(Video)Worm tea is the in-thing

Treat your garden to a tea party. This sentence will most probably make you read twice. No, it is no typo-error. Chris and Charmaine Truter really invite your garden to a tea party.

Unfortunately no Earl Grey tea, coffee and cake will be served, instead, you will get some healthy worm tea.

Worm tea is made of worm casting.

This very special tea is a gardener’s secret weapon and nature’s most perfect plant food wrapped into one.

It is the most potent natural fertilizer in the world.

Worms are on the front line of the composting world.

They ‘wee’ so good, because they eat so good.

“Worms are so good at it, there is even a special word for their composting, called vermicocomposting. Vermicomposting is a process that benefits the health of the soil and produces digestive excrement called castings that can be used to produce an all-natural fertilizer and pesticide,” Charmaine explained.

Most of the time when you grow plants, soil that’s full of fertilizer can burn the roots and permanently damage the plant. With castings, however, all the healthy nutrients that the plant needs are water-soluble and can be absorbed right away.

“You also don’t have to worry about putting too much casting material into the soil, because it will never burn the roots of your plants or flowers,” Chris added.
Digging deep into the rich soil on their smallholdings on the outskirts of eMalahleni, Chris explained that earthworms are the hardest working gardeners there are.
“The better the soil, the more earthworms you will find,” Chris said.

He explained they are excellent in shredding and burying decaying plants, mixing the soil, they improve water capacity and loosen the soil and make it porous.

The couple’s earthworm compost business started when their mealies grew up to a record height in their back garden in town, but not one cob was found on their plants.

“I started attending gardening classes and soon realized our problem was a lack of compost,” Charmaine said.

She dug deep and did a lot of research and ended up with a small earthworm garden. The results were amazing as their mealie plants produced several cobs on a plant after she administered earthworm compost.

The ‘worm’ literally bit her there and then.

They moved to the smallholdings in 2018 where their hobby became a full-time job when time allows. Today The Worm Farm produces good quality compost and of course the famous worm tea.

Worms need to eat. Therefore, Charmaine and Chris ask farmers for their cow dung, paper they can shred and raw wood shavings they can use to serve the worms a feast.

If you can help or if you are interested in hosting a tea party for your garden, phone Charmaine or Chris on 076 144 5876.