Welcome to container gardening. Much of your gardening experience growing in the ground will have to be relearned as you find it does not apply when growing in containers. You have found the right place for getting the help needed. The use of compost and compost tea and worm castings, though still useful will be used a little different. The leaves of your plants are telling you their needs are not being met. The container plant is completely dependent on everything needed being provided by the gardener, with no reserves being available from the ground. All you need is available on this site. Al

Worm tea may not be marketed as a fertilizer but it certainly IS one, just as compost or manure teas are a great organic source of plant nutrients. The big bonus with worm castings is the excellent array of trace elements it contains. And for any containerized or seasonal plants, the "weekly weakly" program is entirely justified - ALL nutrients must be provided from outside in the case of containerized plants and routine supplementation is typically suggested for seasonal plants to maximize flowering or fruiting in their short growing season. You would drown the plants before you would come anywhere close to overdoing with worm tea. Here is an example of the percentages and composition of nutrients and minerals in vermicompost and by translation, in worm tea. ⢠Organic Carbon 20.43 -- 30.31 % ⢠Nitrogen 1.80 -- 2.05 % ⢠Phosphorus 1.32 -- 1.93 % ⢠Potassium 1.28 -- 1.50 % ⢠Carbon : Nitrogen 14-15 : 1 % ⢠Calcium 3.0 -- 4.5 % ⢠Magnesium 0.4 -- 0.7 % ⢠Sodium 0.02 -- 0.30 % ⢠Sulphur Traces to 0.40 % ⢠Iron 0.3 -- 0.7 % ⢠Zinc 0.028 -- 0.036 % ⢠Manganese Traces to 0.40 % ⢠Copper 0.0027 -- 0.0123 % ⢠Boron 0.0034 -- 0.0075 % ⢠Aluminium Traces to 0.071 % ⢠Cobalt, Molybdenum Present in available form The above is approximate only, noting that all vermicompost is different because the composition does truly depend on the type of feed you give to the worms. But the above table does show the range of nutrients available in this product and confirms its position as an excellent source of plant nutrients, aka a fertilizer.

I find that my red worms who live outside do really well, so long as the soil is kept moist and they are fed often with vegetable/fruit trimmings. I often will add some partially composted leaves from my compost bin. Although, I find that they do well without much attention in my raised beds that have lots of organic compost, I like to keep one 4ft square bed that is shaded and kept covered with cardboard to add my veggie/fruit trimmings/composted leaves. I go clockwise around the bed to add food and to remove the vermicompost as needed to use in my containers/other beds. There are so many worms in the bed that is necessary to spread the vermicompost out to let it dry out and get the worms to move back to a moister section. Try to use unchlorinated water to moisten the rest of the bed or some that has sat out for 24hrs so that the chlorine has mostly evaporated. Red worms will eat the bacteria from the decaying foods, and I never have a problem with offensive odors ....actually, the compost in this bed smells really good and the plants seem to really thrive on it. I agree that getting these worms from someone in your area may be better as they will have adapted to your local weather conditions. I live in a desert area that has temps from the 20's to the 110's and they have survived many years outside this way.

I have a worm bin in the house. I just love my worms. If you have holes in your container for drainage when the food they want is all gone they might move on and leave through the holes. Maybe add a little coffee grounds for them? Worms love UCG I dug out a bush yesterday and had a bunch of worms in the roots. I was so happy! Worms were not in my yard much when I moved here. Adding organic matter made them want to hang around. Karen