Leachate vs. Worm Compost Tea

Keeping the distinction between these terms is actually quite important.

Definitions

Leachate - The liquid run off (or seepage) that settles in or below the vermicompost or worm castings. Check for accumulated leachate in your vermicomposter frequently (when you feed, or weekly).

Worm tea - The end result of suspending worm castings in highly oxygenated water (brewing).

Leachate

Leachate can contain phytotoxins (toxins that can harm plants and humans). Some of these toxins are created by bacteria. Every worm bin has good and bad microbes. This is ok of course, as long as the good ones outnumber the bad ones. Some leachate can contain harmful pathogens because it has not been processed through the worms intestinal tract. It should not be used on edible garden plants.

During decomposition, waste releases liquid from the cell structure. This liquid or leachate seeps down through the worm composter into the collection area. The leachate should be drained regularly and if you are getting more than 2-4 ounces of liquid in a week, the composter is probably too wet! We recommend leaving your spigot open with a container underneath to catch the leachate to avoid having it build up in your system. Just keep an eye on it to make sure your container doesn’t overflow!

While leachate can have value as a liquid fertilizer it should be treated with caution. For every story extolling the benefits of using leachate there is one lamenting the problems from having used it. If you decide you want to use the leachate we recommend taking some extra steps.

1. DO NOT use it if it smells bad! Pour it out on an area where it cannot harm living plants like a roadway or driveway.
2. Dilute it ten parts water to one part leachate (10:1)
3. Aerate it with an air pump if available.
4. Use it outdoors on shrubs, ornamentals or flowering plants only. DO NOT use on plants you intend to eat.

Worm Tea

Worm compost tea is known mostly for its ability to boost microbiological activity in soil by adding bacteria, fungi, acinomycetes, and protozoa to the soil. It is brewed by either soaking a porous bag full of worm castings in water or simply dumping the castings into a container of clean chemical free water. Molasses (a food source) is then added to the water as a catalyst to stimulate growth of the microbes. Then last, an air pumping system is installed to increase an aerobic (oxygenated) environment for the inoculation of the microorganisms.

Worm tea is beneficial in so many ways. The microbes delivered in worm tea help plants by out-competing anaerobic and other pathogenic organisms and by occupying infection sites on plants' root and leaf surfaces.

The purpose behind creating worm tea is to speed up the growth rate of microbes such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes, and to multiply their numbers exponentially. One reason for applying the tea to your plants is that it is absorbed more rapidly by the plant than castings, which are released over time.

When you spray or pour the tea on the soil not only are you feeding the plant, but you increase the number of beneficial microbes in the soil, thus crowding out the bad. It has been proven that the tea, along with the castings, can significantly increase plant growth, as well as crop yields, in the short term (a season) and especially the long term over a period of seasons.

Along with these great benefits come a boost in the plant’s own immune system to be able to resist parasites like the infamous aphid, tomato cyst eelworm, and root knot nematodes. Plants produce certain hormones (like the jasmonic hormone) that insects find distasteful so they are repelled. Worm tea also helps a plant to resist diseases such as Pythium and Rhizoctonia.

When worm tea is sprayed on leaves and foliage, the bad disease-causing microbes are again outnumbered and cannot populate to the levels of taking over a single plant. The tea also aids the plant in creating the "cuticle", a waxy layer on top of the epidermis, or plant skin. This waxy surface protects the leaves from severe elements and reduces attacks by certain harmful microorganisms and insects.

Making an organic compost tea involves several important steps 1) choosing the right compost, 2) choosing the right nutrients and 3) brewing and applying tea correctly. Our instructions here are only meant to give you some background to tea making.

The compost used in making tea is like the starter you use in making yoghurt, or bread. The compost inoculates the tea with organisms. Thus, you want the compost you begin with to have a good diversity of beneficial organisms!

Plants differ in their soil preferences. Some need a bacterial-dominated soil, others want a fungal-dominated soil, and still others like a soil that's somewhere in between.

To make an organic compost with more fungi, mix in larger amounts of cardboard, paper, sawdust, wood shavings and heavy stalk plant material as you prepare the compost. For bacterial dominance, use food waste and green plant waste. Whatever compost you use, be sure it is finished, well-stabilized compost, and that it's fairly fresh.

Always use only dechlorinated water, rainwater, pond or distilled water.

Brewing nutrients also influence the finished tea. To encourage the development of fungi in the tea, mix two parts humic acids, two parts yucca, saponin or aloe vera and one part fish hydrolyzate or other proteins into the water. For bacterial dominance, you'll feed one liquid ounce black strap molasses per gallon of tea and and an equal amount of cold-water kelp. For the molasses, you can also substitute brown sugar, honey or maple syrup if you like.

Worm Tea 101 Organic Gardening

Worm Composting 101

Red Wiggler Worms (Eisenia foetida)

Why is worm composting such a good thing?

- It's good for the environment!  Keeping our garbage out of the landfills reduces methane gas released into our environment.

- Recycle your wastes and put it to a good purpose!  Red Wiggler worms consume half their body weight daily in food scraps and organic wastes.

- Using worm compost restores natural soil condition and soil biotics, and thus helps our planet!

- Worm composting is good for your plants

- Worm composting, worm castings, and worm tea are organic, contain no harmful chemicals, and cause no damage to soil, water supply, nor to any living things.

What is so good about Red Wiggler worms?

- There are more nutrients in Red Wiggler castings than in castings from other types of worms.  Red Wiggler worms are the best composting worms - composting is their specialty!

-  Red Wiggler Worms break down compost more quickly than other worms. 

What are worm castings?

Quite simply, it is worm poop

What is in the worm poop?

All sorts of nutrients, vitamins, nematodes, protozoa, fungi, and microorganisms highly beneficial to plants and soil.

What exactly is worm tea and basic overview of how it is made:

-  Worm Tea is made from a combination of highly oxygenated live pond water, chemical free water, worm castings, and other nutrients.

-  Worm tea is brewed by an aerobic oxygenation process which causes proliferous growth of beneficial aerobic microorganisms and which gets rid of harmful ones.

What is the difference between "leachate" and aerobically brewed "worm tea"?  

Leachate is the smelly, unprocessed run-off liquid at the bottom of the worm bin, which can still contain non-beneficial or even harmful anaerobic bacteria.

Why Uncle Wiggleys Worm Tea is better than any other Worm Tea:

Uncle Wiggleys uses an exclusive blend of certain ingredients, based on scientific research, and used only by Uncle Wiggleys, which results in a far superior nutrient content and longer preservation of the beneficial microorganisms present in the worm tea.  Nuff said!  (Uncle Wiggley sez: "Ain't tellin' my secrets"!)

Why is worm tea better than using commercial fertilizers and pesticides?

Use of commercial fertilizers and pesticides results in:

- Permanent damage to the soil

- Destruction of living organisms in healthy soil necessary for plant growth

- Chemicals destroy soil condition

- Wrecks water retention capabilities of the soil 

- Decreased drainage and aeration of the soil

- Kills beneficial insect and bacteria populations

- Damages Ph and normal soil nutrient balance

- Causes overgrowth of harmful bacteria

- Imbalance leads to harmful insect pest invasions and diseases

- Plants are rendered incapable of tolerating heat, drought, pests, and disease.

What are the benefits of worm tea and worm castings?

Worm tea fertilizer and worm castings:

-  Are completely organic and natural and contain no harmful chemicals, do not damage your plants or soil, and do not endanger animal life, nor the water supply or the environment.  Worm tea and worm castings will not harm or burn your plants.

-  A thin film of worm tea sprayed on your soil is equal to 2 inches of rich, nutrient filled compost!

- Uncle Wiggleys Worm Tea and Worm Castings contain a perfectly balanced Ph and combination of nutrients for your plants' optimal health

- The microorganisms in worm tea digest and break down nutrients in soil and make it easier for plants to absorb and use them, resulting in increased plant growth, healthier, more disease and pest resistant plants, bigger fruits and vegetables, and higher production.

- The aerobic brewing process used for making worm tea even makes it superior to compost, because the oxygenation kills the harmful bacteria like E. Coli, which is often present in compost and can contaminate your plants for human consumption for 120 days after using it on your food plants.  So worm tea is safer for humans, too!  (But don't drink it even though it's all organic!)

-Worm tea contains beneficial aerobic bacteria, fungi, protozoa, inoculants, and nematodes essential for proper plant growth which lead to:

   -Greater root depth and extension

   -Healthier, hardier plants

   -Better resistance to disease and pests

   -Larger plants, and larger vegetables, fruit, and flowers

   -Increased crop production 

Worm tea continues to work, conditioning and restoring your soil for a year or more after application.  Repeated use improves your soil even more with every application!  You can't use too much worm tea!  

Using Uncle Wiggleys Worm Tea:

You can spray Uncle Wiggleys Worm Tea on your plants and leaves, pour it on the root zone, or use it on your soil.  For best results, you should apply the worm tea in the morning or late afternoon to protect the beneficial microorganisms in the worm tea from the damaging effects of the UV rays of the sun. 

You can spray the entire surface of your plants and leaves, or pour worm tea on the soil around the plants.  If you use tap water to mix with your Uncle Wiggleys Worm Tea Concentrate, let the water set for 48 hours before using, so the chlorine will evaporate.  Chlorinated water will kill the microbes in the worm tea.  It is better to use your collected rain water, pond water, distilled water, or well water, if you have it.

You can use the worm tea as often and as much as you want - it will not burn your plants like chemical fertilizers do.

How to Use Uncle Wiggleys Worm Tea:

- When used as a foliar spray, the worm tea coats the leaves of the plant with a protective film of beneficial bacteria and organisms, which grow and proliferate, and which crowd out diseases on plant leaves such as black spot, powdery mildew, and fungus.  The film also protects the plant from attack by insect pests like spider mites and aphids..

- When used to water your plants, the nutrients in the worm tea are delivered directly to the roots of the plant in a form immediately and readily absorbed and used by the plant.

- When used as a soil conditioner, the worm tea increases tilth - ie it makes the soil a perfect environment for and encourages growth of beneficial bacteria and other organisms.

- Worm tea makes the soil more water retentive with better aeration.  This protects your plants from heat and drought, and helps maintain the beneficial aerobic microorganisms in your soil which nourish and protect your plants.

Where to Use Uncle Wiggleys Worm Tea:

House Plants - Benefit from foliar spraying to prevent leaf diseases, and a once monthly or as needed watering with Uncle Wiggleys Worm Tea all year round for healthy plant growth.

Garden Plants - Give your garden regular applications of Uncle Wiggleys all through the growing season, to improve aeration and biotics of soil.  Use it either as direct soil application before planting to condition the soil, or soil application or foliar spraying every week or 2, and at critical growing points such as early Spring and rapid early Summer growth stages, at flowering and fruit set.  When the growing season is over, and you prepare your soil for over-wintering, use Uncle Wiggleys on your garden soil to maximize the composting process.

Flowers, Roses, Perennial Shrubs and Trees - Soak them with a good watering at the root zone with Uncle Wiggleys as soon as they come out of dormancy and start growing in the Spring, and at other stages such as vigorous early Summer growth spurt, flowering, and fruit set.

Lawns - Spray with Uncle Wiggleys using a pump sprayer or hose-end sprayer as soon as the grass starts to get green in the Spring and at least once a month or as often as you like during the growing season, and at the end of the season in the Fall for better Spring growth.  

Compost Enhancer - Use a little Uncle Wiggleys Worm Tea on your compost pile every now and then to enhance the composting process in your compost bin!

Is Worm Tea cost-effective?

It sure is!  Compare the price of one gallon of Uncle Wiggleys worm tea concentrate, which makes 32 gallons of worm tea fertilizer, to other commercial fertilizers and pesticides (which destroy your soil and contain harmful chemicals which harm the environment and living things)  Uncle Wiggleys One Gallon Concentrate Refilll is on sale right now for only $42.95  That makes Uncle Wiggleys cost you only $1.25 a gallon!  One gallon covers  one acre of ground with 22 gallons of water.  Where else can you get the best organic liquid fertilizer and pest and disease prevention available for only $1.35 a gallon?

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!

What are Earthworm Castings?

Simply put, worm castings are the manure from the earthworm. 

Worm castings are one of the most natural soil enrichments available and are environmentally friendly, all natural, easy to use and safe to handle. 

Worm castings improve plant and soil vitality by providing essential plant nutrients, beneficial bacteria and microbes.

Houseplants love worm castings, as do all outdoor flowers, vegetables, shrubs, grass and trees.  Worm castings are non-toxic, so it is safe to use around humans, pets, wildlife and lakes. 

The worms are fed a rich peat humus that contains a wide variety of minerals and trace elements.  The worms consume this material, and through the digestive process, the humus is beneficially altered, both chemically and physically.  The end result is pure earthworm castings, nature’s best organic fertilizer. 

For millions of years the incredible earthworm has been one of nature's greatest producers of readily available organic plant food.  When used in greater concentrations than found in nature, this non-burning, long lasting organic fertilizer can provide remarkable benefits.  

 Here are some of the Key Benefits of using worm castings: 

  

 Naturally Organic and Odor Free - Worm castings come straight from the earthworm with no alterations.  Nothing is added or changed.  The worm does it all.  There is no odor, so you can use it directly from the bag on indoor plants.

  

Will Not Burn – With worm castings, you never have to worry about over fertilizing.  Worm castings will not burn at any concentration.  You can even start seeds or root cuttings in pure worm castings.

  

  

Improves Soil Structure – Worm castings are cylindrically shaped pellets that resist compaction and keep the soil loose.  This allows roots the ability to grow fast and fibrous.  It also allows for excellent drainage so roots don’t become waterlogged.

Beneficial Bacteria and Microbes – Worm castings contain high concentrations of beneficial bacteria and microbes that are added by the worm in the digestive process.  These microscopic creatures help different elements of the soil work in conjunction with each other to create healthy, living soil that provides the best possible atmosphere for optimum growth.

  

High Availability of Nutrients – The digestive tract of the earthworm grinds and uniformly mixes the nutrients and trace elements found in the soil into simple forms, so plants need only minimal effort to obtain them yet also remain available in the soil for long term use.  This allows plants to feed as needed for weeks at a time. 

Trace Minerals - In addition to containing Nitrogen, worm castings also contain small amounts of Phosphorus and Potassium and the trace minerals Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulfur, Boron, Copper, Zinc and Manganese.

Contain Plant growth hormones - Worm castings naturally contain Auxins and Cytokinins, which are growth hormones that promote bigger and more fibrous plant roots.

	“ ” I have been using worm castings for about 2 years now.  I love the way it amends my soil through aeration and fertilization organically.  Worm castings are a joy to work with being they are clean, no odor and easy to use.  I love the fact that they won't harm the environment.  I have a lot of gardens very close to our lake so it is hard to find products you can use that won't have a negative effect from runoff or that don't have a hideous smell.  (I am particularly sensitive to smells.)  Thank you for making my gardens the best they have ever looked and my life easier with such a great product. Joanie from Ely, MN