worm casting tea

[CoolBreeze87]

I have some worm castings that I would like to make into a tea to feed my 3-4 week old seedlings. The brand is mother nature's and the npk ratio is 1-.11-.08. I dont know how much i should add to a gallon of water. Also is it alright to add liquid kelp to this too, the liquid kelp is age old kelp with an npk ratio of .3-.25.15 i assume it would be alright the directions call for one teaspoon per gallon of water.

 

[jaykush]

in the seedling stage i usually mix wormcastings in the soil, one reason is it will not burn the plants. even if you plant seedlings in 100% wc it still wont burn. as for the tea i would add about a tblspoon or two of the wc keep it bubbled for a good 24 hours at least. you could add the liquid kelp but dont put too much, i teaspoon will be ok.

 

[baccas125]

Two cups of worm castings into a bag and let it bubble away for at least 25 hours.

 

[muddy waters]

http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pages/g00030.asp

that's by the 'inventor', dr. elaine ingham of oregon state university. be forewarned, though, there are many skeptics in the agricultural/horticultural communities. for just a taste:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/verm/msg0620302417324.html?6

i've found aerated castings tea to kick major ass, though i can't say it kicks significantly more ass than non-aerated castings tea, for instance. i also have had only so-so results with using aerated castings tea against leaf fungi--it helped (no more showed up) but didn't completely eliminate those already present.

 

[muddy waters]

oh yeah:

there was this dude aallonharja (probably misspelled) back on OG who claimed castings could indeed burn a plant. i never experienced it but i conceded his point back then just imagining that one could put a lot of 'hot' inputs into a worm bucket, say 90% lawn clippings and 10% table scraps, which would bake and fry a few worms, but some would escape of course, repopulating it once it cooled down, and eating a very nitrogen-rich meal and pooping out the vast majority of the nitrogen--in other words, creating a 30-?-? worm castings or something of that magnitude. that would burn your seedlings easily.

btw aallonharja where you at scholar?

 

[CoolBreeze87]

thanks everybody im going to test my wc tea on my vegies first and see how they react to it. If i get a positive response ill try it on my cannabis.

 

[minds_I]

worm casting are the schiznit!

I have nothing but anocdotal evidence but its enough for me. I ahve been using ewc teas for just over 2 months now and I can see the difference.

minds_I

PS: time to go check the girls....yay.

 

[TML16]

I've been using Terracycle worm casting tea for my last grow and the plants seem to love it.
http://www.terracycle.net/
It's pretty cheap and makes a great foliar spray.

I'm still going to get into cooking up my own tea though. Every dollar counts right?

Thanks for the knowledge guys

 

[zamalito]

I strongly recommend the gardens alive (gardensalive.com) compost tea. It contains worm castings a top quality compost dried mollasses added beneficial fungi and bacteria. This stuff is used on apple and fruit trees which are extremely susceptible to many fungal and bacterial pathogen You put a pouch in a 5 gallon jug of water that has been dechlorinated by aerating for 24 hours then aerate the composte tea for 72 hrs. The stuff works excelllent as a mold preventative which is neccessarry where I live with long flowering strains but it also makes for healthier larger flowers. Along with harpin protein and top max i had some plants that were 2-3 pounds last year with very little mold problems and swear by this stuff the prvious year the same strain was completely and perfectly healthy then only budded for 2 weeks before completely being overtaken by pathogens.

 

[zamalito]

Personally I don't believe its a true compost tea unless it goes bad and starts to smell unless it stays aerated. This shows the tea is alive and the beneficials are keeping the parhogenic and anaerobic bacteria in check. Otherwise it's just a liquid organic nutrient. A well aerated soil will keep the tea aerated after it's applied to the root zone.

 

[Guest]

I like using the tea that collects under my worm bins. I call it worm pee. Now that is some kickass tea.

Cheers,
SH

 

[Closet Funk]

I made alittle tea for my seedlings. They started showing signs of yellowing after about a week or so. I just warmed up some water and put alittle worm castings in and mixed it up. I let it sit for a few days shaking constantly. Once the soulution was mostly brown colored I then foiler fed the seedlings. It seemed to work fine.