Walking down the garden isle in any big box store can leave even the most experienced gardener scratching their head. Lets face it, not all soil amendments, fertilizers, pesticides, and black worm castings, are made up with the same material or quality.
So how can you determine the quality of your black castings? First, it is important to purchase your soil amendments from a reputable company, one who specializes in this type of material.
Don’t get caught up in all they hype. “Designer soil lines seem to be one of the hottest products in home gardening. You can credit that to good marketing and our busy life styles. The Best Pure Worm Castings in Today’s Market.” Growing a Greener World.
A quick and simple way to check the quality of so-called pure worm castings:
Pure worm castings will look like black coffee grounds!
Take a wide mouth 2 of the 20 oz. drink bottles and place 4 oz. of Vermitechnology’s pure worm castings in one bottle and the same amount of another producer of worm castings in the other bottle.
Fill both bottles ¾ full with tap water and shake well and let stand for 5 minutes.
Observations:
Check for weed seeds and other materials (compost) not consumed by the worms. This is typical of vermicompost.
Check for sand, it will settle out first. It is common for manure based fertilizers to contain a lot of fine sand or sand added for weight.
Then pour off the liquid and dump the sediment out and examine. It if feels and looks like mud, then that is probably what it is.
If it retains much of the original characteristics, then it is pure worm castings. Each pure worm cast is coated with calcium and takes time to dissolve.
As a leader in the industry, Vermitechnology offers quality organic fertilizers and soil amendments at a great price! Our products provide your plants with a nutrient rich, robust environment, able to withstand climate hardships and less likely to be damaged by insects.