My BIL has reported that he's purchased 10 lb bags at WalMart for 2.00. Not sure if that would be a current price. Worth a trip to find out.

You could also make a compost tea from vermicompost (just do a search for "compost tea", which will stretch the budget. Use as a soil drench and/or foliar feed for your plants. Youtube has some great videos on making a compost tea brewer for very little money, too.

Would you be willing to try creating your own vermicompost?

Also, maybe adding things like "Bug Juice" as a soil drench will help in the same way.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bug juice...

In Canada, but it is quoted in U.S. dollars.

I see you can order it by the 2250 pound bag.

Lloyd

Here is a link that might be useful: Vermiculture Canada

Folks: I did a quick check of some online retailers and I found it as low as $1.28 a pound, and that includes shipping, for 60 pounds. Just thought I'd pass on the info.

This guy on CL must have some diamond chips or something mixed in his castings!

g'day retiredprof,

create you own worm farm in your garden beds then you'll have castings on a continuous basis, buy a bundle of worms say red wrgglers or tigers add them to the beds then add your kitchen scraps in daily under the mulch.

if you use hay mulches you will have continuous adition of all sorts of nutrients, we buy nothing to add to our beds they don't need it.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

They scare me. I have visions of all these worms crawling out of the box and being all over things. It's a psych freak from back in college and a very failed fishing experiment.

worms dislike light so if they are kept where a light is on they will not "escape". They are very easy to keep and make great garbage disposals.

Worm Compost Expensive?
Not if you make it yourself.
It's easy and can be done in an area as small as a trash can using a er ah..... trash can.
IALBTC

Oopsie, I forgot to say "buy worms? Peshaw!" you want worms for free? Comona my house, to my house and I'll give you candy, I mean composting worms, red tigers, fishing worms, lumbruscus rebellus (sp) and all the advice and/or information and or encouragement you will need, so you'll see that buying worms and buying the Empire state building are roughly in the same category. (IMHO)
ialbtc

Work sufficident levels of organic matter into your soil and the earthworms will move in and leave their casting for you in exchange for having that OM in your soil. Purchasing enough worm casting to make any difference is not cost effective.

I have a few worms in my home that the DH is unaware of. He thinks that they were just for the daughters science fair project! But I truly believe the kids need some hands on science and worms are easy. so ryanzone7 if you have any informartion to share i would ready it with great care and instruct the children on this endever. What we learned with the science project is that the worms we had did not seem to like to eat carrots or potato skins with green would you know anything about this? Have you seen any documentation on what worms wont eat?

I have seen retail bags of worm compost for that price. If it is pure and high quality, I wouldn't say that is overpriced. It isn't fair to compare retail with bulk prices.

I make my own, and it is so concentrated that a little goes a long way. I mix it with water until it's about the color of ice tea and apply it to individual plants and my miniscule lawns with a watering can. A pound would probably cover my quarter acre with some to spare. However, I do this every few weeks, so that would get expensive quickly. Things grow like crazy when you use it, though.

I've had a worm bin for seven or eight years, and now that I have worked out the kinks, it's really easy and doesn't take much time or attention at all.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Web Vermicomposting Forum