RWC worm-friend, Cristy Christie (no she’s not related! haha), was recently on a local (California) news show talking about worms and vermicomposting and they posted the video online.
Way to go, Cristy!
8)
Here is a link to the interview I did with Cristy back in the fall:
Interview with Cristy Christie – SLO County Worm Farm
That was some good looking VC!…Gotta get that girlie-girl news caster to get some ‘dirt’ under her nails. 😉
I noticed that the castings were very dry, or appeared to be dry. When I harvest my castings they are always, of course, very wet and mushy, which I think is normal. Do people usually let the castings dry out as shown in this video before adding to the soil? I always add my castings directly to my soil, before they dry out. Wouldn’t the drying process cause the castings to lose some of their nutrients?
Hi Pam,
“Wet and mushy” castings are indeed normal for the average home worm bin (namely, the plastic enclosed variety).
Letting them dry out a bit can be valuable since it helps them to stabilize some more. Oxygen is very important for development of high quality worm castings, and unfortunately most plastic bins do not provide enough.
That being said, the stuff that comes from your worm bin can still be very valuable vermicompost – don’t get me wrong!
As for losing nutrients – while some can certainly be lost during drying, the key is always to make it a gradual process (drying) and not leave the material exposed to the elements (sun, rain etc).