Worm Tea (All Natural Fertilizer, Anti-Fungal, and Pesticide)

[douglas]

Does anyone else here have any experience with using "worm tea" as an orchid food. It is the concentrated excrement from worms (used in composting tanks) diluted in water at a ratio of 50 to 1. It is supposed to be a very effective all natural fertilizer as well as antifungal and peticide all wrapped into one. You can spray the whole plant with it, as well as water the roots with it. Claims are that it is so effective that it is almost like a growth boosting steroid- with miraculous results.
My question is whether I would have to be apply it only every other week like with chemical fertilizers, or if I could accually apply it as often as desired- perhaps even with every watering. Im not sure if this kind of fertilizer can burn the roots of my plants or not, but it is said to be high in nitrogen and phosphorous.

[Lizgeo]

I bought a bottle and used last summer, misted the orchids with the mix. I didn't see any harm, nor any improvement. So I went back to my old fertilizer.

[rich63]

Douglas,you might want to touch base w/Tim (Bench72) I found a old post where he states that he is using a worm type fertilizer. Good Luck,Rich
http://www.rv-orchidworks.com/orchid...lizer-npk.html

[AtantaR]

Ive used such by making my own for my garden. I would say that you could use it every watering but depending on the growth cycle that your orchid is in. It wouldnt have the same build up of salts that a normal fert. would have. You may not see such a drastic change since natural differs from other synthetic ferts but in the long run I think it would make a big difference. As long as your not using hydrogen peroxide or such to kill the good microbes withing the mix, that would be growing, to beneifit your plant

[douglas]

Thanks all for the feedback on this, and I am contacting Tim to see what he has to say about this. Still not sure if this fertilizer can damage the roots of my Phals due to the hight Phosphorous and Nitrogen content. The salt buildup would be less though that is true.

[bench72]

I have found that the old adage of "weakly weekly" works well with all forms of fertilisers, including weak tea.

Yes, it is possible to overdoes... and in my experience, it shows up with the browning of the leaf tips.

regular weak feeding is ok, but make sure (as with synthetic ferts) that the pot is flushed regularly too (once every three weeks is what i do... if i remember )

oh and i've also found that i need to use other ferts just to make sure that the plants get a complete 'feed'... so i would supplement with synthetic ferts every so often like a bloom booster or seaweed based ferts.


anyways, hope the above is of some help...

cheers
tim

[douglas]

Thank you Tim, Im glad you responded with that so I didnt have to find out the hard way not to use worm tea in every watering. I am going to use it every other week. And I will be alternating with a bloom booster.
Cheers
Douglas

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Good luck, Douglas. This post was really helpful!

Cheers,
BD

[douglas]

thank you, this forum is also very helpful.
I still have an awful lot to learn though.
Cheers

[rosie]

[QUOTE=bench72;164738]I have found that the old adage of "weakly weekly" works well with all forms of fertilisers, including weak tea.

Yes, it is possible to overdoes... and in my experience, it shows up with the browning of the leaf tips.

regular weak feeding is ok, but make sure (as with synthetic ferts) that the pot is flushed regularly too (once every three weeks is what i do... if i remember )
Tim, is it possible to use the worm tea with seaweed extract together. As they are both organic, I couldn't see any harm, what do you think?