustments depending on the other nutrients present in the soil.

We recommend following a pre-written recipe designed after a few trials and errors in determining what works best for your plant. For example, our super soil recipe recommends using between 25-50 pounds of worm castings for every 100 pounds of soil.

If you want to nourish your barren soil periodically, add a handful or two of worm casting, and activate it by watering the plant. Be sure you mix it well before watering!

Frequency of application

How often you apply worm castings depends on your plant's specific needs. As a general rule, if you are only using dry organic amendments, it is typically enough once a month. However, you will have to experiment with the quantities for a while to know for sure.

Using Worm Castings as a Root Drench

Another way to use Worm Castings is as tea for drenching the roots. The result will essentially be the same, but this speeds the absorption rate considerably.

Frequency of application

Again this is up to what other nutrients you have added to the soil. Typically a cup of tea per gallon works well in most cases. Allow the castings to compost for at least a week so that it activates appropriately and does not require you to add other liquid nutrients to your soil.

Not only is the tea potent plant nutrition, but it also acts as a method of pest prevention in your plant.

Is there a thing such as too many Worm Castings?

Perhaps one of the most significant advantages of using worm castings is that it is a very gentle fertilizer. Overfeeding is very rare, meaning that your plants are less likely to be burned or damaged even if you go overboard with the frequency of feeding.

Where Can You Find the Best Worm Castings?

After discovering all the benefits and utility of worm castings, you are probably wondering where you can get the best worm castings.

GroIndoor.com offers a wide range of products, including worm castings, for all your fertilizing needs. We have the best customer support service in the country, offering you help whenever and about whatever you need.

We offer our representatives' service to help you with any reservations you might have about worm castings' commercial utility.

Here are some of the suggestions for the best worm castings to aid in your decision-making:

Mother Earth Worm Castings

Mother earthworm castings have a reputation for excellence in home and commercial gardening. This soil amendment contains various useful compounds such as composted forest humus, corn meal, greensand, gypsum, and alfalfa meal.

At GroIndoor.com, we specifically cater to commercial growers' need for worm castings, which is why we provide one cubic foot bag in a pallet of 50.

Unco Wiggle Worm Pure Worm Castings

Another great product, Unco Wiggle Worm Pure Worm Castings, is an OMRI-certified organic fertilizer suitable for growing room or garden plants.

GroIndoor offers this product in a 15-pound option and a pallet of 75+ bags (total of 2,250lbs), ensuring it is accessible to both hobbyists and commercial growers.

Roots Organics Big Worm Castings

Last but certainly not least, this Roots Organics Big Worm Castings stands out amongst the other brands, thanks to its 100% natural product. Roots organics ensure that worms get the best food, and their product is entirely chemical-free.

The bottom line – Visit GroIndoor.com for all your planting needs

Therefore, you can try worm castings yourself now that you know everything about worm casting. With worm castings, you can expect optimal results in a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly way. Shop for worm castings at GroIndoor.com today!