Adding Worms & Worm Castings to Window Boxes and Containers

Has anyone had any results using live worms and/or worm castings in window boxes and/or containers. We are considering adding this Hooks and Lattice product to the Window Box Store website as well and I wanted to get some real gardeners feedback.


On the Hooks and Lattice website it says: The Best Fertilizer for Your Containers – Worms!

“ Worms ?” you ask. Yes, plus worm castings and teas! If your container garden doesn’t fill out and look as great as those pictured on our site or in magazines, you probably aren’t fertilizing well – worm castings and other worm fertilizers are an easy and organic solution.

Flowers bloom better and colorful leaves look their best when fertilized. Container gardens need more fertilizer than in the ground, because nutrients wash down and eventually out when you water.

Many of us find it hard to remember and stick to regular fertilization.

Hooks and Lattice to the rescue! With worms and worm castings, you need to fertilize your container gardens only once a year in cold climates. In warm climates, worms may mean you only need to fertilize once every four years! And nothing is more organic or effective than worm castings and worms.

I'm looking forward to everyones feedback.

One of the primary focuses, if not THE primary focus of container gardeners should be to insure that the soil they are using retains adequate aeration for the life of the planting. Why would we, as container gardeners, wish to introduce an organism (earthworms) that breaks down organic particle size and quickly destroys aeration?

Additionally, castings turn to sludge when wet, and also clog valuable soil pores. Since their NPK content is about 0.5-0.5-0.3 (note the decimal point), they offer little in the way of macro-nutrition. If they offer much in the way of micro-nutrients, shouldn't we ask ourselves if the damage to porosity and increased water retention is worth the trade-off? There are many choices of chemical or organic sources of micro-nutrients that do the same job with no associated jeopardy to soil porosity.

IMO, when it comes to container culture, earthworms of any type are a bad idea, and castings offer so little to container culture nutritionally, that it makes much better sense to use a product that has no negative effects on aeration/drainage.

Al

Since I don't follow the practice of adding worms, I was going to leave without a comment, but I've certainly found worms in containers sitting I left in the garden over the summer. I have no scientific evidence that they did any harm nor any good for the plant. Since I was unaware that they were there, I fertilized as scheduled, apparently doing no harm to them. I like worms, but probably won't add them myself. If they come on their own, I'm happy to acommodate them.

As for worm castings, I have used them on indoor plants, and believe I've observed some greening up, or increase in flowering in the days or weeks following, but it's just a personal observation with no science to back it up.

I think a build up of the castings from live worms could indeed cause mucky and very heavy soil. However, I do top dress most of my containers and some in ground plants with the castings because I do believe they repel white flies; at least I haven't had any since I started using them.