Worm Tea

[Jungeoma]

I was bouncing around different forums tonight and came across a discussion about using wormtea on orchids.
It was in the advanced forum and took place quite a while ago. No one had come to a consensus, but since quite a bit of time has gone by I am wondering if anyone feels that worm tea has helped their Orchids. I practice vermicomposting myself and have been using diluted worm tea on my houseplants for ages, but on the Orchids just recently.

jungeoma

[Suri85]

Also wandering the same thing...

[Jungeoma]

Originally Posted by Suri85

Also wandering the same thing...

Can you buy bagged worm compost and have you used it on your plants or are you just curious.
It has helped my houseplants tremendously and its cheap. They eat all my vegetable waste and fruit left-overs.

[Suri85]

Our company used to do vermiculturing in a smallish scale to reduce feed cost of our fish farm operation, To feed the worm we used cow and goat dungs, grass cuttings and banana leaves and stems that we were able to find easily. Because of it we accumulate quite a lot of worm compost.

I asked a few hobbyists here but they were quite hesitant using it because they were afraid that the leftover eggs will hatch in their pots and end up eating the roots. We ended up using it on our veggie patch.

We finally stopped the vermiculturing operation because our location were quite unsuitable for the worms and quite far from the fish farm so the cost versus the saving wasn't worth it. Nevertheless I'm still curious

[Ray]

I would not use worm compost on orchids - too dense and root-suffocating. Making a tea from it, the exudate itself, or the castings, might have value.

Please read a post I just made to that other thread yesterday.

[orchidsarefun]

I have been using this in a tea for a while now.
Organic Plant Food - Loose Compost Tea | BuffaLoam.com
I use about a tablespoon in a cut-off of pantihose and let soak in a 2 gallon bucket of water for about 24hrs. This would follow the weakly, weekly principle. Roughly 1x per month I use a commercial brand fertiliser as a 'supplement'.
The more I talk to various experienced growers - with award winning plants at shows - the more I come round to the principle that less is more with fertiliser. By far the majority tell me that they fertilise 1x per month at most, year-round and it applies to window-sill and greenhouse growers equally. The only exception to this advice would be orchids like catasetums that do most of their growing and blooming in a relatively short period and thus do require a large amount of fertiliser.

[Ray]

I agree with the "less is more" concept at fertilization, but I believe once a month is not the best.

The plants in nature get fed a minute amount of nutrition every time it rains, which in many cases, can be several times a day. The chemical processes that consume nutrients will continue on, and if you only feed them once a month, they will slow as the stored nutrients in the plant are depleted. It is the production and storage of sugars that allows the plant to grow and bloom.

I try to mimic nature by feeding at a very low dosage rate at every watering instead. Not to mention that it relieves me of the burden of remembering when to feed.


Ray Barkalow
firstrays.com

[bil]

Originally Posted by Ray

I agree with the "less is more" concept at fertilization, but I believe once a month is not the best.

The plants in nature get fed a minute amount of nutrition every time it rains, which in many cases, can be several times a day. The chemical processes that consume nutrients will continue on, and if you only feed them once a month, they will slow as the stored nutrients in the plant are depleted. It is the production and storage of sugars that allows the plant to grow and bloom.

I try to mimic nature by feeding at a very low dosage rate at every watering instead. Not to mention that it relieves me of the burden of remembering when to feed.


Ray Barkalow
firstrays.com

Ray, that is a damn fine point. One question. I hear a lot about salt buildup and the need to flush with fresh water. Is your system so dilute that there is no danger of salt buildup?

What sort of dose rate do you use? Just the appropriate fraction of the manufacturer's dose, or less? What about heavier feeders like vandas?

[Ray]

Bil-

I feed at about 25 ppm N. A rough estimator of that is to divide 2 by the %N on the fertilizer label. The result is teaspoons per gallon. (2.6/%N Ives ml per liter for you metricated folks.)

I will add that using fractions of the manufacturer's recommended dose is folly. Don't forget that their goal is to sell fertilizer, not grow healthy plants. Two manufacturers will often give differnt recommendations for the same formula.

I water very heavily every time. Everything gets a very thorough flooding; most of the time twice per session.

Buildup only occurs upon drying, and the lower the solids content of the irrigation solutions, the slower that will occur. As I use RO water, the fertilizer is the only source of solids, and I water frequently enough that nothing actually gets a chance to thoroughly dry out.


Ray Barkalow
firstrays.com

[bil]

Originally Posted by Ray

Bil-

I feed at about 25 ppm N. A rough estimator of that is to divide 2 by the %N on the fertilizer label. The result is teaspoons per gallon. (2.6/%N Ives ml per liter for you metricated folks.)

I will add that using fractions of the manufacturer's recommended dose is folly. Don't forget that their goal is to sell fertilizer, not grow healthy plants. Two manufacturers will often give differnt recommendations for the same formula.

I water very heavily every time. Everything gets a very thorough flooding; most of the time twice per session.

Buildup only occurs upon drying, and the lower the solids content of the irrigation solutions, the slower that will occur. As I use RO water, the fertilizer is the only source of solids, and I water frequently enough that nothing actually gets a chance to thoroughly dry out.


Ray Barkalow
firstrays.com

Ray, thanks for taking the trouble to reply. Sorry to be a pain, but could you clarify please?

so a fertiliser that is 20-20-20. I divide 2 by the %N 2/20 =0.1 teaspoons per gallon, right?

2.6/20 = 0.13 ml/ccs per litre agreed?

and is that the same calculation whether you are using 20-20-20 or the 6-30-30 fertiliser for bloom boost?

Also, would you use the same concentration, or stronger for misting the roots of an air grown vanda?

Thanks for helping out, it's much appreciated.

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