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