Comments on: Quick and Dirty Worm Tea

By: Bentley

Bentley — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:07:23 +0000

DON – You make some good points. Thanks for sharing!

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HEATHER – I did not realize molasses was an ant deterrent. I would have thought it would attract them if anything. Neato!
Oh, and don’t assume I have good carpentry skills! As I’ve discovered, if you know how to hammer a nail, have some idea of what you want to build, and have the supplies, it is amazing what you can do (even though you thought you couldn’t)

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JBUSHY – I would honestly say that there is no real shelf life for good tea, assuming it’s not getting aerated. Especially when you add microbe ‘foods’, since this will greatly speed up the microbial consumption of oxygen. I guess you could leave the tea to sit for a couple of days and then re-oxygenate it for awhile before use, but I wouldn’t think it would be quite as good as when ‘fresh’.

By: Jbushy

Jbushy — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:09:46 +0000

Awsome! I’m definitely going to start utilizing tea as well…this will be a much easier technique for feeding my houseplants. Bentley…any idea on the approximate shelf life of worm tea??? I’ve kinda got your set-up as far as piles of casting and a couple of big rain barrels.

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:20:48 +0000

Bentley,
So happy you made some worm tea! I make and use mine similiar to Don, except I do add molasses. Also, I measure mine fairly accurately, for consistency, since I sell my made to order tea (2.5 -3 oz of vermicompost and 1 oz molasses per gallon. I am in Texas and the molasses not only helps feed the microbes in the tea and soil it is placed in, but also is a deterrent to nasty fire ants and nutsedge (an irritating invasive weed).

I have worm bin envy, oh man would I like one of those with a trap door. That is an awesome bin! Unfortunately, I have the carpentry skills of the Three Stooges.

By: don

don — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:24:18 +0000

I’ve been making simple tea like this lately. If I intend to just pour it into the soil, (not use it as a foilent spray) then I don’t even bother putting it into a bag. No harm in pouring the tea and muddy casting into the soil. If I am going to use a sprayer, or sprinkle can to put on the plant leaves themselves, I then just pour it into the sprinkler can through a sieve, and toss the extra mudd into the garden to some deserving plant

I think your garden or yard will benefit from this addition any time of year (well, maybe not dead of winter) because your adding so many beneficial organisms that will then (hopefully) thrive and multiply in the soil.

Here’s how simple my tea is: fill a 5 gallon bucket with water and toss in a couple handfulls of castings. Keep it near the front of the house where I will walk by it a few times during the day. Leave a stick in the bucket and whenever I walk by, give it a good swirl to add oxygen. Viola!!! Wormcompost tea in a couple of days.

Don