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Vermicomposting

Worm composting: making safe tea.

6 years ago

I am wondering if other gardeners who use /make their own compost tea from vermiculture can comment on my situation? I have a healthy bin (14"w x 20"h x 30"l)that I put outside in the summer. The bin rests on a bed of straw under a canoe and remains dry or unaffected by rains. The bin has about 2 dz 1/16th inch holes drilled into the bottom to let leachate out. I have read that its imperative when spreading compost tea to make it from a source that is free of diseases and problems as such. I only add to my bin, food scrapes, coconut coir, some dried maple leaves and, early on, a handful of outside compost, as inoculant. Would you think this bin be likely to harbor disease? Thank you.

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theparsley
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Two issues here. Whether vermicompost can carry diseases, and whether you need to make compost tea at all.

To the first question, there are no guarantees in life, but vermicomposting is an excellent way to suppress the spread of plant diseases (I assume you mean those and not human diseases). The worms carry microorganisms with them that actively outcompete and destroy a lot of plant disease organisms. If you do have a large quantity of diseased plant material, though, you should throw it away or burn it - not compost it by any means - just to be on the safe side. But random occurrences of plant disease spread are really not a big concern with vermicomposting, if the material has had the chance to be processed thoroughly by the worms.

As to "compost tea", it's really not a beneficial practice and is a big waste of time and effort in my opinion and in the opinion of many evidence-based gardeners. I don't think it's actively harmful, but it's such an unnecessary bunch of magical thinking. Vermicompost has a lot of excellent qualities, and those qualities are not improved by watering the stuff down. Just put it onto, or into, the soil and stand back.

The most I'll ever do is throw some vermicompost in a bucket, fill the bucket with water, mix it around thoroughly and immediately pour the water on the soil - in some situations where I want the nutrients to get to the plant roots a tiny bit faster. I don't think even that's really necessary, but sometimes it's convenient to do it that way on an already planted area when there's not much rain in the immediate forecast.
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Leachate, a mixture of the water we drink, veggie and fruit scraps and other foodstuffs intended for human consumption, bedding materials like newspaper and corrugated cardboard devoid of chemicals harmful to us, and worm excrement which we know is a killer of bad bacterias, has proven to me after 15 years or so to be of no threat to the environment or me. I can't say that about any chemically laced commercial products people spray, spread, swab upon, and wash into the ecosystem packaged in containers warning us of the consequences misuse could wreak upon our pets, neighbors, and selves. I use leachate whenever I find some with never a bad outcome. Also, if you have AVCT that has somehow passed its expiration date (dead and stinky), put it into the soil or a compost pile because it does have some fertilizer properties, and ......where else you gonna put it. Chuckiebtoo
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A paint bag was designed to filter globs of paint from the rest, so bumps don't appear where you paint. I started using mesh bags like for onions, but too much of the compost was floating in the tea, which plugs up the water can. So the bag filters it nicely, and doesn't interfere with the bacteria growth. The reason people use 'teas' might be because it's another way to nourish plants effectively. We all composted to build up our soil, but to really get great results sometimes takes years, depending on how good your soil was. So now we have worm castings, and nobody can argue about their increased value over compost as a fertilizer. Through electron microscopes we now really know how plants feed, and it's through the interchange they have with bacteria. And they not only feed through the root system, but also their foliant. My view anyway.
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The drainage of a worm bin is not worm tea. It is usually called leachate. It can be good for plants and it may be bad them. Tea is made by placing worm castings in an aerated container of water with a food source(molasses) for about 24 hours. I usually use a dual fish aquarium air pump for two milk jugs. If you think more air helps you can use the two hoses on one jug. On the amount of molasses, I'm still experimenting on that. Having allot of leachate or muddy bedding are signs that your bedding is watered too much and or the worms are overfed. There may be other things that contribute to saturated bedding.
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