Worm Casting Odor?

Buddskii

Buddskii

Well-Known Member
Hello All! 👋
I just recently transplanted from a 3 gallon pot to a 5 gallon pot and I decided to use some organic worm castings in my mix. I mixed in the ratio of 10% worm castings within my medium. Now I notice a strong smell that almost reminds me of ammonia.
Is this normal? Will the smell eventually die down and get less with watering?
Also... will this mix with castings attract any bugs into my pots?
Im growing indoor.
I hope I didnt make a mistake by doing this... 🤪
Thanks for any feedback. ✌️
 
Usually an ammonia smell is either the medium has gone anaerobic or possibly there is an over abundance of nitrogen which could be a bunch of dead worms in the castings that creates a response called ammonification.

I use 20+ gallon pots with worms in my pots creating castings everyday, after a year or more probably 25% of my soil is worm castings and it always just smells like good clean soil.
 
Buddskii said:
Is this normal? Will the smell eventually die down and get less with watering?
Click to expand...
No, it is not normal.

Yes, the smell should die down after awhile. But as others have mentioned too much water can create a wet mix. I would recommend holding back on the water a bit and let the mix dry out. That way you can have more control over the microbe population in the mix until it sorts itself out--with your help, of course.

Buddskii said:
I mixed in the ratio of 10% worm castings within my medium. Now I notice a strong smell that almost reminds me of ammonia.
Click to expand...
What would help with suggestions is knowing what is your medium. Is it soil or a mix of soil and something else? Or is it finely ground Coco Coir so it looks like soil? Are the worm castings from a store or were they a batch you helped put together yourself.

While dead worms have a terrible odor I have not noticed earthworms in commercially bagged and sold castings.

If there is too much organic material mixed into a medium that has not yet properly decomposed it can cause some interesting odors. I would think the same thing could happen with a batch of castings that the worms had not finished.

Most of the time there is little Nitrogen available in worm castings; usually only about 1% but it could go as high as 5% in rare cases. But if there is excess organic material the microbes could start eating and reproducing very fast and their waste can become high in water soluble Nitrogen in a matter of hours. Then if there is too much water the smells start because of the anaerobic conditions that @Nunyabiz brings up in his earlier message.
 
Buddskii said:
Hello All! 👋
I just recently transplanted from a 3 gallon pot to a 5 gallon pot and I decided to use some organic worm castings in my mix. I mixed in the ratio of 10% worm castings within my medium. Now I notice a strong smell that almost reminds me of ammonia.
Is this normal? Will the smell eventually die down and get less with watering?
Also... will this mix with castings attract any bugs into my pots?
Im growing indoor.
I hope I didnt make a mistake by doing this... 🤪
Thanks for any feedback. ✌️
Click to expand...
If it smells bad it is bad I'd recommend a different supplier of your castings I raise my own castings and if your castings don't smell like fresh soil DUMP IT!! Good luck I hope this helps ✌️
 
Hey @Buddskii

I grow my own worm soil and it never has a bad smell.

As others have said, be careful with watering. I would just say be sure to follow a wet/dry cycle. Too much water soaking a medium that's high in N can lead to stem rot. When you up pot, the roots are not permeating all the space of the new pot. What I do is focus the watering around where the roots are and not beyond, until the roots get going and fill the pot. Root mass is part of the wet/dry cycle – i.e. the more roots, the more the water is being used up.

happy growing! 🌱
 
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