Well I suppose my question wasn't as specific as it should have been-though I really liked the thorough response! Thanks!; having started a compost tray-style worm bin from organic indoor house scraps newspaper and corrugated cardboard, can I be assured that a colony of nematodes will find a way in and start in it?
and a question of the tea---I'd heard of raising bought microbe additives with molasses before, but this sounds excellent; my question, if one used half a large bucket of water, and an adjustable air compressor wand, to aerate it-till it's near the top, violently, could the process be sped up?
another note, my tray setup makes tea in the bottom tray; perhaps I could just add the kelp and molasses and a fish pump and let it work simultaneous with the worms, only using the air compressor for the warm months and the large outdoor garden?
Poet
Answer: Poet- garden compost (from a compost pile) and vermi-compost are different from each other, in that garden compost is made by decomposing organic material with millions of beneficial micro-organisms, whereas vermi-composting uses mainly the redworms.
While nematodes populate garden compost, I'm just not sure if they would populate vermi-compost the same way. Adding a handful of garden compost to your worm bin would introduce a population of nematodes to the vermi-compost if you want to give it a try.
There isn't a whole lot you can do to speed up the brewing process of compost tea....growing a large population of beneficials is limited in speed by cell division. A temperature just a few degrees warmer might speed it up a little bit, but if you have ever made your own wine you know that this would also give pathogens the advantage over the beneficials.
Last, you won't be able to make compost tea from your vermi-compost....at least not the same kind I described to you. Don't get me wrong- vermi-compost tea is an excellent additive in it's own right....but you want to use garden compost for the kind of compost tea I describe, because it is the beneficial micro-organisms that made the compost that you want to increase.
