midwestchilehead
Extreme Member
What does a soil test indicate that your soil mix needs?
-
If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.
Using only worm castings for peppers?
- Thread starter stankar
- Start date
what you see in plastic basin is manure. water it and keep it moist for 5 days it will look like that.Chilidude said:
beginner may mix manure(70%) with coconut husk chips(30%) to create aerated bedding for worm.
that's right it's quite expensive. you can make your ownCaranx said:
manure is mother earth's natural fertilizer.
for simplicity, let worm eat manure in plasic basin. when they eat up, you will have vermicompost that look like coffee grounds.
So... It would be more accurate to say that you're using manure vermicompost. That's much different than the typical vermicompost that is sold, or made by the hobbyist. Not all worms will eat manure - or even be able to survive in it.
Important detail...
That is also much more like a fertilizer that normally worm castings.
Important detail...
That is also much more like a fertilizer that normally worm castings.
That's right, it is different than vermicomposts I know, but I found a year ago a website of local farm making the vermicompost using horse manure, I believe there was also a lab test showing the amount of nutrients in it. Now I see their website is downsolid7 said:
I don't want to make my own vermicompost so I will be searching for available options around or within EU.
@lek: Can you tell me how often you were feeding your plants with vermicompost if so? With a high quality manure vermicompost it wouldn't be that much and it should be able to provide sufficient nutrients to feed the plant and all the pods
I made some compost from rabbit manure. I used red crawlers to compost it. Anything heavier than that, and it's hard to get most worms to survive. (it gets hot - so you have to balance quantity of manure per worm against size and depth of container) However, I accidentally killed a bunch of my worms with too hot of compost, and geckos ate the rest. But then, the black soldier fly started doing all of the work for me. They are 1000% more effective composters, and they are virtually indestructible.
I'm not lek, but I'll tell you that when I used manure vermicompost, I usually added it once per season, and then gave it fish juice every week. If I felt that the manure was mostly spent (this is a sort of intuitive thing), I just top dressed more. It doesn't take too much.
As an alternative... I have also used fresh rabbit poo mixed right into my potting mix. I've got a few pics around here that show my seedlings coming up in a cup of poo. If you can find rabbits, you don't need to do vermicompost. YOu can add pellets, and just let nature do the work for you, in the container.
I'm not lek, but I'll tell you that when I used manure vermicompost, I usually added it once per season, and then gave it fish juice every week. If I felt that the manure was mostly spent (this is a sort of intuitive thing), I just top dressed more. It doesn't take too much.
As an alternative... I have also used fresh rabbit poo mixed right into my potting mix. I've got a few pics around here that show my seedlings coming up in a cup of poo. If you can find rabbits, you don't need to do vermicompost. YOu can add pellets, and just let nature do the work for you, in the container.
Red wigglers for your plant-based kitchen scraps, lawn cuttins, and spent coffee grinds.....
Nightcrawlers for your livestock poops.
AFAIK, bunny poops can be top-dressed without any compostin´....leastways, that´s what i´ve read Can anyone confirm this, before i run out and buy bunnies?
Nightcrawlers for your livestock poops.
AFAIK, bunny poops can be top-dressed without any compostin´....leastways, that´s what i´ve read Can anyone confirm this, before i run out and buy bunnies?
Thank you all for your inputs. If I would sums it up, regular vermicompost may not be enough but manure vermicompost should be working quite well.
I found a local farm selling a cow manure vermicompost which is half a price what I paid for the current vermicompost I was using this season. So I will use this manure vermicompost in the middle of season to boost the soil again, and in addition I will buy a fish juice to support growing period even more.
I found a local farm selling a cow manure vermicompost which is half a price what I paid for the current vermicompost I was using this season. So I will use this manure vermicompost in the middle of season to boost the soil again, and in addition I will buy a fish juice to support growing period even more.
cow manure is good and you can easily find them in Thailand. super low price.Caranx said:
it's called, "ไส้เดือน AF". it's about 1-2THB per 1 live worm.Caranx said:
it depends on many factors. most importance factor is you have to make sure that your vermicompost is high quality first. it must NOT be something mixed with compost or filler. this is really importance.stankar said:@lek: Can you tell me how often you were feeding your plants with vermicompost if so? With a high quality manure vermicompost it wouldn't be that much and it should be able to provide sufficient nutrients to feed the plant and all the pods
no matter how much you feed the soil with worm casting, it simply won't burn your plant. so it's easy to use. e.g. top dress every 2 weeks
PS. i did germinate pepper seed directly in worm casting(no potting mix). the seedlings are very strong and huge in super small container.
for beginner, get African night crawler, you will love it. it's very tough. eat up manure very quickly.solid7 said:
Interesting. As I mentioned, I used to use nightcrawlers, but find them too hard to keep cool and content in their space.
I also want to put it out there that anyone who wants to get into vermicomposting, might also want to consider the Black Soldier Fly larvae. They are NOT picky... Never seen anything like these critters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhR2jDS2IJI
I also want to put it out there that anyone who wants to get into vermicomposting, might also want to consider the Black Soldier Fly larvae. They are NOT picky... Never seen anything like these critters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhR2jDS2IJI
I'm top dressing containers with EWC. I've read "it won't burn plants" and "apply as much as you want".
Another claim by some marketing resources is that EWC promotes aeration and soil structure and moisture retention.
This information seems to be conflicting. I've also read that they can become muddy and compacted and form a solid brick when dry.
I know solid7 often suggests a limit on compost/organic material in soilless media (5-15% I think, depending on wet/dry climate).
So, far I've only added about 1/4 cup at a time and used fish hydrolysate in a sprayer to water it in.
In 5 gallon nursery pots with a coco+compost high moisture mix that already stays wet.
I'm guessing I should not continue to top dress EWC or the coco may easily become muddy and waterlogged.
I also have some 5 gallon air pots with the same mix and some with different perlite-amended potting mix. Those, I may continue to top dress, since they dry faster.
Another claim by some marketing resources is that EWC promotes aeration and soil structure and moisture retention.
This information seems to be conflicting. I've also read that they can become muddy and compacted and form a solid brick when dry.
I know solid7 often suggests a limit on compost/organic material in soilless media (5-15% I think, depending on wet/dry climate).
So, far I've only added about 1/4 cup at a time and used fish hydrolysate in a sprayer to water it in.
In 5 gallon nursery pots with a coco+compost high moisture mix that already stays wet.
I'm guessing I should not continue to top dress EWC or the coco may easily become muddy and waterlogged.
I also have some 5 gallon air pots with the same mix and some with different perlite-amended potting mix. Those, I may continue to top dress, since they dry faster.
Maybe ALL of the common ones that YOU know about. Don't tell that to the worms that I've got that won't touch manures. 
The statement was originally made to illustrate the point that putting large amounts of animal manure into a worm bin, will generally not give a positive result. Animal manures are very high in salts and urea. If you've never been around animal manures, they tend to be very "hot", and will, if heaped up in a pure state (i.e., with nothing else added), be warm enough to kill just about anything - with the possible exception of water bears.
The statement was originally made to illustrate the point that putting large amounts of animal manure into a worm bin, will generally not give a positive result. Animal manures are very high in salts and urea. If you've never been around animal manures, they tend to be very "hot", and will, if heaped up in a pure state (i.e., with nothing else added), be warm enough to kill just about anything - with the possible exception of water bears.
