Worm Tea

[boxerfan]

Yes, Jerry Meola and the good folks at our Vital Earth are the sources of the bulk of my information and the source of the product I use. I do use synthetic food as well. I've only been growing orchids since March, 2007. When I began reading about the worm tea, I became intrigued. Since I don't have a great deal of experience, I thought the worm tea might be worth a try. My results are wonderful. Either the worm tea is helping or I am a natural born Orchid genius . I would like to add that one of my Orchid growing friends is also using worm tea and agrees that she is getting very good results. She's been growing for several years and believes the results with worm tea are significant. Finally, I must add that worm tea is touted as an insectiside/fungicide as well as a fertilizer. I'm not entirely sure about this and continue to use commercial brands as needed. Bottom line on worm tea, don't knock it 'til you've tried it, openly and honestly. JMHO, Lisa

[Ray]

Some of you may know of my personal quest to do away with the myths of orchid growing and apply (drum roll, please) actual science and common sense to our observations. I think Good Golly had some valid points, but went too far in pushing them, and did not seem open to other possibilities. So back to the point of the thread:

Originally Posted by boxerfan

I learned about worm tea on another forum and decided to try it. I get the concentrate from Our Vital Earth. I use it mostly as a folialar spray 4-5 times/week. Since I started with it 6 of 9 Phals have started producing 1-2 new leaves each and my Brassia has put out 3 new spikes. Maybe it's the Worm Tea, maybe not, but something's making these orchids mighty happy. I plan to work with the tea awhile longer. Lisa

Let me ask you this: What was your feeding regimen prior to using the worm tea?

I'm not saying this applies to your situation, but often folks see improvements when applying a new fertilizer or some other concoction and assume it's the "magic stuff", when in fact, the improvement is because they are now feeding the plant regularly and thoroughly, compared to their old practices.

We must also keep in mind that the warmth of the summer is the ideal time for phals to grow. I have not been applying anything other than my normal, routing MSU fertilizer @ 125 ppm N and all of my phals are growing new leaves like crazy, too.

[Gin]

Here is a Phal. in s/h using the MSU. Fert. for rain water . Don't think I will fix what is not broke . Gin

[goodgollymissmolly]

Dear Dennis, nice to meet you. I wonder if you read my post before responding.

You mentioned people wanting to do things in a 50 year old manner and how that was not overly smart. I think that is exactly the point of my position. Does anyone really believe that the agricultural science industry does not know the contents of worm poop? Does anyone believe that they wouldn't clone it in a flash to make money if it had any value? Does anyone believe that worm poop has mystical properties unknown to mankind? If you believe that you must also believe the urban rumor that the automobile industry has beeen hiding high mileage cars to keep gasoline consumption high. That is not how competition works.

Anyone telling you that bat manure or worm poop is magical in the growing of plants is stealing your wallet. Mother Nature has some good traits, but is not all goodness and light. Diseases, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and lightning are all "natural" and few would argue that they are "good". Now do not assume that I do not admire these con artists. I greatly admire them because they sell you something useless that they get virtually free for exobitant prices. Not only that, they whip you into a hysterical froth about illusionary benefits that are completely false and get you to fight in support the whole delusion. People that talented should be admired.

Dennis you also slammed the book I mentioned without even looking at it by saying anyone can write a book. This anyone is a PhD teaching in the Dept of Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota. Jeff Gilman takes on many of the old garden remedies by evaluating them versus known science and then running simple experiments to demonstrate his conclusions. He finds some remedies to work, some to work but not very well versus other techniques, and some to be purely nonsense. I've attended two lectures given by Jeff as well as reading his book. I do not know him and have no financial interest related to him. I find him to have common sense and a lot of interest in his subject matter. He is not biased for or againt "natural" remedies. Read it, you might like it.

Old beliefs die hard and people react agressively when confronted with the possibility that they just might be wrong. I've responded on this thread with scientific information and real examples. I have not responded in a personal attack mode. But many of you, while claiming to be nice and friendly, have attacked me personally rather than responding to the issue(s). If professional people responded to each other in this manner then no lawyers, engineers, doctors, or vererinarians would speak to each other because their professions require constant discussion and frequent disagreement. How do I know? Because I am one. The professional disagreements are on the issues, not the personalities. Before you all get bloody from slaoping yourselves on the back, maybe you might consider how you disagree with someone and whether it is the appropriate method.

[Buds!]

Wow! I just want to say that I am going to give 'worm tea' (it should be worm wee!) a try, since I have a lot of it at home.
It is a very common in Australia to have a 'worm farm' -size of a small barrell. It is a way of recycling kitchen 'green' wastes - excluding citrus and onion.
So, I have harvested quite a bit of worm casting and worm wee for my roses. I have never considered using 'worm tea' on my orchids, let alone as a spray!
I will let you guys know how things go. I am using commercial feritizer at the moment.
It would be good to try it in spring (it is winter here).

[Oscarman]

Originally Posted by goodgollymissmolly

Dear Dennis, nice to meet you. I wonder if you read my post before responding.........................

Please drop this and get back to the original thread.....Worm Tea.

I'm wondering if anyone has used worm tea and what you think of it. Is it meant as a supplement or a replacement for more traditional types of fertilization? I was at an orchid show not so long ago where the big buzz-word seemed to be "liquid compost" and worm tea came up a lot. Just curious.

[Buds!]

Hi Dave,
I am using worm tea for every second feed.
So far good, maybe the orchids will respond even more when the weather warms up. I like to rotate between artifical and organic feed.
I know that other people are also misting with worm tea, I will also do that later in spring & summer.
Has anyone tried to use worm tea on s/h orchids?

My lime tree on the other hand has gone crazy from worm casting (poo), I am having my second crop and there are still fruits on the tree! I have been giving away tonnes of lime, and drinking lots of gin & tonic....

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[gerneveyn]

Here's more worm tea info: Our Vital Earth ~ What-Our-Customers-Say-About-Our-Vital-Earth-Products
TerraCycle Inc

[dave b]

I use worm castings in all my potting/terrestrial mixes, and have read very good things about it

[michael alevras]

have been using the worm urine from my worm farm on my cymbidium orchids dillute mixture with 40 t0 1 water make sure you use tank water have noticed orchids growing quicker