If you’re asking the question then it’s likely you want the best nutrients for your soil.
And even with tons of tips you can find online, you might still be puzzled and be wondering which of the two is better.
Don’t worry, we will help you figure it out.
There is no question that worm castings or vermiculture, make amazing compost that is nutrient rich and will feed your plants better than they have ever been fed in their entire lives. But, it takes a lot of time, can end up costing much more than regular compost, and is a high maintenance composting method.
Getting the Worms to do the Work
In the United States, we dispose of almost four and half pounds which means that, if we recycled half, that is putting a lot of nutrients back into the ground instead of allowing this nutrient to go to waste and end up in landfills across the United States.
Fresh fruits and vegetables are excellent food for worms. Worms then eat and digest the food and make great plant food. And thus the cycle of life proceeds.
So, Americans have started to purchase vermiculture composting bins, and get worms to compost for them.
You’ll Need a Specific Kind of Worm
Unfortunately, it is not as simple as picking up a fair amount of earthworms and giving them some leftover salad for them to do their magic.
You will need:
- redworms (Lumbricus rubellus) or
- red wigglers (Eisenia fetida)
Both worms are available at garden centers and even mail order.
You’ll Need Containers
Doing a worm composting project without a bin is pointless because the worms will go off in search of food when they’re not constrained.
It doesn’t matter whether you purchase specially designed vermicomposting bins, or like us, use large buckets with holes drilled into the bottoms, you’re going to be spending money on kit before you can even get started, It can be a barrier to entry if funding is tight.
You will also be limited by the space you have in the tubs.
Think Ahead: If you want to expand your worm farm there will be more cost, if you have a big garden, think of how many worms and containers you will need to produce the amount of the finished product for all your plants.
How Long Have You Got?
Making your own worm castings is definitely rewarding but a labor of love. Vermicomposting, for example, takes about twice as long as composting in a pile (the worms need about six months, where as the pile only needs three).
This method is certainly educational as young children are captivated by the process from uneaten vegetables to plant food, but children are unlikely to be enchanted for six whole months waiting to harvest.
There are other considerations such as balancing the weight of food so you do not hurt or kill the worms and controlling for hot bin temperatures.
The question to ask yourself: How willing are you to commit to the process?
How About Regular Composting?
We fully endorse making your own worm castings, but it is true composting is a little less involved.
If you have a yard or similar area, composting takes little equipment and can be done as soon as you find some time!
Composting not only recycles excess organic materials, but it can also do so on a much grander scale. A comopost pile can be made of cardboard boxes, dead leaves, corn husks and grass clippings.
You can add coffee grounds, fruits, vegetables, and even teabags with a little more reckless abandon.
Quick and Easy
There is, of course, a certain amount of balancing that goes along with all composting options, whether that be cold composting, hot composting, vermicomposting, or one of a number of other methods. But your standard garden composting is certainly much more forgiving.
You can literally compost every year and provide your plants with the good stuff, as long as you adjust the balance of carbon rich product to nitrogen rich product.
As we said before, worm castings take as much as six months before you can start harvesting. And, even then, there is a good chance that if this is your first time getting into the worm casting game, you may not have the process down well enough to actually have produced the product you wanted.
Regular Composting is Free
Compost piles only require space: the rest is free, or at least is composed of items you’ve just thrown away, such as garden waste or uneaten food (as long as it is fruit and vegetables – that’s right, no meat or dairy on the compost pile!).
Tools You Will Need: There is no kit you must purchase, but your best investment would be a strong garden fork to turn the pile, and to make sure it gets plenty of oxygen.
What About Just Buying Ready-Made Worm Castings?
But looking at it the other way around, if you’re considering buying ready-made castings to put on your garden, why not?
There are certainly plenty of suppliers that can deliver it as promised (to paraphrase Roy Rogers, worm castings as easy as falling off a log).
But you are then paying a raised price for yours than you would for a bag of regular compost.
It would be more understandable, based on all the labor that we have been through, if there were that much more benefit in the use of ready worm castings than there is in the use of bought compost.
Worm castings are better for you than compost not just for their nutrition, but for the entire worm castings process – and the satisfaction is all in that.
There is the recycling of personal food wastes – the educational aspect for young, and the connectedness and pride in being able to say that you took your share in sustainability and waste minimisation.
Action to take: If you’re in the store and see a bag of each, just buy the compost. This one is reasonable and will do the job just as well, and your wallet will appreciate it.
Made Up Your Mind?
Worm castings are an incredible, environmentally friendly, and very beneficial method of generating compost for your garden.
It truly comes down to your circumstances and personal choice.
The key point is to compost! Any way that you accomplish it, is a good way to feed your garden.