Worm extracts are one way to transfer the natural goodness of your worm farm to your plants.
Worm casting extract is a type of longer-life liquid worm product that has enormous potential for food gardeners.
Before we start discussing worm casting extracts, it’s worth differentiating what we mean by this term. Compost worms can be used to produce several different liquid soil amendments for your garden.
Worm leachate is formed by allowing liquid from rainwater and hand watering to filter through the worm farm, collecting in the base to form “vermiwash” or “worm juice”. Leachate has limited value, and can actually be harmful if it is collected from a worm farm that is anaerobic or contains a lot of rotting material. Leachate is best produced in a mature worm farm with water sprinkled very lightly on the bedding at a slow rate.
Activated aerated compost tea (AACT) is produced by putting a handful of worm castings in a stocking or similar netted bag and suspending it in a sugar or molasses solution which is aerated by an aquarium bubbler or similar. You can watch an example of this on our Facebook page here.
Today we are discussing worm casting extracts. These are formed by placing worm castings in a bucket of dechlorinated water – for example rain water or tap water that has been left to sit for 24 hours. Some extracts use aeration via an aquarium bubbler to help mix the liquid at a faster rate and release the microbes in the castings into the water.
This video gives you an idea of how easy it is to make worm castings extract.
In this video, you are encouraged to aerate the water for about 5 minutes before adding the castings. The bubbling occurs for between 2-4 hours and their resulting extract is usable for a week.
Worm extracts have a few significant advantages over AACT in that they are very easy to produce and have a longer shelf life. I have seen reported shelf lives of over 6 months, although a shorter time is recommended.
Worm casting extracts are ideal for adding to your plants as a soil microbe booster, whereas AACT is preferable if you’re looking for a foliar spray against pests and diseases.
