North Coast Gardening

Worm Power Fertilizer

***Worm Power Fertilizer Giveaway Below – Just Leave a Comment to Enter!*** Giveaway ended and winners have been contacted. Thanks for playing!

I’ve enthused about vermicomposting before, but some of you poor saps haven’t yet started a worm compost setup of your very own. But not to worry, because even if the whole worms-as-pets deal isn’t for you, you can still get all the benefits of vermicompost for your own garden. How, you quite rightly ask? Worm Power!

Worm Power is an OMRI-certified vermicompost fertilizer that is created using composted cow manure. They take what could be a waste product (the runoff from big cattle operations can be icky for the local groundwater), and instead of letting it go to waste, they compost it and set the worms to work to break down that good stuff into vermicompost (check out a video of their giant worm troughs here).

Vermicompost is great for three main reasons:

  • It holds moisture, which is really helpful in seed-starting
  • It helps prevent damping-off in seedlings (which, um, kills them – so this is a pretty cool attribute)
  • It’s a low-dose, non-burning source of nutrients (great for delicate seedlings, cuttings, and transplants)

Naturally enough, I decided to use mine to help me start some seeds. I mixed my Worm Power with potting soil (probably should have used seed-starting mix, but I’m rebellious like that) and smoothed it into my seed trays.

Worm Power Vermicompost

A week later, I have real, live, actual seedlings. None of them have died yet. Woot! There are also Worm Power teabags to use in making a liquid fertilizer for seedlings, to keep them happy as they grow.

Check out what this dude was able to grow using his Worm Power. Tell me you’re not at least a little bit in awe of that sucker.

Giant Pumpkin

Ready to try out some Worm Power of your own? Harris Seeds has generously donated FOUR SETS of Worm Power fertilizers and vermicompost tea. So four of you lucky peeps will be able to try Worm Power out in your own gardens, whether for starting seeds, container planting, or just in your regular garden beds.

Just leave a comment below for your chance to win.

 

(US only; I’ll select four winners randomly on April 20th. Good luck!) Giveaway has ended and I’ve contacted the four winners – Kylee, Sarah, Alecia and Jacob have each won a set of Worm Power. Congrats, all!

Genevieve

44 responses to “Worm Power Fertilizer”

  2. I would love to try it, hope I win.
    We had our yard (back and side) graded completely 2 years ago. We have been slowly working on landscaping it, lots of work, but lovin it! Your blog has great ideas and info, keep it up.

  5. My folks raise worms and have a fantastic garden. I’m just starting my garden and it needs help!

  6. I recently started a balcony garden in my apartment and have yet to venture into vermicomposting. I’m not quite convinced there’s enough room on my balcony for my plants, the chair I sit in to enjoy my plants and a worm bin. Maybe if I see success with this product I’ll be convinced to start!

    • Good question, and the scientists are still working on it. Research using white flies has not been done, but university studies have shown that vermicompost can make plants less appealing to some insects. Researchers say that the insect resistance likely is “due to interactions between the microbial communities in vermicompost with plant roots.” Here is a link to the study abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21077148.

  10. I’m in desperate need of worm power, when woman power is just not quite enough!

  11. Wow! I would love to try this in my little container and window gardens. Worm power to the rescue!

  13. That is truly a massive pumpkin. I’m a little scared of WormPower, if that’s what it does. Imagine what it would do to berry plants, though. 🙂

  14. Call me a “poor sap” will ya? Just for that, I’m entering your giveaway!

    Hey, I’ve been interested in worm compost since I read about it in The Mother Earth News way back in the ’70s/’80s, but never quite got around to building the setup they described. I know my organic veggies and herbs would love it. Might be too potent for my miniature conifers and cause them to grow too fast. ;^)

    Keep up the good work, kiddo!

  17. Holy Crown! That’s one big pumpkin.
    Worms make me happy. They are natures best bud.

  18. How many pies does that pumpkin make? It looks like a blue ribbon entry in my local fair.

  19. Vermicomposting is item #2 on my mid-life crisis to-do list – I’d love to win some ready-made worm poop!

  20. Worm power! Would love to try some of the stuff. We have a local worm farmer in Nashville, TN that sells worm castings to the neighborhood grocery store The Produce Place. I’ve started adding that product to my vegetable plantings.

  21. Most of my gardening is in (good-sized) pots on my back porch. I always make sure to put a couple of worms into each pot. And if I find a worm in a puddle, I fish it out and put it on higher ground. Never too many.

  25. Patricia, yes worm compost and worm compost teas has been shown to suppress pests, such as white flies, aphids, tomato and cabbage worms and fungal and bacterial pathogens . Clive Edwards and Norman Arancon have submitted many field trial results using both compost and compost teas showing that 20-40% added compost gives excellent suppression. In my own garden, I have never had any problems with tomato hornworms, or anything else for that matter. Seed starting with worm compost is the best way to give your plants a head start in being able to ward off these pests. It seems to throw a protective field around the root zone protecting it from pathogenic nematodes and fungal spores.

  28. Carolyn, thanks for the information. I have occasionally brought home white fly when I purchase a plant and they are just impossible to get rid of.
    I have never used worm compost when I started seeds, but that would certainly inhibit the spread of the white fly. Will try that next year… Thanks for the info.

  30. I haven’t tried vermicomposting yet but I hear great things about worm castings and would love to try them out in my garden!
    Thanks!

  31. We are big fans of vermicomposting here. Worm castings are excellent for the garden. A great source of nitrogen, potassium, potash, magnesium and more! Worms eat the waste before there is any smell and vermicomposting bins can even be used indoors! Everyone should try it!

  35. I’d love to start worm composting. We’re getting starts ready for the garden and this would be a great help!

  36. I bow to the power of the worms! The ‘lowest’ of creatures ha ha! They are so cool and
    their antics in the soil so awesome! So this product has the best of both worlds. What a
    rockin product! I would also love to give my plants a “spot of tea” and then have a cup
    of hibiscus tea for me & dish the dirt!
    P.S. worm castings worked so fantastically in getting rid of white flies on my begonias
    when we suffered a major epidemic of these pests a few years back, and nothing else that
    I had tried could even come close .

  38. Great for starting seedlings. I started 200 zinnia plants and transplanted them all before the true leaves showed. No deaths, no damping off, no blights! 95% germination rate.

  39. I so appreciate the power of worm poo…it has done fantastic things for my home garden and the community garden I volunteer with. No more chemical stuff for me…this stuff works wonders.

  41. My poor plants live in red clay…, (North Carolina). Would love to try this product. Need something to try and break up this clay.

  42. I would love to try this stuff out. I have a small vegetable garden in back yard. I will also take pictures of what comes from it 🙂 and post them if i win.