Worm Tea

Worm tea is made by soaking worm castings in water. Your worm farm will produce a leachate which will gather in the bottom bin of the worm farm, this is not worm tea.

The leachate can be used as a fertiliser and our worm farms have a tap fitted to the bottom bin which allows for easy leachate draining. Tap it off and dilute it 10:1 with water before adding it to your garden, you should not use the leachate on your vegetables as it may contain pathogens.

Worm tea is made by soaking a handful of worm castings in 5 liters of warm (not hot) water for 24-48 hours. Adding a tablespoon of molasses will increase the beneficial bacteria and effective microorganisms dramatically.

Use rain, spring or well water for making worm tea. The chlorine in municipal water will kill the beneficial bacteria and microbes. If you must use municipal water pour it into a bucket and let it stand for 24 hours, this will remove any chlorine. You can also take water from your hot tap and let this stand until it is cool, this water will also have no chlorine in it.

It is important to aerate the worm tea by blowing air through the mixture. This adds oxygen to the water and results in an explosion of the effective microorganisms.

The concept behind worm tea is not just that it is a good source of nutrients for your plants but that the microorganisms that live in the worm castings are part of a rounded and balanced feeding system. Adding molasses and air increases these microorganisms and the plants benefit as a result.

The tea is filtered off to make a liquid fertiliser or foliar spray. The tea (like the castings) contains not only many minerals and nutrients but also many helpful bacteria and microbes which enhance your soil. Worm tea is also a natural insect repellant, spraying it on your plants leafs will keep bugs at bay.

The tea can be diluted 1:5 for plants or vegetables, or filtered and used in hydroponics systems.

I always tell people that the worm castings are first prize when it comes to worm farming. Having said that use of worm tea has a strong following in the worm farming community.

Many people worm farm solely to have castings to make into worm tea, they swear by the wonderful effects that it has on their garden. My personal experience is that it has had a beneficial effect on my Vegetable garden, in fact, I am amazed at how big and healthy some of my veggies are, it is almost a shame to eat them!