How to make Worm Tea with Red Wiggler worms casting and compost

Tea brewed from worms castings is created, and is not collected from the worm bin. Others actually confuse the leachate from the worm bin as being the worm tea already. You should know that there is a big difference. The excess water that is collected from underneath the bin can still provide nutrients for your garden soil and plants. But also know that leachate is anaerobic. On the other hand, tea that is made from worm castings is actually brimming with life, as it contains a lot of live microorganisms(aerobic). As an additional knowledge in doing Vermicomposting, get yourself hooked into making your own tea version by enriching yourself with tips on how to make worm tea.

Before creating your tea from red wigglers castings, you’ll need to prepare your basic supplies first. You’ll need about 2 cups worth of worm castings, 2 tbsp worth of molasses or corn syrup, some chlorine-free water (enough to fill a 5-gallon bucket), an aquarium pump, a 5-gallon bucket, and an old sock (make sure that you use something that has no holes or tears).

Just like how you see regular tea bags being soaked in hot water, worm compost tea also goes through almost the same process. What you’ll need to do is to bag and tie your worm castings inside your old sock. You’ll have to tie this securely so that when you submerge it in the water, the castings will not escape from the sock.

It’s important that you only fill your bucket with chlorine-free water which you can get from natural bodies of fresh water like lakes, river, stream etc. as there will be live organisms in your worm castings tea. The presence of chlorine in the water will definitely kill these beneficial microbes; and you won’t be able to afford losing these microorganism since they’ll be the ones that’ll help aerate and process the tea. Now if you only happen to have the tap water kind, make sure that you leave it to settle for about 24 hours first, before using it for your tea.

The corn syrup or molasses from your list of supplies will be used as a source of food for the microbes. Use only just the amounts suggested.

As soon as you’re done mixing the corn syrup or molasses, proceed to soaking the old sock into the water-filled bucket. After this, place in your aquarium pump, as you’ll be using it as a bubbler for your tea. Now the longer the compost tea is aerated, the more microbes is also created. So when there are more microbes in the system, the faster your tea will finish.

So soak your castings bag, and leave the tea to bubble for at least 24 hours before using the mix on your garden. Now that you know how to make worm tea, it’s also best that you use it immediately for you to be able to take advantage of its nutrients. The tea itself is best used for only two days.