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Worm Farm / Worm Tea / Show us yours.

Great, glad you have a worm farm in the yard. I think the biggest misconception people have is that you can simply use bagged worm castings to brew your tea which wouldn't work since there are no living microbes in castings that's been processed and sitting on a shelf and cost $5.99.

The whole point of "brewing" is to grow living microbes.
 
That's why I use the Dr earths potting soil which is intended to be used in brewing teas, it has all the beneficial microbes in it.

I understand what you are saying, but I wouldn't say worm tea is more beneficial than a nutrient/worm tea.

But again, it all depends on the quality/freshness of the castings you are using. I personally use my own castings, in addition to the dr earth. But if you don't have access to fresh castings the Dr earth potting soil will take care of the living microbes problem.
 
Sorry i didnt read it all the way throught, but if make worm tea, make sure you use dechloriated (sp?) water, if you use reqular tap water without removing the cholorine will kill all the bacteria in it.
 
Joshuap2000 said:
Sorry i didnt read it all the way throught, but if make worm tea, make sure you use dechloriated (sp?) water, if you use reqular tap water without removing the cholorine will kill all the bacteria in it.
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From what i understand, yes.

I use rain water from a tank that i have to make the brew, and then again to dilute the tea a little when i foliar feed and soil drench.

Edit: Only a newb to all this as well....my word is far from gospal :lol:
 
yeah good point. I always forget to mention that since I use my fish tank water when brewing and watering all my plants..
 
LGHT said:
Ok so you are making nutrient teas which is good, but not the same or as good as worm tea.

Are you getting "fresh" castings or bagged castings you get over the counter? If your not getting fresh castings you probably don't have any living microbe colonies so your not growing anything in your tea. It will have a small amount of nutrients, but peppers need a good and constant amount of ferts to thrive and produce good crops so it wouldn't be enough for a mature plant.

As far as a bin they are not hard to make, but I just purchased one already put together for around $100 so I wouldn't have to worry about it and just add my soil and bedding and i'm done!
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To clear things up, I spoke to the guy at the hydro store about this tonight when I picked up my air pots, he did tell me that, if you do buy bag casting thats thee are still living microbe colonies and there and it will still benfit ya, but you want to add the molasses (sp?) to it, and that will in crease your microboes from a few thousands, to a few million.

So that is just my 2 cents also.
 
I doubt their would be anything living in a bag sitting on a shelf for several months. Some stores carry "fresh" worm casting so that's more than likely what he's referring to. Either way your better off just digging some dirt and look for some that has a few worm holes your going to get a much better result with that than bagged castings.
 
Ok, so I hope I’m not the only one that does this, but........



I actually put all the scraps that I want to feed my worms into a food processor and blend it all up, and feed that slop to the worms.
They seem to love it and it gets eaten very quickly :)
Am I the only one that does this?
 
I do something similar where I put the scraps in a large bucket and just mush them up with some water, but the old lady would kill me if I put scraps in her food processor.
 
i can understand where she is coming from lol.
I managed to pick up an old processor for only $5 :woohoo: and it works perfectly fine. All i had to do was fix a little clip that makes it turn on when the lid is closed.

Glad i am not the only one that does what i do (or similar at least) :crazy:
 
Torno said:
Also, if any of you guys have some good resources websites on DIY setups and worms, please post. Must.. make... worm...city!
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Shelley Grossman has an excellent vermicomposting site/blog at http://vermicoast.com/

She has discussed things like whether or not and why the leachate from the worm bin is toxic to plants.
 
I blend all of my worm food as well. blending the food just allows it to break down much faster meaning the worms can eat it faster (they eat the bacteria coming off it.... not the actaul veggies). therefore speeding up the process and having more worms in your bin. the green waste goes through the blender and then into the bin or into a container in my freezer, now that it is winter and i dont have as much compost waste (garden covered in snow), i can start to just cut a frozen chunk of blended compost off so i keep them happy and breeding all year.

1 lb of red wrigglers can eat a pound of food each day. so, i wanted to save some compost to offset not having an excess of garden waste. otherwise worm numbers just dwindle back down to however much your compost can sustain.
 
I'm a bit lost... What's with the molasses and the air pump?
I use the worm farm run-off straight on the plants and i believe that I see good results. I Mix the worms castings with my most poor quality dirt in the garden to help it become good. Photos soon ok! My farm is a commercially made plastic unit called can of worms. Cost to setup including the worms was $100 and it was well worth it
 
hando said:
I'm a bit lost... What's with the molasses and the air pump?
I use the worm farm run-off straight on the plants and i believe that I see good results. I Mix the worms castings with my most poor quality dirt in the garden to help it become good. Photos soon ok! My farm is a commercially made plastic unit called can of worms. Cost to setup including the worms was $100 and it was well worth it
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the theory is that leachate seeping off the bottom of the worm bin has predominantly anaerobic microbes which are non-beneficial and possibly even toxic. On the other hand, if you take castings and steep them (using a panty hose teabag) in rainwater with aeration and a bit of unsulphured molasses for a sugar source, you end up with a rich brew of the right kind of aerobic bugs to create a biofilm on foliage (for foliar feeding) as well as nutrients for the roots.

I haven't done any of this yet myself--after bin composting for years, I'm just starting a worm culture now. I'm interested in seeing what the opinions are here.

Here's a link to a lecture on the topic from my favorite worm lady.

http://vermicoast.com/leachate-use-it-or-lose-right-or-wrong-you-decide/
 
bushwhackxj said:
I blend all of my worm food as well. blending the food just allows it to break down much faster meaning the worms can eat it faster (they eat the bacteria coming off it.... not the actaul veggies)...
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Really, i always thought the worms ate the veggies once they were small enough to fit into their virtually microscopic mouth??
Which would be after the veggies have broken down quite a bit...
Although i could be really wrong :crazy:
 
i'll do some pictures while i'm at home for lunch :)  
 
 
seperation of the worms is a pain if you have a ton, best thing to do is feed them on one side, then alternate after a while.  they will go where the food is.  fastest way to harvest the castings for sure :) 
 
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