Redworm Castings / Vermicompost:

Why castings? Biodiversity! Red worms thrive in a compost that is loaded with all kinds of bacteria; fungi and nitrates. This can be found in a compost of many animal manures, but the most diverse compost is one that contains food wastes from fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. Each new food brings its own set of bacteria/fungi. Once the food is broken down by the microorganisms, it is ready to be consumed by the red worms, thereby concentrated into a nice little worm cast that is ready to be used. The ground up bacteria (nitrates) and other nutrients are now enmeshed with the fungi. When it comes in contact with the roots of a plant the fungi will bond the plant to the nutrients in the castings while increasing the plants water/nutrient absorption ability.

 Our Composts:

1. Castings: Sifted and Unsifted Our premium redworm castings is a blend of composts. It starts with 12+ months aerobically composted leaf and grass mix. It becomes our compost starter base for our windrows and worm beds. Then it is also used as our bedding to the yards of produce salvage that we add to the compost weekly. Our rows do not move, but they grow from being fed on one side only. As time goes by, it will seem as if the rows are moving about 1 foot per month. Once the rows reach 12'+ wide we then harvest off the finished side to prepare the castings for sifting. We sift this compost down to 1/4" or less in size. Time from start to finish is 2 1/2+ years. We sell this compost sifted and unsifted.

2. Sifted Garden compost: This is our kitchen sink compost with everything in it. It’s the compost that is a combination of castings, fras, leaf mulch and some comoposted farm manures. The Manure compost is composted for 5+ years to make sure there are no undesirable pathogens. Through the years many worms work within this compost so there are castings. When we sift this compost we blend it with our leaf mulch compost and a limited amount of our premium castings.

3. Leaf mulch: This is an unsifted 98% finished leaf mulch compost. This is an aerobic leaf compost with masive amounts of fungi and bacteria working to convert the leaf debris into a diverse benificial biological workforce to feed your plants. Our leaf composts have been turned regularly to keep the compost temperature 120 degrees or higher in temperature for the first year and around 75 degrees for the second and following years. Throughout the first year the compost is fed grass clippings, grains, and soldier fly frass; this is added in while turning. As a result this compost is rich in nutrient value and microbial bio diversity.

4. Leaf Mulch / Frass mix: 2 parts Leaf Mulch - 1 parts Frass. The Frass w/barley husk is the by-product of our black soldier fly larvae operation. We feed our larvae spent barley that we get from a brewery after they steep the tasty sugars out of it. Most of the usuable value of the barley is removed and fermented into beer, then the spent barley is discarded as waste. The black soldier fly larvae will quickly easily consume any remaining nutritional value left in the spent barley and convert it mostly into their high protein, high calcium and high fat biomass. What is not converted is pooped out as frass. Along with that the larvae do not consume the husk of the barley since it has a dense cell structure. This husk and frass is cleaned out of the larvae bins constantly and turns out to be a great soil amendment for your garden. The frass is rich in plant nutrients (NPK), chitin (good for plant defense) and the husk is great for soil drainage.

5. Starter compost: This is a 2nd year leaf compost. This is not a finished, instead it is at the simmer stage and sits at 70-80 degrees. The fungi are loving this with the moisture and carbon media quickly breaking down making it easy for the fungi to assimilate. This compost is at the perfect stage to add to the top of the garden after it is planted and again as a mulch layer after it is harvested for the year. It’s great for weed control, sunblock to keep more moisture in during the summer heat and to slowly feed you soil as it slowly breaks down.

   If you are starting a redworm compost, this is the perfect bedding since it is already breaking down it can be used a base when you start your worm compost and as a cover after each time it is fed new food waste.