Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I was doing some reading the other night on vermiculture.............

it appears that worm tea, and i mean true worm tea, not the lechate that some people call tea, can be used as an pesticide.

thoery goes like this................. get some finnished worm castings and put them in a bucket, add declorinated water, molassas (food for bacteria) kelp (food for fungi) add an air stone and airate for 24-48 hours. All the microorganisms that are found in the worm castings will multiply in number exponentially.

this liquid can then be strained and used as a foliar spray. apparently it contains large amounts of chitinase which attacks the exoskeleton of bugs can be quite destructive to them, note that it does not descriminate between good and bad insects. It is also a great fertilizer for the plants and adds needed micro orgs. to the soil. best used within 12 hrs of pulling the airstone out.

i have two trays of worm castings that are about 12 months old, it looks like thick fertile dirt and have been meaning to put it on my fruit trees that are in pots. so while i was at it i used a few good handfulls in the above method. i used it on all my potted fruit trees outside and as a test brought my SEVERLY aphid infested chilli plant outdoors from the kitchen and gave it a good dose. I also put a little into the IBC to see if it negativle impacts the trout and SP. I will try and find the article again and post or link it here.

Apparently you can "tweak" the microbe population in favour of the bacteria by adding more molassas and less kelp or in favour of the fungi with less molassas and more kelp.

It can also be used on bacterial fungus infestations of plants

VERY interesting stuff.

a few good links on the subject

a few quotes from;

"It may not be in the root zone alone where worm castings demonstrate the ability to suppress pest attack, however. There is a growing body of research suggesting that castings derived from a feedstock of plant materials are rich in a compound called chitinase. Chitin, a component of the exoskeleton of many insects, is damaged by chitinase, leading some researchers to believe its presence in the castings may be inhibitory to some insects. Research being conducted in California is demonstrating suppression of white fly and ambrosia beetle in some tree species when castings containing chitinase are applied at the root zone."

"There is evidence that worm tea will cure tomato blight, leaf curl on fruit trees. It can also replace conventional fertilizers used in areas such as schools, municipal parks and playgrounds"



a few good links on the subject;


http://www.standinghorse.com/wriggler/cast.html

http://www.kitsapezearth.com/fact.html

more links

http://www.allthingsorganic.com/How_To/09.asp

and a GREAT slide show here; http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/compostt ... sld001.htm

i haven't seen jack good bugs in my garden. to hell with them i'd gladly blast everything in sight after losing 1/2 my tomatoes!

Some real useful info here,Steve.
We have been using 1 teaspoon of molasses to a gallon of water as an insecticide against cabbage white butterflies and their caterpillars.It seems to deter the butterflies from landing on the brassicas and laying eggs AND it does not seem to have any effect on the fish in the tank.
As they are goldfish and grass carp I don't know if it improves their flesh flavour.
As we are always searching for an effective insecticide,fungicide etc without killing the fish I shall keep a keen eye on your researches and anything we come up with I will post.
WD

i checked the chilli plant i dosed and put into the bed. i was sort of stressing a bit becasue if it didn't work i'd have introduced a heap of aphids into my system..................... not an aphid to be seen and heaps of new shoots breaking though!

sounds good. it's definately the spray that got them nothing use could have done it?

I've been following this thread in the hopes of hiding my ignorance. What you state sounds great, but what exactly are worm castings?

worm castings = worm poop.

uhuh, guessed that, but what do they look like how do I discern between them and dirt?

the number of worms involved, usually in roundish lumps as opposed to dirt lumps

You should use a worm farm to collect them. mine is just 2 plastic crates stacked on each other and the juice drips into the bottom tray.

uhuh, guessed that, but what do they look like how do I discern between them and dirt?[/quote]

Basically set up your own worm farm , all you need to get it started is some worms (from a harware or council, many councils have subsidised worm initiatives, They are not just garden worms) A Box tray or bed (mine is really dodgy timber frame with roof sheeting as a base ) I started mine with heaps of horse and cow poo (that rates as food for the worms) then add your green food scraps and Ap scraps and keep it moist. The worms will love it and basically convert all of the raw matter (see didnt say poo!) into a darker moist soil (will in no way resemble the poops you put in, it will be really obvious. There is a little bit more to it than that but its the basic process. I run about 400,000 head and call it my silent herd , but will have to change the bed soon and refresh with raw matter as they have worked their way through my scraps. Running water through the bed gives me a top notch worm tea for very little effort .

OK, so you just percolate it with the worms in there, and collect the runoff... and this works as liquid fertiliser and pesticide? wow... or do you still add molasses and stuff to the tea?

Yes!
I water the bed with 9lt (1 watering can ) and collect the run off the next day from that drainage bucket.

It is quite a strong tea and I dilute that down to 20:1 as in 20 parts water so it goes quite a long way really.

I just use it as a fertiliser and folar spray. Generally speaking it improves the health of the plants to the point that they just are not suseptable to infestation or can at least deal with it. But I think i will give the molasses angle a go. Have been using a Molasses tea to keep the grubs and catterpillers off the leafy stuff and that works great so definatly will have a go at making this tea..