A young lady contacted me for assistance with her huge, potted acacia tree a few years ago. “It has been in my possession for a while, and up until recently, it was doing well. Now that the leaves are dropping and turning yellow, the plant is clearly not prospering.
“Let me make a wild guess: despite your best efforts, it’s still in pain, right? I’ll wager you’ve been feeding it liquid fertilizer and have taken good care of it.
I understood what was wrong right away. I sent her a 20-quart bag of potting soil and a 25-pound bag of dried worm castings, telling her to re-pot the tree in a 50/50 mixture of the two, add the suggested quantity of the liquid fertilizer, water it thoroughly, and call me in a month.
About thirty days later, she came to see me rather than calling. She enthusiastically shouted, “Oh!” with a large smile “New, vibrant green leaves are sprouting on my acacia tree! What’s going on there?
All plants need a variety of different nutrients and benevolent bacteria in order to maintain their health and vigor, in addition to the nutrients (NPK) present in water-soluble fertilizers. By converting soil minerals into plant nourishment, bacteria, fungus, microbes, earthworms, insects, and other microscopic animals offer these in nature.
However, even if you use premium planting mix, it just takes a matter of time for secondary nutrients and essential trace elements to get depleted in a container. When this occurs, the plant stops thriving.
All of these nutrients can be replenished by worm castings. Worm feces comprises more than 150 plant vitamins and trace minerals, as well as healthy bacteria, hormones, and enzymes that plants love. Castings’ crumbly nature also aids in improving soil aeration.
Repot dying houseplants in a mixture of worm castings and healthy potting soil to revive them. Although a 50:50 ratio is preferred, you can manage with as low as 25% of worm castings. Every other month, add a spoonful or two of worm castings to the soil surface for healthy plants. Don’t forget to give your plants a regular liquid fertilizer feed.
I have a 14-year-old geranium in my sunroom that receives a top-dressing of worm castings about six times per year. It almost never lacks a flower and has consistently vivid green foliage.
Almost all garden centers sell dried worm castings. Make your own castings using a worm composter for excellent, powerful, biologically active materials.
Mike Ather has been a longtime environmentalist and photographer. He is also a Master Composter, a Master Gardener, and a former employee-owner of Gardener’s Supply “according to his enthusiasm for worm composting, Worm Guy
Can worm castings be applied to indoor plants?
Just to clear up any confusion, worm castings are just worm poop. However, “castings” is a far more polite word to refer to the earthworm’s digested excrement, so let’s keep with that.
Worm castings can be the secret superfood to make your indoor plants grow since, like animal dung, they supply rich nutrients and beneficial microorganisms for plants and greenery. Here are five advantages of worm castings for houseplants, along with information on where to buy or create a worm composter.
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Do potted plants benefit from worm castings?
Container gardening using worm castings In addition to the essentials, worm castings provide a rich source of minerals like zinc, copper, manganese, carbon, cobalt, and iron. They instantly absorb into potting soil, making nutrients available to roots.
Are earthworms beneficial for houseplants?
Because they can aerate the soil and convert organic materials, like leaves, into essential nutrients for plants to thrive, earthworms are helpful to plants. It could seem like a smart idea to add them to potted plants to encourage your plant’s growth.
The soil used to pot the plant may not have enough food for earthworms to thrive and proliferate like ground soil or in a vermicompost, thus they will eventually die or crawl away. Therefore, earthworms shouldn’t be added to potted plants. Use casting tea as a foliar application on the plant as well as on the soil of the potted plant.
The appropriate circumstances will allow earthworms to remain in a pot and continue to offer all the advantageous effects associated with their presence in the soil.
My plants stay healthy even after repotting thanks to the Miracle-Gro Potting Mix I get from Amazon. Clicking here will take you there.
Will my plants be burned by worm castings?
The nutrients in worm castings are well-balanced and simple for plants to absorb. Plants can grow strength gradually without having to worry about burning roots or leaves since they release their energy gradually.
What drawbacks do worm castings have?
I’ve written about worm castings’ benefits for roughly 2000 words. How about the opposing viewpoint? Nothing is flawless. Worm castings are the same.
- Time: Making high-quality worm castings takes time. The minimum time frame is 90 days, but depending on your system, it could take up to a year. They are for sale, which brings us to number two.
- Cost: Chemical fertilizers are undoubtedly less expensive than worm castings. Worm castings, however, are among the least expensive organic fertilizers. You’ll need to make a decision about what is most crucial.
- Scalability: Making worm castings in modest quantities is simple. Producing big quantities of worm castings is significantly harder and more expensive (50 gallons annually). To be successful, a lot of effort, money, work during operations, and marketing are required. There are numerous dangers included.
The use of worm castings for growth has no drawbacks whatsoever. For plant health and yield, I would compare worm castings to any fertilizer, chemical or organic. They also significantly enhance the health of your soil.
Does worm castings appeal to succulents?
The fact that succulents are so simple to cultivate and require minimal maintenance is one of the (many) reasons why people adore them. Low care does not equate to no care, though. Succulents require proper irrigation even though they are attractive plants that require minimal water. Succulents do benefit from the proper quantity of fertilizer applied at the proper times, even if they are suited to nutritionally deficient soil. It can be simple to overfeed them when it comes time to eat because of their extraordinary tolerance to low nutrition environments. Your succulents will flourish with the appropriate nutritional support! Let’s examine various fertilizer choices for succulents and discuss the best ways to apply them.
Do Succulents Need Fertilizer?
Do succulent plants require fertilizer? No, strictly speaking. No matter what, your succulents will live without food. However, the appropriate fertilizer will give your succulents a boost of nutrients, resulting in stronger plants with fuller, more prolific growth. Succulents grow more swiftly, bloom more fully, and have more ideal form when given adequate nutritional support. Additionally, they are more resilient to pests and may react to environmental challenges. Your succulents will flourish if you give them a little fertilizer.
It’s just as important to know what not to do while feeding succulents as it is to do it correctly. Unless it is diluted to a quarter-half strength of the usual recommended dosage, some chemical plant food is likely to burn succulents or even result in scarred or deformed leaves. A moderate organic solution high in micronutrients is what I favor using. Your succulents will receive the wide variety and low concentrations of nutrients they require from an organic fertilizer, and the soil in which they grow will also be nourished.
I fertilize both my ground-planted and container-grown succulents. I’ll demonstrate my top succulent fertilizer techniques for you.
The way that grazers’ dung replenishes the earth where it is left behind is such a smart trick of nature. Long recognized as a benefit to garden soil, well-composted manure from a range of grazing animals like cows, horses, sheep, and chickens. It contains a variety of minerals and micronutrients in abundance. These nourish the soil’s microbes, which are essential to your plants’ health. Manure is a top-notch soil conditioner and improves soil aeration. Additionally, it facilitates the plant’s access to the carbon in the soil. It is a superb amendment that enriches and energizes the soil and encourages the growth of larger, lusher plants.
But not all grazers and not all plants are created equal. While well-composted horse manure may be beneficial for ornamental and vegetable gardens, succulents should not be planted there! A bacteria found in horse manure can induce mycoplasma infection, which results in the cracked, scabbed leaves seen on succulent plants. There is no cure that works.
The best method for fertilizing succulents is with organic fertilizers that feed the soil. The best approach to feed succulents is slowly and subtly rather than risking burning them with chemical fertilizers or just overloading these perfectly adapted plants. Fish emulsion is one of my favorite ways to feed all of my garden plants, but especially my succulents.
A quick-acting organic liquid fertilizer prepared from entire fish or fish byproducts is called fish emulsion. Iy offers a 4-1-1 NPK ratio and is a good source of micronutrients. In fourth grade, do you recall learning that Native Americans had taught the pilgrims to place dead fish at the base of their plants for crops? The concept is the same. My favorite book is Neptune’s Harvest. The fishy smell is absent, yet it contains the fish proteins and lipids found in the greatest fish emulsions. Win-win! This is adored by my succulents! Always give the bottle a good shake. A gallon of water should therefore contain just 1 Tablespoon of the fish emulsion. Stir well, then add the water. When the earth is completely dry, avoid fertilizing succulent plants. Feed instead when the ground is just barely damp.
Once a month, I make fish emulsion tea for the majority of my plants. I only anticipate using the fish emulsion for three regular feedings each year because I grow my succulents “hard.” To get them ready for the growth season, do this once in the early spring. Once in June, just before the summer’s intense heat arrives. After the summer heat subsides, do it once more in late summer or early autumn. Use fish emulsion once a month for indoor plants or those that overwintered indoors if you want to give your succulents more frequent feedings. If you live in a cold winter climate and garden, I suggest feeding your in-ground sempervivum, cold-tolerant sedums, and opuntia in the early fall to give them a head start on the upcoming cold season.
All of my plants receive another type of manure that I use as an outstanding organic fertilizer for my succulents. Worm castings, or worm manure, are the byproduct of earthworms. Gardeners can use it as a helpful soil amendment. Worm castings are beneficial for all the plants you raise, including succulents, fruit trees, roses, and vegetables. The advantages comprise:
- Worm castings contain high concentrations of more than 60 different micronutrients and minerals, including potassium, carbon, iron, copper, zinc, magnesium, and calcium, in addition to nitrogen, phosphate, and potash.
- Worm castings can be used to balance out high or low soil PH, enabling plant roots to absorb essential nutrients.
- Humus-rich, it enhances soil aeration and the nutrition of helpful microorganisms, improving the health of the plants.
- Worm castings stabilize heavy metals in the soil, keeping the plant from absorbing excessive amounts of these potentially hazardous chemicals.
- Aphids, mealybugs, and whiteflies are just a few of the pests that are repelled by the enzymes found in worm castings.
Worm castings are high in micronutrients and produce stronger, healthier plants, similar to fish emulsion. However, there is an additional advantage I adore, especially for a fertilizer for succulent plants. Chitinase is a plentiful enzyme found in worm castings. This enzyme degrades the chitin in the exoskeleton of insects. The succulent becomes extremely resistant to mealybugs, whiteflies, aphids, and other leaf-sucking parasites as it absorbs the chitinase through its roots and distributes it throughout the plant. To prevent harm and eventual death, they are aware of the chitinase’s presence and refrain from feeding on it. However, since ladybugs don’t consume the plant, they don’t cause any harm. My preferred method of pest management is one that avoids the issue!
I mix dry worm castings into the soil when I plant succulents, whether they are in the ground or a container. I put a few tablespoons of the worm castings in a tiny pot. I add a few handfuls of worm castings to a large pot or to a plant in the ground. Worm castings can also be made into a tea that you can spray on leaves or drench in soil. This is a fantastic method for both feeding your plant and controlling a mealybug or whitefly problem. In this manner, my plants receive wonderful succulent fertilizer and continuous pest defense.
How to Use Succulent Fertilizer
Personally, I prefer to use fish emulsion and worm castings as a succulent fertilizer. When I plant my succulents, I amend the soil with worm castings. Worm castings can also be used as a top dressing on mature plants. Just strew the worm castings throughout the soil’s surface, from the plant’s base to the “The leaf edge or drip line of the plants. Incorporate the worm castings into the soil with a little scrape, and then add an inorganic top dressing. Succulents that are content, healthy, and very pest-resistant are the end product. Beautiful! Then, at least three times a year, in the early spring, early summer, and late fall, I offer fish emulsion. Adapt the timing to the climate where you are.
How frequently should succulents be fertilized? A succulent fertilizer can be used as frequently as once per month. In order to produce the biggest, lushest plants in the quickest amount of time, commercial growers feed their plants frequently. However, a plant that has repeatedly grown in ideal settings has a tendency to be less able to survive in less-than-ideal environments. This is referred to as growing plants in the gardening industry “soft. This is the reason why a gorgeous plant from the nursery frequently fails to grow in your garden.
Stresses from the environment are a part of existence. I do feed my succulents, but I don’t fuss about them. I want them to have the capacity to handle any stress that comes their way, whether it be caused by exorbitant heat waves, a clumsy cat tipping over a container, or my own subpar care. Because of this, I grow succulents “harder than they would want, with a lot less applications of organic fertilizer. However, aim to use succulent fertilizer once a month for succulents of show-quality.
The adage reads, “You become what you consume. This holds true for cows, fish, worms, and their feces in the same way that it does for humans. For my garden’s manure and emulsion, I’d rather know that the fish and worms were farmed organically, without the use of hormones, pesticides, or herbicides. If you consider this to be important, thoroughly examine the labels to confirm the production and harvesting conditions. Once that happens, you will have the ideal fertilizer for succulents. You may rely on Dr. Verm’s Premium Worm Castings and Neptune’s Harvest.
Your indoor succulents will benefit from a feeding of fish emulsion (be sure to buy an odor-free variety!) or worm castings, as well, and will grow more vigorously as a result. But before you feed your plant, think about its environment for growth. Give your indoor succulents a boost with the organic tea if you have enough of light. However, keep in mind that this organic food can encourage quicker development if your plants are etiolated stretched as a result of poor light. It won’t make up for the dim lighting, but it will encourage faster, greater stretching. Give your indoor succulents a nice drink of fish emulsion or worm castings a couple of days before you transfer them outdoors to enjoy the summer in bright, indirect light.
Thank you for reading my ode to manure, or post about succulent fertilizer.
Please take a moment to leave a remark if you have any questions. I simply adore hearing from you! And I’d be interested in knowing what you feed your succulents. You all teach me things, too.