Wet Worm Casting
I have noticed that when a worm bin gets too wet the casting get muddy and smelly. Harvesting the castings then becomes quite difficult. If you leave them out to dry they become hard. If you have had a similar experience than you can relate to the following reader question:
My worm castings is very wet and doesn’t crumble. it seems more like paste. How do I get it to mix with the soil? I tried letting it dry for a while and it just became hard.
The best answer is to make sure that your bin doesn’t get too wet in the first place. An overly wet bin causes anaerobic bacteria to grow, which will cause the bin to smell and detracts from the effectiveness of the castings. The castings get muddy and when dried they get hard. The castings will be more difficult to work with and less beneficial to your soil and plants.
Below are a few tips to keeping the right amount of moisture in your bin:
- Have adequate drainage holes at the bottom
- Have holes in the top of the bin as well to allow proper air flow
- Make sure your bin has the appropriate moisture content from the start and try to keep the correct balance
- Pre-soak bedding before starting a bin and wring the water out by hand
- Add dry bedding whenever wet feed is added (like fruit scrapes)
- Generally there is no need to add water to your bin, other than a mist to cool it in the summer
Keeping the right moisture content in your bin will make the worms happy, the bin should then be relatively odorless or pleasant smelling, and your castings should be rich and crumbly.
Tags: worm bin, worm compost
Worm Castings | admin March 19, 2010
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