Benefits Of Using Worm Castings In A Garden

The thought of putting worm excrement in your garden may not sound enticing, until you discover its benefits. Worm castings, or excrement, have the essential nutrients that your garden needs. It carries more benefits than what you would get with artificial fertilizers, but without any risk.

Nutrient-dense worm castings support soil microbes, which promote growth and contribute to a healthy garden ecosystem. The excrement keeps plants healthy, protects them against disease, and contain chitinase, which helps deter pests. You can also use worm castings to improve soil structure, boost oxygen availability, and provide healthy soil drainage.

Each of these benefits makes worm castings a valuable addition to any garden. That’s especially true if you struggle to attract earthworms but want the benefits they normally offer. Follow along as we highlight the benefits of worm castings in the garden.

Why Are Worm Castings Good For Soil?

1. Nutrient Infusion

Worm castings are filled with nutrients such as potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron. Your plants need these nutrients, but getting them all at once can do more harm than good. Worm castings, however, slowly and gently infuse the soil with micro and macro nutrients. This is much better for your plants than using a synthetic fertilizer, which rapidly infuses plants with lab-synthesized nutrients.

While this may provide quick results, it can also overwhelm your plants, “burn” the roots, and cause environmental damage. Because worm castings release the nutrients slowly, plants don’t struggle to absorb them, and you will notice great results throughout the growing season.

2. Supports Microbial Life

The soil in your garden contains a vast multitude of microbes, which include bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and more. This microbial life plays a huge role in soil health, nutrient absorption, soil drainage, and plant growth. One of the best ways to support these microbes is to treat the soil with worm castings. Earthworms eat microbes, digest them, and excrete them into your soil. In doing so, they reintroduce nutrients to feed your plants, and also feed microbes.

Microbes thrive in nutrient-dense environments. Worm castings provide these microbes with a healthy energy source, which helps them stay active and reproduce. You can either buy worm castings for your soil with, or you can attract earthworms to do so naturally. However, earthworms won’t thrive in your soil if you use synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.

3. Deters Pests

If there were a magic button you could press to get rid of garden pests, I’m sure you’d use it. Sadly, that’s not the case, however, worm castings have pest-deterrent properties because they contain chitinase, an enzyme produced by worms. Chitinase naturally degrades chitin, which is the basis of many pests’ exoskeletons. This enzyme can also break down fungal cell walls, so it protects against disease and pests alike.

You can make your plants more pest-resistant by putting worm castings near the roots. This will stimulate root growth and infuse the plant with nutrients and protect against many common garden pests, such as spider mites, earwigs, aphids, and more. You’re much better off using worm castings than pesticides, which are harmful.

4. Improves Soil Structure

Soil structure is just as important as soil acidity and nutrient availability. Soil structure affects root stability, microbe health, drainage, and airflow, all necessary for plant health. Improved soil structure is one of many benefits of worm castings in the garden. It helps improve the stability of loose soil, which is essential if you have soil drainage problems. However, worm castings don’t bind soil to the point of compaction, which is good.

Instead, it creates small pockets in the soil to improve airflow. This helps the roots get enough water and oxygen, which contributes to healthy plant growth. If you struggle with moisture retention in the garden, treat the soil with worm castings or attract earthworms naturally.

5. Attracts Earthworms

Earthworms are great for your garden for all the reasons that worm castings are, since they produce the castings, although they also provide more benefits because worms naturally aerate garden beds and lawns as they slither through the soil. Along the way, they release excrement and improve soil drainage.

Earthworms go where the soil is healthy, so they’re naturally drawn to earth that’s been treated with castings. They will appreciate the microclimate and stay, so you won’t have to buy worm castings again, so long as you maintain a healthy garden ecosystem.

How To Use Worm Castings

You can use worm castings in many different ways to support the soil in your garden. You can mix ½” of worm castings into the topsoil in your garden during the early growing season. It's a great way to kickstart the season and introduce healthy nutrients. Otherwise, you can spread worm castings around the base of a plant, then water the soil to help the nutrients seep deeper. Some people mix 1 part worm castings with 3 parts potting soil before potting plants, and that’s quite useful.

Finally, some people brew worm castings into a tea and pour it onto the soil. This provides a quick nutrient infusion similar to that of fertilizer but without any of the downsides. Not only does this help promote plant growth, but it also supports microbes, which will further help your plants.

Are Worm Castings Better Than Compost?

Worm castings aren’t necessarily better than compost, but in most cases, they’re more concentrated. Compost provides similar benefits, but at a slower rate than what you can expect from worm castings. Worm castings and compost go hand in hand, and mixing compost with soil can even attract earthworms.

Worm castings are more nutrient-dense than compost, but that doesn’t take away from the benefits of compost, which is one of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint. However, the real trick is to use them both in your garden to provide the best results. Mixing 1 part worm castings with 4-5 parts compost is one of the best gardening practices. This provides the benefits of each without choosing one over the other.

Is Handling Worm Castings Safe?

Handling worm castings is safe, so long as you maintain standard hygiene practices. Some people worry about handling worm excrement. They don’t contain any chemical additives, so you don’t have to worry about that, but you must thoroughly wash your hands after handling it in your garden. You can be extra safe and wear gloves to protect your skin and reduce any sanitary risks. Otherwise, you have nothing to worry about unless you handle worm castings and then eat directly after without washing your hands.

Summing It Up

Worm castings carry many benefits as they infuse your soil with the nutrients that your plants need to thrive. They also improve soil structure, which helps with drainage, nutrient availability, aeration, and water retention. Worm castings are much better for soil than synthetic fertilizers and other lab-made garden products, as they lack the harmful side effects.

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• How To Tell If Your Garden Soil Is Compacted