Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

just a thought has or is anybody feeding worm farm tea to grow beds if so how much and how often

i did once as a foliar feed, "very dilute" is the best i can give you

I did about 3 times - after totally flushing my system accidentially with fresh tap water - but like steve it was very diluted as I was not sure my barra would like it ... all seemed fine in the end

There should be no issues provided the tea is from washed through worm castings, and NOT the water that drains out the bottom of the worm bin.
The drain water will have sat for a while in an anerobic state, allowing pathogens to build up.
I have worms in my grow beds, creating the same substance. No issues, maybe just keep the amounts that are put in reasonably small at once.

Ok, well the stuff i used was the latter, the anerobic stagnant shite..........didn't even think about that till now

But it was over a month ago and VERY dilute.

I position my worm farm directly above the fish tank and flush the worm farm about every 2 weeks into the fish tank. It causes the water to change to a tea colour and I have not had any adverse affects. Maybe I've been lucky.

cheers

Same here, and no side effects

There are always variables, how much airflow around and in the drainage, how long it sits, ambient temperatures, worm farm feeding care, etc.

In a smaller hobby system it may not be such an issue, as one is usually not pushing the stocking limits...(usually), whereas in a commercial operation with production in mind, it adds another variable to concider and monitor.

An option is to also just allow the worm farm to constantly drain into a growbed. It wouldn't have the chance to sit and stagnate.

I keep thinking that worm tea might serve as a good starter to a system, say instead of seasol. Surely it can't be any more toxic than that stuff?

I did some reading a while back and found some guy advocating refining and using worm castings as a water filter. In order to convert us all to his point of view, he mixed up some horrid water concoction, then tried to purify it. Can't remember the details, and can't find the site now, but I do remember that worm castings "casually thrown in" purified the water VISUALLY very quick, esp in comparison to other techniques he'd tried.

And I keep coming up with quotes all over the net like:
"Worms purify the waste, so you do not need heat to stop diseases."
"Red worm castings contain a high percentage of humus...Humus is believed to aid in the prevention of harmful plant pathogens, fungi, nematodes and bacteria." http://www.standinghorse.com/wriggler/casting.html lots more detail here

Nice Article.

Looks like worms are once again proving their weight.

I asked a marine biologist about redworms for fish he said they're excellent food.

Only the tiger worms are a problem for fish, and worm tea is indeed an excellent supplement, having being used by 'hyphenated tomato' growers in hydro many times in many situations without adverse effect.

Be wary of algae levels, the algae loves worm castings as much as the plants do, as usual, keeping the light levels down helps a great deal.

ahha! found it
http://www.magicwiggler.com/Compare.html

includes worm castings purifying water, worm flour in animal food, worms as human multivitamin suplements ... all very interesting, even if a little out there!

oohhh! just had an idea. just noticed the posting thread "fish... do we need the" and it occurred to me. maybe we don't! just the water and worm castings? I'm gonna give it a try ... if and when the children allow me

I am curious what the reaction might be if a wormbed was integrated into an AP system, where the worm mass and waste materials sat on top of gravel that is flooded almost to the worm mass. Inevitably, some castings will make their way into the gravel and thus into the AP water, along with worms that will consume any stray food waste.
It could be linked from a growbed so it floods to the same level, and aeration through meshed holes could ventilate the bin.
Then a rockdust could be added to give the worms grit to grind the food, which in turn helps provide trace minerals for the AP water.
It would need to be well managed though; perhaps just ground up waste like juicer pulp to facilitate quicker consumption and thus keeping out pathogens. Pythium is a risky one.

Looking something like this perhaps, picture a lid too...:

I have been thinking about a similar thing R - but by basically digging in a large hydro (or aeroponic) pot into the gravel of my grow-bed and having this pot filled with the scraps. I would put a lid on top to keep the veg under teh water line in the flood cycle and to stop exposure from sun. Worms would be free to move in and out of the basket as they choose. I will start one of these soon - but will start small. I will be interested to see if the worms that are already in my gravel bed find it (I won't add any worms for a few days to see if this happens).

I was concidering saturation of the veggie scraps in the bin, but that would cause more juices of the veggies to be taken away by water, where it might break down in the tank, requiring more DO out of your aqua. I think it may be important to keep it separate, though I am open to ideas.