Thanks, that's pretty much what I was thinking.
-- Rachel Evans Sunshine Organics 181 Highway 97A Chelan, WA 98816
509-670-8958
On Mar 19, 2010, at 9:12 PM, Bill Scheffler wrote: Hi Rachel,
Congratulations on your compost. Mix 2/3 peat and 1/3 compost and see how that feels to you. You can add sand or a little soil if you like.
Not sure about the "bugs".
Bone meal is always a good fertilizer (small amounts). Young plants don't need a lot of food to start out. Plants consume 50% or more of their food after they set flower and fruit so that is the time to really pour it on.
How about feeding some minerals to the worms so it is predigested in the castings? Bone meal, lime and gypsum are good but in small amounts. I think lime and gypsum in large amounts are dessicants to worms and they will avoid it so it needs to be mixed. I am sure others here know more. Hope that helps,
Bill Chicago, z5, soon to get 2" of snow.
On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 12:46 PM, Rachel Evans <rachel AT sunshinefarmmarket.com> wrote: We just harvested our first big batch of homemade worm compost. Our plan is to use it in our potting mix when we pot up tomatoes into 3" pots. We haven't used any of it yet, and I was just looking at it and see that there's a ton of these tiny white bugs in it--they're curled up on themselves like little shrimp, may have little legs but couldn't really tell. Any idea if these are good or bad or neutral? Also, what proportions of compost/peat/perlite/etc are people using in their potting-up mix? I'm also going back and forth about whether to put fertilizer directly in the mix or foliar feed. Thanks! -- Rachel Evans The Sunshine Farm 37 Highway 97A Chelan, WA 98816 509-670-8958 rachel AT sunshinefarmmarket.com _______________________________________________ Market-farming mailing list Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming
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