Rather than give you my personal input which goes along with what I am about to reveal in this article I am going to post facts along with their associated sources as well as test results with pictures from my own garden and worm tea brew.

Now suppliers that sell worm castings, also known as vermicast (not to be confused with vermicompost which is some unprocessed organic matter mixed with worm castings) agree that worm castings offer great benefits to the soil, plants and root growth. They all also agree they are loaded with aerobic microbes (microscopic aerobic bacteria, fungi…). They basically all agree they should have a fresh earth smell to them similar to top soil, hence, no need to go any further trying to prove these points since all are in agreement.

Going back to the origin and history of the word aerobic:

“living only in the presence of oxygen,” 1884, (after Fr. aérobie,  coined 1863 by Louis Pasteur) from Gk. aero-  ”air” (combining form) + bios  ”life”

Source: Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Modern day definition of the word aerobic:

: living, active, or occurring only in the presence of oxygen

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The list goes on, however for the point of this article I believe you get the point… Only in the presence of oxygen!

So now we know that worm castings are loaded with beneficial aerobic microbes for our plants whether indoor or outdoor.

Now being we cannot see individual aerobic microbes without the use of a good quality microscope, let me use an example which you can picture.

A goldfish is aerobic and requires oxygen to survive. Let’s say that you go to the local county fair and win a goldfish which they hand to you in a plastic bag half filled with water and half filled with air. You go home and place the goldfish on the mantle for the time being until you get the time to acquire a fish tank for the little guy.

For the next few days on your way downstairs in the morning you have a glance over at the mantle and the little guy is doing well… perhaps this weekend you will get him a fish tank…

About the fourth day you come downstairs and the goldfish is now belly up floating in the bag because it ran out of oxygen

So what do you think happens when you seal worm castings loaded with aerobic microbes in a bag just like the goldfish?

OK, some will tell you they just go dormant and when introduced to oxygen again they wake up. OK so we open the bag with the goldfish up and introduce oxygen again and sit back and wait… and wait… You get the picture.

Now to be perfectly honest there are literally a few, three that I have heard of, aerobic microbes that can go dormant for a while and become active with the reintroduction of oxygen. This is out of thousands upon thousands of known microbes… I am not even sure if any of the three will exist in worm castings. So in essence, the microbes in worm castings die.

In fact those that sell worm castings state it has a fresh earthy smell to it, however if you purchase a sealed bag of castings from a store shelf or online, open it… there is no smell at all or may even contain a foul smell.  The fact is all the beneficial aerobic microbes are dead just like the goldfish from above.

To prove this further, I went ahead and planted four types of seed in my garden divided into two categories. One with fresh worm castings from Organic Worm Farm, the others from a major brand name company ( I will not mention the name of the company here as I am not trying to give a bad name to anyone but rather explain the reasoning behind why sealed bags of worm castings are useless). At the same time, I know someone that supplies their worm castings to the company that sells this brand in a sealed bag. The personal worm castings produced by this individual are every bit as good as the one’s produced on Organic Worm Farm when shipped out to the processing company that bags them. In short it is not the quality of the worm castings which comes into play here and why I chose this particular brand of worm castings sold in a sealed bag.

The results were astounding to say the least from germination time required to the current growth rates. I am writing this article now as I took pictures yesterday before I went out and sprayed and watered all the plants with fresh brewed worm tea hence spoiling the experiment from this point forward.

Before I go on, be aware all the seeds planted in the pictures below received the same growing medium with the exception of bagged versus fresh worm castings, same amount of water, sunlight…

Here in the first picture are some Fennel seed plants. For those unfamiliar with fennel, it is an Italian seasoning found in real Italian sausage…  :-) The fennel plant on the left was planted with the sealed bag of worm castings while the one on the right with fresh worm castings.

Fennel Seed Plants

The next picture is of two Roma tomato plants. Again the one on the left lower corner was planted using worm castings from a sealed bag while the one on the right using fresh castings.

Roma Tomato Plants & Worm Castings

This next picture depicts Ruby Red Swiss Chard with the plant on the right using the sealed bag of worm castings and the one on the left using the fresh.

Comparing Worm Castings on Swiss Chard

This next photo is straight neck summer squash. Again, the one on the left used the sealed castings while the one on the right used fresh.

Worm Castings Comparison on Summer Squash

Now this brings me to the brewed worm tea section of this article. First let me say that if you have one of the stackable worm farm systems with the spigot on the bottom, what comes out of there is not worm tea which you will better understand if you read a previous article I wrote some time ago, the Difference Between Worm Tea and Leachate .

Allow me to take a moment and explain the reasoning behind worm tea. When one brews a worm tea properly, correct temperature, aeration, food sources, they are exponentially exploding the beneficial aerobic bacteria population while at the same time not increasing the population of beneficial aerobic fungi but rather allowing them to grow in size. In short, you are generating more, larger and healthier aerobic microbes to feed your soil and plants with.

So what happens when you brew worm tea from worm castings which come from a sealed bag? Well I thought this would be another good part to this experiment so after I brewed a batch from fresh worm castings I decided to start another batch from the ones I purchased in a sealed bag.

The first picture depicts the worm tea brewed with fresh worm castings from Organic Worm Farm. You can notice the transparency of the bubbles commonly referred to as froth in the brew. This is exactly what you are looking for.

Froth That Develops When Brewing Worm Tea

Here in the next photo I even went a further step as the night before, even though the sealed bag of worm castings did not have an odor, the worm tea brew had an anaerobic smell, basically a foul smell to it.  It also had a brown colored froth something I have only seen before when one is brewing and explodes the aerobic microbe count and does not add additional food hence end up killing some of the aerobic microbes creating the brownish froth. I added extra food to the tea. By morning this still was a brown froth.

Worm Tea Depicting Brown Froth

Next I added fresh worm castings to the mix and a few hours later, bam, we had transparent froth developing in the brew, hence the clear bubbles towards the center while the brown froth still remained towards the outer edges. The foul smell was gone and it smelled sweat as it should.

Composting is actually trying to stabilize unstable organic matter and storing the nutrients for immediate or future use.

Usually in nature, organic matter is decomposed in thin layers such as leaves in the woods or the grass clippings in your lawn. Being the layer is thin, the organic matter is penetrable by oxygen and aerobic organisms come to play. These are the good guys hence usually a balanced compost for the environment.

When we compost, with or without worms, we tend to pile up the organic matter which makes it difficult for oxygen to penetrate hence anaerobic organisms take over. Yes these are the bad guys. Anaerobic organisms are what take over a landfill, hence why they must be lined to prevent harmful runoff to protect surrounding soil and water sources!

When we manage decomposition, such as a worm bin or worm farm, decomposition takes place in three stages for the most active microorganisms.

Phsychrophilic bacteria begins to process at temperatures below 70 degrees Fahrenheit

Mesophilic bacteria, the fastest decomposers process between 70 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit

Thermophilic bacteria come into play at temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit

When managing decomposition, we pay attention to the carbon (newspaper, cardboard…) to nitrogen (vegetable scraps, grass clippings…) ratio as well as moisture and oxygen.

Composting with worms is a more controlled method of basic composting as well as speeds up the process. You maintain a constant temperature which enables the most active bacteria, Mesophilic to take over. Worms move through the organic matter helping to aerate the decaying matter as well as making smaller particles of the decaying matter, hence leaving more surface area for beneficial microbes to work on.

If the moisture content gets to high, usually above 80%, the decaying matter becomes compacted, the same way the landfill does. This is when the worm bin can begin to change over to those nasty anaerobic organisms which can be harmful to your worms and even begin killing them off.

Once the moisture content begins to rise even more, the decaying matter releases a liquid called leachate. You will see many websites refer to this as worm tea, which it is not!

Worm tea is derived by brewing worm castings which are full of aerobic microorganisms. This process is done by aerating the worm castings, water and unsulphured molasses for approximately 48 hours in order to explode the aerobic microbe population.

Leachate is usually the opposite, full of anaerobic organisms.

If you are getting a little leachate from your worm farm or worm bin, try adding several inches of dry shredded newspaper on top and place the lid on it. This will absorb a little of the moisture. If you are getting a lot of leachate, it might be time to remake the bedding for your friends!

Now that you understand the process you can probably understand why I have an issue with a few things.

First, all the websites selling worm farms with the little spigot on the bottom which they advertise as a worm tea dispenser, when in reality it is leachate which can be harmful to your worms and plants. Put it this way, it is not doing your worms or plants any good if you are getting leachate from your worm farm.

Secondly, there are many websites as well as listings on EBay offering bottled worm tea and bagged worm castings in resealable plastic bags. As you might realize by now, cutting off the oxygen in either of these two sealed products kills off the aerobic microbes and produces anaerobic microbes. So in reality, you are spending your hard earned money on something which can be detrimental to your plants.

So to answer a number of emails I receive every week, this is why Organic Worm Farm does not sell the worm farms with the little spigot on the bottom, bottled worm tea or worm castings in resealable bags. They only offer worm castings and worm tea bags which are shipped in breathable bags via Priority Mail since you are dealing with live microbes.

Hope this helps you understand the basics a little better and why it is important to avoid leachate from draining out of your bin.

Bruce Galle

Also known as “The Worm Expert“ writes informative articles to assist others raising worms. For information regarding ordering an array of red worms, worm castings and worm food visit Organic Worm Farm.

Of course composting worms do not like candy or even going out for trick or treating, however they do love pumpkins.

This year do not throw your pumpkin out in the garbage. In fact you may want to ask a neighbor or two if you can have theirs after the holiday.

The reason I am telling you this is the fact that red worms love pumpkins; probably more than anything else you have already fed them.

First off, pumpkins begin to decompose very quickly, making it worm accessible within hours to a couple days depending on the original condition of the pumpkin and the worm bin conditions.

All you need to do is bust up the pumpkin into several pieces and throw into your worm bin.

Now this does not hold true for the new record pumpkin weighing in at 1,016 pounds. Renninger, the grower of the record pumpkin, credits his success in 2009 to his use of compost tea soil to grow the winning pumpkin.

Have a Great Day,

Bruce Galle

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When looking around online you will notice something peculiar. Many websites use the same images for their red worm photos.  Usually this would mean they are using a worm broker, hence they do not raise worms themselves or they simply have opted, with or without permission to use the pictures of the original photographer for their own website.

Now let me break this down as this can be relevant when ordering your worms.

First, how do they know the quality of the worms they are offering if not raising themselves? This also breaks down further to the information they offer on their websites as to how to raise red worms. Many sites offer inaccurate information concerning how to raise red composting worms, most likely because they do not raise them and have simply duplicated information they read on another website.

The game telephone comes to mind here that we all played at one time or another as youngsters.

One very common example of this is the little spigot offered on many “Worm Factory” type bins available online. I cannot tell you how many websites inform you this will drain “worm tea” from the bottom of the bin to spray on your plants. In reality this is not worm tea, but rather referred to as “leachate“.  This only develops when your worm bin is to wet. Usually it smells and will actually harm your plants. Even when it does not smell, applying too much will kill your plants!

Unlike leachate, worm tea brewed from worm castings will not hurt or damage your plants no matter how much you use. The trick is to use it soon after it is brewed, usually within 24 hours if not used immediately.

On the latter previously mentioned concerning use of another pictures, all I can say if they are that lazy, I am not sure I want to order worms from them… would you?

Another funny thing that comes to mind is going to a restaurant to order some lunch… OK worms and lunch may not mix… and ordering something on the menu for the picture of it looks real good.  How many times has your food been delivered looking nothing like the picture on the menu?

This holds true for many of the websites offering red worms as well.

The pictures used on Organic Worm Farm are those of actual orders being shipped off to clients. These were not setup for a photo opts but rather the average size worms which are delivered to the customer’s doorstep with consistency.

In short, be sure to purchase your red worms from a reputable worm farm as there are a few good ones however they are outnumbered by the not so reputable dealers. One reputable website to order worms from is Organic Worm Farm as they deliver top notch worms with consistency again and again.

From a starting point I wrote another article pertaining to worm castings and the need for oxygen. In short, most are shipping these out in sealed plastic sandwich type baggies. The problem arises when taking into account that the reason worm castings are so beneficial are the number of live beneficial microbes. If you seal off oxygen, you kill off the microbes. If the worm castings are permitted to dry out, you kill off the microbes…

Hence this is why all our 1lb and larger worm castings are shipped priority mail in breathable bags!

Now when you make worm tea from organic worm castings what you are basically doing is exponentially exploding the number of beneficial microbes. Once again these are live organisms which require oxygen and a food supply to stay alive. In fact, brewing worm tea is nothing like brewing tea you and I would drink. It does not require heat for the brewing process but rather loads of oxygen and food which is readably eatable by the beneficial microbes.

After brewing for 24 hours, you end up with super charged plant food which is loaded with millions of microbes, all needing to maintain an oxygen and food supply.

Imagine taking an aquarium pump and turning it off, the over time the fish will begin dying off. Now imagine millions of fish crowded in the same fish tank with no room to swim and turning the aerator off. The fish would begin to die almost immediately and soon you will have an aquarium with nothing left but dead fish and a rotten stench.

The same holds true for the microbes within worm tea.

So in short, if we bottled the worm tea and sold it as others do, by the time it arrived and was used, it would be useless and most likely and full of malicious bacteria and fungus that can actually harm your plants.

This is why we do brew worm tea but sell it locally for pickup orders only on the same day the brew is finished.

Organic Worm Farm does offer a solution for anyone looking to brew their own worm tea, worm casting tea bags, shipped in breathable bags via priority mail. These are the same worm castings used by Organic Worm Farm to make worm tea for use on our own gardens as well as sold locally.

If you happen to be looking for readymade worm tea in the Pickens, Greenville area of South Carolina, simply contact us and we will tell you how to get some! Otherwise, try brewing your own tea as it is not difficult and will not smell!

Bruce

I have plenty of straw mulch around my squash and zucchini plants as to retain moisture in the ground as the root systems of these plants do draw a lot of moisture.

I began to wonder if I had a root fungus as there was no evident signs top side of a problem. We had quite a bit of rain the other week with heavy down pours as well as slower soaking rains due to afternoon and some morning thunderstorms about every day last week.

As a solution I tried mixing some more worm tea, extra strength earlier this week, about 5 ounces of worm castings to four gallons of water. I then went outside the other evening and sprayed my plants at a rate of four parts water, 1 part worm tea.

Yesterday I noticed my plants were not wilting quite as harshly as they had been earlier this week.

This morning, to my amazement, I went to the garden to do some picking and glanced over at my squash and zucchini plants only to see the healthiest looking plants ever. For the first time this week, not only are the plants sitting upright, but the leaves have an inverted look to them as they should in the morning and evening hours.

As for the little guy with only three leaves left, I am happy to report he is not as bald as he is now sprouting a total of five leaves

Now whether there was a fungus issue or other problem, it is amazing to see what adding beneficial microbes to the soil can and will do for your plants.

For more on worm tea products, visit Organic Worm Farm.

Good Luck in Your Gardening Adventures,

Bruce

I figured I would go ahead and order some from different websites. To my amazement I found numerous problems. In fact only one order of six placed were truly worm castings.

Basically only five of the six shipments received were vermicompost, or simply put worm castings mixed with composted products. Do not get me wrong, vermicompost by itself is a good product for fertilizing your plants. However there are a few problems with this and the way every order was shipped.

If you intend to make worm tea from the castings, I do not recommend you use vermicompost as this can create an acid based solution. As you make your brew, the compost material mixed within, can further break down releasing acids.

True worm castings should be right in the neighborhood of 6.5 on a PH scale and able to maintain this ph level. Worm castings themselves are what make worm tea, period!

To separate worm castings from the vermicompost mix, use a 1/8″ screen. I have posted an original worm harvester which uses several screen sizes for the average worm composting fan on another post.

OK, really need to get rid of some pictures in my cell phone, as I was looking for the one below and it took a little time This is a 5 gallon bucket of worm castings. Notice the PH level.

Worm castings are loaded living creatures, micro-organisms. You have to ponder why anyone would then ship me worm castings in sealed Ziploc type storage baggies, cutting of air, hence oxygen to the castings. On top of this, they were shipped flat rate, taking an average of five days according to the postage stamps. That’s five days if not more (do not know when they were actually sealed in the bag) that the worm castings were cut off from oxygen and exposed to summer heat in the back of a USPS or UPS truck for 5 days.

I know I personally would not survive the trip

Now I do not always offer worm castings, as I use them up as quickly as I get them in my own garden (yes I know it is greedy of me but we treat the worm castings the same as live worm orders. After all, they are loaded with living organisms… You can check here for worm castings availability.

The proper method to store worm castings is the same as you would for a worm bin except with less moisture. Ours are stored in large bins with a constant moisture content of 30% to 40% at a temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

We do not bag up our product until we are preparing each order. Next, we use breathable bags that retain moisture, the same ones we ship our worms in.

Lastly, since these are living organisms, all our worm castings are shipped priority mail, to insure the best quality worm castings by eliminating extra time exposed to heat or extreme cold in the winter time.

Have fun composting,

Bruce

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

Both of the following plants are summer squash and were planted at the same time.  Keep in mind, I only did a comparison between summer squash plants in our garden, however worm tea results can be expected on all plants, even cut flowers in a vase will last longer!

The photo below is a plant that was planted as a seed with 5% worm castings added to the potting mix. Since then I have only planted in the garden and watered when needed.

Here pictured below is the summer squash I originally posted with the amazing root system at 6 days. It was planted as a seed with the same procedure as above. I have watered with a worm tea I made from worm castings twice in the past two weeks. This photo below was taken 14 days after my original photo showing the six day old seedling

Next week I will be adding concentrated worm tea from here as well as worm tea bags in different sizes. If you are interested in ordering in advance, feel free to leave a comment below, filling in your email (will not be displayed online) and I will get back with you with sizes and prices on both.

As far as my experiment with seeds with varying amounts of worm castings, we had a wash out, literally. I left the plants on my covered porch; however driving rains ruined this test. I will be restarting this test shortly… so stay tuned.

Bruce