Worm tea - bacteria propagation

[Gray]

I have a bucket of worm tea. If I feed and oxygenate will the bacteria propagate and hence give me a continuous supply of fertilizer?
There would be no need to go through the messy process of soaking worm casts and the quality and quantity would be more contolable.
Is ordinary sugar suitable for feeding the bacteria?

 

[NigelJ]

Yes some of the bacteria and yeasts will increase if fed. However the nutrients will not increase as you still only have what was in the bucket at the start of feeding. Bioavailability may change, organic matter should increase. I would just use the "worm tea" now and the sugar to brew some beer. Then the waste from that process could be composted, I could process the beer and distribute the byproduct as required.

 

[Chuck]

I have a bucket of worm tea. If I feed and oxygenate will the bacteria propagate and hence give me a continuous supply of fertilizer?
There would be no need to go through the messy process of soaking worm casts and the quality and quantity would be more contolable.
Is ordinary sugar suitable for feeding the bacteria?

Do not wait to either use it or oxygenate it as it will quickly go anaerobic and all of the bacteria will die for lack of oxygen. What you are doing is basically the same as for compost tea except you are growing limited types of bacteria. This is because you are only using worm castings as the base of the tea instead of multiple bacterial types as in regular teas. Instead of sugar to feed I use molasses as it has many times more trace elements than sugar water. I always incorporate worm castings into my tea but the largest ingredient is my homemade compost.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Yes some of the bacteria and yeasts will increase if fed. However the nutrients will not increase as you still only have what was in the bucket at the start of feeding. Bioavailability may change, organic matter should increase. I would just use the "worm tea" now and the sugar to brew some beer. Then the waste from that process could be composted, I could process the beer and distribute the byproduct as required.

Well said. I pee what you did their.