Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/11/how-to-make-worm-tea.html
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This is great! Thanks!
I know a trout I’ve been trying to convince to come around for tea time. This will help big time!
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An old trout? A brown trout? No, a rainbow trout, surely.
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I have a large pot I throw all our used tea leaves and coffee beans into with Red Wriggler worms in it. It’s amazing how fast they can work through it. And it’s great stuff for my plants.
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A very fetching lady trout, actually. I believe she said her name was Dolly Varden.
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Shouldn’t this be an article in Unpopular Science?
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And here I thought beef tea sounded bad.
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I was half expecting this to be a story about some new culinary adventure from Baron Ambrosia, who’s been known to make and share things like bear claw tea and beaver castor vodka.
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Perhaps you can get Kate McClaren to invite her!
Worm tea is a pretty great mild fertilizer, back when I had a vermiculture box (before the Great Worm Uprising and Exodus) I used to draw it off the bottom of the tub and use it on the houseplants.
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Vermicompost tea (vct) makes an ok fertilizer but the evidence for pesticide claims are very variable. This recipe is for a non-aerated compost tea (NCT) and there has been some unreplicated and not peer reviewed studies showing some pathogen supression. There have been studies showing no effect, an effect in the lab, and variable effects in the field. None of the studies even used vermicompost though, so they are of limited value. I found one study on vct both nct and act but they weren’t looking at insecticidal effects just growth. There has been research on vct that found it can spread human pathogens if any manures are used in the feedstock. The insecticide claim seems to be completely bogus.
Just topdress the soil with the vermicompost and call it a day. It’s just as useful and a lot easier.
https://puyallup.wsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/compost-tea-2.pdf&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwjQ3rvYgv_aAhVU2GMKHViqDycQFggLMAA&usg=AOvVaw2AF4-EVeeKomelCFoaVK9i
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I’m a fan of bat poop myself, though you have to be a bit more gentle with application.
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I’m pretty sure that’s just called Science. 
For best results take the liquid and seal it in an airtight drum for at least 30 days and let the anaerobic bacteria do its job. Now you have the good stuff.
This is a good plan if you want less nitrogen in your fertilizer. After 30 days you’ll have nice big bubbles of atmospheric nitrogen instead of the nitrates you’d want, as a result of Denitrification.
Note that if you’re reliant on wellwater on your property then yes, this is actually a very good idea for high-nitrogen fertilizer sources like manure to prevent groundwater leaching.
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Your link leads to nowhere for me, and I would like to have some links to papers, please.
FTR, I’ve got a colleague who did quite some work on termite castings, and of course was also interested in worm castings.
As was Charles, of course.
So, snuff all ya like, philistines! I’ll honour the humble worms. Earth we are, and to earth they return us, something something.
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