gardening with aesl my formula for worm castings compost tea! · have a final q&a. ... the end...

66
My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! Gardening with AESL www.aquaponicsandearth.org With John Musser

Upload: others

Post on 17-Jul-2020

1 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

My Formula for Worm Castings

Compost Tea!

Gardening with AESL

www.aquaponicsandearth.org

With John Musser

Page 2: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Welcome to our Webinar on making worm

casting compost tea!

Page 3: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Overview of

Today's Training

We will take you

on a “picture tour”

of the results of our

using compost tea

along with our

homemade

substrates!

Session 1: What we have grown with compost tea.

Our History

Tea put us on the map

What has given us abundant

crops every year without fail!

Session 2: Why compost tea?

Session 3: How to make worm

castings compost tea

Session 4. Tips on making and keeping your own worm bin.

Gardening with AESL

Page 4: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Make sure you STAY with us to get the useful

BONUS at the end our webinar today

I’m going to try to fit in as

much training as I can for our

limited time together. At the end we’ll show you a system

where you can take

everything we’ve covered to

today and use it in your

garden to get results even

faster!

After we share some of the

items we have worked hard

to find, just for you. We will

have a final Q&A.

You are under no obligation

to buy anything, but we have

some very exciting things to

offer that will help you with

today’s training.

Gardening with AESL

Page 5: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

To boil everything down, we have two great secrets (now exposed) at

the AESL micro farm to our successful growing methods that have drawn

people from around the world to see us.

1. Our homemade substrate and

growing system shared in our last

webinar and DVD on cinderblock

and shallow grow bed gardening.

2. And our compost teas!

How we make them!

When and how often we

apply them and

How we apply the tea to our

crops for double and triple

yields!

Today I am giving our most

used recipe made with worm

castings!

Gardening with AESL

Page 6: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

I don’t want you to have the

problems we first had in making teas!

I’ve made compost tea

hundreds of times!

In the beginning I had no guide to

help me. The views were conflicting on the process. Even

the master gardeners in our area

knew very little, if anything, about

the right process.

I searched for hours, days and

weeks on the internet and got a

tip here and there, but no one made it plain and simple.

Once I completely scorched my

plants by just applying my tea at

the wrong time of the day!

It was trial and error until we

learned to make a perfect tea,

every time!

Then you can make a perfect

tea but NOT apply it at the

right time or the right way.

I will give you five keys to

success in making a perfect

tea, every time!

We are going to cover all this

later in our presentation!

Gardening with AESL

Page 7: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

I want to share what we have done on our

urban farm with compost tea

Compost tea put us on the map! I learned how to make several formulas:

To make fish waste teas

Rabbit manure teas

And worm casting teas

But in all of these ------ I “always” use worm castings!

Gardening with AESL

Page 8: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Session 1: What we have grown with compost tea.

Our history (my story)

and my journey in

making compost teas!

I heard from

someone that if

you poured “fish

waste water” on the ground that

crops would grow

like crazy!

I saw it

demonstrated

once with sugar

cane in Florida, but

I soon learned

some real good

lessons.

So my first year in raised bed

gardening I took straight fish waste

and put it on our crops!

I used some other organic fertilizers and we saw real fast leaf and stem growth, but not a lot of fruit!

Back then you could not find much information on the subject of the ingredients I needed. So I kept

practicing and learned what I was lacking!

Gardening with AESL

Page 9: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

I searched long and hard online and found out

about a woman called, “The Worm Woman!”

I found information online about

“the worm woman.“ She had passed on, but a man on her

staff told me about a couple of

books on how to get your

garden “teaming with microbes” by using red worms & compost

teas! We will offer her book at

the end of our presentation.

The amazing benefits of worm

castings hit me hard and I had to

get started right away!

I got my first “worm bin” and first

“garden worms” from them and

never needed to re-order again,

we have always had thousands

of worms!

Our History

Gardening with AESL

Page 10: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

My first time using real compost tea! In the second year of my gardening

experience I applied my first “real

batch” of compost tea with worm

castings.

I also mixed some fish waste in a 55

gallon drum. Then I added a small bubbler to it.

Then some other ingredients that I will share

with you later, when I give you the tried and

tested recipe!

I can’t remember how long I let it brew the

fist time. I couldn’t find anyone to help me.

Some said to brew the tea for a whole

week. Others said days…?

The only thing I could find was commercial

tea brewers. They only talked about heat

and pressure. It was very confusing.

So I just did some guess work and a got my

sprayer out and applied it to the crop.

I was shocked as I saw growth in a few days

time. The leaf looked much healthier and

buds began to appear! I did it!

After a few sprayings, people began to

notice the difference and I really got

excited. However, others saw more than I!

Gardening with AESL

Page 11: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

The next year I had perfected the brew and

drew many unexpected visitors!

Texas A&M

The Dallas arboretum

SMU, other colleges, and local schools.

Back yard gardeners and master gardeners.

The next year world leaders came to see our crops and called us nonstop

to the point we had to get a different phone system!

I have very little training in gardening and was now considered by many an expert!

Ag organizations asked us to help

them in parks and even on colleges campuses!

One of the largest humanitarian organizations in the world have contacted us and we are currently working with them.

The next year representatives

from 37 countries came to see the

farm from local colleges and

visitors in the metropolis!

Gardening with AESL

Page 12: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

What you will be able to accomplish after you

hear and apply what we teach you today!

More disease resistant.

More dense and

healthier root mass.

A healthier looking leaf,

stem, and crop.

A better color to the

veggies.

Better flavor and taste

to your veggies.

More crops! Expect

double or more

especially if you have

never used compost

tea!

Gardening with AESL

Page 13: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

We grew 50,000 peppers on 1/10 of an acre!

Fig trees grew from 15 inches high

up to nine feet tall in one year.

Pequin peppers grew over

four feet high, spanning five

feet wide.

Tabasco peppers grew like

small trees.

Anaheim peppers grew up to

nine feet tall!

Cherry tomatoes that

produced 1500 tomatoes per

plant.

One 7’x 20’ area produced over

7,000 peppers of various kinds.

Some of our successes,

to name a few!

Gardening with AESL

Page 14: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Peppers grow like trees

These peppers are growing in six to seven inches of substrate

Gardening with AESL

Page 15: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Nine foot tall Anaheim peppers in

6 to 7 inches of substrate!

Gardening with AESL

Page 16: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

50,000 peppers in one growing season

Gardening with AESL

Page 17: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

We had several pickings like this, but could not

completely harvest everything!

Gardening with AESL

Page 18: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Pablano Peppers

that fill a plate

Gardening with AESL

Page 19: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

500 Roma Tomatoes

from one

4’ x 4’ cinderblock

grow bed using

compost tea!

Gardening with AESL

Page 20: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Dying shrubs, weeks later,

after applying compost tea!

Gardening with AESL

Page 21: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Peppers from spring and early summer cut

down to five feet high and re-grown with compost tea. Texas A&M comes to see it!

Gardening with AESL

Page 22: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

One 4’x4” section!

The Pequin Peppers

Page 23: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Fig tree grow from 17 inches to 8 foot tall

from April to October in one year!

Gardening with AESL

Page 24: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,
Page 25: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

AESL worker wins yard of the month

using our compost tea!

Notice Nancy’s grass verses the

neighbor’s? All the other shrubs and

flowers in the neighborhood were

terrible looking in the dead of summer!

Gardening with AESL

Page 26: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Compost Tea put us on the map!

I have told hundreds of eco tourists

who come to our urban farm that,

“compost tea put us on the map,” and

it has!

I practiced until I learned to make a

perfect batch of tea.

I learned what to look for:

What a perfect tea smells like

and

When and how you must put it

on your crop.

Then how it must be applied

And how often

It took five years in all, but now we

don’t need to use any other

fertilizers, but our own homemade,

along with our unique growing

system. This makes us truly

sustainable on our farm!

Gardening with AESL

Page 27: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

I have found that

using compost tea in

the right way, at the

right time, in the right

proportions will take

you from a decent

gardener to a pro!

It is obvious why we

do it, but it is not just

for big crops and

more crops!

Gardening with AESL

Session 2: Why Compost Tea?

Page 28: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

We use the same crops all year!

Here in Dallas, Texas we plant in the spring and again just after the

harsh heat.

Most people replant, but we use most of the same plants by

saturating them with compost tea!

We keep on making new discoveries about compost tea!

Another amazing fact is that:

Gardening with AESL

Page 29: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Worm casting tea is different and better than

any known tea due to its multiple benefits!

“Mary Appelhof the worm woman says:

“Compost tea is a liquid produced by stripping

and extracting bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes from high quality compost.

This is a brewing process of agitation and

aeration of a small amount of compost in water. After this extraction process, bacterial and

fungal foods are added to the liquid.

The high oxygen content of the water and this

extra food causes the populations of organisms

to increase dramatically, producing a magnified liquid version of the original compost.

Compost tea can then be applied through

hoses or sprayers to the soil or plant foliage

making the benefits of good compost go much

farther and with a great reduction in intensive

labor.

Gardening with AESL

Page 30: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

What compost tea will do for your crops

In brief, compost tea that is brewed as we are teaching and used as a FOLIER OR EXTERNAL SPRAY:

1) Will coat the leaves of plants with an invisible protective shield!

The compost tea micro organisms stick to the leaf

surfaces. This action does not allow disease-

causing organisms to attach to the plant. Using

unsulfured molasses helps in the process!

Some crops will even resist bugs!

2) Will enable and equip the entire crop to absorb nutrients!

When used to soak the plant base, the soil

organisms attach to the roots of the plants and help

in processing important nutrients to the crop.

Like when humans take a bath and soak in

beneficial Epson salts that nourish the body and

even strengthen the bones.

Like sending a honey bee hive to the root system!

3) Regular compost tea sprayings is the key to:

Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster,

disease resistance, additional microbial populations

& healthy food to all beneficials in your grow bed,

including red worms!

With compost tea in July!

Without compost tea in July!

Gardening with AESL

Page 31: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

What kind of compost tea are you talking about?

Some people just soak compost or “worm

juice” in a pail and let the sun do it’s work!

We don’t like this method for a few reasons:

Compost tea is not the dark-colored solution that leaks out of the bottom of the compost pile. That’s called leachate, and although it may contain soluble nutrients it may also

contain organisms that can cause illness so it isn’t suitable for spraying on food crops. Some people make compost tea to be the ‘extract’ of compost made by suspending compost in a barrel of water for a short period of time, usually in a burlap sack. The resulting liquid can then be applied as a soil or foliar fertilizer.

To others and AESL, it’s not compost tea until the extract is fermented or ‘brewed’ with some type of microbial nutrient source such as molasses, kelp, fish byproducts, and/or humic acids.

Leachate: Leachate can contain

phytotoxins (toxins that can

harm plants and humans).

Some of these toxins are

created by bacteria. Every

worm bin has good and bad

microbes. This is ok of course,

as long as the good ones

outnumber the bad ones.

Some leachate can contain

harmful pathogens because

it has not been processed

through the worms intestinal

tract. It should not be used

on edible garden plants.

During decomposition, waste

releases liquid from the cell

structure. This liquid or

leachate seeps down

through the worm composter

into the collection area.

Leachate vs. Worm Compost Tea

Gardening with AESL

Page 32: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

What kind of compost tea are you talking about?

AGAIN: When we talk of compost tea

FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS

PRESENTATION we mean a compost

or worm castings that:

Is mixed with un-chlorinated water!

Is put in a bucket or container that

has a powerful air/oxygen pump that

will fill the entire container, non-stop,

creating both oxygen and top

turbulence!

Has organic ingredients stirred into

the water that will feed the microbes

that are already within the worm

castings.

That is processed this way for at least

two days or 48 hours!

That is fully used “right away” for both

soaking and foliar application!

Gardening with AESL

Page 33: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Before we go any further today I want to say that:

Using Worm Tea: WHY?

1. Will out-perform any chemical fertilizer. Increasing both

plant size and yield. This is due to interaction of “Worm Tea

microbes” with the soil microbes and protozoa, soil particles and

the roots of the plant itself!

2. “Worm Tea” made, the proper way, becomes an inoculant

for potting soil suppressing airborne pathogenic fungi that can

readily infect a sterile potting medium.

3. The living organisms in “Worm Tea” also produces

hormones, vitamins, nutrients, enzymes, amino acids and minerals

needed by seedling cuttings, young plants and proper root

establishment. Inoculation should be done two weeks prior to

planting.

4. Plants grown in soil treated with “Worm Tea” are much

healthier due to the symbiotic relationship between the plant

and the microbes in the root zone. Plants feed the microbes and

the microbes produce or make available all of the food and

medicine the plant needs to thrive.

Now we have perfected our formula through many years of

R & D!

Gardening with AESL

Page 34: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Worm tea enables your veggies to utilize more food

plus make it more available to the crop!

A KEY FACTOR TO ALWAYS REMEMBER! In

addition to increased nutrient levels, worm castings contain millions of BENEFICIAL microbes which help break

down nutrients “already” present in the soil into plant available forms.

You see, for worms to eat your garbage they

need a team to help them break it down for

slurping. Worms have beneficial friends that I

liken to a bee hive.

WORM MUCOUS: As the worms deposit their castings, their mucous is a beneficial component, absent from just regular composting from a pile, whether it’s hot or cold composting.

The valuable mucous component slows the

release of nutrients preventing them from

washing away with the first watering.

Stick-to - it –tive-ness!

Nothing else can do this!

Gardening with AESL

Page 35: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

to see why worm castings are much more productive than compost alone!

1. Higher concentrations of microorganisms. 2. More diversity of microorganisms. 3. Enzymes and plant growth regulators only found in worm

casting soils.

4. Higher percentage of available nutrients. 5. Greater plant heights, leaf area and root depth.

6. Greater germination rates. 7. Faster growth rates.

8. Higher aggregate formation. 9. Better disease control. 10. Higher capacity to hold water. 11. More nutrient availability over time.

12. Larger fruits and vegetables with higher yields.

13. Sweeter tasting fruits and abundantly richer tasting veggies.

Let’s look a little deeper…

From Yelm Worm Farms

Gardening with AESL

Page 36: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

What I like so much about worm compost tea is:

You are recycling your

kitchen food waste.

Also worm castings are

a renewable, plentiful

fertilizer resource with

very little upkeep!

It’s a fertilizer that could

be used in the hardest of

times!

Every one interested in

gardening needs a “worm bin,” yesterday!

Gardening with AESL

Page 37: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

The favorite for gardeners

Gardening with AESL

Page 38: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Making your tea

Today's formula is

our “over the top”

all purpose tea, that

will do wonders in

your garden, year

after year, harvest

after harvest!

You will only have

to add a couple of

ingredients and it

will feed every crop

in your garden!

Gardening with AESL

Page 39: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

The size tea maker you will need depends on

the size of your garden area!

We use two sizes since we

have 1/10 of an acre, plus!

A half cut 55 gallon barrel

A five gallon pail. Our own tea maker invented at AESL

For deep feeds I use my large

brewer with a large sprayer rig

Most times I use my five gallon

unit (at right) and make two

batches over the period of a

week.

Every 48 hours will produce

a new batch.

This gives me about 22

gallons of tea.

Gardening with AESL

Page 40: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Session 3:

How to make worm castings

compost tea

Gardening with AESL

Page 41: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

How to make your tea! THE INGREDENTS:

1. Worm castings

Compost with egg shells, especially for tomatoes.

Or you could finely crush

dried egg shells right in your

brew.

2. Un-chlorinated water

3. Unsulfured molasses

THE TOOLS:

4. A strong air bubbler with high

quality air stones.

5. A food grade container

6. A stick for mixing and stirring

7. A heater - if it’s cold

8. A strainer

9. A sprayer

Gardening with AESL

Page 42: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Mixing your ingredients Today I will give you the ingredients for a five gallon pail. Adjust

the amounts according to this recipe, IF you want a larger container.

Please follow these 5 easy steps and

you will be successful!

1. Fill pail three fourths full with un-chlorinated water (at

about 70 degrees).

Use a RV or water safe hose and RV filter if you have

city water.

The process of making the tea allows the microbes

to "wake up" and multiply.

2. Add five heaping teaspoons of non GMO alfalfa. Let it

soak for a few minutes and stir in with wooden stick.

3. Pour in one quarter of a large coffee can of “worm castings” and stir into the water.

4. Put in eight tablespoons of liquid or dry un-sulfured molasses and stir well with a stick or wooden spoon.

5. Add your air bubbler. Top off with water to 2 inches from

the top of the pail. Then set the timer for 48 hours. You can

use a lid if it has holes in it!

BREWING

SECRET:

Make sure your

air bubbler

creates enough

oxygen and

turbulence to fill

the whole five

gallon pail and

cause top

turbulence!

This is a secret to

making a

perfect tea!

Gardening with AESL

Page 43: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

How to increase the power of this tea

100 times over!

Add one teaspoon full of Endomycorrhiza

spores the second day after brewing!

Let it brew for about four hours.

It’s like sending a troop of soldiers into your

soil and upon your veggies and much, much

more!

Also, the spores/fungus colonizes the host

plant's roots. This mutualistic association provides the fungus with relatively

constant and direct access to carbohydrates, such as

glucose and sucrose. The carbohydrates are translocated

from their source (usually leaves) to root tissue and on to the

plant's fungal partners. In return, the plant gains the benefits of

the mycelium’s higher absorptive capacity for water and

mineral nutrients due to the comparatively large surface area

of mycelium.

If you are growing

tomatoes or other calcium loving crops, make sure you add 2 or three egg shells that have been properly dried and finely crushed.

Also a rounded tsp. of Epson salts will help.

Mega insight - Use root fungus!

Gardening with AESL

Page 44: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Brewing your tea

If you are leaving it outside:

Make sure animals cannot

tip it over.

Make sure temperatures do

not get cold or else put an

aquarium heater in the

bucket.

How will I know when my

tea is done?

In time you will become an

expert.

48 hours under the right

conditions is all you need.

Most of the time you will see

a nice foam at the top and

it will have a nice clean,

earthy smell.

Gardening with AESL

Page 45: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Straining your tea

I recommend using a

“pump up sprayer” or

battery powered to apply your tea to the crop!

The best thing we have

found is a knee high nylon

stocking. Nothing gets

through it and it won’t clog

up your spray nozzle!

Pour your tea into the spray

rig and apply right away!

Use all of the tea!

Keep the rest of the tea

“brewing” until you come

back for more!

Notice how we fit the nylon

right over the spray rig!

Gardening with AESL

Page 46: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Using a larger spray rig

Gardening with AESL

Page 47: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

When should you spray?

Never apply tea in the afternoon

time!

I prefer after five, when the sun is

not scorching. I have areas in my

garden that are “partial shade”

and I can hit them first! This gives

me plenty of time to add the tea,

and clean up my rig.

Use all the tea after each brewing. Again don’t shut the

pump off until you are done or

you will lose the full potency of

your brew.

If you have some tea left over just pour it and any sediment at the

bottom on or around your

favorite crops. They will explode!

Gardening with AESL

Page 48: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Applying your tea!

Stand back and

spray the entire

plant, from top to

bottom, saturating,

till run off.

If the plants are tall

go around the plant

and spray every

part of it!

Leaves, steam, and

root area all need

to be covered.

Gardening with AESL

Page 49: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

You will see results right away

If you spray in the morning you will notice difference by

nightfall.

Most of the time, right after application you see a reinvigorated crop, especially the leaves!

In a couple days you will see accelerated growth.

When crops are growing you can use tea every two – three weeks.

You will learn in time what is best for you.

Sometimes we back off as some crops grow too fast!

Use also for startup beds

that have no crops!

Spray on bare beds in the fall before winter!

Spray on seedlings

Gardening with AESL

Page 50: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

In case of emergency

If you can’t use your

tea after two days

(48 hours) and

something comes up,

here’s what to do.

Do not turn your

brewer off!

Add a little more

molasses – 3-5

teaspoons!

Try not to go over 72

hours total!

Gardening with AESL

How to know if your tea went

bad? This is Very Important!

First of all get used to making tea that produces a nice foamy top and earthy smell.

If you order our Homgro Tea Maker and use the exact ingredients we give, you will brew perfect tea as

the process has been tested 100 times. Get used to the this look and smell!

It should smell nice. If it smells like an outhouse, or otherwise unpleasant, start over! Pour it in your compost pile and rinse your

brewer.

Sometimes teas will have a slightly unpleasant smell. This is okay to use, but not ideal. Ideally teas will smell fresh and earthy.

Page 51: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

In case of emergency

Learn these words:

Aerobic & Anaerobic.

1. Aerobic:

Aerobic means "requiring air", where

"air" usually means

oxygen.

Worm tea should be

used immediately after

removal from your

aerobic tea brewer. The colonies of aerobic

microbes will quickly

consume the oxygen

in the tea brew, and

micro-organisms will

begin to die or go to

sleep.

Gardening with AESL

2. Anaerobic:

Anaerobic is a word coming from the Greek word "αναερόβιος" (comprising

from the words αν=without, αέρας=air

and βίος=life) which literally means living

without air, as opposed to aerobic.

The longer the tea remains unaerated,

the greater loss of microorganisms and of

diversity. The loss in numbers and diversity

could be as much as 30% - 50%, but it is

still useful until it goes anaerobic.

You’ll know it has gone anaerobic if the tea has a strong odor.

So don’t throw the extra tea out unless it

smells! I take slightly “smelly tea” and

pour it around my crops I only like to use

good smelling tea for foliar sprays, just to

make sure!

Page 52: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

When you spray or pour the tea on the soil, not only are you feeding the plant, but you

increase the number of beneficial microbes in the soil, thus crowding out the bad. It has been proven that the tea, along with the castings, can significantly increase plant growth, as well as crop yields, in the short term (a season) and especially the long term over a period of seasons.

Along with these great benefits come a boost in the plant’s own immune system to be able to resist parasites like the infamous aphid, tomato cyst eelworm, and root knot nematodes.

Plants produce certain hormones (like the jasmonic hormone) that insects find distasteful so they are repelled. Worm tea also helps a plant to resist diseases such as Pythium and Rhizoctonia.

When worm tea is sprayed on leaves and foliage, the bad disease-causing microbes are again outnumbered and cannot populate to the levels of taking over a single plant. The tea also aids the plant in creating the "cuticle", a waxy layer on top of the epidermis, or plant skin. This waxy surface protects the leaves from severe elements and reduces attacks

by certain harmful microorganisms and insects.

Gardening with AESL

Page 53: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Compost Tea Brewer

Our five gallon compost tea brewer is

QUICK AND EASY to serve your needs!

Five gallon bucket with air

stones

High powered pump to create

both oxygen and surface

turbulence

Made with long lasting

commercial parts and stones

that allows for higher oxygen

saturation

Comes pre-assembled and

ready to use!

Page 54: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Gardening with AESL

Session 4: Tips on

making

& keeping

your own

worm bin.

Page 55: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Setting up your worm bin for worm

propagation and castings

There are many recipes on

how to set up you worm bin.

We have our own that works

very well in the context of

this training as:

The quality of your worm

castings will depend upon the health of your worms and the medium

they live in.

Gardening with AESL

Page 56: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Simple key components to keeping

your worms safe and happy!

They don’t like light

They need

moisture!

They need air!

They need food!

Gardening with AESL

1. They don’t like light.

A dark colored bin is ideal

2. They need moisture!

Substrate such as shredded paper,

cardboard, shredded leaves, or

coco fiber will help retain moisture

3. They need air!

Holes need to be in the container

and better yet, PVC with holes

drilled in it with access to the

outside, especially when in a

plastic bin!

4. They need food!

Kitchen scrapes (no meat)

Page 57: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Setting up a worm bin for using castings WE HAVE A VERY SIMPLE, BUT SAFE WAY TO MAKE

WORM BEDDING THAT DELIVERS A SUPERIOR CASTING!

1. Rehydrate a ten pound coco fiber

block. Save what you don’t use in a bag that is kept out of heat or moisture.

This will come in handy when you

remove castings!

2. Mix one ounce of unsulfured molasses

into the mix.

Both worms and beneficial microbes

will love it.

3. When the coco mix is rehydrated and

not soupy, mix what you would need to fill

¾ of the bin with ¼ shredded paper or

cardboard. Fill your bin within 3-4 inches

from top.

It should be damp like a sponge.

4. Add your worms and start feeding!

Bonus -

what to

feed your

worms

Gardening with AESL

Page 58: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Rehydrating Coco Fiber

Page 59: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Check your worms often

I recommend a simple

bin to begin with. It’s all I have ever needed for our

entire farm!

I have enough babies to

put in all our gardens. I

just put in a small handful in each area.

We have made worm

bins available at the end

of this webinar! It’s the

same one I bought several years ago and it’s

still in mint condition!

Gardening with AESL

Page 60: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

What are worm castings?

Worm castings, also

called worm manure, or

worm humus, are the end

product of the

breakdown of organic

matter by certain

earthworm species

called composting

worms. They are used as

powerful organic fertilizer

to improve soil and plant

growth.

The process of harvesting

this material is called

vermicomposting.

Gardening with AESL

Page 61: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

How to collect your worm castings

I recommend two simple ways.

For seven days move all food to

one side of your bin and only

put fresh food on this one side.

All the worms except for babies

will move over to where the

food is so you can scoop up the

castings on the opposite side.

Open your bin and hold a bright

lamp directly on the entire bin.

All the worms will escape from

the light going down into the

bin, then you can scoop up the

castings from the top. I prefer

the first method.

Gardening with AESL

The worm bin

below is the

worm –a-way!

Page 62: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

The worms do the work for you:

1. TURN: Like tiny plows, they work their way throughout the material. 2. AERATE: They add oxygen for all the beneficial microorganisms. 3. MIX: All kinds of organisms and nutrients throughout the pile adding

lots of small aggregates. 4. SCREEN: They eat the bedding materials and the feed, ultimately turning it into a rich soil product. 5. PATHOGEN CONTROL: They ingest and render useless the “bad guys”. 6. FAST: They can eat one-half of

their weight per day. 5’ x 8’ Large Scale Flow Through System can process 100lbs. of food scraps per day and 75-80 lbs. of castings per day.

From Yelm Worm Farms

Gardening with AESL

Vermicomposting! What are its unique benefits?

Page 63: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

SURPISE BONUS & REVIEW!

Thanks for hanging in

there!

As a thank you we are

giving you our “What to

Feed Your Worms

Reference Sheet”

Gardening with AESL

Go here now for your special offer! www.aquaponicsandearth.org/compostingwebinar

Page 64: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

REVIEW

Go here now for your special offer! www.aquaponicsandearth.org/compostingwebinar

Page 65: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Q&A Time!

Go here now for your special offer! www.aquaponicsandearth.org/compostingwebinar

Page 66: Gardening with AESL My Formula for Worm Castings Compost Tea! · have a final Q&A. ... the end of our presentation. ... Ensure ample food supplies, immune booster, disease resistance,

Thank You For Joining Us!

Gardening with AESL

Go here now for your special offer! www.aquaponicsandearth.org/compostingwebinar