I’ve been with you here since November 2011 where I also started my first Rubbermaid bin. I’m completely hooked on worms and by now I’ve expanded to three bins and have big plans about taking it to a commercial level.
I’ve harvested a couple of times and in both cases the bottom of the bins were quite soggy, in one case even smelly. When it comes to Rubbermaid vermicomposting this seems to be the rule rather than the exception, but I’ve found a solution for this:
After the initial turbo-light harvesting I put the wet vermicompost in a bin with air holes and then stick sheets of cardboard in it. After a couple of days these sheets of cardboard have drawn a lot of liquid out of the vermicompost and it’s easy to shred them for bedding in another box. I put in new sheets and if the vermicompost is still to wet after a week or so I repeat a third time (haven’t been necesarry yet). This sponge-method works really well: The excess liquid is transferred from compost to cardboard and the worms that weren’t separated while harvesting will happily munch on the cardboard. The soft cardboard is filled with microbial life and makes excellent bedding or can be used for homemade manure when setting up new bins.
I’m making short videos of my life as a vermicomposter and will soon make one on this very issue. My previous videos can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Ormekompost

They are in Danish, so probably you and most of your readers won’t understand much, haha.

Thanks for a great site and lots of inspiration!

One of my most memorable experiences involving the “magic” of vermicompost (and really, my FIRST experience with using some of my own) involved simply digging a bunch of black stuff from the bottom of an active worm bin and dumping it in a pot I was moving a tropical plant into. The growth of that plant in the new pot with the vermicompost absolutely EXPLODED! So I agree – the “no worries” approach isn’t necessarily “bad” that’s for sure.

There are so many factors that can affect the “quality” of this stuff, and even just how it get’s used makes a big difference. This is definitely why I don’t want people to take the results of this particular experiment too seriously.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts!

One point of clarity: didn’t mean to imply that soil used with vermicompost “needs to have low organic content.” Rather, my point was that the additional impact of vermicompost (other composts too) would be most noticeable where it was being added to poorer-quality soil. And that the positive impact might be a lot less noticeable for very high quality organic soil like (true) black earth, maybe even marginal in some cases.

Maybe my idea of leaving it in the sun was overdoing it, but another approach might be to add to the other soil, mix, and let it sit for a while and stabilize in a natural environment, probably a somewhat dry one. Wouldn’t work with my own planting and projects, where I tend to dig a hole and throw a bunch of compost in and just plant right away. (So far with good results but I’m not testing anything)

But if people using fresh worm compost are noting issues, it could easily be just a bit too much young compost.

Like I said, I tend not to worry about it too much, and if the easiest solution for me is to plant directly in vermicompost, I’ll just do that ))

Thanks again!

I think it’s safe to say that my “Black Earth” is not “true black earth” – it’s just the brand name of the bagged potting soil I’m using. It still looks decent, and seems to support plant growth fairly well, but my hunch is that they actually create the stuff rather than digging it from a real black earth source. (And, it’s also not very expensive stuff at all)

I agree 100% with your assertion that vermicompost is best used as an amendment, NOT as a soil substitute, which is why I set up the small side experiment testing growth in 100% vermicompost. Although, I don’t necessarily think the soil needs to have low organic matter. Vermicompost has unique properties/compounds/microbes not necessarily found in other rich soils/composts.

You are likely right about the WF-360 vermicompost requiring either a longer curing period, or better yet, a more effective curing process. Just tossing the material into a bin with air holes and leaving it down in my basement for months likely wasn’t the best solution! haha
I wouldn’t ever leave vermicompost in hot, direct sunlight, but some place outdoors with some better air flow and warmer temps (than a basement) likely would have been better.

I also agree re: effects of disease organisms on a potted plant vs one sitting in the garden. I can pretty much guarantee that all plants would have done very well (in comparison) had they been planted in an actual garden since various other stress factors wouldn’t likely have been as significant.
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JULIE – thanks for the kinds words.

Hard to come up with a fair soil control group, as every place will differ, but true black earth is really going to be close to incredibly old, aged worm castings where everything has stabilized perfectly into true humus.

Or to summarize differently: worm compost is likely best used as a soil amendment, something to add to soils with low organic content or poor microbial activity, and not as a ‘soil substitute.’

I also forget your original post and maybe you did this, but suspect what seems to be the pathogen/disease/fungus issues affecting the plants might be addressed in part by letting the worm compost sit out in dry sun and air for a good long while.

I also wonder – from personal experience – whether the issues with using worm compost directly are much more severe in potted plants (as opposed to a garden bed). Just seems any organism imbalances in potted plants would have a tendency to get out of hand much more quickly in an enclosed environment.