Last week I wrote about my Lady Slipper orchids and in it I stated that I feed them worm tea on a regular basis. I failed to mention however just how I go about making and using worm tea. I thought I would write today’s post on my worm tea to explain exactly what it is and what I do with it.

When referring to worm tea it can be one of two types of liquid fertilizers. The tea I was referring to in my post about my orchids is a byproduct of keeping worms for composting kitchen scraps. In a worm bin, liquid collects as the worms and microorganisms work at breaking down the kitchen scraps. This liquid is commonly called worm tea.

My worm bin is nice as it features a multi-level system that the worms migrate up through. At the bottom of this worm tower is a collection tray for the worm tea as it seeps down through the levels. At the collection tray there is a little spigot for me to turn on to collect the worm tea. I like to collect and store this “tea” in recycled plastic bottles.

When I use this worm tea I dilute it with about 50% water. You can use this to water anything really. I do not know the NPK makeup of this tea and I am sure it varies greatly but whatever it may be my plants really love it!

The other type of worm tea that I mentioned above is made in the same way one makes compost tea. You simply place some worm castings in a bucket and fill with water. This mixture is then allowed to steep for a few days before it is applied to the plants either by watering or by foliar feeding. This tea is equally amazing in the results one sees in their plants after applying.

I have been keeping worms for many years now and I really can not imagine my garden without them. The castings are like magic and I guard and protect my bin like it is a baby.

Below are some pictures of my worm bin. As I was taking these I was thinking to myself that this might be the strangest thing I have ever photographed before!

This is my worm bin. Each level is actually a tray that once it is filled with scraps you place another tray on top of it and fill that one and so on.

This is one of the trays that go with my worm bin. You can see the holes in the tray where the worms can migrate up into the next tray.

This picture shows me collecting some of the worm tea into a recycled bottle.