Alkaline worm tea

[Hailun]

My worm tea is very alkaline, can I add something to correct this before using

[NAHamilton]

HI Hailun,

Would garden lime be a possibility?

Cheers,
Nigel

[Ryceman3]

I think lime may in fact make the mix more alkaline as my understanding is it is used to reduce acidity?? Maybe adding compost or other organic material can help to increase acidity.

Just a thought...

[NAHamilton]

I think lime may in fact make the mix more alkaline as my understanding is it is used to reduce acidity??

You're right, I got them round the wrong way

[Hailun]

thanks for the input, I am wanting to water my trees with it though

[treeman]

How alkaline? What is the pH? How are you testing it?
If it is higher than about 8 I would not use it. You can use lemon juice to bring it down from about 7 or 8 to 5.5-6.
Do you know how strong it is? (electrical conductivity?) Be careful!

[Hailun]

It is about 8 and I am wondering if there is anything I put in it that causes that..........vegetable matter excluding citrus, garlic and onion

[shibui]

8 is about normal for fresh compost but that soon comes back to about neutral after aging for a couple of months. I have not tested worm juice but even 8 is only just alkaline. It would take a lot of additions to alter the pH of a pot full of mix. Most mixes are on the acid side anyway and commercial ferts with high N tend to acidify soils so adding worm juice at pH8 should not hurt any of your plants and will probably just bring the acid mix back closer to 7.
Are you planning to use your worm tea exclusively? I use mine as one element in my fert regime and have not noticed any problem as a result.

[Andreas]

Interesting with the alkalinity, I use compost mix and worm compost in a bucket, aerate the mix constantly, all my plants love it.
I use palm sugar in the mix, 1kg on 100l of water, I mix my compost with water stir it several times for the next 3 hours and let the sediments fall, then I add this to the water. I just read that if we use forest (pine) and fungus on rotting leaves we get a tee that is more fungus based, good for all conifers. Haven't tried yet but soon to come. I live in the tropics (Jakarta), here most plants come in rice husk, when I repot all soil is removed, I water the first weeks 2-3 times a week on the newly repotted plants. It was very beneficial to establish them in the new soil non of the died even on bigger plants. I love to hear more about your experiences. I also use coconut husk for air layering, that I leave in the tee with grow hormones, sphagnum is hard to come by here in Jakarta.
Thanks for posting.