Worm Tea and casting - more information

[jerrymeola]

Here is some more technical information on worm tea.

The liquid that comes out of the worm bed can be used full strength or diluted. I use the liquid from OurVitalEarth and it is the only high concentrate form that I know. If you collect the liquid from a home worm bed it will not be concentrated. OVE also adds a mineral feed supplement to obtain 76 micro elements. Just feeding worms will not get quite so many micro elements. All brands of worm products are good, some just better.

It is not a fertilizer. Chemical analysis is only 15ppm Nitrogen, 9ppm Phosphorus and no Phosphates. What it is is the microbes that enable a plant to absorb the nutrients present. You should know that no plant of any type can absorb fertilizer,. The fertilizer has to be broken down into a usable form by microbes. This is why there is such a quick effect on the first use of worm tea. It slows down after that.

You can not hurt your plants by using too concentrated a form directly on them. It just uses it up faster. I once had to soak a Paph all day in full 50:1 concentrate and it was fine.

If you buy a commercial product follow the instructions on the package. Although, nothing can hurt the orchids with its use. Home product can be used full strength or diluted a little.

Tea made by casting has no microbes although is is a good fertilizer.

Worms remove all the pathogens from the compose and the tea and castings qualify for organic food growing. Now if the farmer has a worm bed on his property he losses the organic status since the compose fed to the worms is not organic. Cow manure has antibiotics and growth hormones which were fed to the cows. Once it is cycled through a worm these are all removed and the resulting product qualifies for organic status.

I was talking to Carl at OVE and he says he feeds the worms 3500 pounds of horse manure, cow manure and food scrapes A WEEK. Not a job for me. Public broadcasting does a show on dirty jobs and featured a worm farm in one episode.

Their are some tests going on using the castings mixed with potting mix. Castings are a natural slow release fertilizer. The castings mixed with 80% manure makes a good substrate for newly sod lawns. It has beneficial nematodes in it that eliminate the harmful nematodes that destroy gardens and lawns in Florida.

I buy my tea in 55 gallon concentrates (2750 gallons working solution) at a time. You just can not get enough of a good thing.

[jbigio]

Jerry how long is the shelf life that what Ive been wondering since I started useing it. I also bought a worm farm which I will set up once the weather gets better.

[articuno75]

Joe, the shelf life is up to a year, as long as you keep the cap half screwed on. The microbes have to breathe!!!

[jerrymeola]

The year shelf life applies to the concentrate form sold by OVE. Liquid from your own worm farm should be used with three days acording to the research group at the University of Ohio. You probably will have some benefits for longer than that as scientist, who were doing studies on food crops, are very conservative.

Even if it starts to weaken it can not do any harm and will have some benefit.

[11Orchid126]

Jerry, how cool can the OVE worm tea be kept? I keep it in my garage, and it's very cool in the winter.

[janice]

I am going to have to try and produce my own..........this is just tooooo interesting/a challenge for me!!!!!

[Miki]

Thanks for the informative post jerry.
Do you feed your orchids additional (20-20-20) fertilizer combined with worm tea?
Cheers,

[Miki]

Originally Posted by janice

I am going to have to try and produce my own..........this is just tooooo interesting/a challenge for me!!!!!

Hi janice,
I have a worm farm, it is so rewarding recycling your kitchen scraps and producing your own 'free' worm tea.
I say, go for it! It is sooo simple and great for the environment!

[jerrymeola]

Worm tea can be stored from 32F to 100F so it is very forgiving.

I use 13-13-13 slow release pellets as well under the belief that the quantity of tea I use can withstand some kill off from the phosphorus. Phosphorus kills beneficial microbes in all mediums but we have used it for years without totally wiping out worm beds.

[Miki]

Thanks jerry!