Comments on: Worm Castings vs Vermicompost – Whats The Diff?

By: Bentley

Bentley — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 13:18:41 +0000

Hey Shannon – sorry for the delay! Just saw your comment now. Data concerning the make-up of castings is a very complex topic unfortunately. I recommend doing some searches in Google Scholar – you should be able to find research summaries that can help answer some of your questions about this. As for increasing the percentage of castings – retention time is important, type of wastes and how well optimized they are (eg broken down into smaller particles can help the microbes and worms a lot, meaning more of it will likely end up passing through the digestive tract). The quantity of resistant materials in your food is also an important factor – really resistant materials will likely never end up as castings, so if you have lots of this in your mix it will be more challenging. Bottom line, I wouldn’t obsess about it – top notch vermicompost should be your goal – not the unrealistic goal of “100% castings”. Hope this helps!

By: Shannon Bosvik

Shannon Bosvik — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 04:00:06 +0000

Hello, my name is Shannon and I represent a vermicomposting facility in Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada. Are you aware of any data that describes what the typical makeup of vermi cast/vermi compost is in a flow through reactor and what some of the methods are to increase the percentage of casting in a reactor?

By: Bentley

Bentley — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:11:18 +0000

Heya, Shawn! Thanks for popping by a sharing your thoughts. Great info!
You are definitely right about the need for more scientific testing as well. Hopefully, as the use of vermicompost becomes more popular, we’ll see an increase in the number of researchers taking an interest in it.
8)

By: Shawn (worm power guy)

Shawn (worm power guy) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:24:26 +0000

Bentley – great article. It is definitely a topic worth discussing (as it comes up all the time). From a product liability standpoint – it’s very difficult to call anything 100% nowadays without some level of worry or misrepresentation (as it should). In my mind, premium vermicompost should contain a large percentage of castings – combined with the undigested portions of the composted (quality controlled compost) material that the worms thrived in (i.e. from the same system). The goal should be to produce a material that contains beneficial biological, chemical and structural properties (the building blocks of great soil). Some level of diversity in the finished material (such as that in vermicompost) would be required to meet these three (3) criteria. Also – regarding the lack of standards, you hit the nail on the head. This plagues the industry from hitting that credibility mark. What needs to continue is real scientific testing (like that happening at Cornell University and others) to determine what mechanisms or combination of mechanisms make vermicompost / worm casting material work as great as they do.