I read somewhere that leachate may contain phytotoxin and could be harmful to plants. So it is better to use vermicompost tea (finished VC + water) instead of leachate to fertilize. I'm new to gardening and vermicompost too, I haven't tried the leachate on the plants myself, so its just some information I found on the web. I hope I'm not giving out wrong info... :)

Many years ago I dumped leachate (nasty stuff) on plants. I don't recall any of them suffering. Still, I quit collecting leachate long ago. I just soak up the stuff with dry bedding and add that back into the worm bin. It doesn't seem to harm the worms in any way.

Andrew

Maybe I am using the wrong terminology. I call the stuff that drains from the cow tower leachate and thought that tea was just leachate diluted. Will somebody please straighten me out?

Dave Nelson

Dave,

Vermicompost tea (VCT) has branched out to Aerated VCT (AVCT) and Actively Aerated VCT (AAVCT). There's actual academic research being done on AAVCT and some forums really dig into all the complexities.

My very simple recipe for "instant" VCT is to harvest high worm casting content VC (material processed for at least 3-4 months and screened to 1/8") and dunk it in water. Paint strainer bags are great as reusable tea bags.

The reason leachate could contain toxins is that it's basically drippings from rotting food scraps. I think the chances there is something toxic enough to harm plants is very small, but it does exist. There's also danger (again, small) of growing bad bacteria in AVCT if you don't follow proper procedures.

I haven't tried this yet, but I read somewhere that you could just grab very processed VC along with worms and everything (but no unprocessed food), put into a bag and use that to make tea. The worms don't mind a quick bath in aerated water and can be returned to the worm bin once the tea has brewed.

If you examine VC tea under a microscope, what you want to see are all the beneficial microorganisms that will enhance the soil foodweb in your garden. Leachate is usually anaerobic and will not contain those things.

Andrew

I agree totally with what Plumibear said. This year I have watered the plants in my greenhouse with casting tea and have used only the castings for fertilizer in entire garden.

I nmy not have got as good a result overall in production than if I'd hit the plants with commercial fertilizer, but I certainly have the satisfaction of knowing what went into my garden, from start to finish...

Matter of fact I just put some green bean tips back into the worm bins so that went from VC to plants to beans and back to worm food.

pd james, I'm like u, nothing but worm castings and worm tea. The tomatoes aren't as big as usual, but they make up for it in flavor and quantity.

And I forgot to add that I see very few bugs, but that could be from lack of rain. Its drier than a popcorn f@@t, around here.

I have 2 house plants (rubber tree, mix of something else) in the garage next to my worm bin. Had the rubber tree there about 6 months the other plant about 2 yearrs. I water exclusively with leachate from the worm bin and they do well.

But I didn't really care if it killed the plants or not.

HA! Gnhelton, that is the key, to not care if the plants die or not, those are always the ones that grow the best!

Dave, the stuff that drains out of the bin or tower is leachate and tea is the castings mixed with water. It may or may not be aerated.

Milocrab, you are right. Using leachate on plants is not recommended. Rotten food juice is a good description of it. Maybe it isn't always harmful, but it can be. The castings is what you want to give to your plants.

I use my castings almost exclusively mixed with water and watered into the soil. I do not bother to aerate because it is already so rich it doesn't seem necessary or worthwhile to me to do anything more. I use some dried castings when I mix up potting soil (I make my own), but that is it.

I use some organic fertilizer when I transplant plants or for heavy feeders and potted plants, but, other than that, compost and vermicompost is all I use.

Over the last ten years or so, I have developed my own unorthadox worm bin system. I use cork for the bedding and I put the food for the worms in net bags. The castings accumulate between the corks and in the net bags.

To harvest, I remove the bags, dump all the corks, castings, and worms into a bucket, fill with water, and the corks all are rinsed clean and float. I put on my big rubber gloves, remove the floating corks, reach down to the bottom and grab handfuls of worms and put everything back into the bin. It takes five minutes and the worms are fine after their little swim. The bucket then has a thick slurry of water and castings and I dilute it further and give it to my plants.

Sometimes if I have a net bag with a lot of castings, I put it in a bucket, fill the bucket with water, swish it around and let it soak for ten minutes or so, remove the bag, and once again, I have bucket of castings slurry. I let the bag and whatever is left in it dry out a bit and then just put it back in the bin. The stuff that didn't dissolve hasn't been completely eaten. The worms are fine with this treatment, too. Most of them stay in the bag and I fish out the ones that don't and they are alive and wiggling when I put them back in the bin. It's a heck of a lot easier than picking through the castings to remove the worms.

karchita- I would love to hear more about your cork bedding and net food bags. The aprox size of the cork particals and the mesh size in the food bags you use would be interesting to know. I am new to worm composting and find that harvesting casting is difficult and time consuming.

Larry

gardengolfer: For small amounts of material I use an old plastic easter basket with holes maybe 3/4 inch by 1/4 inch between the bars. I put a quart of material into the one gallon basket. Holding the basket over a tub I shake the material. I do this for the bottom few inches of material. What falls through I consider done and what does not I dump back on top of the flow through. This is best done when the material is having a dryer day. This accomplishes a few things in addition to harvesting vermicompost which can be resifted finer if desired. It lets me see what is going on in the bottom of the bin. It brings air into what was previously the middle of the bin. It covers over any new food additions with enough material that fruit flys are deminished. I get to have fun playing with vermicompost. There will be some worms, even a lot of worms in the harvested material. So this is maybe more of a first step in harvesting for me.

gardengolfer, I use just regular corks from wine bottles. You can either drink your own wine (preferred, but could take a while :-) ) or ask at a busy bar or restaurant to save some for you. The mesh bags are similar to what you might buy onions or potatoes in. Mine came with bulbs that I mail ordered and have a drawstring, which is very handy but not at all necessary. The size of the mesh really isn't important as the worms can travel through very small openings with no problems. You could easily sew your own bags if you wanted to. They last for years.

I use a Rubbermaid tote, medium-large size, with drainage holes in the bottom and sides. I put about four inches of the corks in the bottom. My bags are about 8x14" when empty and are about 3" deep when stuffed full and laying on their sides. I layer them two deep on top of the corks. Then I hand tear newspapers into about 1-2" strips on top of the net bags mainly to help regulate moisture. I keep the lid on, weighted down with a brick to keep varmits out. So far the worst I have had in my bin are a few slugs.