Liquid at the end is bad.

[Kurt S. Breault]

I was reading the other day about making a fertilizer from the worm castings and was takin back when I nread that the liquid that filters out at the bottom isn't good. Seems that there is an abundance of chemicals and parasites that are present in this liquid and not to use it on your plants. You are much better to just make liquid fertilizer from the castings and ignor the drippings. Has anyone else heard about this? I will try to find the article again and post it in the next couple. Thank you for any input, Kurt Breault

[Anne]

Think you are refering to leachate. Think of it more as drippings from wet foods that drained off. The tea is made from the castings that have higher microbial content and play nice with your plants. Leachate is undecomposed food liquids mainly.

[Kayla]

If you run through the topics here in the forum, you'll see quite a few from the past few weeks about the leachate at the bottom.
here's one: http://vermicomposters.ning.com/forum/topics/whats-your-experience-...

[Kurt S. Breault]

Yes I was refering to the Leachate. For a while I was under the belief that this was the fabled liquid gold. But sence then I have learned that it is the extract from the castings and water mixture. I will get up to speed with the forums, and thank you for the responce. Very cool indeed. :-}

[Steven Chow]

Even though I've read that leachate isn't ideal. I use it on some of my plants (diluted a bunch with water of course). I guess I feel like (a) even if it is just liquid drained from lettuce and other watery veggies it may still contains some nutrients and (b) the leachate has to filter/drip through several inches of VC on the way to my collection tray and might pick up some worm tea-like properties on the way down and (c) some chunks of VC actually drop through to the collection tray as well and are able to stew down there in the leachate/worm tea cocktail. Because of (c) what comes out isn't all liquid.. as there are crumbs that end up in there. I haven't noticed anything negative effects (nor positive) effects on my plants due to pouring diluted leachate/worm tea cocktail on them.... anyone else doing this even though you aren't "supposed to"?

[Hank Mobley]

I have used it similarly with good effects based on same deliberations. But I did dilute it 1:5 and bubbled it fist with molasses added, that way imho most of the unprocessed matter is processed anyway. What drains out mostly depends on what you've put in though.

[Kurt S. Breault]

With articles like this it seems the phytotoxins are derived from the plant itself in the form of fungi. And with the varied parts of the world that we get our plants from we cannot be readily sure the growing conditions or the chemicals used on them. Hence the liquid at the bottom can and does often carry somewhat large amounts of different forms of phytotoxins. And then add to this the anaerobic (stagnant) condition of the mixture. So, to introduce this to your plants is sharing a concentration of possible toxins to them which will only start to form aggregates of different compounds and eventually give rise to the death of your plants from of fungi. And if it is to be used on eatable plants, then you are only increasing the amount of poisons, herbicides, and pesticides you will induce. Now if you are using only “organically grown plant waste” to subsidize your food matter for your worms then that is a totally different story, good in should produce good out. The idea here is the safety of your plants and maybe your worms. I haven’t read anything as of yet in the toxicity of fungi’s to worms. I will keep on… :-}
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Noun 1. phytotoxin - any substance produced by plants that is similar in its properties to extracellular bacterial toxin
plant toxin
nicotine - an alkaloid poison that occurs in tobacco; used in medicine and as an insecticide
strychnine - an alkaloid plant toxin extracted chiefly from nux vomica; formerly used as a stimulant
brucine - a bitter alkaloid poison resembling strychnine and extracted from nux vomica
hemlock - poisonous drug derived from an Eurasian plant of the genus Conium; "Socrates refused to flee and died by drinking hemlock"
toxin - a poisonous substance produced during the metabolism and growth of certain microorganisms and some higher plant and animal species
mycotoxin - a toxin produced by a fungus
curare, tubocurarine - a toxic alkaloid found in certain tropical South American trees that is a powerful relaxant for striated muscles; "curare acts by blocking cholinergic transmission at the myoneural junction"

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Toxin Reviews
1995, Vol. 14, No. 4, Pages 523-543
Phytotoxins from Plant Pathogens as Potential Herbicides
Hamed K. Abbas and Stephen O. Duke
USDA, ARS, Southern Weed Science Laboratory, P. O. Box 350, Stoneville, MS, 38776
Abstract
Plant pathogens remain a largely untapped reservoir of natural compounds with potential as herbicides or as herbicide leads. Many preliminary studies have identified a variety of non-host-specific phytotoxins isolated from pathogenic bacteria and fungi that deserve further investigation. Host-specific phytotoxins are less numerous and have sometimes been shown to have broader spectra when tested on a variety of plants, including weeds. This may allow the application of these toxins or their analogs in weed management. The study of phytotoxins produced by weed pathogens is relatively new. This may be where the greatest chance of developing commercial herbicides lies. Because they are derived from weed-infesting pathogens, such phytotoxins may have more chance of being toxic to weeds and less likelihood of damaging crops. However, much work still needs to be done, including isolation, purification, and host specificity testing, as well as production and safety studies. Since the traditional methods of herbicide discovery are becoming less productive, the study of microbial-derived herbicides could be a major source of new herbicides and herbicide templates in the future. More effort should be expended in this area of research in the future, despite the obstacles that exist.
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Ascochyta blight of chickpea: Production of phytotoxins and disease management
Ahmad Ali Shahid , a, , Tayyab Husnaina and Sheikh Riazuddina
aNational Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology, 87-W Canal Bank Road, Thokar Niaz Baig, University of the Punjab, Lahore, 53700, Pakistan

Received 8 January 2008;
revised 15 June 2008;
accepted 16 June 2008.
Available online 22 June 2008.

Abstract
Ascochyta blight caused by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Lab., is the most devastating disease of chickpea and can occur anywhere the crop is grown. Several epidemics of blight causing complete yield losses have been reported. Despite extensive pathological and molecular studies, the nature and extent of pathogenic variability in A. rabiei have not been clearly established. Several isolates of A. rabiei were grown in liquid culture medium which secreted phytotoxic compounds of solanapyrone A, B, C and cytochalasin D. The same fungal metabolites were also recovered from extract of naturally blight stricken chickpea plants. Toxicity of purified solanapyrones as determined by cell bioassay was in the order of solanapyrone A > solanapyrone B > solanapyrone C. However, the specificity of all three compounds was dependent on the genetic identity of the chickpea cultivars. Seed treatment and foliar application of fungicides are commonly recommended for disease management, but further information on biology and survival of A. rabiei is needed to devise more effective management strategies. A short description of chickpea blight, geographical distribution, disease cycle, symptoms, losses, production of phytotoxins and disease management practices for the control of Ascochyta blight will be discussed in this review article.

[Jason]

Now that's what I call a useful post.

[Kurt S. Breault]

In responce to:

Permalink Reply by Hank Mobley 13 hours ago
I have used it similarly with good effects based on same deliberations. But I did dilute it 1:5 and bubbled it fist with molasses added, that way imho most of the unprocessed matter is processed anyway. What drains out mostly depends on what you've put in though.

I was wondering about the comment of Molasses and unless this is being used as adhearing agent to the leaves, its not necessary. The microbes will build up as a natural layer by themsleves. As an additive to the soil, this is still somewhat new, like the worm compost water extract and I found the preceding artical as an indicator to the amount of Molasses to water. At these rates, you would put something like a finger tip moist with Molasses to a 1 liter bottle of liquid and thats probably to much. It goes something like this...

1 hector = 2.258 acre's
1 acre = 43,560 sq.ft.

1 acre...43,560 (43,560sq.ft.) x 1 hector 2.258 acres = 98,358.48 sq.ft.....
1 liter of liquid divided by 98,358.48 sq.ft. = 0.0000101 of a liter....so that is your ratio...
0.0000101of a liter to 1 sq.ft.
Here is the article on this sights link:
http://www.home-garden-soil-improvement.com/kelp-humic-acid.html Laters all :-}

[Jason]

It's exceedingly common in tea recipes to see a call for molasses. Usually no more than 1 tablespoon (to 5 gallons or so of liquid)and usually not at the beginning, presumably to prevent a premature population explosion of the micro-organisms. Everything I've read has it as microbe food not an adherence agent.

It is worth noting that the recipe I'm most familiar with says it's perfectly fine to leave it out.

[Hank Mobley]

maybe, EMs for bokashi are made with molasses though, and it's rich in Mg.

[Kurt S. Breault]

Oh cool... would you please link me this source... The more we know the better off we'll be... Thanks Dude

[Anne]

Well... blackstrap molasses also has a fair amount of nutrients that it brings to the microbe bonanza. Spiking the tea with it is also adding trace elements like manganese, iron, copper, potassium, magnesium and calcium. So if the microbes are feeding off the sugars and blooming... and it is also adding trace elements to the mix... party on.