How to Use Worm Castings
If you are new to using worm castings in your garden, or new to gardening in general, these recipes will help you grow happy plants!
Starting Your New Seeds while filled with hope for what they will become:
- Inside – add 10% to favorite seed starting mix
- Outside – Sprinkle on top of your seeds before covering with soil
New Plants so young and alive:
- Boost Potting Mix – add 10% to your favorite potting mix
- Planting Seedlings – put ¼ cup near the sweet, tender seedlings roots when planting.
Transplants who want better living conditions:
- Replace approx 10% of soil from transplant hole with worm castings. Surround excited plant’s roots with mixture when backfilling.
Established Perennials – they’ve been around the block a few times and know good soil when they see it:
- Estimate diameter of plant’s width. For each foot mix 1 cup into top 2” of soil around plant under drip line. Apply yearly, if needed
Plants in containers including houseplants, tender love is what they want:
- Scratch in 1 tablespoons per quart of soil monthly
- Or
- Water plants with tea monthly
Remember:
Worm castings should be worked into soil to encourage activity of microorganisms. A little goes a long way – don’t over use. Application rates depend on each plant’s need and size. Test results showed a bell curve with 40% worm castings having the highest growth rates. More than this and plants suffer from too much of a good thing. Best results are usually from using 10% - 20% and sometimes as low as 5%. Again it depends on each plants needs.