I’m pleased to announce that we’re adding a NEW worm to the Worm Composting Canada line-up this (2013) season – the European Nightcrawler (Eisenia hortensis). If there was ever an “ultimate” all-in-one earthworm, this would be it! Euros (also sometimes referred to as “ENCs”) are a larger (as you can see above) cousin of the Red Wiggler (Eisenia fetida and Eisenia andrei), so they are also excellent composting worms. Some might even say they are “superior” composters to their well-known counterparts in some ways.

Due to their size and resilience, ENCs they are also a fantastic fishing worm. Unlike Canadian Nightcrawlers (“Dew Worms”), Lumbrucus terrestris, which are often “too big” for a hook, and Reds which can be a bit on the small size, Euros tend to be closer to “just right”. Add to that their vigorous wiggling action and durability, and you’ve definitely got a winner in the eyes of even the most stubborn bait fisherman.

Initially, our Euros will be sold in mixed cultures with Reds (we’ll continue to sell pure cultures of Reds as well) – in essence, providing customers with the best of both worlds (“worms”? lol). In the past I haven’t recommended that these two species be kept together since I was under the impression that Reds would out-compete the Euros over time, but recent testing has completely changed my opinion on this.

That being said, Euros ARE much better suited for certain types of vermicomposting systems than others. They prefer diving down and hanging out in zones with higher moisture content, so they are not well suited for stacking bins and other types of flow-through units. Where they can excel is in typical enclosed plastic tub systems, and backyard composters (set up and maintained for vermicomposting).

UPDATE: EURO-RED MIX IS NOW AVAILABLE

I am currently (mid-March) gearing up to start selling composting worms again. Hoping to be back in action by the end of the month at the latest.

If you are interested in purchasing our Red Worm Mix, be sure to sign up for the notification list. I will keep everyone posted!

I’m happy to report that worm castings are finally available for sale! I have sent an notice out to the email list, but figured I should probably post the message here as well.

I’ve decided to extend the “Crazy Castings Sale” from last year
as a reward for all of you patiently waiting. This means you
can purchase 11 litre sacs of castings for only $5 (total) each.
If you know anything about the price of worm castings, you will
know that this is a truly “crazy” bargain (actually had a fellow
castings seller telling me off when he saw what I was charging).
[UPDATE: The $5/bag pricing is now only available on orders of 40 or more bags. Our pricing on smaller quantities is still low, but not as "crazy" as it was.]

Very important to keep the following in mind, however:

1) This is a limited time offer – once my current stock of
castings is gone (don’t worry – there will be more), I will
be raising the price. [UPDATE: The $5/bag pricing is now only available on orders of 40 or more bags. Our pricing on smaller quantities is still low, but not as "crazy" as it was.]

2) At this time we are only accepting online pre-orders for castings. This really helps to streamline everything, and means you will end up with a faster turn-around time (since the bags can be left out for pick-up even if we’re not around).

3) The PICKUP12 discount code does not apply to castings orders
(but if you order worms for pick-up at the same time you can
still apply it to them)

4) As you might have guessed already, I am not shipping castings.
They can only be picked up here in Elmira, Ontario. It would
cost customers FAR more for shipping than for the material itself!
I’m thinking about potentially creating some smaller specialty
castings products (castings tea bags etc), but we’ll have to see.

5) I have order buttons for 1-10, 15, 20, 30 and 40 bags. The pricing for 1-10 bags is $7 each, but there are discounts for larger quantities.

If you are interested in placing an order for pick-up, just follow this link:
WORM CASTINGS

Thanks for your interest!
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Happy Holidays!
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If you would like to order Eco-Mix, please refer to these pages:

Pick-Up Order Pricing
Shipped Order Pricing

Thanks
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In all honesty, given the amount of rainfall (or lack thereof) we are likely to see this month, there’s a decent chance that we won’t have Red Worm Culture bags available until September, but I don’t foresee any more shortages of the Eco-Mix prior to the end of the season.

We also still have plenty of worm castings – still available at our ultra-low price! I’ve been seeing fantastic results with my crop plants (mostly tomatoes & squash this year) – so if you want to provide your veggies with a nice late season boost, this is definitely a great option! I’m planning to add a blog post with photos of the garden a bit later this week, so stay tuned!

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Unfortunately, a very dry summer (and limited available time for maintenance) has taken its toll on our outdoor worm beds, so we’ve decided to shut down worm selling for a couple of weeks while we get the beds back in good shape and our worm densities back to where we want to see them.

Our “Crazy Castings Sale” is of course still on, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you are interested in purchasing some of this material.
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As mentioned on the homepage, we now have worm castings (aka “vermicompost”) available for sale in 11 litre quanties. For the time being, these bags are for pick-up orders only (so ideally suited for those living in the region) – but we are getting things rolling with some TRULY “crazy” pricing! (shop around for castings and you’ll see what we mean).

$5/11 litre bag (HST inc)

Some may be wondering what exactly “worm castings” are. Technically speaking, the castings themselves are literally the poop pellets (for lack of a better term – haha) created by earthworms – in this case “Red Wiggler” composting worms. In some ways the term “vermicompost” is more appropriate, however, since it’s next to impossible to create a material that is 100% pure worm castings (some material simply will not have passed through the digestive system of a worm).

Worm castings, and vermicomposts in general, have been found to have unique beneficial properties not found in most “normal” composts (ie those not produced via vermicomposting). While they are certainly a valuable natural “fertilizer”, academic research has demonstrated that there is something beyond the N-P-K fertilizer value of this material that can stimulate additional growth in plants – even when plants have been provided with all the nutrients they need in the form of a typical inorganic fertilizer.

This is a “living” material, absolutely loaded with beneficial microorganisms which can help plants to obtain nutrients and fend off attack from pathogens. As such, we recommend that you store your unused castings someplace protected from temperature extremes (a garage or basement could be a good location).

To learn more about worm castings be sure to check out the new Worm Castings Page.

If you have any questions or want to arrange a pick-up, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line!

As some of you (who have been in touch recently) will know, this delayed spring certainly hasn’t helped me get things rolling in terms of filling worm orders. I am now getting ready to start taking “Compost Ecosystem” (aka “Eco-Mix”) orders (hopefully starting this week), but “Red Worm Culture” bags won’t be available until later in the month.

In an effort to make things more efficient, I’d decided to add online ordering to the site this year. In case you are wondering why I haven’t done so already it’s primarily because Canada Post is simply far too unpredictable and highly variable with their shipping rates/times. If I was shipping stereo components or something like that it wouldn’t really matter, but with live organisms this is certainly a very important consideration. As such, I’ve always handled orders on a case by case basis. While this certainly works just fine, as you might imagine it is WAY too time consuming, so I need to try something new this year.

So I’ve decided to pare down my product offerings and to come up with all-inclusive pricing for the regions I’m able to ship to. I’ll write more about this fairly soon, but the bottom-line is that ONTARIO|MANITOBA|QUEBEC will be my primary shipping range – the only provinces I will be shipping Red Worm Culture to – but I will ship Compost Ecosystem to BC|AB|SK|NB|NS|PEI.

For those who are still a wee bit confused about all this “Compost Ecosystem”/”Red Worm Culture” stuff, the good news is that I will finally be creating a video explaining what exactly these are and how they differ from one another. It a nutshell, the Ecosystem mix has a lower concentration of worms in it (although I’m actually including more worms in the Eco-Mix this year than in previous years) – but it’s still a GREAT mix for inoculating a composting system (especially your typical “backyard composter”). Apart from the worms, the material typically contains plenty of worm cocoons, beneficial microbes, and a wide array of other composting critters.

Anyway -that’s basically it for now! You can definitely expect to see more posts on the blog this year and more exciting stuff coming your way!
Stay tuned!
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I made this short video earlier today when I came across a Red Wiggler crawling up the sliding door leading out to my deck!

If you want to see the sweet little ditty I wrote about it, be sure to check out my post over on Red Worm Composting!