<Do you think that I would get good results from using this?>

You won't know unless/until you try it. I doubt that it will cause any harm unless there is something else you haven't mentioned.

I will point out that my worm bin does not excrete any leachate and it is my belief that any bin that does is receiving too much moisture from somewhere.

Some here seem to like that but I say IF you have worms climbing the walls of the bin they are trying to tell you they are not happy with the excess moisture - meaning the damn bin is too wet.

And IF you are getting leachate that confirms the bin is too wet.

So the bottom line is give what you have a go - I sure would.

When I raised the worms I would put a gallon of water in each bin a week and I had 4 bins at the time and the bedding was 6 to 8 inches deep. They never tried to get out.

The bedding was peat moss and Black Kow manure about half and the half, I would feed them worm food from Purina.

Now since the bedding is dried out can one take it and put it in a bucket of water and let it brew? Would your tea have any value by using this?

Can you tell me what would be the best Aerator? I see that they have one for a 5-gallon bucket. The pump that I have is a very good one.

First off, I'm not really experienced with making worm compost tea and I've only been raising worms since last October however I will give you my opinion if that might help. I believe the theory behind the power of compost tea is related to the microbes in the compost, if you multiple the numbers and build their health then apply to the garden it will boost the soil activity along with added slow-release nutrients thereby enhancing the health of your garden. I've been an all-grain brewer for two decades and do understand something about brewing up microbes (mainly yeast but in some cases certain bacteria). The infusion of atmospheric oxygen is to encourage aerobic bacterial growth, so you'd want to use a fine bubble (mist) type air stone (you might want to check with hydroponic stores or even eBay).... these stones have a high resistance associated with the fine pore structure (irrespective of what the manufacture advertises) and thus requires an air pump that can provide sufficient pressure without damaging the rubber diaphragm over time... something appropriate for deep water applications... also get enough stones for the pump volume or use ganged valves as bleed offs... the biggest killer of any air pump (that is not piston driven) is continuous excessive back pressure. If the pump you are planning on using is a cheap aquarium pump, then I would suggest getting a stone with larger pore structure obviously producing larger bubble size (the upside is they are much cheaper and easier to source... any store that sells pet supplies). In my all-grain brewing I use pure oxygen to goose the yeast starter batch and a very fine bubble size so it diffuses quickly into the yeast starter wort solution but I imagine doing that would be quite wasteful (not to mention quite expensive) for compost tea. Also I'd imagine the microbe populations in dried-out year-old worm bedding/castings might be weak or totally dormant so you might have to oxygenate/agitate quite a lot, several days to get a high level of activity going.

Not to be a bummer here but I've recently read a couple of different studies (university projects mostly) that failed to show that compost tea is effective over simply adding compost without the "activation routine" of making a tea. I've also read that some suggest its only powerful when used in a foliar spray application. I personally don't know either way what is true however I can believe that there is little control over uniformity of microbe composition from batch-to-batch and thus personal anecdotes, testimonies, and even university studies are liable to be poor predictors of the value of YOUR tea in YOUR garden. As for myself? it seems like too much work, so perhaps after I retire I'll experiment with making compost teas for the garden... until then I'll stick with brewing beer (that one's always worth the effort).

Good luck there... hope I've helped a little.

Send a beer my way!

What type of setup do you have?

I went with 4 wash sinks that Home Depot had on clearance and they work great if I would do it over again I would go with the bin type, I believe it would not be as much work. A being a caregiver it would be allotted easier to care too.

Not sure if your question above is directed at me or to gumby or just the general population....

I describe my set-up in this thread http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3573636/observations-from-someone-new-to-vermicomposting?n=27 and give a link to the exact bins I'm using in the 13th posting in the thread. I will have to update the thread soon here as I have made a LOT of observations and drawn quite a few conclusions since I last posted to that thread, however I'm so busy that I rarely seem to find the time to even read this forum much less post to it (as you may have noticed, I'm quite verbose in my postings so each one represent a significant time allotment).

I'd send you a beer but I never seem to have any "extras" laying around... too many relatives and friends who drink the stuff make sure of it. Actually beer, unlike wine, does not get better with age (after a certain point of lagering it will begin to go stale), that's one reason why homebrewer's always produce beer that's far better than anything the big guys can put on the store shelves (it also has to do with live yeast in the bottles scavenging any last bit of oxygen and protecting the flavor, there's several other reasons for this as well). There's actually a lot of microbiology associated with beer brewing... yes, and in homemade cheese and yogurt and kefir and kombucha and sauerkraut and pickled stuff and... well, let's just say we consume a lot of microbes around here.

I am by no means a tea expert but I can tell you when I make tea I use an old aquarium pump with stones purchased at Walmart. I started with a 5 gal bucket with a spigot in it and moved up to a 30 gal trash can with a spigot in it.

I should point out that before our time our ancestors made tea using manure and water in a barrel using a shovel to stir it. Plain and simple.

I think the only time you will notice any change in your plants following a foliar feeding is IF they are not getting the nutrients they need from the soil and those nutrients are readily available in the feeding.

Keep that in mind when evaluating your results. The same will apply when using the tea as a drench which may be more efficient.

I too do not have and never have had any leachate drainage from my bins. If I did have I would use this even diluted to water plants or to make tea. One thing for sure as long as the tea you make does not smell bad it should be fine.

How did you keep your bed moist?

I'm not Steve but let me try to answer this... most of the foods (with the exception of dry grains) will have more than enough water in them... plus worm bedding/castings seem to really hold moisture well. When I first started my bins I added water (you have to) and then only sprayed the surface with water couple times a week after that... even that proved to be way too much moisture and I had leachate (up to a cup a day sometimes) draining out until after a particularly large feeding of melon pulp when the white mite population exploded that's when I quit adding any water. That was back in December and I spent the next month with the lids off and daily fluffing the bed to finally manage to get it dry where the leachate eventually ceased. Since then I've not added any additional water other than what comes with the juicing pulp... and I try to keep from 4-6 inches of dry bedding (cardboard/kraft paper) on top to soak up any excess. This has been working quite well for the last 2 and a half months now.

All I feed the worms was dry worm food, perhaps that's what made the difference.

I never had any problems.

Wish that I could have keep going but being a caregiver takes allot of your time.