by izzy
FREE Nutrient Solution
1:40 pm in Completed Window Farms, Nutrients, Nutrition, Plants, posts with pitcures!, Projects in Process by izzy
Yep, you read that right, FREE! 
So, what’s the steal? Basically, I came up with a simple and effective way to provide nutrients to my plants. How? WORM POOP! Ya, sounds gross I know, but it’s truly amazing, fully organic, and best of all FREE.
All you need is a net cup, a coffee filter, and worm poop (commonly called worm castings). Yes, you can buy the worm poop, but I used freshly harvest worm poop from a small bin I have with a few worms.
You can buy worms online or get some from a friend. There are only 2 or 3 species suited for home worm farms. Worm castings are cheap to buy I think, but again I have my own because you can throw all your organic waste into the bin and they eat it like crazy!
OK OK pictures:
And here is a video clip of it in action:
It’s as straightforward as it looks.
1) Fit the coffee filter into the 2″ net cup (or whatever size you use)
2) Secure the zip tie just below the neck of the net cup (you may not even need this but adds stability)
3) Pack in the worm poop into the coffee filter
4) Insert into one of your pods where the dripping water lands and filters through the nutrient rich worm poop
Active Contents – Component values of worm castings:
- PH 6 to 7
- Nitrogen 2% to 5%
- Phosphorus 1.25% to 5%
- Potassium 1.25% to 3.5%
- Organic matter 40% to 60%
- Organic Carbon 15% to 20%
- Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc – Trace Amounts
Quick Facts about Worm Castings:
- Contain over 150 micronutrients such as nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron. These nutrients found in worm castings are more readily available to plants than in synthetic fertilizers.
- Castings will not harm or burn your plants
- Contain 50% more humus than found in topsoil
- They have moisture retention properties and can result in less watering
- Non-toxic; safe for use around children and pets
- Known to eliminate odors
- Stimulate the organisms in plants that work as a natural repellant for insects
- Stimulate the organisms that prevent and retard fungal grown (an organic fungicide)
Example of a REAL soil analysis of pure worm castings: http://vermicomposting.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/h228.pdf
You could easily get worm castings with an N-P-K value of 5-5-5 if you know what you are doing. Nitrogen is usually low because worms prefer the right nitrogen-to-carbon ratio in their food, but you could always mix a nitrogen rich liquid with the final product (such as sterile and organic ammonium or urea safe for consumption).
I may have to write an in-depth blog regarding the nutrient value of worm castings and organic (and free) ways of increasing the nutrient values for specific life cycles of the plants. An easy way to increase the nutrients is to double up the worm poop you are using to leak nutrients into your solution. In my case, I have a 3 Liter reservoir. My store bought nutrient solution suggests I use 90 mL of it for this size tank. That is about the same volume of worm poop I have in my filter. Translation? That means once all the nutrients have leached out of the poop it is equal to the store bought, inorganic, synthesized stuff… Also, I can always put another round of worm poop in there after a few days or even put 2 of them at the same time… Seriously, it’s better than synthetic fertilizers, safer, and organic.
many premixed nutrients already include worm castings plus a wide variety of other nutrients. You may want to consider a 2 part nutrient mix. This will allow you to focus on vegetation growth, then once the budding starts, you can change to a flowering formula to increase fruit size
Well that wouldn’t be FREE would it?
Worm castings have ALL the nutrients required for plant growth. This includes your macronutrients, micronutrients, and the trace elements.
EXACTLY how much of what does it have? I’m not sure what mine contains, but here is a reference of a typical worm castings:
Active Contents – Component values of worm castings:
* PH 6 to 7
* Nitrogen 2% to 5%
* Phosphorus 1.25% to 5%
* Potassium 1.25% to 3.5%
* Organic matter 40% to 60%
* Organic Carbon 15% to 20%
* Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc – Trace Amounts
And this guy submitted his to the local authorities to have his worm castings checked (for free, check your local government agencies): http://vermicomposting.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/h228.pdf
His has 6% potassium! It goes to show you, GARBAGE IN, NUTRIENTS OUT!
So in summary, YOU DO NOT NEED TO SUPPLEMENT NUTRIENTS FROM WORM CASTINGS AS THE WORM POOP IS A RICHER SOIL THAN COMPOST (PLUS, THE IDEA IS TO NOT SPEND MONEY ON NUTRIENT SOLUTIONS).
P.S. You CANNOT cause nutrient burn on your plants from worm castings. Also, the worm castings contain billions of microbes that help your plants. WHY SPEND MONEY WHEN IT’S SOOOOO GOOOD!
Excellent idea, but – wouldn’t it be easier to simply harvest the worm tea ?
Do you have your worm farm indoors ? If so, that would certainly be worth another post, pictures included of course.
This is how worm tea is made actually! The run off from the worm bins is often incorrectly referred to as worm tea, but it is actually leachate. If you ever smell this substance you will notice it STINKS! This is because anaerobic bacteria is at work. Yes, there are SOME nutrients in it, but there are toxins and bad bacteria in it (again hence the stink, a natural way we know not to eat things or be around them). So, this is in fact the worm tea (also called compost tea).
I can post on the worm farm if you’d like
My favorite use of the worms is not the soil, but feeding them to my goldfish. It’s so fun to watch, LOL. Anyway, try this out, the plants are supposed to grow 2-5x larger with worm poop than normal nutrients (partly because of the microbes).
If your worm tea stinks, it’s probably because you have a problem with your farm, not because it always does. According to the FAQ I just read, a sweetish smell hints at a pH that’s too low, caused by too much available food.
I have had very little run off from my worm bin. In fact what little runs off evaporates so there’s not much at all!
It is a very common misconception that the run off is GOOD AT ALL, in fact it’s BAD.
Here, let me try to find an easy read on the topic so we all have a reference… searching…
OH, I found a good one and it’s a short read. It gets right to the point, but I will post some key points, but if you are a worm farmer then please read it because you should NOT be using the nasty run off from a worm bin (leachate). This stuff is full of toxins and pathogens. Plants can absorb pathogens and toxins. If the plant does not die and bears fruit you will be eating this “bad stuff” and as you might surmise, that is NOT good!
Difference Between Worm Tea And Leachate
http://wormcompostingblog.com/raising-worms/difference-between-worm-tea-and-leachate/
Key excerpts:
“When we compost, with or without worms, we tend to pile up the organic matter which makes it difficult for oxygen to penetrate hence anaerobic organisms take over. Yes these are the bad guys. Anaerobic organisms are what take over a landfill, hence why they must be lined to prevent harmful runoff to protect surrounding soil and water sources!”
“First, all the websites selling worm farms with the little spigot on the bottom which they advertise as a worm tea dispenser, when in reality it is leachate which can be harmful to your worms and plants. Put it this way, it is not doing your worms or plants any good if you are getting leachate from your worm farm.”
“I can post on the worm farm if you’d like”
Would you, please.
Really interesting. I’ve been watching windowfarms for a while, but the need to buy prepackaged nutrient supplements has been a bit of a sticking point until I saw this. I’m intrigued. Compost tea is similar (nearly synonymous) as well, using non-vermicultured compost, which is less high quality but perhaps a bit lower maintenance than worm farming.
I’ve heard a few things about worm tea for hydroponics that make me wonder. Has anyone tried this in the long term yet? Are the plants surviving well? Is there any problem with biofilm buildup from the organically active components of the tea?
I suspect I’ll be building a tester single-plant window farm and using nutrient tea on it very soon.
Combining vermiculture with window farming sounds brilliant! Once I get my setup up and going, I’ll be off to the races…I’ve been doing vermiculture for a while, so I’ve got lots of worm castings (weird aside: there’s something to boast at family gatherings… “Sure, you’re a lawyer, but I’VE got worm castings aplenty!”)
I’ve found that restricting the amount of food that you give the worms is a pretty effective way to make sure that the bin doesn’t have much leachate. Finely chopping the vegetable matter before composting it works well too (the worms eat it up faster), as does topping the bin up with a little newspaper and a handful of soil now and then.
I’ll be curious to see how plants react to the use of worm castings as a main source of nutrients — anything that makes vertical home-farming easier would be a good thing.
Is anyone using the red wigglers as feed for fish in aquaponics systems, particularly edible fish?
I’m wondering if there is a way to close all loops aside from water/electricity.
Also, while on the topic of leachate, why is there no mention of the inevitable leaching of harmful chemicals, specifically disruptors, from the recycled plastic bottles being used?
Ah, and are you using the castings as the medium, or do they occupy cells, and how might this impact aquatic life in a fishtank/reservoir below?
I have a pure hydroponic system. I see no harm in using worm castings in an aquaponics systems. I would just make sure that the organic castings you use are pure or close to pure castings because if it is not it might be high in nitrite or even ammonium that would be bad for the fish.
In my system I use the castings in the coffee filter. I am using hydroton as my medium, but you can use anything you want.
The plastics used in window farms are food grade plastics; therefore, they should not leak harmful chemicals under normal environmental conditions. I’m no expert. So, if you know anything in particular please share!
This is great! I had a lot of people at Maker Faire asking how to make their own nutrient solution. I bet they would be really into this. Will definitely forward them to this post.
This is basically true on short time scales, but not so much on longer ones. There’s a reason they say you should NEVER reuse a plastic bottle like a water bottle. Most of these types of plastic simply aren’t intended for extended use. Also, it’s a fairly recent discovery that even at temperatures in the low 80s, plastic starts to break down pretty fast (ie, start leaching). This is part of the reason for all the concern about the “plastic islands” out in gyres like in the Pacific where all our plastic is accumulating. The plastic out there is a problem when its in big pieces (choking or tangling up wildlife), but its just as much of a concern when it starts breaking down into microscopic chemicals and compounds that can enter our bodies. When the plastic circles through the sub-tropical and tropical waters, the plastic quickly starts to break down into some really nasty stuff and it’s worrying a lot of marine biologists in particular. Anyway, all plastics leach a little bit no matter the environmental conditions, and much of what they leach is potentially bad for you. It’s not that plastics aren’t bad for us, we’ve just accepted that their conveniences are beneficial enough that a little bit of toxicity is OK. This is an understandable approach, but personally, I avoid plastic when possible. Why use something that’s “just a little bit toxic” when you could use something totally inert? Just something to think about. Plastics certainly have their place in the world, but I do think we use far too much of it, especially for single-use purposes. That said, just like everybody else here, I am using the same plastic bottles for my windowfarm because I certainly can’t afford the time or financial investment right now to construct a glass (or whatever material) one.
Here in the Netherlands, Europe, we have two kinds of plastic bottles. Ones with deposits and those without. The ones with deposits are meant to be reused. They are collected at supermarkets, cleaned under high temperatures, refilled, labeld and shiped out again. I think it’s safe to say the they can ‘take’ the ‘abuse’. Those without are inferior, so I will not recommend them either..
Both Coke and Pepsi supply them. I don’t know if they are available in the US? Or just contact either manufacturer for these bottles and get them aboard. Both of them will love the competitive advantages of having their (obvious brand) bottle, especially coke, in windows all over the globe! ( yes, aim beyond the skies
) Almost free advertising for them and they will probably leak it to the press as well… so both will benefit!
Just send a representative from windowsfarm.org with a solid plan… easy growing!
Let us not forget Guano… Castings are an excellent additive/binder, but I’ve never just used castings… Seabird and Bat Guano can be used to make EXCELLENT tea’s cheap! (yes not free) Look into compost tea for a great base nutrient. As a side, worm farms are EASY to set up and benefit from…
As for plastic bottles… VOC’s are what you’re talking about. The bigger problem w/ plastic bottles is the fact the light gets through… this creates a breeding ground for parasitic bacteria and algae… spraypaint the bottles black or just spend a little and get the right equipment from your local hydroponic store when you have a couple dollars… my .02
My understanding is that any such molecules will not pass the cell wall and enter the plants themselves. Oncly certain elements get past the cell walls into the plants. Heavy metals, for instance, are a problem.
I’m not a chemist or plant pathologist– just a horticulturalist trained at the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture– so…
Also, one person mentions using soluble forms of nitrogen like potassium nitrate. This will certainly push top growth, but I question the nutritive value likely in the resultant lush growth. One fellow, Albrecht, suggests that plants have nutritive content directly related to the health (diverse biological matrix, balanced chemistry) of the soil. A lot of soil experts, trained in more conventional approaches dispute this, but I found his writing interesting and it has stayed in my mind.
That said, I mean hydroponics is still an open question for me. As scientists tested and discovered the major nutrients and trace elements, I wonder if they’ve documented everything that affects a plant’s growth. Biological matrices are complex systems. It took a long time to even recognize the important role of fungi (mycchorizae) in contributing to overall plant growth and health.
As has probably been mentioned elsewhere, highly soluble forms of the major nutrients are generally in the form of salts, so accurate dilution is important to avoid “burning.” What is burnint? Reverse osmosis, actually. Imagine a root cell in a matrix of nutrient liquid (ground water, hydroponic solution, a wetland for aquatics, etc.) Water moves across the cell wall toward the higher concentration of positive ions. Usually, that’s inside the cell, however if we apply soluble nutrients (salts) at too high a dilution rate, the higher concentration of positive ions will be on the outside of the cell wall. Water then migrates out of the cell wall, causing the plant to “burn” or dehydrate.
This is the same phenomena that you experience when you eat salty peanuts and find that you need another beer.
Hope this isn’t too basic to post. Just thinking about the worm tea question. Seems an interesting possibility to me. One thing about organics, though, is the possibility of bacterial contamination– plants grown this way should be thoroughly washed before use.
Good days to you.
James
Dear Izzy,
Thank you so much for this informative post! How many and what kind of plants are you growing? How long does one coffee filter full of castings last? A club I am a part of called CU Food Sustainability Project is looking to set up a pretty large vertical herb garden in one of the public spaces on campus. We also worm compost so this system seems perfect!
Thanks,
Arianna
@izzy,
How often do you need to change your worm poop?. Is the worm poop the same as the nice rich soil that is produced with vermicompost?