Organic Soil Amendments – For the Happiest Plants, 'cause Mother Earth knows best
Agronomist Peter Viss explains why not many of heard of VermisTerra.
Sometimes something comes along that’s so different, hard to explain and people are afraid because it’s too fantastic. It’s everything it claims to be and more. JL Organics is the first worm farm to commercialize this quality of castings and this stable concentrate live tea. VermisTerra is New and Different.
This year VermisTerra attended the World AG Expo in Tulare and passed out samples and information about our aged castings, worm tea and hydrospiral tubes. If you love VermisTerra and wonder about the science behind how it works, this is the video that explains it. If you are just learning about VermisTerra, learn more about what we’re doing differently.
Agronomist and Nut Tree Expert, Peter Viss shares his knowledge about VermisTerra aged earthworm castings, tea and how what sets them apart.
Filmed over three days at the 2019 Tulare World AG Expo.
See Table of Contents to Jump to a question below!
Send questions for Peter to info@vermisterra.com
Day 1
1:38 How did you learn about VermisTerra? More about bacteria in the worm gut
6:55 A Framework for understand the benefits he’s observed with growers
19:42 Does VermisTerra help with plant disease?
26:00 What’s the difference between VermisTerra castings and tea? What’s the recommended usage?
35:44 How have VermisTerra castings and tea helped farmers you know?
Day 2
42:00 Is VermisTerra friendly for the environment?
47:00 Can you use VermisTerra with other fertilizers?
49:00 Does VermisTerra contain humic acid and calcium?
52:00 If VermisTerra is so great, why haven’t more people heard of it?
Day 3
56:00 What’s the return on investment (ROI)? Give us examples of its value
1:00:00 How long should I continue using VermisTerra?
1:05:00 Can you explain compost vs. earthworm castings?
As we looked for informative videos about the microbes living in your soil, I found a great explanation from gardening teacher Lynn Gillespie. Lynn is an organic farmer and gardening educator, who specializes in teaching High Performance Garden systems. I loved her video so much I got her permission to transcribe and post it! Watch a video where Lynn explains concepts from Teaming with Microbes Book, How the Soil Food Web Works.
As I watched more of her online series, I was so impressed. She teaches how to plant week by week, with little weeds, and lots of production. Her vast knowledge made the very interesting to watch.
After some email correspondence, I sent Lynn some of our VermisTerra earthworm castings and nutrient tea to test in her farm. She already composts but was very impressed at the quality of our worm castings. Here’s what she said on her show (Week 7) about JL Organics. Video will be available soon!
“One of the best fertilizers for organic gardens Is worm castings. I use this if I don’t have a great source of compost for my garden.
This week I’d like to introduce you to JL Organics, they are an organic worm company that makes VermisTerra worm castings and worm casting teas for gardens and large scale organic farms.
One of my favorite things about worm castings is they contain millions of soil microbes that can increase the population in your garden.
JL Organics is a family run business. It was started in 2002 and is located in Thermal CA. Their products are certified organic and they work with farms to help them switch from chemical farming to organic farming. They help farmers treat sick plants naturally and they also help gardeners to have organic gardens.
Their VermisTerra worm castings are aged 7-10 years and make sure all the undigested compost is broken down. That is really amazing, that they will take 7-10 years to make a very superior product. So we’ve been testing their castings and their teas right here on the farm, and we are very impressed with their quality. So if you don’t have a good source of compost, then I highly recommend that you get some of the VermisTerra worm castings to feed your soil microbes.”
– Lynn Gillespie, The Living Farm and
High Performance Garden Show, Colorado.
Can you imagine what you would learn if you gardened with a professional organic gardener through an entire growing season? Have you been wishing for a garden that is easy, weed free, beautiful and grows delicious results? Sign up for the free High Performance Garden Show and watch the real time 2017 episodes today! VermisTerra is featured on Week 7!
Lynn invites you to come visit this garden in Colorado. See the farm and animals if you drop by! It’s open to the public Fridays, Saturdays, and Sunday afternoons 1-6 PM all summer long. Go to thelivingfarm.org and visit the garden in Colorado!”
To support The Living Farm, use coupon code “livingfarm” for 10% off and VermisTerra will give a percentage to The Living Farm’s education outreach program.
Vermisterra Earthworm Tea is one of the most powerful products on the JL Organics line. The nutrient tea is a microbial solution which contains dormant beneficial bacteria and fungi suspended. Once you add water and water using a watering can or irrigation line, the living microbes get to work in your soil. Vermisterra can condition soil, improve soil structure, help with aeration, and work with your living soil to protect your plant’s root system and aid in nutrient absorption.
Many customers report increased fruit, oil, flowers, as well as less soil disease and pest pressure. As the soil health improves, so does the plant health and ability to fight off disease.
Vermisterra Earthworm Tea is great for organic farms and gardening because we go the extra step to lab test each batch of tea. Vermisterra tests for heavy metals and pathogens to make sure the soil amendment is safe for consumption, and safe to use in your home where children and pets are present.
CaliKim’s DIY Home and Garden blog includes a great article on how to use Vermisterra tea, and includes beautiful photos of her garden. Watch this video by CaliKim and Mindy to learn more about how to mix, store, and use Vermisterra Earthworm tea.
Every gardener that’s growing organic has heard about manure. It’s mother earth’s natural fertilizer; part of the cycle of life. One of the most powerful manures in the world comes from earthworms! Before mankind starting playing in labs, nature knew the best way to feed her plants.
N-P-K stands for Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. Three important compounds that are necessary for plant growth. Nitrogen helps plants grow rapidly, produce more seeds and fruit, and improve leaf quality. Phosphorus assists in flower and root development. Potassium assists in the production of protein, the photosynthesis process, resistance of diseases, and overall plant health. These are essential to plant development, but are NOT the only nutrition necessary for healthy plants.
There are a number of compounds that are needed for healthy plants, including: calcium for plant cell wall structure, magnesium as part of the chlorophyll in all green plants, sulfur for the development of vitamins and enzymes, etc.
NPK levels in organic fertilizer are much lower than those shown in synthetic fertilizers during lab testing. They are soil amendments that work slowly over time to improve your soil and to help your plants grow strong. They don’t weaken plants by forcing fast growth and flowering. Therefore, big NPK numbers don’t necessarily mean a better fertilizer.
Worm castings also have beneficial bacteria and fungi to build up soil, and assists with disease suppression. Earthworm castings have over 60 micronutrients and trace minerals, including calcium, magnesium, nitrogen, phosphates and potash.
Castings act as a barrier to help plants grow in soil where the pH levels are too high or too low. They balance pH so plants can absorb nutrients from the soil. If that isn’t amazing enough, worm castings also retain moisture which is great for growing in drought conditions.
Lastly, worm castings impromptu soil aeration, improves soil structure, drainage and fertility. With so many benefits to using worm castings, make sure you get pure castings like Vermisterra Fine Earthworm Castings, not something mixed with compost or fillers.
JL Organics was happy to work with students from University of California in an agricultural study. UC Riverside PhD student Abira S. performed and documented tests on tomato plants with root knot nematode (meloidogyne incognita) infestations to see how they responded to Vermisterra.
Sounds gnarly right? Abira found that using Vermisterra tea (labeled vermicompost tea in his study) suppressed root knot nematodes. Plants that received the worm casting tea also had more leaves, greater dry weight, more vegetative and fruiting branches, and significant increase in fruit number and fruit size compared to controls.
If you are interested in seeing his presentation slides, see and download below.
by Abira S. of University of California, Riverside.