TheMallacht's Aerobic Worm Tea for Dummies - The Ethnobotanical Garden

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theMallacht
Clandestine Hero

Registered: 04/25/09
Posts: 3,428
Last seen: 1 year, 3 months

TheMallacht's Aerobic Worm Tea for Dummies

#12556587 - 05/13/10 05:03 PM (13 years, 11 months ago)

I have noticed that there has been quite a bit of interest in Worm Tea or Compost tea recently in the EG, so I decided while I was cleaning my Aerobic worm tea bucket system and everything is actually viewable that I would write up a little Tek for you guys to enjoy.

SWIM (Someone Who Isn't Mallacht) might or might not have drank a couple of cups of some pretty potent pod tea, so I'll try to keep this relatively lucid.

Materials Needed:

Enough Worm Castings to fill around 2 socks (for teabags) (Bag of Worm Castings: $10)
2 socks
Molasses, I have read Black Strap Molasses is specifically better ($2)
Airstones (preferably 4 or more) (around $10 - $20)
Air Pumps for the Airstones (Depending on how all out one goes, $15 - $30)
Standard 5 Gal Bucket (Home Depot one pictured, $2.50)

Here's a picture of what mine looks like without water:

As you can see, there is 4 Airstones in the bottom. I have recently made improvements and tied the smaller ones to the large one. The reason I have done this is because the smaller ones tend to end up floating when they work much better fixed to the bottom.

Here is a picture with it connected to the Air Pumps:

A pic of the Grandma's Black Strap Molasses

With water added and bubbling...

2-3 Tablespoons of Grandma's Black Strap Molasses added to the bucket

With worm castings, molasses, and in full operation

I wired a pump with a switch, like this

so that I could more easily fill one gallon jugs to keep up with all of my plants, but it also works out to further aerate the tea as well.

Of course this is somewhat overkill, but I've found that it helps to create the large amount of frothy foam that you're looking for before it's ready for use.

It should be bubbling for anywhere from 48-72 hrs (Some say more), but the foam is the real guide IME. The more foam the better. I have read that the foam is insinuative that there is a large amount of beneficial bacteria present.

So FOAM = Ready for use.

I have heard other people say add things like an extra sock full of fresh soil from the garden to help jump start the beneficials, since garden soil tends to already have a lot of it, unless it's horrible soil of course.

There's a lot of other stuff that you could add I suppose, but I like to keep things simple and my plants are thriving like crazy so I don't feel the need to add anything more.

Anyway, that's about it... Enjoy!

EDIT:

Essentially what you are doing is creating a culture of beneficial Aerobic bacteria. When water sits for a long time without moving, it eventually becomes bacteria ridden and disgusting because of the fact that the harmful bacteria, or Anaerobic (anti-air) bacteria thrive in an environment lacking oxygen. So, when you use the bubblers to oxygenate the water, you are creating an environment that is perfect for the beneficial, Aerobic bacteria thus creating a thriving culture of them. Beneficial bacteria help break down components in soil that would otherwise be useless to plants and render them more immediately available.

--------------------

Edited by themallacht (05/13/10 06:47 PM)

Extras:

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