What is worm tea?

Worm tea is made thanks to steeping worm castings in water overnight. This way, nutrients and micro-organisms get released in the water. Worm tea is a wonderful fertilizer for all plants and can be used diluted or undiluted on your indoor and outdoor plants. Worm tea is not to be confused with worm bin leachate, which is the liquid coming out of your worm bin.The easiest way to get your hands on some good-quality worm tea is to build your own worm farm. We are more than happy to show you how to set up and maintain your own worm farm.

The 3 most important things about worm tea

• Worm tea is an excellent organic fertilizer – It contains beneficial nutrients and microorganisms that help plants grow. It can be used diluted or undiluted on indoor and outdoor plants without burning their roots.
• Worm tea should be used fresh – Since it contains living microorganisms, its quality starts to degrade after 24-48 hours. To maximize its benefits, it should be stored in a cool place and used as soon as possible.
• Worm tea is different from worm leachate – Worm tea is made by steeping worm castings in water, creating a nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer. In contrast, worm leachate is the excess liquid from a worm bin, which may contain harmful pathogens and should be used with caution.

The 5 Best worm tea production tools

What is worm tea ?

Unlike green or black tea, worm tea is NOT meant for human consumption. Granted, the word “tea” can be a bit misleading here. Worm tea actually refers to the liquid fertilizer that results when steeping worm castings in water for a few hours. The nutrients contained in the worm castings transfer over to the water and can then be safely used for fertilizing any and all plants. Worm castings are widely regarded as being THE best fertilizer there is for your indoor and outdoor plants. Following that logic, worm tea is (black) liquid gold for all amateur and professional gardeners and plant lovers.

A lot of people tend to mistake the liquid that comes out of their worm farm for worm tea. However, this is worm leachate and, even though you can also use it as fertilizer under some circumstances, it is NOT the same as worm tea. Worm leachate is simply water that was trapped inside the cells of the organic matters that your worms digest. Since most of it does not go through your worms, it does not get “cleaned”, meaning that it may contain harmful pathogens. Worms are very good at cleaning up toxins (think of all the pesticides that you may find on your food scraps that you toss inside your worm bin) but since worm leachate doesn’t get eaten by them, what comes out is potentially harmful. If you still want to use your worm leachate, please make sure to use it on non-edible plants. Also, we recommand diluting the leachate with water, since it can sometimes be quite aggressive for plants and burn their roots. Use one part worm leachate for 3 parts of water.

Where can I find worm tea ?

The easiest way to find high-quality worm tea is to have your very own worm farm at home. If you don’t already have a worm farm at home, setting one up and caring for it is probably way easier than you imagine. One big advantage of maintaining your own worm farm is that you know exactly what goes in… and therefore comes out! Think of all the pesticides and other nasty components that can be present on organic matters added to worm farms. And the best part ? If you have your own worm farm, the worm tea is FREE!

In case you don’t want to set up a worm farm, your other options are looking for a local worm farmer who will sell or gift you some of his precious liquid. We recommend trying to find an organic worm farmer. This means that you will not have any nasty chemicals or pesticides swimming around your worm tea.

As worm tea and worm castings become more and more popular, you can also have a look at your local hardware store (Home Depot, …). Most of them nowadays sell worm tea. Your plants will thank you!

How to make worm tea

You have your own worm farm and you are excited to try your hand at producing your first batch of worm tea! Awesome, let us walk you through the different steps.

1. Take a big bucket that will hold about 20 liters of water (5 gallons). Fill it with about 15 liters of water (4 gallons). To enhance your worm tea’s quality, use rain water or let your tap water sit outside overnight. This way, any added chlorine will evaporate. It is important that the water you use does not contain chlorine since this may kill off the micro-organisms within the worm castings.
2. Add about 700-800 grams of worm castings (5 to 6 cups) to the water bucket as well as 3 tablespoons of molasses. The molasses is optional but is very beneficial to the quality of your tea. Give the mixture a good stir.
3. Leave the worm casting, molasses and water mix sit outside overnight. The worm castings will slowly release all their nutrients into the water. The molasses will encourage the growth of healthy micro-organisms and bacteria that will give your worm tea an extra boost.
4. The next day, filter out the water with an old shirt, panty hose or similar cloth. Some people also make a “tea bag” with some cloth and put the castings inside. This way, they simply take out the tea bag after use.
5. The water you will have collected is now brown. Congratulations, that’s your worm tea! You may now use it on your plants.

If you are interested in learning more about making your own worm tea, have a look at this article. It goes a bit more into detail and shows you different ways of producing worm tea… including how to enhance it. Fancy!

How long can you keep worm tea?

Keep in mind that worm tea is full of living micro-organisms like (good) bacteria. If you don’t use your worm tea quickly, its quality will degrade. You can use it up to 3 days after making your worm tea, even though we recommend using it in less than 24-48 hours. In any case, make sure to store your precious worm tea in a cold place, out of the sun.

How to use worm tea

Let us repeat it louder for the people in the back : WORM TEA IS NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION! If you’ve skipped the whole article to read only this part, please be aware that worm tea is meant for your plants. Since it contains lots of nutrients, it is one of the best fertilizers you can use on your indoor and outdoor plants.

Once you’ve successfully made your own worm tea, you can simply water your plants with it. If you are unsure how much worm tea to effectively use on your plants, you can mix 50% worm tea with 50% water and then water your plants like you normally would. However, using worm tea on its own is perfectly safe to do so : it does not burn your plants or their roots, unlike worm bin leachate.

If you feel ready to set up your worm farm and harvest worm castings as well as worm tea, now is the perfect time to do it! And we would be more than happy to help you get started with all the knowledge and tips you need. Most of it is freely accessible on our webiste. Any additional questions ? Simply contact us today : we will get back to you within 48 hours !