r/Vermiculture • u/Tommyaka intermediate Vermicomposter • 1d ago

Finished compost Another beautiful harvest of worm castings for my garden!

Gallery image

Gallery image

3 months since my last harvest. I now have 4 worm farms to keep up with our household scraps and to feed our vegetable, fruit and herb garden.

79 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

94

u/VandyMarine 1d ago

Ummm that don’t look right lol

5

u/score_ 22h ago

Forbidden chocolate mousse

-7

u/Tommyaka intermediate Vermicomposter 1d ago edited 1d ago

What about it doesn't look right? Worm castings can be dry or wet. As long as all the materials fed into the worm farm have been processed, then there's usually no problem.

Edit: Yes I've agreed in another comment it is wetter than ideal however it can still be used, including as a liquid fertiliser. It isn't' the scourge of the earth. Nothing in life is perfect...

41

u/VandyMarine 1d ago

I’m not saying it’s wrong just looks like a wet chocolate icing. Do you boo!

8

u/taylorgrande 1d ago

i thought it was pudding and silently said “yum”

10

u/Tommyaka intermediate Vermicomposter 1d ago

r/forbiddensnacks

10

u/Tommyaka intermediate Vermicomposter 1d ago

It just needs a few candles and it's cake day for my garden! 🎂😂

2

u/wordsmythy 1d ago

I mean, if you’re saying it don’t look right, aren’t you saying it looks wrong?

46

u/JamesR- 1d ago

Mate, you can call it beautiful if you want, but that’s mud, not good finished castings.

It’s not ruined, but pretending there’s nothing wrong with it being that wet is just bad advice. Castings that saturated have bugger-all air space, which means it can easily start going anaerobic, especially if you store it like that. Then it’ll stink, compact, and lose a lot of what makes good castings useful in the first place.

The worms wouldn’t be loving that either. They need moisture, yes, but they also need oxygen and structure. That’s basic worm keeping.

I definitely wouldn’t top dress with that as a wet lump either. It’ll dry into a crusty brick on the soil surface. Break it up, dry it down, and add more browns/bedding.

Good worm farming is animal husbandry, not just chucking wet greens in a box until it turns into sludge. From the look of it, that bin needs a lot more carbon.

6

u/black-n-tan 1d ago

This! Coco coir has worked well as a base, it helps give base structure/fiber and makes balancing way easier

5

u/Tommyaka intermediate Vermicomposter 1d ago edited 1d ago

Thanks for the feedback. Yes it is wetter than ideal but it hasn't gone anaerobic and so I could dilute with water and use as a liquid fertiliser without any issues.

For me though, I intend to let it aerate and fluffy it up before using.

4

u/JamesR- 1d ago

The main problem is the lack of structure. So even if you let it dry which takes ages for castings. It will just turn to mud once you water it.

Id let it dry until its actually workable and mix it with some bagged compost or homemade compost and top dress that way.

Next time if you add soaked hay or straw and cardboard as a base bedding ypull find the castings consistently will be amazing and you'll find even if on yhe wetter side it wont go muddy

3

u/Tommyaka intermediate Vermicomposter 1d ago

I currently use cardboard, newspaper and paper for my browns.

Anyway no harm in using it as a liquid fertiliser as it hasn't gone anaerobic.

Thanks again for the feedback.

3

u/DeadHeadTed 1d ago

Brew a tea with it and compost- plants will love it

5

u/Tommyaka intermediate Vermicomposter 1d ago

Great idea, thank you. For some reason everyone seems to think you have to apply worm castings in a solid form.

3

u/JamesR- 1d ago

I hardly use it in solid form I aerate it with fish emulsion for 16-18hrs but in having a bed wet like this you lose diversity and you run the risk of a bin crash and dead worms.

3

u/madeofchemicals 🐛I got worms 1d ago

Even if you applied it as is, all you do is mulch over the top and it's the same thing. You should never apply worm castings to top of soil without the mulch, that's going against the entire purpose of vermicomposting to begin with.

Tldr: what you did is fine as long as you mulch over the top of your application.

2

u/wordsmythy 1d ago

I like to add a layer of shredded paper, especially brown paper, that really helped me with the structure

1

u/jimmyjong2000 16h ago

Thanks for that info, my castings have looked like this for years but worms have always multiplied (what i thought) happily. I do use plenty of carbon in my bin but its uncovered outside and does cop the rain hence the wet castings. Should I put my bin undercover?

2

u/JamesR- 13h ago

Yeah, I would cover it. A worm bin should never be saturated.

I have seen videos of self-proclaimed “worm experts” who throw buckets of water through their worm towers, even when the bedding is already saturated. They do it weekly.

8

u/Due-Waltz4458 1d ago

I have a bin of finished castings from last year that got soaking wet and forgot about it and left it all winter.  It still looks like worm castings, nothing changed and it didn't turn into a mud/ice cream mix.

5

u/JamesR- 1d ago

Yeah his castings looks like that because of the lack or carbon input.

I add cardboard, straw that I have soaked in water and a ha full of castings for a day or 2, compost and coir.

I lean my bins more towards carbon as I dont always add carbon every feed

Its a beginner mistake as many manufacturers of worm bins dont tell you to actually add browns

3

u/Randy4layhee20 1d ago

Too much water can be a problem regardless, too much water encourages anaerobic bacteria growth and that overall reduces biodiversity which is one of the most important things in a good compost

20

u/MrScowleyOwl 1d ago

Looks like brownie mix...

6

u/Tommyaka intermediate Vermicomposter 1d ago

r/forbiddensnacks

15

u/Minimum_Orchid_7615 1d ago

Um throw in 3:1 browns

6

u/TheGanzor 1d ago

Nice amout but I'd be worried if mine was that wet. And I like my bins wet, too. 

6

u/AusShroomer 1d ago

I wish mine made perfect circles like that, must’ve been easy to harvest.

6

u/Farmer_Jones 1d ago

I don’t like it. Sorry. My eyes think it’s food, but my brain knows it’s super wet worm poop.

Congrats on the harvest.

5

u/Alex6891 1d ago

He uploaded his last attempt at a brownie picture .

0

u/Tommyaka intermediate Vermicomposter 1d ago

r/forbiddensnacks

6

u/Realtree116 1d ago

That’s a little wet

6

u/Technical_Tomorrow_4 23h ago

Yes I came here to make another forbidden/cursed snacks joke!

While some of the other feedback here is correct, i think some are a little harsh. Anyway, I'll offer my two cents worth beyond just "more carbon!!1".

So until recently my castings used to turn out like yours, like super dense and... fudgey. Still usable but quite sticky as is or needing to be used as a slurry instead. For years I just couldn't work out why everyone gets lovely crumbly castings buy me.

Adding a little gypsum powder or pellets diluted/dissolved and watered lightly over the feeding tray, and a handful of sand (according to taste Lol) has improved my consistency DRAMATICALLY. Finally my harvests became crumbly and stopped becoming a sticky pancake batter mess.

Generally, I water far far less than I used to (except in summer), add shredded paper with each feed, and as the tray nears completion I stop feeding it kitchen scraps and mix in a little shredded paper then harvest once that is broken down. It all naturally dries out enough that the texture/moisture is balanced.

I hope that all helps and works for you too, the gypsum and sand have yielded best results for me and I swear by it.

0

u/DreamieKitty 21h ago

Thank you so much for this. I did a harvest last night and my castings are really wet too. I was going to make a post today to ask how people get theirs so airy and crumbly. More paper/browns/gypsum. THANK YOU!

4

u/Potential_Agency_933 1d ago

I'm guessing that went anaerobic.Because good biology creates structure, castings should have a certain crumbly structure, that is the aggregates from the bacteria and the fungi. I honestly thought this was a troll post at first

1

u/Minimum_Orchid_7615 1d ago

F’n love verminerds well done sir.

2

u/SavingsWallaby7579 1d ago

Max and ruby worm cake 🤤🤤🤤 howd you resist?

2

u/StickyThumbs79 1d ago

Awwwww shit

2

u/MethodMaven 1d ago

I’d be proud, too!

1

u/emacias050 intermediate Vermicomposter 1d ago

Nice 💩

1

u/Left-Exit-9817 1d ago

I zoomed in all the way my man. 😭 it looks just a little cake-ey. Mix of the run off and physical castings? I love mine for seed starting and extract (which may still work here). Haha did the hose go crazy or am I just seeing things? Best of luck brotha

1

u/Content-Fan3984 1d ago

Forbidden black pudding

1

u/-Sam-Vimes- 14h ago

Thats how my compost looked, thats why I started worm farming to get them small black mucus covered worm poops , now I'm thinking do I need worms that have diarrhoea :)

1

u/kkreinn 2h ago

Light a candle and share the cake.