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Testimonials:

  • Hi Christy,
     
    I live in a small town in the Western Australian Goldfields, and I would just like to say you would have the best, most informative videos on the web.
     
    Regards,
    Brent W.

     

  • Hi Christy,

    Thank you for making the nice videos about worms I learn a lot from you.

    Greetings

    Tom

    The Netherlands


     

  • Hi Christy,

    First I want to thank you for a great site. I really enjoyed your
    e-course as well. Was able to get a lot of helpful information.
    Particularly the videos. I have only been vermicomposting since Sept.
    And am just about ready to harvest my first batch of castings. Recently joined vermicomposters.com Anyway just added some photos of my worm farm to share. So thanks again. Will continue to enjoy your site.

    Troy B.

     

  • Thank you so much for posting videos about worm bins. Your videos are great and I've learned a lot from them.

    Karen


     

  • Christy,

    Thanks I hope that you don't mind but I belong to The Garden Forums website and there are folks on there that have not heard of you and your love of worms. I told them that I decided to buy from you because of a video I seen of you harvesting worms by hand.

    Chris M.
     

  • Christy,

    Did I tell you the worms arrived in good shape and seem to be happy eating my kitchen scraps?

    Jo Ann N.

     

  • Hello Christy,

    I received the Worm Factory yesterday on time and in good shape.

    I am looking forward to transferring my “herd” from my single-storey bin to the new multi-level one.

    Thank you for the quick service and excellent videos on the web.

    Roy R
    .

     

  • Factory is all set up - so once you have a batch acclimated and ready I am ready for them. Your videos are warm and wonderful, full of worm love.

          John B

  • My Lanzones     (Lansium domesticum) that has been sitting on my frontyard without any signs of fruiting for many years, all of a sudden fruited this year after just 2 or 3 months on vermitea and vermicast.

    BEN
     

  • Christy,
    I love your videos and I've learned a lot from watching.

    Steve
     

  • Hi Christy, I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your pod casts. I just found them by accident. I been trying to figure this worm thing out for awhile. You did a good job of doing that. Also, your pod casts were so friendly. I sort of felt like I was sitting across the table from you.

    I can't wait to get the worm tower and get started.  Keep up the good work Christy! your a special person!

    Tom P
     

  • Hi Christy.

    The worms arrived today! I even saw one of the babies when I was looking in my bin. I couldn't believe how tiny it was. :)

    I live in an apartment building so the manager brought the package to my air conditioned apartment so they were just fine. Although I wonder what she thought of this box labeled "LIVE WORMS". :)

    Thanks again!
      Carla

     

  • Hi Christy,

    Just to let you know I received the 2 lbs. of red worms Thursday, June 5th, 2008. I received them in very good condition and am very happy with them. I'm using horse manure and they seem to be comfortable with that. I don't know how long it will take for the castings to appear, or when to harvest as of yet, but I'm sure that as I keep a close eye on things I will find out. Thank you very much for such a wonderful product.

    Best Regards,

    Dave
     

  • Received worms yesterday and they’re real healthy.

    Thanks,
    Michael

     

  • My worms arrived today and they are in good condition.

    Thank you,
    Amy

     

  • Yes, they arrived on Friday and they're great. Moving around and eating our veggie and fruit scraps already.

    Thank you!
    Liz
     

  • Christy,

    I did receive the worms today and did not see any that were not alive. I have transferred them to a 10 gallon tub that I modified with holes, according to the directions. They are all moving and seem to be "happy".

    Thank you,
    Cathy
     

  • The worms arrived alive and well, and are fast finding a new home.

    Jack
     

  • Hi Christy.

    Worms safely arrived yesterday P.M. While I've no experience or much knowledge about worms, I'd say they were fat and happy. They've been enthroned in nice new digs...with much to feast on to welcome their arrival.

    Thanks Again. Larry D
     

  • Hi Christy,
    Just wanted to let you know that we received our worms and they all looked fat and happy .....even the lil' babies!!

    Thanks again!
    Sandra G



     

 * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Vermicompost Teas
Suppress Parasitic Nematodes and Arthropod Pests. 
(hint:  aphids and spider mites are arthropod pests)


The availability of a wide range of commercial tea brewing equipment has the use of teas expanding.  More and more people are trying their hand at brewing tea in order to organically attempt to solve a pest problem or nutrient defeciency.

These teas are used by organic gardeners and farmers to promote plant growth by controlling the plants environment. Tea can be applied as a soil drench and foliar spray. Uses are increasing as effectiveness is gradually be established.  More reliable sources are popping up and offering proof of successes being achieved by using these teas.

The Ohio State University, with Clive Edwards in the lead has shown that agitation or aeration during production of vermicompost teas is absolutely necessary if teas are to be effective. Further research is under way into how well vermicompost teas work. Evidence indicates that the microbial activity, diversity, key nutrients and enzymatic activity from solid vermicompost does indeed make it into the teas.

Experience has proven that the sooner a vermicompost tea is used after brewing the more effective it is in having an influence over plant growth and in suppressing pests and disease. The longer the tea goes without aeration and food the beneficials in the tea begin to die off.

Controlled experiments were done assessing the effects of vermicompost teas on plant parasitic menatodes and arthropod pests. It has been proven through these tests that vermicompost teas showed specatcular results and were very similar to those experiments that used solid vermicompost.

This next statement is taken directly from article written for BioCycle December 2007, Vol. 48, No. 12, p. 38 by Clive A. Edwards, Norman Q. Arancon, Eric Emerson and Ryan Pulliam, authors from the Soil Ecology Laboratory at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

"...aerated vermicompost teas suppressed the aphid populations significantly (P < 0.05) compared with the water control treatment whereas the aerated thermophilic compost tea had no significant effects on the aphid populations.
These results on the suppression of aphids and spider mites by vermicompost teas were very similar to those obtained from growing plants in the greenhouse in Metro Mix 360, substituted with a range of solid vermicomposts (Arancon et al. 2007). The suppression of aphids is particularly important since they are key vectors in the transmission of plant viruses. It seems clear that there is a good potential for suppression of arthropod pests by both vermicomposts and vermicompost teas using methods very acceptable to organic growers and farmers."

In other words,  tea brewed from compost from worms out-performed tea brewed from conventional compost in suppressing aphid populations.  In fact, the worm compost tea performed as well as adding vermicompost to the soil.

Dr. Clive Edwards is known to say that vermicompost will out-perform conventional compost every time because of the wide variety of beneficials present in the vermicompost compared to those present in conventional, thermophilic compost.

For information on tea brewers please fill out the form below:

My personal recommendation for a small scale tea brewer:

 KIS® 5-Gallon Compost Tea Brewer
 

Compost Tea

What is compost tea?  As it is with many things, it is many things to many different people.  What do you think compost tea is?

Is compost tea a fertilizer?


Not all compost tea is equal.

Way back in the "good ol' days" before electricity and the invent of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the gardener/farmer had natural ways to coax the most they could get from the land.  Back then they'd throw a heap of manure in a bucket, add water and let it sit for a spell (usually 7 to 14 days) until the water was a nice dark "tea" color.  Over the years the art of composting was developed and instead of using manure, the finished compost was used to make a tea which, in both cases, was used as a liquid fertilizer.  The by-product of this method would officially be called "Compost Extract".

Take a leap forward to present day.  Soil health has become a science and along with that has been the development of the science of vermicomposting and the bacteria or fungal rich tea that can be produced from the finished product.  But in order to do that requires more than dumping some vermicompost in a bucket and letting it sit.  Likewise, the "compost leachate" that is the dark solution obtained from the bottom of a worm bin or compost pile is not even close to the same thing as high quality compost tea or AACT ( Actively Aerated Compost Tea) that the experts are referring to when they speak of Compost Tea.  Compost tea, in modern terminology, is a compost extract brewed with a microbial food source — molasses, kelp, rock dust, humic-fulvic acids are common ingredients. The compost tea brewing technique is an aerobic process that extracts and grows populations of beneficial microorganisms 

The experts will tell you the most valuable compost tea is one that has been brewed with an aerator and some sort of food source for bacteria.  Because that is what you should be growing when you brew compost tea.  The bacteria is what makes REAL COMPOST TEA a great value to the grower.

This is a relatively new field and there are many differing opinions, but there are a few facts that are hard to dispute:

  • Good compost is an absolute necessity - If you are going to brew a high-quality compost tea then you have to start with a high-quality compost.  You can only grow whatever you have present in your compost.  Therefore, if you are a professional grower, or if you are battling a particular problem you will want to know exactly what your have in your compost and you will want to have it tested.  But if you are just a gardener trying to improve on the health and productivity of your families crops then if you build a healthy compost with a variety of materials that should suffice.
  • A food source is essential - In order for your micro-organisms to grow in sufficient numbers there must be a food source.  The goal is to provide enough food to maximize your growth of beneficial organisms without over-producing and causing the tea to go anaerobic because the organisms use up all the available oxygen.
  • Oxygen - All living organisms need oxygen to live!  The organisms in your compost tea are no different.  If there isn't enough oxygen while you are brewing you will start growing anaerobic pathogens which are toxic to plants.  By keeping the oxygen levels high you are growing the good biology, which is what you want for your plants.

    Is Compost Tea A Fertilizer?

    It has been asserted that compost tea is a fertilizer.  Let's be clear that neither LCE (liquid compost extract) nor ACT (aerated compost tea) is a fertilizer in the traditional sense.  Both are biological, microbial stimulants with some nutritional value,  but NOT fertilizers.
     

    You can add some organic fertilizers like fish hydrolysate to the teas if you are looking to do fertilization at the same time.


     

Client Corner
 
 
In the spring of 2004, Gus Wahner sprayed 1/2 of this cherry tree with compost tea. He used a mixture of 4-gallons of compost tea and 1 c. of fish emulsions. These are the results after only one spraying! This is a great example of beneficial microbes increasing nutrient cycling. At harvest time, you can see the difference. Yields were higher and leaf mass and health was also better on the sprayed side. In fact, much of the fruit is actually obscured from view by all the foliage on the compost tea side!
 
 Gus runs Custom Composting Services in Hermiston, Oregon. He has been using compost tea for 3 years. Gus has been a proponent of organic practices and compost tea fits nicely into his program. You can contact Gus at gusatbiotea@aol.com or by phone at (541) 571-2300 for more information about his company or programs.
Not treated with
compost tea.
Treated with
compost tea.
 

This is a real life application of a brewed compost tea shared with me in a newsletter from the company where I bought my compost tea brewer.


KIS® 5-Gallon Compost Tea Brewer $140.00

 

Individual Foods for your 5-gallon brewer ($1.50/bag)-These food packets come ready to use  with your own compost for one 5-gallon brew.

Re-usable mesh bags ($5.50-$16.00 depending on size of brewer)


Another Variety of Tea
 

 

Herbal Tea

Plant-based extracts—stinging nettle, horse tail, comfrey, clover. A common method is to stuff a bucket about three-quarters full of fresh green plant material, then top off the barrel with tepid water. The tea is allowed to ferment at ambient temperatures for 3 to 10 days.  It is recommended that you stir the mixture a couple times a day. The finished product is strained, then diluted in portions of 1:10 or 1:5 and used as a foliar spray or soil drench. Herbal teas provide a supply of soluble nutrients as well as bioactive plant compounds.
 


Soil Foodweb                            

Humus, and organic matter in all it's many forms provide both food and shelter to the large diversity of life that lives in a healthy soil.  The soil foodweb is the community of biodiversity that lives in this environment.

Compost tea production extracts the plethora of microbial life in a quality compost and multiplies it by providing food and oxygen.  This growth includes beneficial bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes.  When compost teas are used as a foliar spray these beneficial micro-organisms occupy spaces on the leaf that would be used by pathogenic organisms and the beneficials actually eat the "food" the pathogens would have had for dinner.  As a result the pathogens die from lack of food and living space.

Ideally, the compost tea contains both an abundance and a diversity of microbial life which perform different functions.

A great resource of information regarding compost teas and the effects on soil health can be found here:  

Notes on Compost Teas:
A Supplement to the ATTRA Publication Compost Teas for Plant Disease Control

Pest Management Technical Note

 


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A Journey in Video

Plans are in the works for a series of videos that would take you from start to finish (so to speak) of how to have your own worm bin composting project.  Once the set-up process was complete the series will continue with the maintenance of the bin including feeding and harvesting worms and castings.

If you would like to be notified of the release of these videos please fill out the form below.  As always your information is safe with me.

 


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All About Christy Ruffner

"Teaming With Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web"

Sometimes scientists can talk over the layman's head and not even realize that the message is not being conveyed.  This book is written in a very understandable language, that even a simple worm farmer like myself could understand and relate to.  A must read for anyone who wants to learn more about the life producing your food.

Smart gardeners understand that soil is alive and what is in the soil is what supports plant life.  Healthy soil is exploding with life - beyond the worms and insects we can see with the naked eye - there are a multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microbial forms of life vital to the soil food web that sustains healthy plant life.  Resorting to chemicals destroys this delicate balance and results in an unhealthy situation for the soil, the plants, and the environment.  You can't destroy this balance and not have an affect on the people, the children, family and friends.  As gardeners, farmers, and inhabitants of the Earth we have an obligation to the next generation to leave behind a healthy soil.  Venture beyond your current understanding that good soil grows healthy plants and understand why...This book available now from Amazon.com by clicking on the buy link.

 

 

VermiCulture Northwest
6351 N Davenport St
Dalton Gardens, ID 83815
(541) 678-7005  (new phone number)

email me:  Christy@vermiculturenorthwest.com

 Christy Ruffner © VermiCulture Northwest 1997-2008