Tag Archives: organic gardening

DIY outdoor worm farm

17 Jul

A shady flower bed in well drained soil is a terrific place for a submerged bucket or flower pot bin to make your very own worm bed or pit.  Take a bucket or flower pot and and dig a hole deep enough for at least 1/2 to be underground.  Turn your pot or bucket upside down and cut a hole in the top to feed worms and harvest castings.  Your red wigglers will be able to stay cool in the Summer and warm in the Winter.

This bin was started a year ago and has been outstanding.  This bed made it through one of the coldest Texas Winters I can remember with temperatures hitting the mid teens on a couple of occasions.  I pulled the stone covering the top in early Spring, and was pleasantly surprised to see tons of baby red worms going to work.

Your flower bed will benefit from the castings deposited by your worms, and the leachate or run off will provide nitrogen rich nutrients as well.   The cover helps to protect worms from the elements, and helps keep the bin from drying out.  Send pictures of your worm bins, and share your ideas harrellindustries@gmail.com

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DIY Compost (Red Worm) Tea

5 Jul

Another use for getting the most out of your worm castings or compost pile is making Tea. Compost or Vermicompost (Worm Castings) Tea. are tremendous for adding life to plants and soils. Microbes (beneficial bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and other micro-organisms) allows the soil to become “alive” restoring balance that increases disease resistance, reduces water consumption, and produce healthier plants. Eliminate the need for commercial fertilizers and pesticides. The beneficial microbes in Compost Tea will enable your soil to naturally regulate itself.

Compost or Vermicompost Leachate is often times confused as Tea. The leachate is the run off or drippings from your worm bin or compost pile. Worm or compost leachate is beneficial to plants and has fertilizing goodies like phosphates and nitrogen, but is not Tea. Tea is brewed over a period of time. The brewing process is in most recipes is where a compost and some molasses are added to non-chlorinated water and is aerated for a period of time. The Compost is placed in the water in a porous bag to steep.

Aeration is important in the brewing process to give Oxygen for microbes to grow and reproduce. Keeping your brew aerobic is important for producing a bumper crop of beneficial micro-organisms. To provide aeration to your home brew an aquarium pump, air stones, and tubing can be purchased for around $15. Know that purchasing bottled worm tea or other compost tea products is not going to be aerobic and therefore will not have near the amount of living microbes as a tea that is applied within a few hours of aeration.

Feeding the bacteria, fungi, and protozoa is also important for an optimal brew. Molasses or brown sugar are used to feed bacteria while alfalfa and grass clippings can be added to feed fungi and protozoa. There are an unlimited number of recipes for Compost Tea, and is much an art as a science.

Bruce Dueley does a good job of describing how to make your own for under $30.

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