Doubtless I am opening a can of worms here and will be shot down in flames, but I thought I would share with you the results of some experiments I have been doing alongside my gardening.
Some years ago I was off work for a considerable time while (not seriously) sick. As it was mainly over the late autumn and winter, I spent a lot of time researching various thing on the net. It was then that I encountered various sites dedicated to vermicomposting. So I made my self a couple of fair sized wormeries and populated them.
In a couple of years they were 'mature' and producing ~ 600 litres of vermicompost per year. However, since my soil is very poor and I do an immense amount of seed propagation, 600 litres would not have been enough.
I started to think about the structure of plant roots and recognised that *most* plants have roots that occupy a fairly large volume compared to the volume of roots, so to use 'neat' vermicompost would be wasteful as much of the volume would not be accessed by the roots.
Hence I came to the (not staggering) conclusion that to 'cut' the vermicompost with less nutritious ingredients would be no less efficient. Wanted to preserve the moisture retentiveness of good compost the drainage and the density. So I hit on peat and grit (again not staggeringly). Then I did a sum to work out how much of each would retain the density. The result was... by volume a ratio of 11:7:4 peat:vermicompost:grit.
The following winter I did some experiments, growing packets of hybrid pelargoniums in a) best quality bought compost, b) neat vermicompost, c) my mixture. The results were startling...
After three months, on average, the plants grown in my mixture had three times as many leaves as the ones in the bought compost and one and a half as many as the neat vermicompost. The 'time to flowering' was three weeks less for my mixture than bought compost and two weeks less than the neat vermicompost.
Using this mixture has completely transformed my gardening from fairly ineffective to really quite good, in respect of success in bringing plants from seed to flower.
Now I know that not all plants have the same soil requirements, but I try to adjust the ingredients and ratios to accommodate such variation...
Tap rooted plants: I invert the ratio of peat:vermicompost.
Fibrous-rooted plants: I replace the grit with sand.
TRees and shrubs: I double the amount of peat, and mix really thoroughly when they are ready to plant out.
That's my experience and I hope it might be of use...
The perfect compost...???
How interesting, and what good observations you made on your comparisons! Thanks.
I agree with Darius - very interesting. Thanks.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm,
Got me thinking worms now. :-) Thanks for posting this!
Forgot to mention,
Seeds require less nutritious soil, so I 'cut' the 'super-compost' with 50% vermiculite for seed or seedling sowing. This improves aeration as well as reducing the possibility of over-nurishment.
Mike
600 liters? Wow. What I want to know is how you get your worms to produce so much? Do you use bins or inground containers? What do you feed them? Your veggie table scraps or worm food? :) How do you seperate the worms from the compost? Yes, I have read all about vermicompost and it is more effective mixed with other types of soil than just on its own.
OK. T
he best feed for worms the leaves of deciduous trees. So every year when the trees in my avenue fall from the trees, instead of letting the council take them, I sweep them up and get around 30 bags. (Where I work, the council sweep up the leaves and then put them in enormous bags for collection...but they don't ever get to collect them...;o) )These I wet and keep for about a year and us for 'bedding', which is the standard food of worms in the box. Of course I use discarded organic matter from the kitchen and garden as well.
The bins I have are my first design which was too broad and not tall enough. This makes them fairly difficult to harvest from. The first design ones were ~ 32" square and 9" deep. I get around two of these full every year from each bin (ie six months and the worms have turned the leaves and scraps into compost).
I skim off the top three inches, which is where most of the worms are in a 'mature' bin.
A better design of bin is 20" square and roughly the same amount deep. I put them on stilts to prevent access from a nasty New Zealans tape-type worm, that feeds on worms and some idiot brought to Northern Ireland in a plant pot.
Worms, ostensibly, will eat virtually andything that has lived and died, but they prefer a diet of 20% 'green' (ie immediately compostable) good to 80% 'brown' (like leaves, paper, etc.
One of the best feed for worms is cuddly animal litter. I used to have chinchillas and their litter was munched up by the worms with great enthusiasm.
Do you have to buy special worms or do dig up earth worms from you flower beds to put in your bins.
They are special worms. Either 'dendras' or tiger worms, or similar species. The best site I know on worms is
http://gnv.fdt.net/~windle/
Earth worms are no good at all as they eat only tiny particles of decaying matter in soil.
Mike