Is it earthworm casings or castings? Which is correct? Since Elephant Man has a worm farm, one presumes he would know. But many product labels give it as “castings.”
Yes, you’re on the right track in composting and letting the worms do the work. I used to grow outdoors (before I moved inside and went hydroponic). I have the greatest respect for outdoor gardeners, no matter what they grow. Those who get down on their hands and knees and are up to their elbows in dirt.
The rich, black humus that your grandma used to grow her vegetables in is the most fertile, best grow medium for outdoor growing. You can achieve it using earthworms, and mixing composted kitchen parings, as well as composted manure.
We used to take our daughter horseback riding, so I made a deal with the stables to have access to their horse manure. We carted van loads of the stuff and put it on our own compost pile until the next growing season came around.
I’ve recently read that many of the nutrients leach into the soil under the compost pile, so it makes better sense to spread the manure directly on the garden, along with your own composted material (coffee grounds, egg shells, banana skins, apple cores, onion peelings, etc.) This way the nutrients go into the soil underneath your plants, where you need them most!
Another way to create this rich, black, fertile topsoil is to mix in two Advanced Nutrients Medical products—Grandma Enggy’s
Humic Acid and her Fulvic Acid. The company obtains an organic material called “leonardite” (it’s usually found on top of coal beds deep within the earth) and then derives these two acids from this rich material.
Humic acid comes from the word “humus,” which is what this organic layer is called. But recent studies in India prove that manure and compost, no matter how rich the humus that they produce, do not supply enough NPK for your precious cannabis plants.
One tonne of cattle dung (1000 kg) contains .295% of Nitrogen, .159% of Phosphorus, and .295% of Potassium, not quite enough of a percentage to meet your plants’ nutritional needs. One needs to use an NPK balanced fertilizer, such as Heavy Harvest from Advanced Nutrients, in order to bring the percentage of the three macronutrients up to the desired levels.
Heavy Harvest needs to be applied only three times per year. It is packaged as Heavy Harvest,
Spring, Summer, and Fall. It is a granular, time-release product that is pH buffered and contains all the macro and micro nutrients that your cannabis plants need.
The NPK of Heavy Harvest is tailor-made to your plants’ needs, according to the seasons. The Spring blend is NPK 25-9-7, while for Summer, the product gives your plants 13% Nitrogen, 15% Phosphorus, and 11% Potassium. Then for the
Fall harvest season, it provides an NPK of 11-4-17. Your buds will welcome the 17% Potassium in order to maximize their potency.
Agricultural use of Humic Acid has been researched thoroughly and proven to benefit plant growth by complexing of plant nutrients, alteration of plant carbohydrate metabolism, accumulation of reducible sugars in plants, increased oxygen uptake, increased nutrients uptake, increased growth rate, promotion of iron translocation in leaves, increased root respiration, and increased crop yield.
More research is planned into the use of humates in agriculture, but many farmers are now accepting Humic Acid as an integral part of their fertilizer program. The United States government and 21 universities have worked with or are still conducting experiments with Humic Acid.
What your grandmother knew instinctively, the academics are only now beginning to find out.
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