HOW TO STORE MY RED WIGGLER WORM CASTINGS

Worm castings are full of nutrients and microorganisms, therefore storing its components is a very important part of having a worm farm. In this blog post I’m sharing how I store my worm castings as well as the benefits of having ready-to-use castings. Step 1 to getting worm castings is to start a worm bin. If you haven’t yet started a worm bin and have questions, please drop the comments below and I will answer them, here!

Depending on how many worms you have and how much time has passed since your worms have had their first feeding, it may be time to harvest your castings. The time it takes will also depend on portion size and type of food. After my bin has castings and I’ve sifted through my worm castings and taken out any unwanted seeds, eggs, worms and larger debris or food scraps, it’s time to either use or store your earthworm castings. In the amount of time it takes to sift our castings, we are usually very eager to use them because we typically sift larger amounts in the summer because it’s warmer outside, which also means our garden is at abundant stages. We live in Idaho, so our gardening season, for most of the things we love to eat and enjoy, has only 1 growing season — summer. Which also, also means we might be experiencing extremely dry conditions, pests, etc. Can we agree that extreme temperatures can be really hard on plants and people? Sigh. Overall, I used to hate summer — that was, until I became a gardener. Now, I am learning that nature offers an opportunity to appreciate all seasons, if we look around and see the abundance each season has to offer. For example — Spring & Summer can feel like a combination of labor & enjoyment, whereas Fall & Winter can offer bounty & rest.

So, for larger quantities that we are going to list for sale, gift or simply save for a rainy (I mean really hot & dry day) — we use a standard storage tote. The same exact tote we use for our worm composting, we actually this one that we got from Lowes Home Improvement years ago and recycled it into a bin.

These totes can get pricey, so my favorite way to access these, is to use one that we already have by decluttering, or to put the word out into your local ‘Buy Nothing’ groups. After all, the goal of worm farming is to recycle waste, so I never encourage people to buy anything for worm farming. The goal is always going to be less waste. Use what you have, or what a neighbor is willing to offer for free and repay them with some worm castings. I love using castings as a way of bartering or saying thank you to someone.

Sifting worm castings can take a big portion of the day for us, so we like to use it as a day we tidy up our yard and declutter anything that’s not serving us anymore. Which usually means we may have an extra tote that comes up. Why not turn it into a black gold bank, instead of a clutter bucket! We call our sifting/gardening/declutter days ‘stacking our lives’ and I talk about where I learned this term and how we do this — more in this post.

Back to the bin we use to store our castings — the worm castings will need aeration. Our bin has holes around the top part of the bin, we used a drill. The standard size drill bit is 1/8”, for a worm bin, but my husband didn’t have that size, so we used what we had. We also drilled holes in the bottom, to let any excess liquid flow through. To avoid having the worm castings slip through the holes in the bottom — we added wet, but not dripping, brown paper bags. I like to shred these, to avoid mold. My go-to paper bags are Trader Joe’s bags. When we use these in our fire starters, they wouldn’t smoke like paper bags from other stores and I think it has to do with the color and quality of ink that’s printed on the bags. But also — the bags are marked as ‘compostable’. They decompose really well and the worms seem to really love them as a source of bedding. Paper bags aren’t the only carbon you can use as a bed for your castings, you can also use shredded newspaper or paper, leaves, or wood chips, but remember to keep them moist, so that the worm castings don’t dry out. Also, keep in mind that leaves and wood chips may have critters on them & it may hard to grab a handful of castings without grabbing some wood chips, too. But this can also be a good source of mulch. Use what you have and adjust your process, as you go. I like to keep moist castings on top, too (picture below). If you’re wondering how long you can store your worm castings — other blogs have mentioned 6 months and 18 months. My theory is keep an eye on them, as we all have different climates and storing conditions.

Here are some benefits I’ve experienced from having stored worm castings readily available —

#1 — If a pest invades your garden, you’ll have readily access to a natural & organic pesticide to use at your disposal. Every year for the past 3 years, we’ve had squash bugs invade our entire garden — mostly because we love pumpkins and had a lot of squash growing and live in the sage brush steppe. It’s definitely not the standard to see pumpkins growing near a brush of sage, so I assume its why some things are harder to grow. So I will store castings this year specifically to protect our pumpkins and give them a fighting chance against the squash bug population I know will be knocking on our door, come June. I plan to pare down on the squash though, because I’ve discovered that my family doesn’t really eat a lot of squash. Also, because I don’t like squash bug. This year, I plan to plant some beneficial, native flowers nearby that might repel these critters, as well as have a worm tea schedule.

Not to mention, the pest issue has already happened to use a few times, just over the last week. We had a gnat infestation on a tree we picked up from the greenhouse, as well as a small beetle infestation on a cherry tree sapling. We rubbed castings up and down the trunk of the sapling that had gnats on it and wallah — no more knats have been seen over the last week. The reason I haven’t bothered with the cherry tree sapling is because there was a host of ladybugs in the same area as the small beetles and I didn’t want to interfere with their workflow. I will add castings to the base of the tree to give the tree a fighting chance, but I’m hoping that as everyone says — ladybugs are a gardeners best friend because they eat ornery insects. Plus, I’m not sure if the castings will deter both of the bug species and I really would love it if the ladybugs hung out. So let’s just say, I’m using my ‘worm farmer’ instinct and offering a sciency experiment to our backyard, as well as letting nature do its thang. I have loved that worm farming has offered me the discipline and confidence to do this.

You can read about the other benefits of Worm Farming that I’ve experienced — in this blog post.

#2 — You can make a worm tea and add a boost to your garden’s activity, whether thriving or not, at any time in the growing season.

#3 — I believe in gifting consumables because it’s better for the environment and alleviates stress on the person receiving the gifts — they don’t have to store anything that doesn’t serve a daily purpose.

Not that these gifts aren’t good & necessary, but for a mama like me — who lives in a small space with lots of kiddos, any & everything must serve a purpose or else it becomes a bit of a burden.

So castings! They make a productive, consumable, environmentally & budget-friendly gift you didn’t even have to buy. Work for, yes. But, not if you’re a worm farmer!!

If you gift your castings, I’ve made a printable list of how to use your worm castings and in this blog post I give a list of some other consumable gift ideas.

So, although I wish worm castings were easier to to sift through, I believe they get the name ‘black gold’ from their value, as well as the work ethic, time, energy, consistency and determination it took to get them.

Worms make it look so easy because all they do is eat our kitchen scraps and poop, their hard work comes naturally and it’s just about what they are that makes them special — squiggly creatures with powerful guts. Sifting the piles of castings & caring for our worms can sometimes feel like a chore, but it also allows me to appreciate the worms & castings, use them with efficacy and not be wasteful. Rather, this is a joyful & rewarding kind of work. Especially for those of us who have become passionate about trash, the environment, our worms & gardens.

What feelings have you experienced while sifting castings?

I hope you’re encouraged by this blog post and please share in the comments how you store your castings and any effects you’ve experienced, in your garden, from offering it black gold.

Your worm farmer friend,

Waynna