Worm Tea - Do I Need Anything Else?

[SundayAfternoon]

I've read about the amazing properties of worm tea, and now that I have my own little worm farm I am keen fertilize my veggies with the tea.

My heaviest feeders are: tomatoes, cucumber, melon, pepper and chillis.

Is worm tea enough to give them all the nutrients they require, or should I be supplementing with other things too? (I've been putting hair, potato peelings, banana skins and egg shells in the pots too for extra nutrients).

How often should I feed them with worm tea?

[IsaanAussie]

Good for you.

The word TEA is often confused with leachate from the worm box. Further if the TEA is just steeped or aerated when brewed the nutrient levels extracted will differ. The length of brewing time will determine the amount of biology that has developed in the tea. The worms food content and the moisture level of the castings all effect the "strength" as a fertiliser.

I have seen many different claims on nutrient values of worm castings, but as for the tea, then dilution rates etc... Would worm tea supply enough for your tomatoes? I doubt it.

[SundayAfternoon]

Thanks IssanAussie,

I must admit that I thought the leachate was the 'tea' (the good stuff...) until I googled it and realised it was a waste product. There actually seems to be a lot of mis-information on the internet/youtube, etc. about this - with many people claiming that the leachate is the tea!

So, to tea or not to tea...? That is the question.

If the worm tea is not a strong enough fertilizer for my tomatoes, and other veggies, then I'm going to have to rethink my strategy a little. I was planning of using an aquarium bubbler, so the tea would be aerated for at least 24 hrs, and I would feed this to the plants once a week. I just did a trial run with some dry cow dung, and it worked great.

I'm VERY small scale at the moment, just using a couple of those clear plastic containers usually used for home storage. It is chock full of critters though, and I can hear the worms as they chomp their way through the cow dung and scraps. If I was to bubble this through an aerator I would drown any critters/larve contained in it. Wouldn't it be preferable to have these in my containers, creating a healthy, living environment for my plants, by just putting the castings straight in the pot? With several waterings, all the good 'tea' would naturally leach out into the pot anyway? Plus I get to keep the critters / any worm larve alive too.

I realise that worm tea is a great liquid feed, but are there other benefits over just using the castings straight in the soil?

[IsaanAussie]

It depends on whether you want to apply fertiliser in dry or liquid form. Also on the additives and bacteria/fungii you want to add the casting nutrients. Brewing a tea from the castings alone cannot add anything to what castings themselves would yield. Using a liquid form allows you to foilar feed the plants. In the case of tomatoes perhaps not what you would want to do.