The easiest thing to do is top dress the plants with the VC, water in, and mulch.

Woodsworm: I continue to harvest my beautiful black gold and use it to top dress my vegetables periodically. I've not made worm tea and don't know why that might be better than the straight black - if you know a reason, please let me know.

As one who has spent much time this season making compost tea for my veggie garden and trees and bushes, I will take a stab at this question as to why you would make worm tea. I will hope to make my own worm tea whenever my own batch of redworms makes enough castings for me to use like I did the compost. I will put the castings in a paint bag, and put in my air bubblers, in seven gallons of water, (w/molasses to feed bacteria) and after a couple days, I have multiplied the bacteria a hundredfold. This can be used as a foliant spray on my veggies, and the castings from the paint bag can still be worked into the soil around the plants. I believe the results should be as good as when I used compost tea.

"I believe the results should be as good as when I used compost tea."
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Actually I think that the results should be better not as good. The worms put the magic in the tea.

The main reason for making the tea is for situations where you need a spray, otherwise top dressing will be quicker and easier.

what's a paint bag?

ana53,
I'm not certain what a paint bag is but I've seen 5 gallon fabric mesh paint strainers. The mesh isn't terribly fine though so some debris would get through.

A paint bag was designed to filter globs of paint from the rest, so bumps don't appear where you paint. I started using mesh bags like for onions, but too much of the compost was floating in the tea, which plugs up the water can. So the bag filters it nicely, and doesn't interfere with the bacteria growth. The reason people use 'teas' might be because it's another way to nourish plants effectively. We all composted to build up our soil, but to really get great results sometimes takes years, depending on how good your soil was. So now we have worm castings, and nobody can argue about their increased value over compost as a fertilizer. Through electron microscopes we now really know how plants feed, and it's through the interchange they have with bacteria. And they not only feed through the root system, but also their foliant. My view anyway.

We use both in our garden. When planting, we add castings to the soil, but after that, it's worm tea for several reasons: 1) increases the bacteria and fungi count far more than what you'll get in castings alone, 2) plants feed through their leaves as well as their roots, 3) worm tea also acts as a natural pesticide. FYI, smaller droplets are better (absorbed faster), so use a sprayer if you have one.

A third option is what I do.

I mix my castings with water and apply it right away. I don't feel I need to aerate and increase the bacteria and fungi in the castings because they are already so rich and my soil is pretty good, but I think it is less work to mix and pour than to topdress and water.

If you soak the worm compost in water. . don't the worms drown? How do you separate the worms from the compost?
Tks,
Yve