I had trouble getting my compost mixture to heat up. It was mostly horse manure. I had a bright idea of putting it in a barel drilling holes in the sides ro allow drainaqe and putting a aerated four inch sewer pipe in the middle. I then mixed in some soil that the earth worms had been in previously. In other words castings. This was three months ago.
The soil in the barrel looks like earth worm castings and is pretty well broken down. I saw one red wiggler in it.
For the purpose of my soil recipe, would this be considered EWC or compost?
Im trying to recyle last years soil. It has been sitting outside in tub with drain holes for a year. It was coimbo of ocean forest, happy frog peat and perlite in equal portions. I have added some peat and some of the compost but am not sure what proportions i should use.
EWC stands for Earth Worm Compost. It’s just a more refined compost, worms break stuff down faster and more completely.
If you are wanting more coarse organic matter in the mix for moisture retention, do a rough 50/50 mix of EWC and a coarse compost, keeping both at about 25% of the total soil mix ingredients.
I use a super soil, volcanic rock or perlite and peat moss with the compost all at 25% of mix then add my amendments for buffering and minerals.
I use ewc in my soil mix along with other composts like sheep, cow and marine, as I have worms in my pots that need feeding as well.
So most of my ewc goes into seedlings potted up into their first pot, a 1 liter. As the worms in the final 10 gal pots are making lots for me there.
I try not use too much ewc in a mix as it can become like a solid lump, after watering, being very fine, so I keep it about 10% of the 25% compost mix roughly. I also remove some of the top soil off my pots when a new plant goes in as that’s mostly ewc created by the worms in the pot.
That should be good, you can always add a bit more as a top dress as well if you think you need more nutrients a bit later. I usually leave an inch minimum from the top of my pot, as I do no till, so all my leaves go back on top as a mulch for more worm food, and moisture retention.
