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Tag Archives: OptiGrow

Opticast Earthworm Castings.

19 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by Nicholas in Products & Services

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Castings, earthworm castings, Lowveld, Nelspruit, opticast, OptiGrow, Vermicast

soil with grass

Earthworm castings are a thick black natural compound produced by earthworms.

It is the fundamental component of natures soil building process.

Castings harbour all the components neccessarry for plants to thrive and for soil to build and develop into a physically, chemically and biologically healthy growth medium.

Vermiculture is an organic technique that goes hand in hand with modern chemical agricultural techniques, it is the health of soil that ensures that chemical application to soil can optimally function.

Worm castings are natures soil builders and naturally occurs in healthy soil. The health of your soil from healthy to poor depends on the quantity of vermicast within your soil and your soils ability to sustainable create more.

wcCan castings help me?

If you answer yes to any of the following, then yes castings can help you!

  • If you wish to conserve or save water.
  • If you have done earth-moving.
  • If you are clearing and preparing land for planting.
  • If you have high chemical inputs with limited results or wish to optimise your results.
  • If you wish to reduce chemical leach away.
  • Remedy soil toxicity issues or chemical imbalance.
  • If you wish to repair the physical structure of your soil and reduce soil erosion.
  • If you suffer from pest or fungal infestations.
  • If you want to boost plant growth.
  • If you want to increase yield

Click here to see our literature section for current pricing and application information.

Using worm castings for insect repellence.

24 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by Nicholas in Articles

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chitin, Chitinase, Chitosan, Insect repellent, OptiGrow

Bathycoelia natalicola  Chitinase-1CNS

Chitin is a compound that makes up the main component of the exoskeleton of insects.

Chitosan is a compound that is created from the breakdown of chitin.

Chitinase is the naturally occurring enzyme that breaks chitin down into chitosan.

These worm castings contain enzymes known as various forms of chitinase of which insects have a strong aversion.

The worm castings also have the ability to activate multiplication of the chitinase-producing bacteria found naturally in plants.

Testing has shown that the natural level of chitinase found in most plants is not sufficient to repel insects. The level of chitinase is multiplied to a repulsion level with the use of worm castings.

The level of the chitinase enzyme for effective repellence is in the range of 1 million cfu/gdw (Colony Forming Units/ gram dry weight). Worm castings were submitted for tests to determine the level of the chitinase enzyme production. The tests showed concentrations of chitinase in the range of 54 million CFU/gdw. This is concentration is over 50 times the estimated level for repellence.

It was observed that ants refuse to cross a layer of worm castings.

 

It has been found that worm castings can be used effectively to repel insects that feed on the internal liquid or nectar of various plants.

These include a large array of insect pests including white fly, aphids, spider mites, fruit flies, and other nectar-sucking insects.

When worm castings are put into the soil of the plant feeding area (stem to drip line), the evidence indicates that the worm castings activate an increase in the internal concentration of chitinase.

The level of chitinase in the nectar of leaves before treatment with worm castings is low.

When the chitinase concentration is low, insects are not repelled.

The increase in the chitinase level on small plants to a level sufficient to repel small insects occurs in a few weeks. The increase in the level of chitinase in large plants sufficient to repel the insects takes longer.

The time to increase the level of chitinase in a large plant such as a full grown hibiscus can take several months and trees will take longer.

The pollination nectar and pollen do not appear to get an increased level of chitinase producing organisms with the use of worm castings.

White fly infested hibiscus plants were treated with worm castings.

Worm castings were applied in a ½ inch layer from the stems to the drip line.

In about two months all white fly residue and cocoons were gone.

White flies from neighbouring plants, which had not been treated, would fly around the treated leaves but not land on these leaves.

An excerpt from the document “Benefits of Vermicast in point form” to read the full article, see our commercial documents section, otherwise

PDF_Logo - icon Click here to download the full article in PDF format.

 

Vermicast explained: what it is and how it works.

07 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by Nicholas in literature

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OptiGrow, research papers, trials, Vermicast, Vermiculture

pecans-700-web

Vermicast is worm-poo produced by the earthworm Eisenia Fetida(found all over the world).There are approximately 2700 species of earthworm and this specific earthworm consumes organic material and extrudes a rich natural fertiliser called vermicast. By the process of going through the worm’s gut the nature of the material is changed in a number of ways. What these changes are and how they make vermicast beneficial for plant growth is outlined below quoting a number of scientific trials and studies that span some 50 odd years.

The trials vary in terms of what crops they were conducted with but the results keep drawing the same basic conclusion. Vermicast is highly beneficial to plant growth, health and yield. At the end of the document is a case study of an apple farmer in the Free State who is using vermiculture extensively and has had immense success. This case study was in the Farmer’s Weekly in 2010 and his contact details are included if you wish to verify his claims.

Vermicast is not a man-made or manufactured product. It is created by earthworms and at Optigrow we are working with the worms to produce it in high volumes. Considering a worm can process its own weight in a day you can imagine how many worms we work with to produce the cubic volumes we do.

The first thing to understand is that the value of vermicast lies in the plant growth stimulants, the cationic exchange rate and the soil benevolent biota.

Definitions:

Biota – Micro-organisms beneficial to the soil.

Cationic Exchange Rate – Exchange rate at which trace elements (cationic = positive) are attracted to vegetative matter (anionic = negative).

Vermicast is produced from organic materials that have taken up minerals in exactly the ratio in which they were needed to produce and sustain growth. Therefore the minerals are contained in castings in a natural balance such as is required for vigorous, healthy growth. In ordinary soil, plants usually have to seek them out but, in vermicast, they are readily available when they are needed. Significantly in vermicast there is no excess of nitrates and phosphates, which are water soluble and which, when applied in much higher concentrations in manufactured fertilizers, dissolve in run off.

Plant growth stimulants:

During vermicomposting process when organic matter passes through the worm’s gut, it undergoes physico-chemical and biochemical changes by the combined effect of earthworm and microbial activities.

Vermicasts are coated with mucopolysaccharides and enriched with nutrients. The cellulolytic, nitrifying and nitrogen fixing microbes are found established in the worm cast (Kale et al., 1988).

Earthworms directly cycle the nitrogen by excretion in the casts, urine and mucoprotein and through the turnover of earthworm tissues (Lee, 1985).

Earthworms increase the amount of mineralized nitrogen from organic matter in soil. The microbial composition changes qualitatively and quantitatively during passage through the earthworm intestine (Pedersen and Hendriksen, 1993).

Joshi and Kelkar (1952) reported that earthworm casts contained greater percentage of finer fractions like silt and clay than in the surrounding soils. This change in mechanical composition of soil was probably due to the grinding action of earthworm gizzard. The chemical analysis of Vermicasts revealed that they were richer in soluble salts, neutral or alkaline in reaction and had higher percentage of exchangeable Na, K and Mg but a lower exchangeable Ca than in corresponding soil.

Earthworm casts also contained greater amounts of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (K). The Vermicasts contained higher amounts of nitrate nitrogen and possessed a greater nitrifying power than the corresponding soils.

Vermicompost also contained Mg, Ca, Fe, B, Mo and Zn in addition to some of the plant growth promoters and beneficial microflora.

Several valuable compounds were also produced through the earthworm – microfloral interaction, which included vitamins such as B12 and plant growth hormones such as gibberellins.

This important concept, that Vermicompost includes plant-growth regulators which increase growth and yield, has been cited and is being further investigated by several researchers (Canellas et al, 2002).

Barois et al., (1987) observed an activation of N mineralization, with the casts having 270 percent more ammonia than the bulk soil.

Within a year of application of vermiculture technology to the saline soil, 37 percent more N, 67 percent more P2O5 and 10 percent more K2O were recorded as compared to chemical fertilizer (Phule, 1993).

Atiyeh at al (2002) conducted an extensive review. The authors stated that: “These investigations have demonstrated consistently that vermicomposted organic wastes have beneficial effects on plant growth independent of nutritional transformations and availability. Whether they are used as soil additives or as components of horticultural soil less media, vermicomposts have consistently improved seed germination, enhanced seedling growth and development, and increased plant productivity much more than would be possible from the mere conversion of mineral nutrients into more plant-available forms.”

Cationic exchange rate

An important and often unrecognized feature of vermicast is its cationic exchange rate. This is the rate at which the cat ionic soil trace elements can attach themselves to vermicast.

Everything in nature has an electrical charge. Some charges are positive, cations, and some are negative, anions. Organic vegetative matter is anionic and, because vermicast is highly vegetative matter, it is strongly anionic. Most trace elements are cationic.

In simple terms this means that trace elements are attracted to vermicast and readily bond to it in the same way that opposite poles of a magnet attract each other. Plants have a stronger pull than the vermicast and can therefore draw the trace elements away from the vermicast and into their roots.

Atiyeh et al. (2000) found that compost was higher in ammonium, while Vermicompost tended to be higher in nitrates, which is the more plant-available form of nitrogen.

Vermicasts are excellent media for harbouring N-fixing bacteria (Bhole, 1992).

Earthworms have multiple, interactive effects on rates and patterns of nitrogen mineralization and immobilization in natural and managed ecosystems (Edwards and Lofty, 1977; Lee, 1983; Lavelle and Martin, 1992; Blair et al., 1995b).

 

Soil benevolent biota (microbes)

Earthworms not only disperse microorganisms important in food production but also associated with mycorrhizae and other root symbionts, biocontrol agents and microbial antagonists of plant pathogens as well as microorganisms that act as pests (Edwards and Bohlen, 1996).

Several researchers have demonstrated the ability of earthworms to promote the dispersal of beneficial soil microorganisms through castings, including pseudomonads, rhizobia and mycorrhizal fungi (Edwards and Bohlen, 1996; Buckalew et al., 1982; Doube et al., 1994a; Doube et al., 1994b; Madsen and Alexander, 1982; Reddell and Spain, 1991; Rouelle, 1983; Stephens et al., 1994).

Earthworm casts are enriched in terms of available nutrients and microbial numbers and biomass, relative to the surrounding soil (Shaw and Pawluk, 1986; Lavelle and Martin, 1992)

Earthworms reject significant amounts of nutrients in their casts. In part these losses result from the intense microbial activity in their gut, and from their own metabolic activity. E.g. The elimination of N due to fast turnover of this element in microbial biomass. A significant proportion of C assimilated by earthworms is secreted as intestinal and cutaneous mucus with greater C:N ratios than those of the resource used (Lavelle et al., 1983; Cortez and Bouche, 1987).

Kale (1991) has attributed the improved growth in pastures and in other crops like rye and barley to the chemical exudates of the worms and microbes in association with them.

Tomati et al., (1983) related the beneficial influence of worm cast to the biological factors like gibberellins, cytokinins and auxins released due to metabolic activity of the microbes harboured in the cast.

It has also been indicated that the chemical exudates of worms and those of microbes in the cast, influence the rooting or shoots of layers. In a field trial Kale and Bano (1986) observed that the seedling growth of rice in nursery increased significantly due to Vermicompost application, and transplanting of seedlings could be made one or two days earlier than the usual practice. After transplanting the growth of seedlings in main field was more favourably influenced by worm cast than the chemical fertilizer. This was attributed to higher availability of nitrogen for plant growth. The improved growth was also attributed to the release of plant growth promoting compounds from worm cast, which in their opinion could easily replace the chemical fertilizers at nursery level.

Similarly, work at NSAC by Hammermeister et al. (2004) indicated that “Vermicomposted manure has higher N availability than conventionally composted manure on a weight basis”. The latter study also showed that the supply rate of several nutrients, including P, K, S and Mg, were increased by vermicomposting as compared with conventional composting.

These results are typical of what other researchers have found (e.g., Short et al., 1999; Saradha, 1997, Sudha and Kapoor, 2000). It appears that the process of vermicomposting tends to result in higher levels of plant-availability of most nutrients than does the conventional composting process.

The literature has less information on this subject than on nutrient availability, yet it is widely believed that Vermicompost greatly exceeds conventional compost with respect to levels of beneficial microbial activity.

Much of the work on this subject has been done at Ohio State University, led by Dr. Clive Edwards (Subler et al., 1998). In an interview (Edwards, 1999), he stated that Vermicompost may be as much as 1000 times as microbially active as conventional compost, although that figure is not always achieved.

Moreover, he went on to say that “…these are microbes which are much better at transforming nutrients into forms readily taken up by plants than you find in compost – because we’re talking about thermophillic microbes in compost – so that the microbial spectrum is quite different and also much more beneficial in a Vermicompost.

I mean, I will stick by what I have said a number of times that a Vermicompost is much, much preferable to a compost if you’re going in for a plant-growth medium.”

Many researchers have found that vermicast stimulates further plant growth even when the plants are already receiving optimal nutrition.

Atiyeh et al further speculate that the growth responses observed may be due to hormone-like activity associated with the high levels of humic acids and humates in vermicomposts: “…there seems a strong possibility that …plant-growth regulators which are relatively transient may become adsorbed on to humates and act in conjunction with them to influence plant growth”.

There has been considerable anecdotal evidence in recent years regarding the ability of Vermicompost to protect plants against various diseases.

The theory behind this claim is that the high levels of beneficial microorganisms in Vermicompost protect plants by out-competing pathogens for available resources (starving them, so to speak), while also blocking their access to plant roots by occupying all the available sites.

This analysis is based on the concept of the “soil foodweb”, a soil-ecology-based approach pioneered by Dr. Elaine Ingham of Corvallis, Oregon (see her website at http://www.soilfoodweb.com for more details). Work on this attribute of Vermicompost is still in its infancy, but research by both Dr. Ingham’s labs and the Ohio State Soil Ecology Laboratory are very promising.

With regard to the latter institution, Edwards and Arancon (2004) report that “…we have researched the effects of relatively small applications of commercially-produced vermicomposts, on attacks by Pythium on cucumbers, Rhizoctonia on radishes in the greenhouse, and by Verticillium on strawberries and Phomopsis and Sphaerotheca fulginae on grapes in the field. In all of these experiments, the Vermicompost applications suppressed the incidence of the disease significantly.”

The authors go on to say that the pathogen suppression disappeared when the Vermicompost was sterilized, indicating that the mechanism involved was microbial antagonism.

In recent research, Edwards and Arancon (2004) report statistically significant

decreases in arthropod (aphid, mealy bug, spider mite) populations, and subsequent reductions in plant damage, in tomato, pepper, and cabbage trials with 20% and 40% Vermicompost additions to Metro Mix 360 (the control).

They also found statistically significant suppression of plant-parasitic nematodes in field trials with peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, and grapes. Much more research is required, however, before Vermicompost can be considered as an alternative to pesticides or alternative, non-toxic methods of pest control.

Moreover, the authors go on to state a finding that others have also reported (e.g., Arancon, 2004), that maximum benefit from Vermicompost is obtained when it constitutes between 10 and 40% of the growing medium.

Case Study

Apple farming at Clan Leslie – take less, waste less, make more

Farmers Weekly 21 October 2010

Hayden Green

By incorporating vermicomposting and worm-casting tea in its apple production system, Clan Leslie Estate has improved its fruit quality, reduced input costs and improved the soil and tree health in its orchards. Hayden Green visited Mike Leslie to find out more. 

Mike Leslie farms in partnership with his father Nick and brother Graham on the Clan Leslie Estate near Harrismith in the Free State. Like’s farming philosophy is to keep things simple, but pay attention to detail. He’s passionate about apple production and about where sustainability is taking the enterprise. He combines technology with applicable management and biological farming techniques to produce fruit that looks good, is healthy and nutritious, and exceeds export quality requirements. To achieve quality and production goals, Mike also partners with nature’s prime recycler – the humble earthworm.

Vermiculture – earthworm farming

To branch out into exports, Clan Leslie established its apple production division in 1996. Five years ago, they decided to integrate vermiculture into the operation because of changing export regulations, specifically for chemical residue levels. “Our list of suitable chemicals was and still is shrinking due to global regulations and the green movement,” Mike says. “Consumers are looking for residue-free fruit, and we had to find a different way of doing things.” Fruit destined for export is batch-tested five days before picking, and Mike felt that moving to natural pest and disease control in the form of “worm tea” would minimise the risk of residue on the fruit, increase its nutritional value, and reduce chemical use and withholding periods. He contacted private consultant Hennie Eksteen for advice on vermiculture, and partnered with vermiculture specialist Poerie Coetzee to manage it. This left Mike himself free to concentrate on orchard management. “I was initially concerned that salmonella and E. coli contamination from feedlot manure and chicken litter we used as compost base came through in the testing,” he admits. “But we tried the worm tea in selected apple blocks and the results were perfect. The earthworms destroyed all pathogens in the manure, giving us the confidence to freely use compost tea.”

Foliar and soil-feed teas
“Foliar-feed tea requires an anaerobic process,” explains Mike. “We mix the earthworm castings with water, molasses, ground Lucerne and fishmeal, and brew the mixture in 1 000â vats for three weeks. When it’s ready, we dilute the tea with water and use it as a foliar feed, sprayed at 80â/ha.” Likewise, converting the solid material in worm castings into a liquid enables a practical, accurate and uniform application of soil-feed tea throughout the orchard. Soil-feed tea is made aerobically by pumping a large volume of air through it for up to 24 hours. Once the correct microbe population is reached (established by microscopic examination), the tea must be applied undiluted at 200â/ha within a few hours before the aerobic bacteria die from a lack of oxygen. Follow-up irrigation further washes the tea into the soil. The total cost of foliar and soil-feed tea production and application is around R12 625/ha per season. This will decline in time as the orchard health improves and less spraying is needed.

Mulching – retaining a natural balance
“In nature, fruiting trees are part of a complicated ecological system, existing in symbiotic relationships with the fauna and other flora to sustain a healthy fruiting cycle,” says Mike. He’s concerned about the consequences and economic sustainability of a system of constant harvesting, with synthetic chemicals as the only inputs. So, mimicking nature, he scatters tree pruning clippings and other plant residue around the base of the trees to eventually decompose and form mulch. “We use nine 1,5m-diameter round bales of wheat residue to every 200m of tree row,” he explains. “This equates to 104 bales, or 26t of dry plant material, per hectare, and lasts for three to four years. Nothing is wasted.”The mulch, besides retaining moisture, feeds the bacterial processes stimulated by the soil-feed worm tea. Mike points to the contrast between mineral soil and the rich organic matter resulting from earthworm activity. “The earthworms manage the environment for me,” he says. “The soil is moving towards a natural state of balance (homeostasis) without chemical fertiliser.” He estimates that this production system needs one-third less irrigation water. “The savings are significant.” Mike was astonished when he first saw the increase in root growth as a result of the mulch and soil feed. “This increased nutrient uptake has resulted in healthier, stronger apple trees.”

A competitive advantage
“Quality counts. The market is prepared to pay for an apple that tastes better and, more importantly, lasts longer,” says Mike. Mulching with worm tea had precisely this effect, increasing demand for Clan Leslie apples from clients in Africa, where the cold supply chain isn’t as advanced as other export markets. “The local informal market is massive, and is prepared to pay premium prices for quality fruit that will last,” he explains. Although being situated in the south-eastern Free State gives Clan Leslie a three-week harvesting advantage over its Cape competitors, the unseasonal heavy frosts are a problem. Mike warns that worm tea is no silver bullet, and that balancing the soil is a slow process. Over the last five years, he has recorded an average increase from 8 Brix to 12 Brix in his plants, correlating directly to frost resilience. An SMS early warning system notifies him to irrigate when air temperature drops below 5°C. Incorporating earthworms has increased yields from 50t/ha to 75t/ha in Pink Lady apples, and by 15t/ha in other varieties.

The path towards more sustainable production on the 66ha apple orchard constantly challenges Mike. “In the future I would define myself increasingly as a carbon farmer who produces apples,” he says.
Based on the success of the worm tea in the orchards, he aims to produce low-carbon-footprint apples with a superior nutritional value. Worm tea has been so successful in the apple orchards that he intends to expand it to the other Clan Leslie enterprises.
Contact Mike Leslie on 082 770 0306 or e-mail mike@clanleslie.co.za.

In Conclusion:

At Optigrow we have consistently seen the benefit of vermicast with our own vegetables and trees and the crops of our customers. We have grown vegetables for ourselves and the staff for the last few years applying only a handful of vermicast per seedling every time we plant and have never had to spray against pests or add anything else. We consistently harvest great veggies all year round. We believe in this natural fertiliser because we have consistently seen it work well.

One of the great benefits is that by consistently applying vermicast as you would any other fertiliser you improve and rehabilitate the overall nature of the soil in which your crops are planted. Therefore over time your inputs in terms of fertilisers and water naturally decrease. This translates into saved costs while enjoying greater yields from crops that are healthy and increasingly pest resistant.

We understand that farmers get used to doing things a certain way and none of us like the hassle of change. We also understand that farmers are bombarded with new products that make all sorts of wild and fantastic claims. We would like you to simply consider the following:

  1. Vermicast has been around since Adam, it is not man-made and it occurs naturally in the wild. If you scratch open the forest floor of a natural forest like the Knysna forests, you will find these earthworms processing the organic material. Have a look at the general health and size of those trees that have been there for decades without any fertiliser inputs or irrigation from man.
  2. Vermicomposting centres are numerous in Cuba.  When the Soviet Union fell, it became impossible for them to import commercial fertilizer. Vermicompost has been the largest single replacement for commercial fertilizer by Cuba.
  3. In India, an estimated 200,000 farmers practice vermicomposting and one network of 10,000 farmers produce 50,000 metric tons of Vermicompost every month.

We encourage you to Google vermicast and do further research for yourself, to date we have never been able to find any evidence that vermicast has limited or no effect on commercial crops or any other plant. Please don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss how vermicast can improve your crops.

Kind Regards The Optigrow Team

 

Vermicast and Nematodes.

18 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by Nicholas in Articles

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nematodes, OptiGrow

Could vermicast be a solution to my soil bourne Nematode problem?

Well, first of all what are Nematodes and are they all bad.

Soil Nematodes By Elaine R. Ingham covers this nicely, see the full article here.

THE LIVING SOIL: NEMATODES

Nematodes are non-segmented worms typically 1/500 of an inch (50 µm) in diameter and 1/20 of an inch (1 mm) in length. Those few species responsible for plant diseases have received a lot of attention, but far less is known about the majority of the nematode community that plays beneficial roles in soil.

An incredible variety of nematodes function at several trophic levels of the soil food web. Some feed on the plants and algae (first trophic level); others are grazers that feed on bacteria and fungi (second trophic level); and some feed on other nematodes (higher trophic levels).

Free-living nematodes can be divided into four broad groups based on their diet.

· Bacterial-feeders consume bacteria.

· Fungal-feeders feed by puncturing the cell wall of fungi and sucking out the internal contents.

· Predatory nematodes eat all types of nematodes and protozoa. They eat smaller organisms whole, or attach themselves to the cuticle of larger nematodes, scraping away until the prey’s internal body parts can be extracted.

· Omnivores eat a variety of organisms or may have a different diet at each life stage. Root-feeders are plant parasites, and thus are not free-living in the soil.

What Do Nematodes Do?

Nutrient cycling. Like protozoa, nematodes are important in mineralizing, or releasing, nutrients in plant-available forms. When nematodes eat bacteria or fungi, ammonium (NH4+) is released because bacteria and fungi contain much more nitrogen than the nematodes require.

Grazing. At low nematode densities, feeding by nematodes stimulates the growth rate of prey populations. That is, bacterial-feeders stimulate bacterial growth, plant-feeders stimulate plant growth, and so on. At higher densities, nematodes will reduce the population of their prey. This may decrease plant productivity, may negatively impact mycorrhizal fungi, and can reduce decomposition and immobilization rates by bacteria and fungi. Predatory nematodes may regulate populations of bacterial-and fungal-feeding nematodes, thus preventing over-grazing by those groups. Nematode grazing may control the balance between bacteria and fungi, and the species composition of the microbial community.

Dispersal of microbes. Nematodes help distribute bacteria and fungi through the soil and along roots by carrying live and dormant microbes on their surfaces and in their digestive systems.

Food source. Nematodes are food for higher level predators, including predatory nematodes, soil microarthropods, and soil insects. They are also parasitized by bacteria and fungi.

Disease suppression and development. Some nematodes cause disease. Others consume disease-causing organisms, such as root-feeding nematodes, or prevent their access to roots. These may be potential biocontrol agents.

Using vermiculture to control Nematode populations.

M.H. Panhwar and Farzana Panhwar in there paper “EARTHWORMS, VERMICASTS AND VERMI-CULTURE EXPERIENCE IN SINDH” say, Worms eat soil nematodes and reduce their population to almost one third. Thus no chemical nematocides are needed when adequate mulching is done.

Blueprint for a Successful Vermiculture Compost System. Developed by Dan Holcombe and J.J. Longfellow 1995 says, Redworm castings contain a high percentage of humus. Humus helps soil particles form into clusters, which create channels for the passage of air and improve its capacity to hold water. Humic acid present in humus, provides binding sites for the plant nutrients but also releases them to the plants upon demand. Humus is believed to aid in the prevention of harmful plant pathogens, fungi, nematodes and bacteria.

R.E. Gaddie and D.E. Douglas, Earthworms For Ecology and Profit, Vol. I “Scientific Earthworm Farming,” 1975, p. 175. Earthworm castings, in addition to their use as a potting soil, can be used as a planting soil for trees, vegetables, shrubs, and flowers. They may be used as a mulch so that the minerals leach directly into the ground when watered. The effects of earthworm castings used in any of these ways are immediately visible. They make plants grow fast and strong. Nematodes and diseases will not ruin gardens or plants if the soil is rich enough for them to grow fast. It is the weak plant in poor soil that is destroyed by nematodes and diseases.

Clive A. Edwards, Norman Q. Arancon, Eric Emerson, and Ryan Pulliam, Soil Ecology Laboratory, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
SUPPRESSION OF PLANT PARASITIC NEMATODES AND ARTHROPOD PESTS BY VERMICOMPOST ‘TEAS’ says We have demonstrated clearly that solid vermicomposts can suppress plant parasitic nematodes in the field (Arancon et al, 2003). Our experiments on the effects of vermicompost ‘teas’ on nematodes were in the laboratory and greenhouse, in soils that had been artificially infested with the root knot of nematode (Meloidogyne incognita), which is a very serious pest of a wide range of crops all over the world. Read the full paper here.

So vermicast will indeed help with your nematode problem.

By boosting plant immune systems, creating a healthy balanced soil food web environment and introducing earthworm populations to control your nematode population.

What is Worm Tea (Vermileachate) and how do I use it?

11 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by Nicholas in Articles

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earth worms, fertigation, foliar feed, Healthy Soil, Hydroponics, irrigation, Liquid Fertilizer, Micronutrients, OptiGrow, Organic Fertilizer, Organic Gardening, pot plants, Vermiculture, Vermileachate, Worm Leachate, Worm Tea

Here at Optigrow we have had an increasing interest in our Vermileachate, commonly known as Worm Tea.

So what is Worm Tea, how do you use it and what are its benefits over a conventional organic fertiliser like Vermicast (Worm Castings).

Like Vermicast, Worm Tea is a highly concentrated liquid fertilizer , high in nutrient and containing all the healthy microbes that plants thrive on helping them absorb available nutrient.

Worm tea is produced by the irrigation water that leaches through our wormeries carrying nutrient and all the goodness of Vermicast with it.

Vermicast (Fertilizer) and Worm Tea (Liquid Fertilizer) both come with their own unique properties that make them useful in different areas.

Vermicast is a powdered fertilizer, easy to apply by hand, containing worm cocoons, baby worms and natural microbes for soil reconditioning and the creation of a healthy natural biome.

Worm Tea or Vermileachate is a concentrated yet gentle liquid fertilizer, containing all the nutrient and natural microbes your plants need. Easy to dilute and water your plants using your current irrigation methods.

So why choose Worm Tea over a conventional organic fertilizer?

Worm tea makes a perfect feed for your potted plants. The lack of baby worms means that you won’t have baby worms breading out in the confined space of your potted plants and is easily added to you normal house plant watering routine.

Perfect for hydroponics, it is easily added to your current setup, is nutrient rich, contains microbes that are lacking in chemical hydroponic systems and increase the efficient uptake of the available nutrient. As a natural material, there is an abundance of micronutrients in worm tea that plants require, all in plant available formats that are vital in a hydroponic system.

Easily added into your existing irrigation setup, Worm Tea is gentle and can be used as a foliar feed sprayed over your plants with the added benefit of chasing off pests, or watered at the root base putting nutrient directly into the soil.

For irrigation as simple as a watering can to a large commercial fertigation setup, Vermileachate (Worm Tea) is a perfect rocket fuel for your plants, containing all the nutrient your plants need with the added benefit of a microbial component meaning you get more bang for your buck. Higher nutrient absorption and less leach away.

Contact us to discuss how we can assist you and your business and book a visit for an onsite assessment.

Get-It Lowveld Sept 2012

01 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by Nicholas in Media, Press

≈ Comments Off on Get-It Lowveld Sept 2012

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Fertiliser South Africa, Get-It, Get-It Lowveld, Lowveld, OptiGrow, Vermicast South Africa

Just in time for Spring, Davley Organics is pleased to be featured in the September Issue of the Get-It Lowveld Magazine.

Pick up your free copy today or view their online edition at www.lowveld.getitonline.co.za here –> Link

Alternatively, read the full article below.

Many thanks to the guys at Get-It Magazine.


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