In the basement I have two worm farms. One is a conventional vertical worm farm that has trays that you layer upwards. I feed the worms a mixture of brown feed and green feed. The brown includes egg cartons, cardboard, coffee grounds, tea leaves, shredded paper, egg shells, dead leaves and in this case the straw from the bottom of the chicks box. 
The green portion is everything else except for citrus, tomatoes, dairy and meat. All vegetables, fruits and leaves. Their favourite food is melons! As the trays on the bottom are digested by the worms and become full and black and the worms have left it and moved upwards to the next tray full of feed, then I empty the matured tray into a big bathtub. The worms work in layers and do not like to be stirred up, so they have a do not disturb sign on the doorknob. 
All winter I collect the worm soil into the bath (I took photos but they were so lacking in interest I deleted them. Worms hate cameras.) Any late worms in the worm casings wander off. (I keep one corner of the bath full of green to attract them.) Yesterday I scooped out about 8 cups of good black worm casings. Wrapped these in a cheesecloth. 
I half filled a five gallon bucket with rain water and stirred in 1 teaspoon of organic unpasteurised molasses. I use a little cheap aquarium bubbler for the next step. Lower the hose to the bottom of the bucket and begin aerating the water. 
We are going to suspend the bag in the water, now where is my stick? 
Ah. Well that is typical. Tie the bag to the stick, and lower it into the bucket so it is suspended above the bubbles. 
Leave this to work for 24 hours. The air and the molasses help to wake up all the clever little micro organisms in the worm casings. These are the guys you want to activate the soil around your plants.
I began this yesterday as it started to rain. Beautiful, beautiful rain. After the rain is the perfect time to apply your worm fertiliser. It will be absorbed by the soil and the leaves. What we have made is a concentrate.
Mine is still bubbling on the verandah so we have no photos of the next stage that I will do later today in the rain. (Yes, it is raining again.. joy!) Take out the bag and empty the casings into the garden. Strain your fertiliser through a paint or oil straining filter. Then dilute it three to one, one being your fertiliser concentrate, and within 12 hours of turning your bubbles off – spray your plants with it. Spray while it is still active. This is alive now, spray it today.
There are many, many different application instructions. Some say apply every week. Some say spray in the evening of a full moon after a rain, once a month. Some say every two weeks for three months or whatever. Basically I spray it as often as I have time to, in the spring. All the fields will be sprayed with this fertiliser. And all the gardens. It is magic for soil. 
It is more than a fertiliser as it begins a process in the soil that helps the soil heal itself and continue to develop its own fertility. It is like giving a starving village a cow instead of a box of milk biscuits.
If you have worms you will have made sure to drain the fluid from the worm farm during the year. The worms like to be damp but not drowned. This golden liquid I dilute 1 to 1 and fertilise the pot plants with it. Remember to water your pot plants first. But the aerated concentrate we are making today is so much more powerful, you will be amazed.
Good morning. Well you know what I will be doing today. John is working on the outside run for the pig sty and I will be spraying worm fertiliser on the seedlings. In the evening I will spray all the flower gardens and young vegetables with any I have left over. Then move out to the fields.
It is raining again. With thunder as well. All the animals are standing still in their fields enjoying the water raining on their backs. They love the rain as much as we do!
Have a great Sunday/Monday. Good morning!
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
60 responses to “How to make organic fertiliser from worm casings.”
Morning Cecilia! You asked and I share. 🙂 Here is a link to a photo set of some spring pictures I’ve taken, including tulips: http://www.flickr.com/photos/64906077@N07/sets/72157629822021355/
Have a great Sunday!
Fascinating, love the idea of doing this. WIll have to look into it!
This sounds so complicated a procedure, but well worth it! I’d love to see the before and afters in your garden. I could feel the joy and bliss in your voice when you said “rain”.. can you hear what’s in mine when I say “snow”? Still.green.with.envy.
Very interesting post. Thank you. We do the same, only with finished compost in the bag for compost tea that we spray on our plants and soil. Our concoction also includes organic molasses and sometimes a shot of powdered mycorrhizae (spores from fungi, which are oh, so important for the soil food web,) and some Neptune’s Harvest, a locally produced organic fertilizer that is fish and kelp based. My garden smells like fish, but the plants love it!
Gosh, I so admire you but I’m not getting too involved with worms until I have to, and then it won’t matter too much.
I guess you won’t notice by then.. morning roger! c.
Hi Celi! We have two worm farms too! Hey, when are you planting your custard apple hedge row??? Remember, we are racing! I haven’t planted mine yet, but plan to do it very soon! xo
Mine is in, well the slush is in, I checked this morning but no seedlings yet! So you still have time!! c
Thanks Celi:) My small suburban garden is 100% organic thanks to my wormies. Embarrassed to say not one vege in sight:( However I do have flowers for bees all year round. All other food waste meat, citrus goes into a Bokashi Bucket with EMs – nothing wasted:). Can we perhaps assure Mama we will only take pictures after ther lambies have arrived – would that help. Enjoy the rain!
That Mama is so stubborn! and you muct have a beautiful garden using the worm tea and digging in the casings.. What is a Bokashi bucket.. i am lucky because daisy the cow loves lemons! c
Bokashi is inbucket composting with Effective Micro Organisms instead of worms, tea very potent. See Jenny’s Bokashi blog http://bokashiworld.wordpress.com/ Oct & Nov 2011 blogs and for anyone keen on starting with worms http://www.redwormcomposting.com is an informative site. Laura
G’morning, Celi! What a coincidence! Just this morning I discovered a place nearby that has some cheese-making materials and a hodgepodge of other items. One that caught my eye was earthworm casings. They sell them by the 1/2 and full cubic foot. I went there for cheese supplies but, had I known, I would have purchased some casings for my tomato pots. I guess Max and I will be going back there this week. Thanks for the tutorial today. Enjoy the rain. I bet thunder rarely sounded so good, eh? 🙂
true, we got a good drop.. your tomatoes will love the earth worm casings, it is fantastic stuff! morning John! c
I’ve actually seen a daycare center with a worm farm that was teaching the youngsters this process. I was duly impressed!
what a great idea! c
I was so excited to read this! I have always dreamed of a worm farm; this may be the push I needed. I love your descriptions of the liquid fertilizer. We make poop juice from, well, manure, but it’s nowhere near as magical sounding as your elixir.
You will love it and your son can help you feed the worms with the kitchen scraps.. great idea.. c
My grandparents are slight gardening addicts with green thumbs as opposed to my purple one 😉
They found this post most interesting my friend and say thanks 😀
Good morning!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thank you honey, say Hi to the grandparents for me! Good morning! c
A poultice for poorly soil! Celi, how do you get to know these things? A beautiful little ritual to heal the soil around you.
Brilliant, and love the photos as always…
I so love the idea of a worm farm and cannot figure out how I got to this age before discovering worms work is wonderful and more useful than just hooking them for a fish!
Oh, TonTon haha. That looks fantastic though, C, good work!