Best fertilizer for the balcony — worm humus from the worm bin

Peo­p­le often ask me why you grow so much and so abun­dant­ly with such a high yield. Here you can take a look at one of my prime examp­les: Hok­kai­do pump­kin, kale, toma­toes, tree spin­ach and sun­flowers. Ever­y­thing grows tog­e­ther in a 60 cm long bal­c­o­ny box. Worm humus, which I have been adding to my gar­den for 5 years, plays a big part. Worm box and use it to fer­ti­li­ze the plants on the bal­c­o­ny. I am thril­led that we are crea­ting a natu­ral cycle in our home. My sus­tainable worm bin has been in place sin­ce May 2015 years in my kit­chen and is used con­ti­nuous­ly. Here you can read my expe­ri­ence report on worm humus on the bal­c­o­ny, inclu­ding the hor­ti­cul­tu­ral use. I bought one of the first sty­lish worm boxes from deve­lo­per David Wit­zeneder and love it very much. It has cas­tors under­neath, is mobi­le and has a pad­ded seat cushion. We have a gre­at rela­ti­onship. I hope you also want to fer­ti­li­ze with worm humus on your bal­c­o­ny and reap gre­at har­ve­sts :). It’s the best natu­ral sus­tainable fer­ti­li­zer for non-toxic orga­nic gar­dening.

What is a worm bin?

I love to throw the lef­to­vers into the worm bin straight after chop­ping fruit and vege­ta­bles. Open the lid, put in the orga­nic was­te, clo­se the lid again. This is whe­re our com­post worms live, fee­ding on our kit­chen was­te and in return poo­ping out the best fer­ti­li­zer, cal­led worm humus. They do not­hing else in the worm bin day after day but feed, poop and repro­du­ce. My worm box is cal­led a worm box becau­se my com­post worms live in a woo­den box. Other names for the­se “com­post heaps” sui­ta­ble for living in are worm farm, worm com­post, worm cafe’. All ser­ve the pur­po­se of com­pos­ting kit­chen was­te. Won­derful­ly sui­ta­ble for homes.

Setting up a worm box

It does­n’t stink, I pro­mi­se. A slight smell of forest, defi­ni­te­ly plea­sant. My cra­te has wheels under­neath. I can roll it back and forth, which is an advan­ta­ge when clea­ning. My worm box has a cushion on top. So you can sit on the cra­te. That’s an advan­ta­ge for par­ties in the kit­chen. It’s also always a topic of con­ver­sa­ti­on — who has 1000 pets in the kit­chen? The ear­thworms have never escaped from my worm box. They feel at home with me. I repla­ced the first fabric cover after 3 years of use. I noti­ced that I had to touch it every day to open the lid to put the orga­nic was­te in. So far I have not had any pro­blems with mold in the worm bin, alt­hough this can occur if it is not used pro­per­ly. I have had pro­blems with fruit flies, but they fly in my house in sum­mer any­way. If con­ta­mi­na­ted fruit scraps are pla­ced in the worme­ry, they will natu­ral­ly con­ti­nue to mul­ti­ply the­re. It helps to place a hemp mat on top. Very good ins­truc­tions are sup­pli­ed. It explains in detail that fresh fruit and vege­ta­ble scraps, cut­tings from bal­c­o­ny plants, cof­fee or tea grounds are all sui­ta­ble. Around 20 % shred­ded news­pa­pers or torn card­board boxes can/should be added. Meat, coo­ked lef­to­vers and citrus fruits are not sui­ta­ble. The ins­truc­tions con­tain recom­men­da­ti­ons on what to do if dif­fi­cul­ties ari­se and at what point adjus­t­ments should be made. The manufacturer’s sup­port is impec­ca­ble and is prai­sed. Even the Web­site is very infor­ma­ti­ve. Set­ting up the worm bin works wit­hout any pro­blems. Ever­y­thing is explai­ned in detail in the ins­truc­tions, inclu­ding how much food to put in at the begin­ning. The amount of food is then gra­du­al­ly increased. The num­ber of worms always adjus­ts to the amount of food. I remo­ved the first worm humus after 5 months and sin­ce then I have regu­lar­ly added it 4 times a year. Every year 20 liters. At inter­vals it is neces­sa­ry to give the worms a mine­ral mix­tu­re so that they have a com­ple­te diet. You can of cour­se also get this from the manu­fac­tu­rer.

What are the benefits of worm humus for the balcony?

The worms look like smal­ler ear­thworms, but they are com­post worms. I use a worm mix. They eat their way through the parts of the shred­ded fruit and vege­ta­ble was­te that have been decom­po­sed by micro­or­ga­nisms. They also eat shred­ded paper and card­board. The digested mate­ri­al is then the most valuable fer­ti­li­zer that I use for my bal­c­o­ny plants — worm humus for my bal­c­o­ny. Worm humus is even cal­led “black gold” becau­se its fer­ti­li­zing power is enorm­ous. Full of nut­ri­ents and, abo­ve all, full of micro­or­ga­nisms, which we want in orga­nic gar­dening. Soil orga­nisms for our bal­c­o­ny boxes. Worm humus is quite expen­si­ve in the shops. Packa­ged in pla­s­tic con­tai­ners. Often stands for a long time. The micro­or­ga­nisms may no lon­ger be ali­ve by then. I, on the other hand, har­ve­st it 4 times a year and dis­tri­bu­te it imme­dia­te­ly to the plant pots. I make 20 liters of worm humus per year, which is a lot. In my orga­nic store, 5 liters of worm humus cost 9.50 EUR. I have had good har­ve­sts with this gre­at fer­ti­li­zer. This sty­lish box gives me a very good fee­ling.

My sus­tainable woo­den worm bin comes from Aus­tria. I inter­view­ed David Wit­zeneder for the Online Orga­nic Bal­c­o­ny Con­gress 2017 and 2020.

Gardening with worm humus on the balcony: How to fertilize with worm humus?

With odor­less worm com­pos­ting, the nut­ri­ents are Nitro­gen, Phos­pha­te, Pot­as­si­um, Cal­ci­um and Magne­si­um and Mine­rals firm­ly in Clay-humus com­ple­xes and are con­ti­nuous­ly released over a lon­ger peri­od of time. Worm humus cau­ses a Loo­sening the soil and increa­ses the Water sto­rage capa­ci­ty. It con­ta­ins a lot Sili­cic acidwhich streng­thens the cell walls of plants. Simp­le 10 % work in super­fi­ci­al­ly or Mix 1:10 with soil, for hea­vy eaters (e.g. toma­toes, zuc­chi­nis, pump­kin, lar­ge-frui­ted pep­pers) 1:15. The accu­mu­la­ting See­page liquid, Worm tea cal­led, ser­ves Diluted 1:5 as a liquid fer­ti­li­zer. This is also gre­at for indoor plants in the home. Rea­dy-made worm humus for the bal­c­o­ny can also be purcha­sed in orga­nic stores or online.

I spread the worm humus on the bal­c­o­ny on days when the sun isn’t shi­ning. I don’t want the deli­ca­te, important soil orga­nisms to be des­troy­ed by the sun. It is important when using it for gar­dening that Mul­ching the plan­tersThis means cove­ring the sur­face of the soil with orga­nic mate­ri­al such as grass cut­tings, chop­ped herbs such as nett­les con­tai­ning nitro­gen or com­frey con­tai­ning pot­as­si­um, leaf mate­ri­al remo­ved during plant care, etc. The soil orga­nisms pre­sent in the soil due to the ver­mi­com­post decom­po­se this orga­nic mate­ri­al, which in turn has a fer­ti­li­zing effect. Mul­ching also always has the effect of redu­cing water eva­po­ra­ti­on, as the sur­face of the plan­ters is pro­tec­ted from eva­po­ra­ti­on.

The har­ve­s­ted worm humus often still con­ta­ins Ear­thworms available. They are allo­wed in my plan­ters. I know that the ear­thworms, in con­junc­tion with the soil orga­nisms, decom­po­se the orga­nic mate­ri­al and orga­nic fer­ti­li­zer in the plan­ter, which has a fine fer­ti­li­zing effect. In addi­ti­on, ear­thworms always loo­sen the soil. What works per­fect­ly in the field, name­ly ear­thworms in the soil, also works in lar­ge plan­ters. I have never had any plants die becau­se of them. I can always see black­birds pul­ling ear­thworms out of the plan­ters. Of cour­se, this attracts the black­birds in par­ti­cu­lar, who rum­mage through the sur­face of the plan­ters in search of ear­thworms. I have alre­a­dy seen a black­bird pull three ear­thworms out of a bal­c­o­ny box in rai­ny wea­ther in ear­ly March. I was real­ly hap­py about this becau­se I could see that the ear­thworms had sur­vi­ved the win­ter in the bal­c­o­ny box and not just the eggs (cocoons).

When plan­ting toma­toes and pep­pers, the first thing that comes to mind is Basic fer­ti­liza­ti­on an extra por­ti­on of worm humus into the plan­ting hole. I never com­ple­te­ly replace the soil in spring, as is so often the case. I use the worm humus to spi­ce up my used soil. I sprink­le worm humus on top of the plan­ters and loo­sen the soil sur­face with an old spoon or fork so that the worm humus is work­ed in. Befo­re plan­ting new plants, bal­c­o­ny boxes can be emp­tied in spring in a huge bowl, bucket or on an emp­ty, cut open bag of soil, the roots remo­ved, mixed with 10 % worm humus and fil­led back into the plan­ters. You can find other ways to spi­ce up old soil here read. In the cour­se of the sea­son, the Top dres­sing sim­ply sprink­le 10 % (15 % for hea­vy eaters) of worm humus on the sur­face of the plan­ters and work it in a litt­le.

Worm humus is the basis for com­post tea. Com­post tea is a gre­at inex­pen­si­ve way to revi­ta­li­ze the soil. It also has a fer­ti­li­zing effect. Soil bought in DIY stores or gar­den cen­ters has been hea­ted to a high tem­pe­ra­tu­re. This is why it con­ta­ins hard­ly any soil orga­nisms, as is nor­mal in natu­re.

Put the worm box on the balcony?

The box can be pla­ced in the kit­chen, but also in the hall­way, cel­lar, bed­room or gara­ge. It is too hot on a south-facing bal­c­o­ny in mid­sum­mer; the micro­or­ga­nisms and com­post worms can­not sur­vi­ve this. The com­post worms stop their acti­vi­ty at around 5 °C, and only the eggs (cocoons) sur­vi­ve in frost. Of cour­se, it takes time for a box to free­ze through. The box can be pro­tec­ted against the cold with blan­kets or other insu­la­ting mate­ri­al, but at tem­pe­ra­tures below 5 °C and abo­ve 30 °C it sim­ply does not belong on the bal­c­o­ny. It should be pro­tec­ted from the rain and not expo­sed to the bla­zing sun. Mine is in the kit­chen and I love the fact that I can put the was­te in the box as soon as I’ve finis­hed chop­ping the vege­ta­bles. They are gone.

Worm bins for schools

The­re are now even obser­va­ti­on worm boxes for schools. The­se two are main­tai­ned at my son’s school. The first gra­d­ers take turns fee­ding the worms. They are very inte­res­ted in the worms, which can be used to teach a lot about natu­ral cycles.

I found it very crea­ti­ve that the first gra­d­ers gave the worms names. They had a lot of work to do when they first fil­led such a new worm box, wri­ting 500 names on a long pie­ce of paper, which of cour­se had the shape of a worm. A fun way to prac­ti­se wri­ting.

Conclusion: It really doesn’t stink

The best. A worm bin does­n’t stink. The con­tents smell plea­sant­ly of the forest flo­or. I love them and would­n’t want to be wit­hout them. I think every house­hold should put its orga­nic was­te in a worm bin and use it to grow new vege­ta­bles on the bal­c­o­ny or win­dows­ill.

Despi­te the worm cra­te, I always went on vaca­ti­on. If you go on vaca­ti­on for two weeks, you put more food in the box befo­re you lea­ve. From three weeks’ vaca­ti­on, a worm sit­ter is neces­sa­ry — but so is a wate­ring ser­vice. He then also took care of the worms.

From my five years of expe­ri­ence, I can say that the plants deve­lop a strong root sys­tem, are not sus­cep­ti­ble to dise­a­se and pro­du­ce lots of fruit. With worm humus, the­re is no risk of over-fer­ti­liza­ti­on.

My con­clu­si­on: Worm humus is the best natu­ral fer­ti­li­zer for the bal­c­o­ny. Sus­tainable. A cycle.

Workshop on building your own worm box for the balcony

Ano­ther fun­ny thing. First, my son built his own litt­le worm box out of a card­board box and loo­ked after it.

In 2019, he built his own worm box in a work­shop with David Wit­zeneder. Per­haps you also have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to build your own worm box in your area. Buil­ding a worm box. It was a gre­at day. It is now in our son’s bed­room under his bunk bed. Some­ti­mes we can even hear the worms smack­ing their lips :).

We are a bit cra­zy. It’s just gre­at to have your own orga­nic was­te con­ver­ted into the best orga­nic fer­ti­li­zer by 1000 worms. You can then spread this worm humus on the bal­c­o­ny boxes and reap super har­ve­sts.

What do you think about a worm box? Have I aroused your interest? Do you have any concerns or questions? For me, it’s the best fertilizer.

In my Book worm humus plays a key role as the best orga­nic fer­ti­li­zer. I find it so valuable that we can very suc­cessful­ly recrea­te a natu­ral cycle in the home. I also explain the dif­fe­ren­ces to boka­s­hi, ano­ther natu­ral fer­ti­liza­ti­on method.

You can access the worm box here.

To the ope­ra­ting ins­truc­tions the worm box