My understanding is that you should dilute it 50% for house plants. Full strength is ok in the garden.

This example is outdoors, but you can probably find an example showing the impact on indoor plants:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEwB23uhBGY&feature=related

Leachate is very variable. It's value (or harm) for houseplants is based on many different parameters. If your bin has some anerobic parts, there is a chance the leachate contains phenols or alcohols which are harmful to plants. If it has no smell, you can dilute it and use it on house plants safely most of the time. The key word is *MOST*.
What I do is add some dry bedding to the bin and sprinkle the leachate over it.
For watering houseplants, I fill a watering can 1/4 full with worm castings and then fill it with water (that has the chlorine off gassed) and use that. No danger of harm to the plants with that method.

JerilynnC is right on here. "What I do is add some dry bedding to the bin and sprinkle the leachate over it." Way to go. Glad you realized that it was too important to put down the drain. It might be great for plants. The best use is right back to get the newbie stuff going.

look_out - I am excited to use it on my outdoor beds, but like I said, potted plants are a whole different story. I am thinking JerilynnC is right, because when I updated my bins to have a drainage system, they had about 3-4 inches of fluid in the bottoms of them. The bins were more smelly than I think they were supposed to be before this, which indicates there probably was some anaerobic action going on. I'm going to cycle it back through with some added newspaper. Thank you all so much, for some reason it was really hard to get a clear answer researching with google.

actually, leachate means your bin is to moist. Add less moist food stuff, and more dry matter.

You really shouldn't have much leachate.

Moni

I had so much because I didn't previously have a drainage system. I think what ever I'm putting in there is great, because less than a year ago we had a small paper bag of worms, and now there must be upwards of 2000 divided into three bins, with hundreds of babies. Wouldn't it be terrible if my worm population went down now that I changed it! Anyways I don't really want to throw compost in the garbage so I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. I was just wondering what to do with the leachate.

I've poured leachate directly into the garden - not directly on the plants, but next to them. And I've also poured it over the top of a different stack if the system is getting a little dry. The thing is that there are always a bunch of worms in the leachate and a fair amount of castings. I hate to "lose" the worms in the garden. And leachate is supposed to contain substances toxic to plants (I've just read this, never actually confirmed it) I don't think I would attempt to use leachate on houseplants though, it's just that much more of a concentrated environment.

Everyone's systems sound so unique, it seems like it would be hard to say whether or not the liquid from someone else's bin would be beneficial or not.
I have consistently used my worm bin's liquid on my house plants for years and they love it--lots of healthy growth. I actually store it in 2 liter bottles and add it to the watering can water every week on watering day (you can't go 2 feet in my house without bumping into a plant!). I was really surprised to learn that a lot of people have had bad experiences with it.
I guess it really depends on a lot of different variables. Rules of thumb--if it smells funky, don't use it, dilute it if you do use it, and experiment first on a couple of plants that you wouldn't miss if it doesn't work (like the poinsettia that you mentioned). Good luck!

Long ago this forum was graced with the presence of Kelly Slocum, a university affiliated researcher, expert in all things wormy, and all around wonderful person. Just search for her posts and you will see! This is what she had to say on this issue:

"Ok, hang on a minute, let's take a few steps back. Believe it or not, leachate and tea, based on peer reviewed RESEARCH, can and often do have essentially equal value to garden plants in terms of growth response. Shall I repeat that? Leachate and tea, according to research, can have an equally beneficial impact on plant growth.

Ok, I'll pause here to give you a moment to digest this, since I suspect I've just caused Chuckie's head to explode.....

Now to better explain:

The problem with leachate is not that it contains less nutrient (in fact, it often contains more soluble nutrients than does tea), the problem is that leachate can also contain alochol, phenols and terpenes (all naturally occuring by-products of anaerobic decomposition), and it is not always possible to tell when these compounds are present in sufficient concentration to cause damage. Smell is absolutely NOT a reliable indicator of the value of leachate! Let's repeat that as well! Smell is NOT a reliable indicator of the value of leachate. There is, in fact, research demonstrating that the stinkiest, most foul-smelling leachates imaginable can and sometimes do out-perform odorless leachate and yeasty-smelling tea in plant growth trials. Yes, stinky leachate almost always means anaerobic leachate, but this idea that anaerobic is ALWAYS bad is simply incorrect! It is definitely more risky due to the presence of alcohol, phenol and terpenes, but it is not always bad.

The problems with leachate come down to risk factors. Aside from the potential presence of phytotoxic (plant toxic) anaerobic by-products, leachate is liquid draining from an actively decomposing mass of OM, thus it has a greater chance of containing human pathogens like e-coli and salmonella than does a tea made from finished, stable material. When applied to food plants there is the danger of contamination when fruits and veggies that may have come into contact with the leachate are not adequately washed or cooked before being eaten (danger is from surface contamination, not from plants uptaking pathogens into their systems).

And while I was a bit cavalier above regarding anaerobic by-products, as many people have killed or damaged plants by applying leachate with concentrations of alcohol, phenols and terpenes that were not apparent as have found leachate to be beneficial. It is because of the potential for leachate to contain human pathogens and anaerobic by-products that its use is generally discouraged.

There are many folks out there who use and love the leachate generated from their worm bins. Some use it at full strength, some dilute with clean water before use, usually at a roughly 10:1 ratio. For what it's worth, it is not a practice that I would advocate, but this is a decision that should be made by each individual once they understand the potential risks."

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/verm/msg1220485313727.html

THANK YOU (for taking the time to do what I was too lazy to do, haha), that was very helpful! I am not going to use it, just cycle it back through.

Guys please remember leachate and worm tea are not the same things.

Though I myself am curios to why my leachate smells yet my neighbours doesn't?

I had read a reference where someone purposely rinsed their worm bin down to get more leachate. Smart? Not so smart?

Same here if I ever had any I dump it back in the bin for processing,, problem is I never have it.

I never have any...

Can someone please explain the differences between leachate and worm tea? My fiance and I are new to vermicomposting, and we're trying to learn.

A better question might be "do you get leachate" . A lot of wormers like myself dont. The only exception for me might be if I feed them a lot of melon.

Worm leachate = initial breakdown fluids of organic matter mixed with oversaturated (with water) bedding (like coco coir or peat moss) and a little bit of worm urine. There are both beneficial bacteria and harmful bacteria in this liquid. However, there is also waste fluid, which does contain some good nutrients.

Using leachate... DILUTE!!! DO not pour directly on leaves which you intend to eat (like lettuce, spinach, arugula) however if you pour onto the soil surrounding your plants at a dilution ratio of 10:1 water to leachate, this should not harm your plants nor make it too concentrated in the soil.

Storing your leachate...if you put in a jug or bottle, do not close the lid!! The leachate generally already smells a little funky, so adding insult to injury, you will promote anaerobic bacteria growth if you cut off what little oxygen the leachate is receiving.

I no longer get Leachate in my bins... the secret you ask?? Follow these simple steps...

1. put food (including veggie scraps and egg shells) into a ninja or similar blender. I add a small amount of water to this as it helps break things up nice and small. Blend.

2. Take blended material and put into a strainer/sifter large enough to hold said food scraps.

3. Place strainer above a bowl to catch liquid, as there will definitely will be from (1) initial breakdown of food and (2) the water you added to help pulverize your scraps

4. Let bowl/strainer sit for at least a day, If you have bad fruit flies, cover strainer with screen or put an old shirt over the whole thing (bowl/strainer) At this point, you may see some mold growing on top of your blended food, this is fine and actually a good sign, it means that the food is already breaking down...better for your worms to eat!!

5. After a day or two, mix this drained and partially decomposed food mass into your worm bin (while adding the bedding material throughout)

6. Voila!!

This works really well for me and my worms are happy as clams...well probably more happy because they don't get eaten :)

Thanks a lot.

I strained the worm food in the past but then on a second thought, it means I am also draining out food particles. So I bought rabbit pellets (food, not droppings) to absorb extra liquid from my worm food stash. Old bread works too. I sometimes mixed in chicken mash to alternate from rabbit pellets (which is mostly alfalfa) and mixed in quite a bit of powdered egg shells. Be careful when adding this blob to the worm bin; watch for heating up. As a warning, the addition of bread, rice or chicken mash will also increase mite population. Mites actually help chomp down bigger pieces so since my bins are outdoors, I find that a win/win situation.

I might be overthinking the whole thing, not wanting to throw out whatever could benefit the worms and buy other stuff instead, hehe.

I never did get around to buying a blender (I get by in the kitchen with a stick blender) so I have never blended scraps. To absorb any excess moisture from particularly watery scraps, I add more bedding. My bedding is shredded paper and cardboard. Generally I don't have any significant leachate, although from time to time I do get an overbalance of water and some comes out.

I put a container with more bedding in it under the spigot, so when a little comes out, it gets absorbed into the dry bedding, which I can then add back into the bin. I also put bedding into the bottom drainage tray, and scoop it all out along with the basement worms when I swap out the trays...and put that material back into the new tray on top of new scraps and bedding. (Generally all that beddng breaks down in less than a month, so I'm just scooping worms and wet castings.)

You do develop a feel for how much bedding to add as the scraps go in over time, and it also helps as the worm population goes up, since their movement around and between the trays helps keep the moisture distributed. Squirm, squish, schlorp!

Oh, forgot to mention that I didn't blend the scraps either. My worm food consist mostly of juice pulp I p/u from a juice place. Most of the juice has been removed but I can't believe how much liquid accumulated once the pulp started to break down. I guess it also depends how long since the juicer was cleaned.

Used to p/u a trunk full of pumpkins after Halloween, cut up in big chunks to save space and used whatever bins I can find to store them. After some time liquid separated from the flesh.

Since leachate does not go thru a worms body I suggest its useless and maybe even harmful so I wouldnt use it if I had any which I dont.

No need to buy a blender. Got mine Free off of FreeCycle (similar to Craigslist).

What would happen if one were to dilute the leachate in a 5 gal bucket and then add molasses and aerate it? Would something comparable to worm tea be produced, since the anaerobic bacteria would likely be killed from the aeration? Would the phytotoxins persist? OR would a better use just be to add bedding and pour it back over the bin?

You seem to be confused: Aerated VermiCompost Tea (AVCT) is a beneficial product produced from worm castings. Leachate is the runoff of liquid from rotting food waste. The Best possible use for leachate would be to pour it straight down the toilet. The rats and bugs in the sewer line will thank you for it. There's a rule in The "Murphy's Law" book that says: "If you put a spoonful of wine in a barrel full of sewage, you get sewage. But if you put a spoonful of sewage in a barrel full of wine, you get sewage. In other words, you can spray leachate with expensive perfume, you can add molasses and aerate it for a month, but at the end of it, it's still leachate.