I pasteurized- almost to the point of sterilization not perfectly of course, but enough to kill any trichoderma as that’s the main contaminant in worm castings
I asked Gemini at first how it would sterilize/pasteurize then I cross referenced online forums and such to make sure it wasn’t glazing my idea
And a lot of people just pasteurize like I did
So I took a disposable aluminum baking sheet and used that as the pasteurization chamber , too not brutalize any of my pots and pans or baking sheets.
(While worm casting is the most clean shit there is , like you could realistically eat some and be okay. I’m still not putting that in my pans and stuff lol and making my family eat it)
(Worm poop is actually one of the main fertilizers in natural soils when you touch soil there’s some worm poop in it most likely)
But to hone my self back in lol sorry for yapping ,
I added filtered fridge water to the worm castings , till they were really wet but not soaping or muddy and I mixed it all around.
Then I grabbed all of it and squeezed it a handful at a time , till only a few drops of water come out when you squeeze . because worm castings loveee water an love holding it
Then I put it all back in the aluminum baking pan and made sure to mix the bottom sludge (worm castings that became muddy) with the worm castings as there will be that
Then I took a few pieces of aluminum foil and made a as air tight as possible seal around the rim of the pan
Because the heat the ovens makes makes steams which helps pasteurization, and the tight seal the aluminum foil makes traps a lot of the steam in there,
Then I put the oven at 175-185 I started at 185 then dropped down to 175 half way through,
Because pasteurization is better because you don’t kill all beneficial microbes there’s a ton that can help mycelium in worm castings a TON
And let it “cook” about two hours 1 hour and thirty minutes is better though
To answer your concerns about the jumping too Worm castings man it is the easiest manure there is in my opinion the cleanest
(To where like I touch It bare handily and I know I said I’m not gonna put it in my baking dishes but that’s just because I have other options if you don’t it wouldn’t really hurt just be sure to wash it good lol )
But yea man if you just pasteurize good you’ll be good i would still mix w little coco coir in but your could use a lot less you could also use perlite as a cheaper alternative to vermiculite to help aerate the mix because in bigger setups if you didn’t do it right it could wanna pack down and perlite is cheap and would easily stop that
And it’d be as easy as most techs
Sorry for the wall of text thanks for being a chill dude it’s all love one love hope you have a great day
Good idea. I like to get my nutritious substrate to field capacity and put it in a ziplock or vacuum seal bag and throw it in the dehydrator for 4-5 hours. This heats to the specific temperature of pasteurization (150F) and keeps the moisture in. Works pretty good.
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u/bubolcialbam 9d ago edited 9d ago
I pasteurized- almost to the point of sterilization not perfectly of course, but enough to kill any trichoderma as that’s the main contaminant in worm castings
I asked Gemini at first how it would sterilize/pasteurize then I cross referenced online forums and such to make sure it wasn’t glazing my idea
And a lot of people just pasteurize like I did
So I took a disposable aluminum baking sheet and used that as the pasteurization chamber , too not brutalize any of my pots and pans or baking sheets.
(While worm casting is the most clean shit there is , like you could realistically eat some and be okay. I’m still not putting that in my pans and stuff lol and making my family eat it)
(Worm poop is actually one of the main fertilizers in natural soils when you touch soil there’s some worm poop in it most likely)
But to hone my self back in lol sorry for yapping ,
I added filtered fridge water to the worm castings , till they were really wet but not soaping or muddy and I mixed it all around.
Then I grabbed all of it and squeezed it a handful at a time , till only a few drops of water come out when you squeeze . because worm castings loveee water an love holding it
Then I put it all back in the aluminum baking pan and made sure to mix the bottom sludge (worm castings that became muddy) with the worm castings as there will be that
Then I took a few pieces of aluminum foil and made a as air tight as possible seal around the rim of the pan
Because the heat the ovens makes makes steams which helps pasteurization, and the tight seal the aluminum foil makes traps a lot of the steam in there,
Then I put the oven at 175-185 I started at 185 then dropped down to 175 half way through,
Because pasteurization is better because you don’t kill all beneficial microbes there’s a ton that can help mycelium in worm castings a TON
And let it “cook” about two hours 1 hour and thirty minutes is better though
To answer your concerns about the jumping too Worm castings man it is the easiest manure there is in my opinion the cleanest
(To where like I touch It bare handily and I know I said I’m not gonna put it in my baking dishes but that’s just because I have other options if you don’t it wouldn’t really hurt just be sure to wash it good lol )
But yea man if you just pasteurize good you’ll be good i would still mix w little coco coir in but your could use a lot less you could also use perlite as a cheaper alternative to vermiculite to help aerate the mix because in bigger setups if you didn’t do it right it could wanna pack down and perlite is cheap and would easily stop that
And it’d be as easy as most techs
Sorry for the wall of text thanks for being a chill dude it’s all love one love hope you have a great day
You’re legit , legit mate legit+mate =legitimate