Worm juice

[Queenslander]

Just kicking this around, who out there uses "worm juice". Can you advise what the benefits of this product is?

[beanluc]

I wouldn't use it for orchids.

First, I'll describe exactly what it is that I'm talking about, meaning "worm juice".

My worm box has a little spigot under it, for tapping off the liquid that runs through the bedding, down over the castings, and through to a tray at the very bottom for trapping this liquid. The liquid is partly any run-off from moistening the bedding, and mostly worm pee.

OK - the benefits?
All plants need nitrogen. All urine contains lots of nitrogen. Many plants can absorb urea. Thus, we hear that worm juice is a good thing for many plants. It's worm pee percolated through worm castings and drawn off the bottom of the worm box, so it's packed with organic mutrients.

But - why not for orchids?
First: One of the first things we hear when we begin investigating the subject of orchid care is that the N in our orchid food should not be urea, because orchids don't absorb it. Ironically, even if orchids' roots can't absorb this N, they can still be burned by it - and undiluted worm juice is very strong.
Second: I don't use even the worm castings as orchid food, except perhaps an occasional small amount when potting a true terrestrial orchid in true humusy soil. As epiphytes, orchids draw nutrients that are already dissolved in the water that wets them. Applying solid organic matter directly to orchids or their medium is not exactly a mimic of their natural means of feeding.

Now, there's another substance that I know of as "worm tea". This is regular water that has had worm castings steeped in it. this might be what you are asking about - I don't know.
My opinion about this substance is that it could be beneficial, but I am not personally confident that it is a suitable regular-use orchid food. My guess is that any solid particles and at least some of the dissolved N in the worm tea are, as stated above, at best useless for orchids, and that any benefit would be from whatever water-soluble, non-urea N, P and K and other minerals might have been dissolved out of the worm casting solids into the water.

Well, these are my own opinions and practices: Other people may counsel differently. I'll certainly be interested, myself, in reading other responses.

[Queenslander]

Thanks for helping kicking this along. I prob. meant Worm Tea, diluted with rain water, weakly, once a month. Have read on lots of forums, mainly here in Oz and the UK, it is v. beneficial. The roots, leaves, just about double in size. Lets hear from someone who has actually tried it!

[Queenslander]

Anyone out there use WORM TEA?

[Bolero]

There are people who do, I haven't seen it for sale in Australia though. I am sure you will get some answers shortly.

[orchidsamore]

I have used it constantly for the last three years and have never found anything better for orchids.

I use the product made by OurVitalEarth using the Australian method.

I used it for one year alone and for the last two years mixed with Companion and Essentials, two products made from seaweed. Companion is essentially Bracillus subtilis bacteria a natural anti-fungal inoculate and Essential is a 1000-1 concentration of gibberelic acid a rooting hormone (and other good things like humic acid). Superthrive and KLH are 1 million to one dilutions of idyle-butic-acid (Roottone) which is chemical based not organic and can burn roots as it is not water soluble.


Vermi-liquid (worm tea) instructions its benefits and how to use it

Test results of Essentials growth hormones on orchids

The 'Tea' more accurately called Vermi-liquid is the skin secretions from the body of the worm. It contains millions of live microbes that enable the plants (all plants not just orchids) to better absorb nutrients. I do not recommend castings in water as it is nothing more than dissolved manure and easily can develop bacteria growth. I have seen the castings in water destroy a food crop of greens. (lettuce, collards etc.)

It has an added bonus in a chemical called ceitanese. What this does is dissolve ceitain. Harmless to us, children, and pets, it is a natural pesticide in that ceitain is the skeleton of an insect. It is the best prevention against spider mites. Equally good on scale, mealy bugs, thrips and aphids amoung others.

To correct some mis-conceptions from beanloc, there is almost no nitrogen in Vermi-liquid when prepared properly. The brand I used is regularly analyzed in a lab and the results constantly show less than 6 parts per million of nitrogen, almost nothing. (0 phosphorous and 10 ppm Potassium).

I once accidentally sprayed the concentrates of all three on my orchids. The Vermi-liquid is a 50 to 1 concentrate, the Essentials 200 to 1 and the Companion 800 to 1. The orchids were fine although an expensive waste of product.

Since these products are all organic and mostly live microbes, they can be applied safely in any concentration. The orchids need once a month treatment, I try to give it twice a month and one C. leopardi cutting with no roots (2 foot cutting roots rotted off) was treated every day for six months before it produced 20 flowers still without any roots. It took nine months to develop its first roots. (C. leopardi is a difficult plant to grow roots when damaged)

So this is the result of three years of testing. I have no intention of ever stopping use of the products.

[Bolero]

So does anyone know where it can be obtained in Australia?

[Andrew]

Queenslander,
Be aware that there is a product made by OVE in the States that is sold as worm tea - it's actually a leachate, not a tea. This product seems to get good raps on another forum. However, it is a slightly different monster than home made worm leachates or teas or the commercial products sold in Australia. The main difference as I see it is the incusion of a bioinoculant, which I would suggest adds a significant variable into the mix when trying to decipher whether worm tea itself of any benefit. Given your location make sure you compare apples with apples and not assume comments about OVE's product are relevant to the homemade teas and leachates.

[Bolero]

Originally Posted by Andrew

Queenslander,
Be aware that there is a product made by OVE in the States that is sold as worm tea - it's actually a leachate, not a tea. This product seems to get good raps on another forum. However, it is a slightly different monster than home made worm leachates or teas or the commercial products sold in Australia. The main difference as I see it is the incusion of a bioinoculant, which I would suggest adds a significant variable into the mix when trying to decipher whether worm tea itself of any benefit. Given your location make sure you compare apples with apples and not assume comments about OVE's product are relevant to the homemade teas and leachates.

That's interesting Andrew, thanks for the tip.

[orchidsamore]

OVE's product does not include a bio-inoculate. I add that in the form of Companion and Essentials. OVE does not.

The biggest difference in OVE product with homemade is that they use a feed supplement in the form of volcanic rock from several different locations.

Worms do not have a digestive track that can absorb food direct. Like chickens they require a grit to grind the food. Most home units recommend garden lime for this purpose, which works but does not add (or subtract) anything from the Vermi-liquid or castings.

The volcanic rock when feed to the worms is small to start but is ground up into pieces less than the size of salt. This adds 76 (by lab analysis) trace elements into the Vermi-liquid and castings.

Regular worm tea is good the volcanic rock supplements just makes it better by adding necessary micro-nutrients.

My water is very alkaline (7.8-8.2) and plants can not absorb micro-nutrients when the PH is over 7.4. The microbes in the Vermi-liquid seems to bring the micro-nutrients into the plant overcoming this problem for me. I do not see a magnesium deficiency that is common in Florida.

It is manufactured in Australia using the same method and I will try to get you an address.