Vermicompost aerated tea
 

If anyone uses vermicompost from their worm factory to make aerated compost tea, I would like to ask couple of questions- what do you add as food for tea brewing time, when and does that tea smell any?
I am in a process of making my first batch of vermicompost tea and till now used KIS products which give me nice forest smell when created.
I smell nothing with vermicompost, id does not have any smell... I did add kelp, some sugar and molasses at the start of brewing.

I add 1/3 cup molasses and 1/3 cup Neptune Harvest Seaweed. I don't like molasses and hate the smell of it but when the brewing is finished it just has a nice earthy smell.

I use 2 handfuls of worm castings, probably 1/4 cup Molasses, 1/4 cup seaweed extraction, a little rock dust and a teaspoon of mychorizal fungi.

I find the smell turns from Molasses at the start to earthy or perhaps closer to neutral after 24 hours. I am only concerned if it ever smells off. Neutral to earthy is an indicator of aerobic health in my books.

Carl

Thank you much for advice. I will keep trying.

I've done it with Grandma molasses (can buy at the grocery store) but now use Earth Juice Hi-Brix molasses for plants.

I've never added Kelp / seaweed but will the next time I do it.

I started making the tea because I was not very diligent with removing seeds; I know which plants receives the vermicompost because they also have tomato seedlings or cantaloupe popping up.

Does your tea have foam? I'm just doing it in a 5 gallon bucket with an 5" air stone and air pump and mine never had foam.

Mine seemed to foam sometimes, and other times it didn't. I could never pinpoint the reason why though. As long as it did not smell off I used it.

I rarely get much foam at all. However this could also be due to my air pump being a little underpowered. I’m with Creister that if it doesn’t smell off, it is good to use.

Carl

I usually do get foam. My pump has two outlets. I put my castings in a cut off stocking and then put that in a paint strainer bag. I put one 4 inch air stone in that. I use a t connector on the other outlet and attach two four inch stones to each line. Even though I am just using a cheap pump I think the total of 5 stones makes good circulation.

I will have to check out the Earth Juice molasses.

How much compost and how much water? I have a ton of vermicompost around all the leaves and pine needles.
Today, I was digging up rotted leaves and pine needles, mixed with that beautiful black stuff to put in my hugelkultur herb/saffron garden. We have these enormous, very fast earthworms. I saw so many and I thought it looked just like a a little snake. Wait! It was a baby snake! It was actually smaller and moved just like the earthworms. Even had a similar color. If it weren't for the tiny scales and the head/eyes, I wouldn't have even noticed!

I usually brew 4 gallons. I put two cups in a paint strainer bag, if I add any meal/solid additives, I put in the bag with the compost. I also put two one inch air stones in the bag as we'll.

4-5 gallons in my brew (although I will need to convert you to the Australian measuring system (about 15-18 litres) I add between 1-2 cups of castings. Interestingly I don’t bag anything. I like to let it all swim free. I strain the mix as it goes into the sprayer through any old stockings my wife/kids don’t need anymore.
Carl

I use a 5 gallon bucket and mostly fill it with rain water or city water that I let sit overnight. I use 2 cups of worm castings and have put in the paint strainer bag and let it hang from the side. The last time I made worm tea, I just dumped the castings it in the bottom.

I've never thought of putting the stone in the bag; that would certainly circulate the air at the source. I will try the extra stones; I have 2 sockets on my pump and lots of extra line.

Do you all buy your castings? I have a worm inn kept in an unused shower in our house.

For several months now, I've just been making Stump Tea which gives me lots of foam. We have an HTGsupply store in our town and on Tuesdays they give free Stump Tea and on Thursdays they give away Veg Boost. I ended up getting the Stump Tea mix and just making my own.

I have worm factory so vermicompost is ready made. It is really not chlorine as it quite unstable but chloramine I worry about in the water so I add a drop of diluted humic acid for the 30 minute initial preload cycle.
I was told that using pantyhose is way too tight mesh, so I am re- using one from prepackaged kits of Keep It Simple. I do generally have foam in the end.
Keep It Simple which has mile long data list, sends in prepackaged about 1 cup of compost and one cup of microbial food- dry for 5 gallon bucket. It does produce wonderful brew. My peppers which were infected with something turned around after one application.
However it is not cheap so for long run I am looking to come up with my own compost and molasses/kelp mix that works...

I have well water.i had no idea that so little was used! Wow! I'm going to order an air stone and pump ASAP!

i just started using boogie brew pro today and from what I hear this stuff is the bees knees when it comes to tea. i do about 4 gal at a time boogiebrew.net

I had to dump my worm bins and start over because of earwigs. So I made a lot of tea with these castings:

1. I used a LOT of castings - I almost completely filled a 5 gallon paint strainer (lowes). I just left enough room to tie it off and let it float / sink in the water.

2. On my cheapie pump with 2 air hoses, I removed the stones and weighted them down with the ends of bungee cords.

I had tons of foam.

It's great to hear so many of you practice vermiculture! Then again, I guess I should expect that from all the knowledgeable folks of this forum :)

How do you like your worm factory? I considered one, but ended up doing the cheap DIY system with multiple rubbermaid containers in the basement. It's my first time trying vermicomposting and I'm fascinated by it so far. Once settled in for week or so, those little guys sure can chow through all the food I put in there!

Good luck with the worm tea, I won't be ready to entice my little wigglers to move to a fresh container for another couple weeks. But I am excited to try brewing my first batch as soon as they make the move to their new home.

I've know about adding the molasses, but what does the kelp and rock dust add to the mix? Just curious...

Also, I think it stands to reason that you might get a better yield by not using a bag. Sort of like making loose leaf tea vs tea bags makes for a better, more efficient extraction.

In fact, I think I've been inspired to go grab a different sort of brew (not tea) for myself :dizzy:

Cheers!

I used to know all this stuff. I remember molasses feeds the bacteria. For some reason Soilfoodweb no longer reccomends molasses, I see on their website. Not sure why. But there are also fungi, protozoa, and some other living things in there and they all have their own food needs. You can tweak the food recipe to tweak the mix towards bacterial or fungal. I think the rock dust feeds the fungi. I used to go for a "balanced" brew that was all purpose, and I remember using Neptune's fish & seaweed, molasses and Neptune's liquid humate.

Foam results from proteins in the brew, such as when fish emulsion is used.

The kelp helps with the foam. If you can regulate the aeration it helps also. An airstone inside your bag/sock will help in diffusion, by the end of the cycle most of the contents have leeched out of the bag. the goal of the tea is a healthy, aerobically selected, microbial/fungal culture, a sock--while being a barrier for us--to them is shall we say a non-issue. The couple of times I've gone directly into solution, it got slimy relatively quickly. Another plus for the sock/bag is the lucky plant that gets the used contents (worm castings, vegetable compost, +/- guano, +/- alfalfa) gets a superboost. As I understand it, kelp provides many minerals, micronutrients, hormones, and other growth factors. The rock dust is basically a fjord salt lick for the culture. And I concur on the earthy smell indicating all is well.

I do all of the above, plus if you really want to see a good brew, add one tablet of Biotamax.
I do this as a standard now and my microscope is jumping at the 48 hour mark.

This is what I use. 2 generous handfuls. Solid results.

Well I took the plunge here with the AVCT. Bought some airstones and a couple tees and put two 80s era aquarium pumps to work in a 5 gallon bucket. The water is from a nearby spring. I could not find a paint strainer bag so I used an old loose weave pantyhose leg filled with:
about 8 cups of vc,
1 tbsp epsom salt
1/2 cup worm chow (corn/wheat/alfafa meal from what I can tell)
2 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

It is now bubbling away. Took about 5 seconds for the water to turn brown.
If all fails miserably I'm out the price of airstones and tees. I will hand spray it with a spray bottle.

Next time I am out fishing I will keep the weeds taken off of the trolling motor prop. Some type of millfoil usually. That might be close enough to kelp, nutrient wise. I'd like to try to make some fish emulsion too, but that has me worried scentwise.

For anyone serious about brewing the best compost / vermicompost tea please study the following link carefully. All your questions will be answered & regurgitated myths will be dispelled.

[URL]http://microbeorganics.com/[/URL]


As far as foaming with vermicompost goes, a very small amount of hydrolyzed fish will stop it. One ounce in 12 gallons works for me every time.

Ted

JRinPA, I have a question about adding the vinegar. Since vinegar is used as and anti-fungal and antimicrobal what was your reason for using it? I have seen lots of recipes people have used but this is the first time I have seen vinegar included. I am not saying it is not good I just had not heard of it before. I am always ready to learn more.

dustee1, thanks for posting that link. There was good information but some that was my head. I will have to take time to read it several tiems and hope it all sinks in.

Worm tea absolutely works when done properly. I've tried a lot of different brews but a few things are consistent to all of the brews that worked. Remove chlorine or chloramine before adding your bacteria source (worm castings, etc) to any tea.

For non-woody plants I do a bacterial brew (24ish hours) under aeration. I don't measure anything and I don't think it's necessary to measure anything. I have seen plants grow a foot in a week after doing a foliar application with this kind of tea. You will notice a difference in the plants in < 24 hours.

I usually put the worm castings in a strainer bag to make it easier to use them in a sprayer. I usually only put a couple of handfuls in a 5 gal bucket but you could use more or less.

I dump in a little bit of blackstrap molasses. The 2 tbsp measurement given above is about how much I put in but you don't need to measure it out carefully.

I dump in some kelp extract.

sometimes I add epsom salt but that isn't really necessary.

Worm castings add beneficial bacteria, humic acid and amino acids.
Molasses adds sugar for the bacteria to eat AND fulvic acid.
Kelp reacts synergistically with both humic and fulvic acid as well as adding plant growth hormones. In other words, it makes the tea go from good to ridiculous.

Application is also important. As a foliar spray I first spray the underside of the leaves which makes the plant uptake the tea very fast. The plant will literally wilt for a little while. After the plant wilts I spray down the top of the leaves too.

When I'm done spraying all my plants I water the root zone with the remaining tea. This brew is balanced to do some things for foliar application and other things for root zone application.

The most I ever did this was 3 times in a season but some people do this as often as every week. I typically have a hard time maintaining my plants with just one application LOL. You really have to be careful with this because your plants can outgrow your capability of supporting them and break.

I need a pump and some hose. What size pump should I get for 5 gallon buckets?

2 hose for an 80gal aquarium minimum. I put a large air stone in the bucket then I put a medium sized one right in the bag. I use a fine weave small burlap sack and tie it off around the tube with the stone in the bag.

[QUOTE=kayrobbins;483134]JRinPA, I have a question about adding the vinegar. Since vinegar is used as and anti-fungal and antimicrobal what was your reason for using it? [/QUOTE]

I have many bookmarks for act/avct from the last few years that I've been re-reading. A few of them specify apple cider vinegar for the bit of acetic acid and trace minerals. Basically I added a lot of vc with any addl possibles I already have at minimum recommended rate. I don't plan to buy much of anything.

I'm not sure of the date on this particular post since I think "houzz" hosed a lot of gardenwebs forum posts. A lot of my gw bookmarks now claim a date of 1/1/2013.
[URL]http://faq.gardenweb.com/discussions/2766357/what-are-the-benefits-of-aerated-compost-teas-vs-classic-teas[/URL]
Also, web search "apple cider vinegar" "compost tea" and there are lots of mentions.

I still have the light microscope I got for christmas when I was a kid, so I broke that out. I can see about as much with it now as I could back then. Air bubbles. Apparently I never learned the proper way to put a cover glass on. No matter. I don't see how one can go wrong with vermicompost. The worms do the work. I sprayed and drenched this morning.

Thanks for th elink and I will do some more research on it. Vinegar has so many uses and it seems this is just one more.

Stumbled across this link of a guy who holds 9 world records for largest of 9 different vegetables. His secret is compost tea. His exact recipe is a secret but it certainly looks like he's putting worm castings and kelp in it (as expected). They also said he's adding micronutrients so I'm thinking he's adding mulched up dynamic accumulators (though I didn't see any growing in his ridiculous garden).

[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaMNAfaebNc&feature=player_embedded[/URL]

I think the long Alaskan sun is still part of the vegetable size but I think the tea is clearly the biggest part. I think he's also watering unprocessed sugars into the soil to feed the root zone microbes.

Food for thought.