I have also just started The Worm Expert, red worm discussion forum and would like to invite you to become a member. Yes it is Free! (link opens in new window)

Thanks and enjoy the video.

Bruce Galle
The Worm Expert

First off, worm tea has many beneficial uses! Use on all your plants, lawn, shrubs, flowers; even add a few drops to the water in vases containing fresh cut flowers to prolong life. Worm tea also helps reduce diseases in plants, blackspot on roses and other dry fungus/bacteria’s harmful to plants.

Worm tea does not smell. It may have a sweet odor when first brewing your tea for a number of hours if adding molasses, but then should dissipate. If you have worm tea that smells, get rid of it as it contains harmful organisms rather than beneficial ones!

Worm tea is not to be confused with leachate, the runoff liquid from worm bins that some folks get. If your worm bin is gathering liquid, your worm bin is too wet and you are probably having problems. The leachate is usually acidic and can smell pretty bad This is why I refuse to sell worm bins that have spigots on them as they are useless.

Not one of my worm bins collects any fluids at the bottom since I maintain a constant moisture level of 70%. A moisture tool can be a good investment.

I get frustrated when someone tries to sell another a product that will not work based upon the directions given. Read on as the next part many are unaware of…

First let me make one important note here since most people receive water from a local water company via the county, city… Unless you have well water and have not added a chlorinator, there will be chlorine in your tap water.

Chlorine kills micro-organisms.

The way around this as a simple solution is to sit your water out in direct sunlight on a sunny day. Allow to sit for one day as sunlight will burn up chlorine, same as it does in a swimming pool! Once you have completed this, your water should be ready to brew your own worm tea or add concentrated worm tea mix.

The amount of worm castings to add to your brew depends on the amount of worm tea you wish to make. Basically you want ½ ounce per gallon or 2.5 ounces per five gallon bucket. If using tea bags, be sure they are unbleached or oxygen bleached only. We offer the oxygen bleached, biodegradable tea bags at our online store at red worms for sale.

Next feed the organisms you are about to wake up, adding some molasses to the water. Use all natural, unsulphured molasses only. You do not want to add too much. I use 1 Tablespoon per five gallons or ½ Teaspoon per 1 gallon of water.

Next you want to aerate the water for at least 24 hours. You can use a simple aquarium aerator which you can pick up for around ten dollars. Add some tubing and aerator stone(s) you should still be at fifteen dollars or less. I use this method for small batches; however I use a large compressor for our 50 gallon tanks!

OK so now you are ready to begin. Add your aerator to your water. Next add molasses and give it a quick stir. The aerator will help keep it mixed in afterwards. Next add your worm castings. You can use an old pillow case or tea bags work well. I recommend a lid to cover the top, which can just be placed, not fastened to allow air to pass through. Otherwise the aerator will make bubbles that splash around your bucket.

Now sit back and relax. Wait a minimum of 24 hours; however I recommend 48 hours if you can stand still that long

Once completed, do not throw away the worm castings. Throw them into a compost pile in the yard or garden area. The tea bags offered at http://RedWormsForSale.com are biodegradable; simply toss the entire bag in!

Now you have two choices. The worm tea can be sprayed directly on the leaves of your plants. Do not do this in direct sunlight or you will burn your plants due to refraction of the sun. Basically a magnifying glass held up to your plant leaves This process is best if done early in the morning on your outdoor plants and lawn.

You can also use the worm tea to water your plants. With either method, you cannot harm your plants by adding to little or too much. This is an organic product and will not burn your plants as many store bought fertilizers will.

I recommend using the tea once a week.

Time to get back to my garden to see if anything grew since this morning

Bruce

First, if I followed what numerous other sites state (which I did try originally) I would end up with nothing but a regular compost bin since my worms would be dead and decomposing.

Most sites state to feed your worms one pound of food per one pound of worms a day. If you took a bin with 2,000 red wrigglers, roughly 2 plus pounds, you would need to add a ten bag pound and a 5 pound bag of potatoes weekly. You would need to be a magician to add this weekly

I took some time to do a comparison, weighing the food I was adding each week and watching to see what happened. One bin I placed a pound of food per pound of worms, the other, half a pound of food per one pound of worms. I fed both bins with the same food, simply cutting it in half for the second bin.

The results were that a pound of food per pound of worms in a basic worm bin is too much as it begun to make the worms try and escape from an uncovered bin with a light over the top, hence telling me something was definitely wrong. The bin began to get soggy and loads of mites appeared, even though the bin was uncovered. I found very few cocoons and could not find any hatchlings.

The bin with only half a pound of feed per pound of worms is excelling! In fact it is loaded with cocoons, new hatchlings and the larger worms look real healthy!

When raising worms feed half a pound of food scraps per one pound of worms daily. Of course this will vary for different types of worms as one pound of European Nightcrawlers equals approximately 300 – 400 worms while a pound of red wrigglers would be approximately 800 – 1000 worms. This does not mean you need to feed your worms daily, as you can accumulate food scraps and add three to three and a half pounds once a week to one pound of worms.

A good signal that either your worm composting setup is either too wet or has too much food is a large population of mites. A few mites are not usually harmful; however an explosive population means you need to correct your bin. To rectify the situation, try adding dry newspaper and/or cardboard and mixing some in. Take additional and place on top of the composting bin.

Remember as your vermiculture population grows, you will see that more and more food will be required in small increments.

I have read where numerous people run their worm bin food through a food processor prior to adding to their worm bin hence making a soupy mix. Do not even waste your time! Worms have been around for millions of years and God does not use a giant food processor to feed his worms in the wild

You can add food scraps to the freezer and freeze prior to adding to your worm composting bin. Freezing the food actually modifies the molecular structure hence allowing your scraps to break down faster in your worm bin. You will notice once thawed out prior to adding to your worm bin that some, especially items like lettuce will already be breaking down and becoming slimy. This allows bacteria growth faster, hence delivering food to your worms that much sooner. I personally use this method when first starting a worm bin. Once you have been adding food to the worm bin for a while, you should be able to just throw scraps into the bin directly as organic matter you have been adding should be in various stages of decomposition.

Yes, red worms love coffee grinds, however do not add too much. Coffee grinds along with tea bags do create heat as they decompose. The other setback is that they are very acidic, hence why I use some around the azalea bushes each year as they love an acid based soil! If you add too much to your worm composting bin, you can kill off your worms.

If your acid level becomes too high, how do you bring it back to the correct PH level of 6 to 7? If your acid level begins to get too high, you need to get it back as soon as possible.

I have read where many folks are using ground up agricultural lime by sprinkling on top of their bins. This can create a major kill off as when worms get into the dry lime; it dries them out, hence killing them. Here is a little trick I have used, if done in moderation.

Mix about 1 teaspoon of ground agricultural lime to a quart of water and shake well. Now use a mister to apply mix over the top surface of your wet bedding and keep wet by adding a mist of plain water as needed. I do not recommend over doing this process as there is another way to help maintain PH balance within your red worm bin.

Egg shells added to your worm composting bin can help maintain your PH but only if done correctly. Simply throwing whole egg shells or crushed egg shells will not do the trick. According to test ran at Clemson University a while back, finely ground egg shells actually help maintain a PH level within soil. By adding one or two ground egg shells every 10-14 days will help maintain a proper PH.

Items to ovoid feeding your red worms include meats, dairy products, oily food scraps, human or pet waste.

In moderation coffee grinds, tea bags, starchy foods such as bread, rice… ground egg shells.

Organic matter that can smell when added to your bin, so you may wish to avoid all together or add very little include broccoli, onions, garlic.

Things your red worms will love to vegetables, shredded newspaper, brown cardboard, melon rinds… aged animal manure (already heated and in moderation, use only in outside bins).

If using manure, be very careful of the heat generated but any medicines that the animals creating the manure are on can kill off worms, including de-worming meds.

Keep away from chicken mash and such as these can and will leave small deposits of salt that will end up killing your red worms in time.

Bruce