Bud2 weeks later I've got crawlers in the bag. Pretty sure it's baby worms...
What color are they?
Bud2 weeks later I've got crawlers in the bag. Pretty sure it's baby worms...
Neem meal = USAProbably a stupid question but I take it neem seed meal and neem cake are basically the same thing?
Yep - that's the stuff.Olympia fish compost???...good stuff,black,doesn't stink,full of humic material and definitely lacking the common 'yard and construction material'.....schwagg turned me on to this stuff last year...good score.
Bud
What color are they?
Budwhyser
Assuming that the worm guy is using Red Wigglers (pretty safe assumption) then the brownish small worm could indeed be a newly hatched worm. They are a reddish-brown color as soon as they hatch.
However in the bedding are small white worms which play a role but I can't remember exactly what. The term 'potting worm' seems to be what I remember. My worm guy told me that many people mistakenly believe that these are young Red Wigglers but he assured me that they are not.
He stressed that they are one of the 'good guys' and from that what I would say from your description of your source, it's obviously a very live vermicompost that is very difficult to find in commercial bagged products.
Good source, IMHO
CC
PS. I had 2 fat fucking rats eating the stems where i had gooped them. Some plants were seriously ring barked like from 4 or 5 branches right down to the soil! Got the pests now and all but one plant is fine.
Yep - that's the stuff.
I'm still concerned about the N levels during flowering though......
CC
Nice Gascanastan I was going to recommend a varmint rifle and round, heh. Bet that will work on deer and rose bushes too...
Olympia fish compost is the best bagged compost I've seen out there next to the old Marwest. This is what compost is supposed to look like.
The product is mostly for retail sale only around the Olympic peninsula...but it's getting further nowadays.
AS for the concern over nitrogenz.....poop on your plants and add 6 tablespoons dolomite.
Yep - that's the stuff.
I used it in this mix we did Sunday evening......
1 bale Alaska Peat (3.8 but I'll call it 4.0)
4 c.f. crushed lava rock (really cheap from a landscape supplier)
2 c.f. worm castings
1 c.f. Malibu Biodynamic Compost
1 c.f. fish compost
3.5 gallons Basalt rock dust
2 quarts Kelp meal
2 quarts Neem & Karanja meal mix
2 quarts Crustacean meal (shrimp & crab from Newport, Oregon)
I'm still concerned about the N levels during flowering though......
CC
The organic straws that I used for the first compost piles for this year have finished the 'heat ramp' deal and are going to be loaded into large SmartPots and moved into the garage to cure until next spring. I'm really happy with the whole process this time around. The borage, comfrey, yarrow and alfalfa definitely did their job on getting thing moving with the carbon sources. I have enough garden material to do another 2 c.y. pile and I just need to pick-up a couple more straw bales. I checked today and they still have oat, wheat and rye straw - certified organic.
Then last week CT Guy (Keep It Simple Farm and KIS Organics) called and told me about a fish compost (certified organic) that they are offering and at a really good price!! He is using it in some of the worm bins as feedstock. This is black compost. Not brown. Black. There is absolutely no fish smell at all - just the smell of well made compost.
Then on Saturday I went to my regular organic farm store to pick-up a fairly large order and they had several pallets of the biodynamic compost from California - Malibu Biodynamic Compost. They just started carrying it and their price was $16.50 which is less money than the price charged buying it direct out of California and you still have to factor the shipping charges. Moving single pallets out of California into Oregon isn't cheap because it's just too much trouble for most carriers. The local price (before any discounts) is very fair given the quality of this compost, IMHO
I think that I'm set on humus materials for the next several months even without the worm castings I've accumulated that will be applied to the raised beds after the rain season is over - whatever that means in the PNW.
Just a reminder that CT Guy carries the neem & karanja oils & meals from Neem Resource (The Ahimsa Foundation) and he's able to be more flexible on pack sizes on the meals which is a nice benefit. I like using a mix of neem & karanja meals/cakes. "Just because"
CC