I am thinking about ordering some worm castings.

I am thinking about ordering some worm castings but, I am wondering if I should wait till later to order or will they keep? I am planning on adding some to my garden and also making some worm tea.

I order mine from Gardens Alive, about $25 for a 25lb bag. I have kept mine over the winter several years with no problem. Keep them dry and out of the sun.
Paul.

If you are thinking about ordering castings, why not just buy 2000 worms from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm. Its the best price I've seen on the web and he even ships for free for 2000 or more worms. You'll get the castings and all of the other benefits.

i agree fruitsgarden.. i had bought castings for quite awhile..reading here and gleaning from some very
knowledgeable worm keepers.. i have 4 bins now.. i grow euro worms..they seem to go thru the bedding/food alot faster than
the reds..for me..
there are many really reliable sources for worms..and like fruits says.. u get a ton of castings..and use up your
spent kitchen vegys.. win win..
i dont spend much time on them either.. feed them once a week.. thats when i stir the bedding up.. and the
worms do the rest.. :)

fruitsgarden, thanks for sharing Uncle Jims, I wass going to fire up my worm bin again. I had it going for 10 years and made a mistake of throwing some algae from my koi pond in there. it was the string algae and lots of it. but it smothered the worms or was toxic, I don't know. I haven't talked to anyone that had made the same error. but I stopped growing them at that point. I've been remembering how much i used the castings in my compost teas, and in the garden. so I'll prepare a bed and get ready for the 2000 worms that I ordered. it is a lot of money but still a much better deal than others I have seen advertised. I asked several of my garden club friends if they had worms to spare but no one offered there's. anyways, I'm glad I caught this thread. thanks for your help, hostajim

My worms live in a pile behind my garage in the shade. I just keep shoveling it up into the mound and bury the veg. scraps. The worms were put in the then small pile two years ago - all 25 of them. I bought them at a country store in a styrofoam cup as redworms for fishing. ($2.25) They have to be redworms, nightcrawlers will just escape or die. I bought them in the Fall and by the next Spring there were hundreds of them.

Sorry if I'm not fancy and don't have a four tier worm condo, but all I have to do is bury some veg. scraps every few days. The worm population seems to fluctuate with the heat and the food supply but there are always healthy redworms in the pile.

Don't buy from Uncle Jim's worm farm or Gardenworms which is also Uncle Jim's. I ordered 5000 worms and only got 2800. I called, (hard to catch) and they shipped me the rest which only amounted to around 1700. Yes, I counted each one for a research project. They said they count them, but I don't believe it. They were very young worms which means I would have to wait 6 weeks till they mature to produce cocoons and another 3 weeks before any chance of hatchlings. They are very non customer oriented and that is probably because they don't need any more business. Word to the wise...

sludgebuster, you counted each worm? WOW!

I used to work for a company that sold worm products. Worms are sold by the POUND. How many are in a pound depends on how big they are. I interviewed Kellen at Yelm Earthworm and Castings farm. Last winter it was colder than usual there. At the end of the year there were relatively small populations of red wigglers, but they were all very large. They realized that those worms had grown larger, but it was too cold for them to reproduce.
I asked him how well worm castings keep?
What makes castings powerful is the high microbial content--bacteria-protozoa-fungi. If they get dry, and over time many of the microbes will perish. Keep your castings moist, but not wet. However, it is a good idea to purchase fresh castings when you are ready to use them. On that note, grocery store castings are questionable at best. The company listed above sells 100% organic products only. They have a product called "barefoot soil" that is 60% thermal compost + 40% worm castings. They have it in 1 cubic ft. bags.
I grow my own worms, but I purcase their Barefoot Soil to make Compost Tea to spray on a Pinot Noir vineyard I am managing. the Barefoot soil has a fairly high population of fungi which is what I need for the vineyard. We are mixing the Compost Tea with EM1. In one year we almost completely got rid of a serious Botrytis cinerea infection!

hostajim1, I keep my worm castings or spent media in five gallon buckets with lid to retain moisture. In the winter months I have a six foot heat pad which sits between a rug and the bottom of my worm bins. I use a timer with this heat pad and adjust the timing to maintain about a 65F temperature in the shallowest bin. I regularly use a soil thermometer to make sure the temperature doesn't get too warm. The five gallon buckets for spent media which is saved primarily for germination mixes is also placed on a corner of this heating pad. My garage doesn't get below 40F as a rule, even on the coldest days, so the temperature of the spent media is usually warm enough to keep the micro-organisms viable. I don't generally refer to my spent media as worm castings. Pure castings would require mixing with other materials before using as a germination mix. My spent media is ready to go. Nothing to add and no adjustments necessary other than a quick screening with a 1/4 inch wire mesh screen. Since I remove the spent media from the surface of the bins it is fairly dry, but in the covered five gallon buckets it is just damp enough to maintain a viable culture of micororganism and very easy to work with come seed planting time.

morgan

What I have is called a compost maker that is about the height of 55 gallon can with screen on the bottom, feed it table scrapes coffee grounds tea and shredded paper and after about a week at the bottom there is a ton of worms (no idea what kind) and I take that soil and make a compost tea after taking the worms and putting them in the garden or in the potting soil in the greenhouse never need to touch the worms as have a screen that I put the compost on and worms stay in there and the soil to the bucket and mix that with water and drain the soil off if using it for inside but if outside use it all.

With my business I do not seem to have time to do it the correct way but this works as welll almost

D

I have screened castings available produced by European Nightcrawlers. My worms recycle horse manure and a small amount of peat moss. The price is $.75 per pound plus shipping. Available in 5 and 10 pound bags. US Priority Mail next day ship used.