A true Christmas Story

A testimony to just one of the benefits of Worm Tea

My wife and I have for the past several years gone to North Carolina the weekend after Thanksgiving to get Christmas trees for ourselves and several family members. This year was no different we harvested 5 Fraser Firs from a tree farm on November 23rd 2002 bundled them up and lashed them to the roof of our SUV. The next day we headed home to Orlando, Florida. The trees were fully exposed to the weather during the 586 mile trip, in fact it snowed a little and the bases of the trees froze as a result of the wind-chill of 70 mph.

The Christmas tree spent the first 2 weeks in the bundle mesh it was placed into at the tree farm. On December 7th about 1 inch was removed from the base of the tree and it was placed in our Christmas tree stand positioned in the corner of our living room.

Over the past year I had used Worm Tea on my house plants and even cut lowers with good success. I started feeding the tree with a 50:1 dilution of water to Worm Tea. I always let the water sit on the window sill for a day to allow for de-chlorination. I was amazed to find that the tree drank nearly 24 oz. of the mixture in the first 24 hours nearly draining the stand. In my previous experience 24 oz. would last for 7 to 8 days. The tree continued to drink at this rate as long as the Worm Tea was added to the water. With the ornaments and lights in place, the tree never dropped an item. Usually by Christmas morning our trees in the past would drop 3 or 4 ornaments a day like the other 4 trees harvested this year.

After 2 weeks of feedings with the mixture, I was curious about the affect of the Worm Tea dilution. For 3 days the tree got only de-chlorinated water. Day 1 it drank only 8 oz., day 2 only 4oz.. and day 3 only a scant 3oz.. I attributed the step down to the residual Worm Tea remaining in the tree stand. The next day returning to the 50:1 dilution the tree sucked down 24 oz. and continued to do so until March 15th.

On January 10th, something caught my eye, new growth was observed near the top of the tree. Light green balls of new needles were forming. Not only was the tree not loosing needles (less than ½ cup since placed in the stand) but surviving, thriving and growing, as I would later discover, without any roots.

The tree was moved to the back porch on January 26th, well past the normal life expectancy of a Christmas tree, and I continued to water with the 50:1 worm tea dilution. The tree overall did well in its new environment, however, it did sustain some damage from the sun. This was a North Carolina Fraser Fir and was not use to our Florida sun where the temperatures between January 26th and March 15th sometimes hit the 75º F mark. The side exposed to the sun became dry and brittle loosing most of its needles. The side away from the sun continued to thrive with little needle loss and retention of good needle response to “hand-crushing”. These needles remained green, soft, and aromatic 3 ½ months after harvesting.

Finally removed our Christmas tree from its stand on March 15th in preparation of our grand-daughter’s birthday celebration. The tree still had that fresh pine smell. I fully expected to find a root system of some type but was surprised to observe the base of the tree was not changed from its condition when placed in the tree stand over 3 months ago.

Rick Moro

Dear Worm Solutions,.

When I saw you at the Farmers' Market Saturday, it reminded me of the success I've had using your Worm Tea. This spring my daughter and I planted Impatiens at our respective homes at about the same time. A day or so later I bought Worm Tea, came home and used it on my Impatiens. As the summer progressed, my flowers became HUGE, with beautiful brilliantly colored BIG blossoms and plants that have grown (literally) to almost three feet in height. They look like bushes rather than regular impatiens! In the meantime, my daughter's flowers (bought at the same time, same variety, same soil, etc.) are about six inches tall. While they are not unattractive, they are nothing extraordinary, they are just there.

I am SOOO impressed with this product! Thank you for introducing me to Worm Tea.

Sincerely,

Donna McMillan

Dear: Worm Solutions

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I can not tell you how much I love this product! It has made gardening andmy house plants fun and enjoyable. Watering it not a chore any more its a passion. My family has made several comments on how beautiful my plants are and how fast they are growing, I tell them my secret weapon is theWorm Tea. They were all skeptical at first and did not believe that it could make such a difference So I had toshow them I was not telling a lie. I bought two identical Ivy's, one I had fertilized with a common store brand and watered regularly for a month and the other with the Worm Tea (which by the way did not have the strong offensive odor that the common fertilizer had) and the difference in the Ivy's was amazing. The Ivy that I had water with Worm Tea was three times the size with bigger fuller leaves and even better cotor, stronger structure and just looked healthier. I love this product so much that for mothers day I gave it as gift to my mothers and aunts and they have since to come to be believers of this great product.

I tried the Worm Solutions product and have gotten such great results that now I try to buy plants that are hard to grow because I am not afraid any more, beacause I have Worm Solutions! My plants are growing faster and healthier and they are just beautful! I am addicted to this product. I have to have it.

So thanks again Worm Solutions from your happiest customer !

Sincerely,

Katie

Dear Selena,

I thought you would like an update on the red wrigglers I purchased from you about a month ago. I set up my worm bin according to the directions using finely shredded, moistened newspaper instead of strips of newspaper and covered the bedding with sheets of moistened (not wet) newspaper. I bought one pound of worms which you packaged so nicely in a brown paper bag with enough food for one week. I followed your advice and left the worms alone for about a week after I had them nested in their new home. I keep the bin in my garage and left a light on for about two weeks (also as you recommended) so the worms learned the bin was their new home. Now, a month later the worms are doing great.

The most important thing to maintain healthy worms, as you suggested, is to NOT OVERFEED. I feed my worms a mixture of finely diced green leaf lettuce, celery, parsley, carrots, peppers, carrot and radish tops, potato peelings, crushed egg shells, coffee grounds, and small amounts of fruit mixed in with the finely shredded newspaper. I put the food in small clumps so it is easy to asses how well the worms are eating. Right now I am feeding them 2 times a week. You mentioned that when the food starts to run low, I would find the worms up under the cover looking for food. Indeed, this is exactly what happens. They have already eaten through the entire bottom layer of the newspaper sheets and I have added another layer of moistened newspaper over the existing layer. The bin has no odor at all even when I lift the lid.

The bottom one-third of the tray is already filled with castings but I don’t have any worm tea yet. I have also noticed quite a few baby worms which were not there two weeks ago. One month into my worm adventure I can say my worms are fat and sassy, and very happy. And as my husband quipped “they are pooping like crazy.” Thank you so much for such high quality worms and the great advice for successful worm farming. I can’t wait for the compost and tea.

Sincerely, Mary W.

I buy your worm castings through the Oklahoma Food Coop and,
sometimes, at the OSU/OKC Farmers Market. Love 'em!

We moved recently and I had to pot some plants to go around the patio.
I ran out of my regular potting soil so, for one large pot, I reused
old soil from another pot and filled it the rest of the way with worm
castings, straight from the bag. I couldn't believe the results!
Although my other plants--the ones in new potting soil--have survived
this summer and look attractive, the one with the worm castings looks
like it should be in Jurassic Park! The leaves of my sweet potato vine
are larger than my husband's hand and the zinnias are twice as large
as my other ones and send out three times as many blooms!

I'm a believer!

Suzette Hatfield
Oklahoma City