Unfortunately that is not what is implied on Bruce’s website touting his method. The blurb for that method specifically criticizes manure, food scraps, newspaper & cardboard as material that will produce inferior castings. The discussion on vermicomposters.com along with the original content of this blog centered on how we could improve the quality of vermicompost/castings by what we feed our worms. A “well balanced diet” is definitely part of that process since an unbalanced diet often results in a big mess, but the components mentioned above can definitely be part of that balanced diet.

I will point out again that Bruce’s system seems to be designed for folks who want to sell VC as a business. The great majority of readers of RWC and other vermicomposting sites simply want to recycle food & garden waste and turn it into a valuable soil amendment. So there is a huge disconnect right from the beginning. One system relies on bedding & food stock that must be purchased (black peat, humus manure, etc.), while the other system uses bedding & food stock that would otherwise be dumped into landfill.

With the exception of some indoor worms who get fed Purina Earthworm Chow along with other material, my worms are mostly fed old leaves and food scraps. I occasionally add discarded straw bedding from a pet shop that keeps rabbits and guinea pigs. I have no idea what bacteria or fungi are dominant in the resultant VC, but my guess it’s a pretty wild party in there. I’ll even go out on a limb and claim that my VC microbial population is more diverse and abundant than that in VC produced from store-bought bedding & food. Of course there’s no reasonable way to prove my claim, so take it for what it’s worth.

I guess I should have elaborated more on this but what I was referring to it just because one feeds their worms tomatoes and I don’t does not mean that one worm casting is better than another as long as both are fed a well balanced diet.

Yes I could feed my worm’s just peat or newspaper which they could survive on for quite some time; however the worms would not be as healthy or as fat as worms fed a rounded diet, hence leaving behind an inferior casting.

I have always stressed to feed variety and everything in moderation versus just throwing in potatoes for instance. So in my short comings I was stating what I have always stated without elaborating here on your blog.

By the way, I emailed you a copy of the very controversial eBook in question 🙂

Bruce

I also think it’s also important to note that different castings can be great for different applications. So it’s important to be careful about saying one is better than the other etc (again – no referring to anything you said – just speaking in general terms)

I will not continue this as I am not claiming peat moss to be a food source even though the worms eat it much the same as newspaper which also has no nutritional value hence leaving an inferior end product. This is why the eBook notes the worms need additional food sources… which are nutritional hence leaving behind a “true” worm casting. What I was referring to is that a well rounded diet whether you add any combination of fruits and or vegetables will have the same end results as long as in moderation…

Bruce

Bruce wrote:

“The quality of worm castings is not based on what goes in but what comes out of a worm as worm poop.”

I’ll start by saying I basically agreed with the rest of what you wrote, Bruce (about the biology of castings being the key and not getting hung up on the “fertilizer” component – absolutely!)

The statement above, however, has me puzzled. I agree that what comes out is the KEY, but the fact is, what goes in affects what comes out. You can’t claim that worm castings created from paper sludge and banana peels is going to be exactly the same as castings made from pre-composted dairy manure etc etc. That’s just not the case, and there are plenty of academic results to illustrate this.

There would be similarities for sure, but it’s unlikely that the microbial community would the same – and the nutrients certainly wouldn’t be.

If I eat only Doritos, and you eat a well-balanced diet of organic produce, there’s no denying the fact that we’re going to produce different waste products! (not the most pleasant analogy, but what can ya do? haha)

You mentioned “quality” – and that is an important word. It would obviously be important for us to come up with an agreed upon definition of this term before being able to fully discuss this topic.

Anyway – interesting discussion. Definitely not trying to detract from what you are saying/doing in general, I just don’t happen to agree with some of what you said.

I am actually fascinated with the 14-day concept, and would love to see how the resultant castings stacked up against those produced in beds with longer retention times.
8)

First, I am a Christian man that tries to apply Christianity to my everyday life and would not be where I am today without it. I am proud of my beliefs and will not be phony, shunning away from my beliefs that I try applying to my everyday existence or be made to feel guilty for them. I am not here to argue but rather state my opinions and beliefs much the same as you are…

I did not state that worms cannot eat garbage. In fact I have several worm bins raising several different species of worms which I utilize vegetable scraps, newspapers, cardboard… only! I only stated the process within the book will not work with food scraps as they can take more than the two weeks to break down alone.

I have even stated on a number of occasions that the ebook includes three types of worm bedding materials we have found that work, two of which are completely renewable resources. In fact I will have over 6 cubic yards of material later on this spring once I sift some materials out back for my worm bedding which is one of the recommended materials.

Most all worm farms use and promote agricultural lime to adjust the pH when needed. Would this not fall under the same concept of depleting and or contaminating another natural resource? According to numerous studies the mining of the lime has harmful environmental impacts. I myself cut as much “dead” hardwood from my property each year as I can and save the ashes from the fireplace in 55 gallon steel drums which I use in the worm beds when needed. By utilizing the ash I was able to “limit” my usage of lime this past year to less than 10 lbs.

I am an advocate of recycling and believe I have a realistic outlook realizing most people will not change their lifestyles to become as totally green as they could be. Rather if we get more people involved in doing just a little bit the world will be a better place.

I guess it is my upbringing that comes into play as where a person(s) has the authority to hammer on another for using and or contaminating one nonrenewable resource while they continue using and contaminating other nonrenewable resources themselves. Complicate this with the fact that the few that have actually tried to hammer myself, have not even read the book as they have openly expressed in their own posts and statements. Didn’t most Americans become disgusted when the law makers did the same by passing a healthcare bill without ever reading it and know what was really in it?

Going back to the corn fields… yes most are already contaminated, however what about the ones promoting organic produce. The oil and hydraulics are leached into the soil only to be turned in and spread later in the season or the following year.

What about the exhaust from the machinery as well as our own vehicles depleting a nonrenewable resource and polluting not only the immediate area but rising into the atmosphere affecting virgin wooded areas, water supplies, native species… globally. Do we tell everyone to stop using their vehicles immediately?

Or do we use a better approach promoting the idea of limiting the usage by preplanning ones weekly routes and not making unnecessary trips to the local store?

We will never eliminate the use and or contamination of natural nonrenewable resources on our planet at least not in our lifetime however the key to success is to “limit” what we use and “return back” to the earth, i.e vermicomposting, mulching or composting grass clippings… whenever we can.

Bruce

I know something of what he’s talking about. I recently went to my local nursery, to look at bags of castings. On this visit, only one brand sat on the shelves. The label read “Pure worm castings”, and prices ran $20 for 18 liters (about 0.6 cubic feet) and $29 for 30 liters (about one cubic foot). I took a bag and examined the fine-grain, jet-black castings inside. Again, in a discussion with the castings producer at that conference, I learned a reason for the color. “It’s black peat, mined in Canada. It’s very, very old material, on its way to becoming an oil deposit. There’s very little nutrition there for the worms, and the castings are equally poor,” he explained. Worm castings aren’t always black—the color depends on the feedstock. Black may look attractive to customers, however and that’s what sells the product. (On a previous visit to that nursery, I found castings that looked to be at least one-quarter fine-screened wood. That’s definitely not what comes out the back end of a worm!) Back at the office, I looked at partially dried castings from the four bins we keep. They were a handsome brown.