Feeding Soil/Plants in Wicking Worm Beds

This information is in reference to the in-ground beds not Wicking Boxes which I tend to tip out and start again each planting time. If the media is tipped into a wheelbarrow you can mix extras in and make sure it's all moist and ready to go.
The worms don't mind too much.

The ideal medium to top-up with is good quality homemade compost. I rarely have enough of that so I have to buy bagged compost, organic (as much as I can) mushroom compost, or scrounge well rotted animal manures (cow, sheep or preferably horse) to add at change of planting time.

It has to be remembered that whatever you add to the system must be tolerated by the worms.

Care must be taken to ensure a 'clean' supply of manure preferably from an organic source if possible. If I'm not sure how 'safe' it will be for the worms I do a test on a sample with a sacrificial batch of worms. So far I haven't lost any!

The first year I made a trench along the centre of the beds and added horse manure, that way the worms could avoid the manure if it became too hot or was too fresh. This worked very well and at the end of the season the worms had mixed the manure throughout the beds.

This year I used sheep manure and wasn't all that happy with it. It took ages to even look like breaking down but when it did the worms loved it. I think it would have been better to compost it first.

A thick layer of mulch (organic again where possible) is in place all year round except when starting seeds in the beds. If this is a feeding mulch (lucerne, chook scratched straw) again it will feed your worms/soil/plants.

I use a feeding liquid spray or 'pour' as regularly as I remember. My favourite at the moment is brewed up worm cast tea (see here for how). Other additives (seaweed extract and fish oil or emulsion) can be added when the brewing is complete and the mixture is ready to spread on the garden. The molasses used in the brewing process also feeds the microbes in the soil.

I have found that Dolomite limestone seems to be a safe way of raising pH levels and because of all the compost our normally extremely alkaline soil is becoming almost acidic. I have also used Gypsum for calcium on Tomato beds without any casualties in the worms. These 'slower to act' additives seem to be the way to go and allow the worms time to get out of the way if they need to.

When topping up the beds at seasons change I like to mix in some soaked compressed coir (a peat substitute) to help with water retention.

I haven't found a need to completely rebuild any of my beds unless there is an obvious problem. Like a star picket through the bottom layer of plastic which will obviously hinder the wicking process.


More Information on Wicking Beds