General rule is 10-20% vc to 90-80% soil, in containers at least. The vc microbes gotta have something to work on, and that's the organic materials in the dirt. More ain't gonna hurt anything, regardless, but the plants draw from the soil for their required nutrients. VC facilitates the nutrient availability.
When I prep my raised veggie beds (4x8' before planting, I just spread maybe 1-2gal of vc on the surface and work it into the top few inches, then mix about a 1/2c into each planting hole.

Well we have found after many different experiments with mixing castings with potting soil and regular ole dirt, that a 1/3 castings to 2/3 potting soil or just plain dirt is about the best mix. Now these castings are from mostly feeding the worms horse manure. I believe there will be a difference in castings make up by what the worms are fed.

You know the old saying...garbage in...garbage out LOL.

One of my good friends is a master gardener with a public broadcast garden show, and he was so impressed with the results of our experiments that he brought out his video crew. We had at the time 3 HUGE spider plants with hundreds of babies hanging off of them.

So for his cameras we mixed the castings and potting soil, and planted 20 spider babies all about the same size in the mixture. Then we planted 20 more in just potting soil. All the spider plant babies were pretty close to the same size and all watered and treated the same.

He returned in 90 days with his video crew in tow to see and show the results.

The spider plants in the mixture looked like full blown adult spider plants with babies already shooting out, and they were flowering.

The ones grown in just potting soil had grown also, but were 2/3's smaller than the ones grown in the mixture. He held up a plant from each side by side for the camera, and it was obvious to everyone that castings wins hands down.

From those 2 television segments our casting sales went through the roof.

This was over 10 years ago, and we have lost the video, or I would put it up on youtube to show everyone. I even asked our master gardener friend for a copy, but he says that is long gone as they use the same tapes over and over darn it.

I do believe that everyone here will get the same dramatic results if they try it themselves.

I hope this helps.

Wormwrangler

P.S.

I will try and find the photos and scan them. Then put a couple here to show what im talking about.

Thanks fellas. This has got me really pumped. I wanna try some experiments myself. Just to see. I have some vict...I mean test subjects in mind. Just gotta find the time.

Question for either of you guys or anyone else....Have you ever had trouble with diseases when using the castings? Do they help significantly in fighting them?




Mord.

One more question to go with the other. Do any of you guys have problems with calcium deficiency with your Tomatoes? Do the castings cover that sufficiently?


Mord.

Mordante69 wrote:

QUOTE:
....Have you ever had trouble with diseases when using the castings? Do they help significantly in fighting them?

VC as a foliar spray is used to overwhelm the bad bugs, enhancing plant health. Since I started spraying avct last spring I've had no disease problems.

QUOTE:
Do any of you guys have problems with calcium deficiency with your Tomatoes? Do the castings cover that sufficiently?

No deficiency that I've noticed, and I reckon good dirt along with regular avct applications ain't hurting either. Dunno how much vc apps are helping that, but I do add all our eggshells to my bins, so I imagine that calcium makes it's way into the garden.

Blossom end rot caused by calcium deficiency usually occurs after a long perion of very high humidity like raining every day for a week or more. The problem is that with the humidity so high the leaves can't transpire moisture out into the air and thereby bringing new moisture up from the roots with new batches of calcium and other minerals so the tomatoes have the end rot calcium problems. The way to eliminate the problem is with foliar sprays such as avct. All the calcium in the world won't help if the plant can't move it up to the fruits from the ground. Spraying some on the leaves will stop the problem if you don't let it get to far developed. One problem that castings seem to get rid of right away is powderey mildew on seedlings. The castings seem to just stop it cold!<br><br>Post edited by: WFike, at: 2008/05/19 22:25