What do worms, worm poop (also known as castings), and a big aerator have to do with growing functional herbs on Gaia Herbs’ regenerative organic herb farm?
As it turns out, quite a lot!
Read on to learn all about Gaia Herbs' new farm project utilizing homegrown compost tea to create more vigorous plants and healthier soil.
What Is Compost Tea?
Compost tea is a staple soil amendment, natural fertilizer, and non-toxic pest control used in regenerative organic agriculture.
It’s made by combining high-quality compost, in Gaia’s case, worm castings, with water and molasses, and aerating it.
The water extracts beneficial organisms—such as friendly bacteria, nematodes, fungi, and microarthropods—from the compost; the molasses keeps those organisms fed and allows them to multiply, and the aeration provides oxygen, which keeps everything alive and healthy.
After about two days, this process creates a nutrient-rich tea that can be applied directly to plants as a spray, offering them all the benefits (and more) of compost application, without the need for thousands of pounds of solid compost.
The Vision Behind Using Compost Tea on Gaia Herbs' Farm
One of the things that sets Gaia Herbs apart is that we grow many of the herbs used in our products on our 270-acre regenerative organic certified herb farm (™) (ROC) in Brevard, North Carolina.
A significant part of practicing regenerative organic agriculture is building and maintaining soil health, which is where compost tea shines.
Gaia Herbs Farm Operations Manager Zachary West explains the vision behind this new project.
“For us, it’s all about getting life back into the soil. We started doing some compost tea applications last year, and we had the idea to bring a little worm farm onto our farm to produce worm castings.”
Worm castings, also known as worm poop produced through the process of vermiculture, are considered by many to be the world’s richest natural fertilizer—black gold! They can be applied directly to the soil as compost or made into a nutrient-rich compost tea.
West researched several worm farm options and found what they needed through Hiawasse Products in Tennessee.
It took about a month for the worms to adjust and start the composting process.
“We’re at the point now, and we’ll be making our first batch with our own castings next week.”
Why Gaia Herbs Makes Compost Tea On-site
Compost tea and compost tea kits can be purchased, but they’re not ideal.
Here are several reasons Gaia Herbs makes compost tea on-site:
1: It Helps Create A Closed System
Gaia Herbs always aims to produce as much as possible from our land and resources, rather than outsourcing.
This helps reduce our carbon footprint (compost requires a lot of fuel to truck in) as well as costs.
2: An Established Worm Farm Will Produce Continuously
A worm farm doesn’t require extensive maintenance.
Once it’s set up and the worms are established, they will continue producing castings as long as you keep providing them a food source.
Since Gaia has an abundance of compost material from our herb and vegetable farms, this provides everything the worms need to produce castings.
3: Quality Control & Shelf Life
Unlike compost, which can typically continue to improve as it sits for several weeks or even months, compost tea is more volatile.
“Another reason I wanted to make our own is that compost tea goes bad within a couple of days, so I keep it aerated the whole time, and I know what’s in it. I have a microscope here so I can take samples throughout those two days and see the multiplication of those microbes and make sure everything is where it needs to be.”
How Much Compost Tea Does it Take to Fertilize 270 Acres of Herbs?
When you think about how much compost it would take to fertilize 270 acres, most would envision a 10-mile line of dump trucks.
Not so with compost tea, which requires only 2-3 gallons of worm castings to fertilize the whole farm.
West gives an insider look at the process: “Our operation is pretty small. We take 2-3 gallons of this new material [worm castings] and brew about 250 gallons of compost tea, so a little bit of worm castings goes a long way.
“With that 250 gallons, we can cover the entire farm. Once we brew the tea, we dilute it down more before we put it in the sprayer.”
The final solution is about 20% compost tea and 80% water.
The tea is applied using a low-pressure sprayer that won’t kill or disrupt the beneficial microbes, and a specialized tractor designed for raised beds.
“We try to start early in the morning, and usually we can spray everything by the end of that day. I have one guy who’s dedicated to that all day.”
That’s 2-3 gallons of worm castings and a day’s work to spray the entire farm.
The Benefits of Compost Tea
Many people think of compost as a soil amendment, but when used as a tea, it can do so much more.
West explains that the fungus and bacteria in compost tea provide benefits for the aerial parts (the plant parts above the ground) by creating a second skin around the leaves, shielding them from disease and pests.
The real magic, however, is what happens when the microbes get into the soil, particularly around the roots.
“There are many symbiotic relationships where the plant is photosynthesizing and releasing sugars, which it releases right around the root zone, and there are tons of bacteria and fungi that take advantage of that sugar and will bring the plant nutrients in exchange for that sugar."
“So, unlike animals or microbes, plants have the ability to create their own sugar. We want to figure out how to get sugar from plants into the soil to feed the beneficial soil microbes, and that’s what the microbes do.”
West compared this to the human body, specifically the microbiome, which relies on a symbiotic relationship between nutrients coming in from foods and beneficial gut bacteria that interact with those nutrients to create optimal digestive conditions for good health, inflammatory response, immunity, and more.
The soil is akin to the plant’s microbiome, and compost tea helps facilitate the give-and-take relationship between nutrients and beneficial soil microbes that keep both plants and the soil healthy.
Other Benefits of Applying Compost Tea Include:
- More resilient plants
- Better soil biology
- Greater pest resistance
- A more stable ecosystem, which would lead to less need for compost tea applications over time
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Reduced need for compost and other organic soil amendments
The big takeaway: compost tea nourishes, protects, and feeds plants and soil while supporting their symbiotic relationship. All while requiring minimal and sustainable resources.
Compost Tea is Just One Piece of the Soil Health Puzzle
Gaia Herbs' worm farm and compost tea project will contribute immensely to our regenerative organic farming practices.
However, West remarked that they are just one facet of Gaia Herbs’ commitment to soil health.
“I talked about the benefits of compost tea for plant and soil health and to help reduce our compost application, but another essential part is planting cover crops after the cash crop."
“It’s super imperative always to have a living plant in the ground all year so they’re constantly pumping that sugar into the soil and keeping the microbes alive, so that cuts down on the work we have to do.”
“So cover cropping in addition to compost tea, and not just winter cover cropping but summer cover cropping too.”
That will have to be a topic for a future article.
Want to Make Your Own Compost Tea for Organic Gardening?
Compost tea isn’t just for large-scale farming; with the right tools and know-how, you can make your own for your home herb, vegetable, or flower garden.
West recommended the following resources for DIY compost tea at home:
Hiawasse Products for all things compost and compost tea, including worm composting supplies
Tea Lab for compost tea starter, brew kits, brew bags, aerators, and helpful online training resources
Soil Food Web Training for those serious and passionate about regenerative organic agriculture, soil health, and all things compost
Related reading: How To Grow Your Own Herbs
To learn more about Gaia Herbs’ approach to regenerative organic herb farming, check out the following articles:
Nurturing Over 2.5 Million Seedlings and Our Free Farmer’s Market: What’s Happening on the Gaia Herbs Farm in Summer 2023
The Who and the Why of the Gaia Herbs Farm Worker Housing Project
Gaia Herbs 2023 Sustainability Report: How We’re Implementing A Sustainable, Transparent, & Regenerative Business Model
Gaia Herbs' Vegetable Program: Free Vegetables All Season Long for Our Employees and Community
