Testimonials

Below is an email sent to us by Rupert Surcouf on April 7, 2008

Thank you, all of my plants are amazing this year thanks to your worm tea!
Best Regards, rupert

Below is an email sent to us from Jason Yasuda on August 27, 2007:

I have already purchased some of your worm tea and absolutely love it. I have only been using it for about 2 weeks and already have noticed a difference in my orchids. I am using it in a semi-hydroponic (wick
method) for my orchids. I am looking forward to actually trying it fully hydro/aeroponic for orchid seedlings.

I am now interested in the can-o-worms. I live in the desert though and am worried about the temperature here. In the summer, regular daytime highs are around 115-120F and lows at night around upper 80's
to low 90's. This does make for a real nice winter where night temps are rarely below 40F, with usual highs in the low 60's.

Will I have to house this indoors? Will I have problems with the shipping of the worms because of the high heat in the summer? What is the min/max range of temperature for these to survive and thrive?

Thanks for your time and great product.

Below is a letter sent to us from Lynn Heizer:

Dear Bernie,
Just wanted to let you know how happy we are with the products that we have gotten from you over the past year or so. The "worm tea" in a bottle (all gone now...need MORE) we have used to successfully treat a fungal infection on a yard plant and it has also been the main source of fertilizer (uesd full-strength, by the capful) for my orchids (on the recommendation of the owners of Paradise Orchids in Howie). The orchids have been blooming and blooming and blooming, growing new shiny, deep-green leaves to replace the sometimes pale or damaged leaves that they come with when purchased or rescued from places that do not specialize in orchids. I can almost literally watch the new air roots grow by the day. We also purchased two bags of the worm soil from you near the end of last year. I had some day lillies that had been installed as part of our original landscape in our planned community. The landscape folks did not even release the roots from the potbound plants when they put them in the ground. A year and a half from their installation in our yard, they were still "pot bound" in the ground! I dug the 8 plants up, divided them, soaked their roots overnight in water laced with the worm tea and then planted the now 31 plants in newly improved holes containing a generous scoop of the worm soil. I expected the plants to need a season of recovery before seeing any significant improvements but all of them are producing blooms and the leaves are dark green, glossy and full. I am very happy. We are going to be making two raised beds in the back yard to grow vegetables and cutting flowers and will be using your worm soil as a basis for the new beds. Will also be using our next (bigger) bottle of worm tea to fertilize those unfortunate plants that are already established that we cannot dig up and replant in that improved soil. We wish to garden as organically as possible and we do believe that we will be able to do just that with the assistance of your fine products. Next, I hope to get a worm farm from you to begin putting the kitchen scraps to better use than lining the trash can. Keep up the great work.
Love those worms!!
Lynn Heizer

Below is an email sent to us from P. Griffin on July 22, 2007:

I purchased a bottle of Wonder Worm Tea at the Flower Show in Mt Dora for my camelias.  They had a powdery mildew very bad.  I used the Wonder Worm Tea on them and it helped tremendously.  I have used it on almost everything in my yard now and all my plants are doing much better.  I am here to purchase more.

P. Griffin
Eustis, FL.

Below is an email from Jan Vena sent to us on June 30, 2007:

After reading an article about worm tea and what it seemed to do for others, I ordered some to give it a try. I didn\'t know much about it and went into it with an open mind but not knowing what to expect. After using it on my orchids for 2 months, Bernie and Carl came to speak at an orchid meeting at Greater Orlando Orchid Society where I belong. All of the benefits were presented and I then knew just why I was seeing such a change in my plants.  At about the same time I was noticing a lot more blooms, spikes and new growth on my orchids.  I had no more problems with scale and my plants were healthier looking than they had ever been. The only change I had made was using the worm tea. This stuff is spectacular! It work and is worth a try to anyone who has any doubt. I have also gotten great results for black spot on my rose bushes. Now with my own worm farm I feel I can contrubute to our environment and supply my yard and folage with the very nutrients they need and is safe for them.  Carl and Bernie, thank you for you help in getting me started!!

Jan Vena
Orlando, FL
alanvena@bellsouth.net

Below is an email from Jerry Meola sent to us on April 9, 2007:

The photo of a Lady Slipper in hydroponic rocks is an improvement on my 'all water' Lady Slippers from last year. The plants stay more evenly wet and fed and when I use Worm Tea as the solution rather than water. It feeds and protects the plant as well. The hydroponic rocks make the water level less critical. The Worm Tea feeds and protects the plant. Since Slippers like dark areas they are perfect for anywhere indoors.

Gardeners have been using worms to improve their soil for thousands of years.

Worm Tea is the composted product of worms concentrated and fed with additional rock minerals to give all the best features of gardening with worms, microbes, growth hormones, natural fertilizer and over 70 micro nutrients in a commercial package.

Extensive research has been done at Ohio State University on its benefits as a fertilizer, growth hormone, fungicide and insecticide. They processed the tea like a tea bag draining water over the compost. When made in that manner, it has a usable life of a few days. http://www.wormdigest.org/content/view/311/2/

I did a garden show at Mount Dora Florida and met Bernie Moro with her husband Carl and daughter, the owners of OurVitalEarth.

They were selling their worm products and while we were talking Renee, who is not an orchid grower showed me the Vanda she bought the year before at the show. She watered it with Worm Tea only once a month. She just did not know Vanda need more water. The flowers were gorgeous and had been in bloom for three months. I was shocked. (See picture below)

Bernie told me they recycle the water over 40 times back over the worms while they are composting. This concentrates the tea and results in a shelf life of nine months rather than a few days. The process was developed in Australia, where composting garbage with worms is a decade ahead of us. The product is so alive with microbes that the cap needs to be kept loose on the container so that the gases they release can expand.

I bought a commercial quantity and after using it for only once, I was impressed. My Vanda roots looked better after 10 days without further water then one watered every day. The velum was not dried smooth, but still had that puffy look of freshly watered.

Further experiments have been even more impressive. Worm Compose in this form is a natural fungicide and insecticide. It kills spider mites, aphids and mealy bugs with one spraying. It can even KILL Asian Scale on Sago Palms in a week with 3-4 sprayings. It is organic and totally safe. No more poisons

The solution has tens of thousands of beneficial live microbes. They absorb directly into the leaves and roots, encouraging the plants natural immunities. Sprayed directly onto the flowers, it took a plant that had suffered heat damage in transport to enable the flowers to straighten up within two hours.

Everything about it has been a positive. I am using it regularly on all my orchids and have eliminated insecticides. It is all I use for fertilizer in my hydroponic Lady Slippers.

There is a longer discussion on the Internet so check it out.

http://www.orchidgeeks.com/forum/newbie-questions/2100-worm-tea-testing-follow-up-wow.html

On January 8, 2007, Taylor Bulloch from Orlando Florida sent the folowing email:

I grew up in North Florida on my family\'s plant nursery, studied Landscape Design in college and am an avid gardener in my spare time. In other words, I love tilling the earth and growing beautiful gardens, it's in my blood. When I found Our Vital Earth I could not wait to try this system. At first I tried fertilizing sample plants that were smaller than others of the same variety in my garden. What a difference this stuff made!!! Large, very noticable growth spurts within the week! I now use it on everything and my yard looks better than ever, I know because my neighbors have told me so. Not only is my yard work more satisfying now, I feel proud that I am giving back to my small piece of the planet after it has given me so much.

On December 14, 2006, Jerry Meola from Pelican Coast Farms, Inc.out of Fort Myers Florida posted the article below on http://www.orchidgeeks.com about using our worm tea on his orchids.

Gardeners have been using worms to improve their soil for thousands of years.
Worm Tea is the composted product of worms, concentrated and fed with additional rock minerals, to give all the best features of gardening with worms, microbes, growth hormones, natural fertilizer and over 70 micro nutrients in a commercial package. Extensive research has been done at Ohio State University.
http://www.wormdigest.org/content/view/311/2/

I recently did a garden show at Mount Dora Florida and met Bernie Moro with her husband Carl and daughter,Renee, the owners of OurVitalEarth. They were selling their worm products and while we were talking Renee, who is not an orchid grower showed me the Vanda she bought the year before at the show. She watered it with Worm Tea only once a month. She just did not know Vanda need more water. The flowers were gorgeous and had been in bloom for three months. I was shocked.


Bernie told me they recycle the water over 40 times back over the worms while they are composting, which concentrates the tea and results in a shelf life of nine months rather than a few days. The process was developed in Austrlia.

I bought a commercial quantity and after using it for only once last month, I am impressed. I do not like to recommend something that I have not tested longer, but the first results were amazing. My Vanda roots looked better after 10 days without water then one watered every day. The velum is not dried smooth, but still has that puffy look of freshly watered. I have soaked all my orchid species so far and this week I intend to start spraying the leaves with Worm Tea to control fungus and insects. We will see how it goes.

Letter received in November 2006

Thank you so much for sending the Worm Tea.  My grapefruit tree is the living proof how great this stuff is.  

Tanny B.
Clermont, FL

Email dated 9/17/2006

Dear Bernie and Carl,

Wow!  You guys were fantastic!   Your presentation was just wonderful, so full of information as well as amusing.  I just love that worm tea.  I keep it specially now to spray roses and water my newly propagated stuff. 

There were so many nice remarks about you from our members.  And wasn't that funny when Tricia got up and yelled "I want that!  Nobody else can buy it!!" 

It was really refreshing to see you there when I walked in at 8:15!  I usually sweat it out, literally, until I see the speaker.

So we will look forward to seeing you on Wednesday, October 11th at our Fall Festival.  We're expecting two nurseries and they will have the spaces by the doorways where you were and where the refreshments were.  We'll set you up on the other side of the room.  The rec center opens at 7:00 and I will be there at 7:30 setting up. 

If you have any questions, or need anything, please feel free to call me.  And again, many thanks for your wonderful worm presentation.

Sincerely,

Anne Lambrecht
President, Villages Garden Club North
352-751-4380

Dear Bernie,

I'm writing to tell you about my porcelain roses.
I do not have much luck with roses, and with all the rain we've been getting here in the Northeast, I would have even less luck. I do however, have a couple of climbers that make it every year. This particular climber is four years old. Every year I spray it for aphids and black spot with a chemical spray, and every year the climber gets blackspot and aphids!
I wanted something natural so I wouldn't kill the lady bugs when I sprayed, which is how I happened upon worm tea.
I was very skeptical, as the directions stated that you must spray in the evening, however, I sprayed in early spring, and each time after it rained. I noticed the leaves were a lot darker than they had ever been and shiner, too. After the buds opened I noticed that the flowers were larger than normal and the fragrance was absolutely spicy, just as the catalog said they should be. The flowers actually looked like porcelain. I kept looking at them in disbelief!
I also spray my small fruit trees with worm tea, and they seem to be doing quite well, despite almost endless rain.
I used to sneak out in early morning to spray my chemicals, and now I am quite proud to be spraying something so healthy.
Thank you so much for your wonderful product.

Best Regards,
Teresa Tromp

Letter received from Maryann Utegg  Horticulture Exhibit Superintendent/ Central Florida Fair 2006.

On behalf of the Central Florida Fair, I would like to thank you for participating in this year's Horticulture Exhibit.  Our Vital Earth has become a mainstay of the exhibit building and I cannot immagine a fair without all of you there.  Not to mention the fun during Student Feild Trip Day with the "worm snacks"!  It is always nice to be with people who enjoy what they do as much as we do!

Given the great response we received from both fair directors and visitors, I know the horticulture exhibit will continue to grow each year and I hope that Our Vital Earth will continue to be a part of it.

It is always a pleasure to work with you.  Thank you again for your support.

Warmest regards,
Maryann Utegg
Horticulture Exhibit Superintendent

May 6, 2006

Dear Bernie,

Horrors! I was out potting some plants this afternoon, using your worm castings and enjoying the glow of knowing I was giving my plants every advance when alas! - I realized I had written your check and thought I'd get around to this testimonial.

Please forgive me. I never meant to abuse your kindness.
Most sincerely,
Brenda E. Seip
Now for the most astonishing bits of news.

The dazzling results of using worm castings and worm tea were touted in my local paper several years ago by a worm farmer in Denver known the width and breath of Colorado for his prize winning roses. I clipped it for future reference. Going through some files the article drew my attention so a call was put in to my local Agricultural Department in Cocoa, Florida. Needing information on a local worm farmer, they informed me that Wonder Worm farmer Bernie had been a guest speaker for them and came highly recommended.

The  necessary arrangements were made and my castings and worm tea.arrived. Yea! For twenty years I'd grown lack than spectacular orchid and therefore was thrilled with the occasional bloom. I decided to do a little experiment. I repotted the orchids that were in need with a mixture of orchid chips and worm castings and then placed them in my wheel barrow with a diluted solution of worm tea being careful to wash their leaves and gently cup the solution over the edge of their pots. On the weekends I'd water them with the tea solutions careful to collect all the solution that drained so I could reuse it.

Would you believe me if I told you that seven of my orchids bloomed at the same time and with multiple blossoms?? I invited my neighbors over and my friends... the scent and eye candy were delightful. I think the experiment was a success because I also worked some of the worm castings into the soil around an established gardenia - at present the plant is so ladened with blooms that I cut ten or fifteen off every day or two and have shared with all my friends. My home smells heavenly and as you drive by that plant is the focal point. Plus, I used the deluted tea on the plant.

The third biggy and then I'1l.stop, I promise!

All my life I've yearned to grow my own tomatoes. This was the spring that I decided to take the bull by the horns. After consulting with several friends one little spindly tomato plant was purchased at my local garden center. Friends had told me to plant the plant and its peat pot in a much larger pot with potting soil and to bury 60% of the plant. I liberally mixed the castings and potting soil and planted my little baby. I affixed a metal support and it is a good thing!!

The plant was in planted as of March 25 with only four inches and four small leaves above the soil - six weeks later there are fourteen gorgeous tomatoes. My four inch plant is now a robust two and a half feet tall with good sturdy growth and an over abundance of tomatoes! My gardening friends are agog. I don't know when the first one will ripen, since this is my first time trying, but I can already taste it!

Do you think the worm tea and castings had anything to do with my success??

Bernie, please use any part of my 'testimony'. I am so thrilled ,with your product. Thank you.

Apri 19, 2006

Carl, my sagos are coming back !!!  I may not have been applying the worm tea exactly as you mentioned in this email but I definitely see positive results.  The scale is almost gone and more importantly the sagos are growing healthy new fronds and look healthier.  I really can't believe the results but am so pleased.  It's rather eerie but just about an hour ago I was watering around my yard and took a good look at the sagos.  If this recovery trend continues I plan to call the local county horticulturist and tell him of my good fortune .  He had written a column about a year ago saying that the scale was lethal and there wasn't a cure.  Who would have thought the worm tea is the answer.  I'm really pleased, thanks so much.   Steve

February 2006 From a Proud Owner of Can O Worms in Lake County, Florida

HEY Bernie !

JUST to let you know how to further spoil your worm-buddies in the cold months ...  I had this leftover HOT ROCK from when I had a gecko and it is NOW resting on a plate in the top tier of my worm farm !  They seem to LOVE it, for them it seems our equivalent of ... loafing by the fireplace.

Later,

Franklin

Recently the Moros came out to speak to my Agriculture class about the benefits of vermiculture. As the demands on our community continue to grow, we as citizens must do
our part to help protect our environment and replenish that which we have used. The Moros helped to educate the future generations and place responsibility of our actions. I know that the presentaion has made an impact on me and my students. The work of these individuals will help to sustain our livelyhood in this great state of Florida.
Thanks for your help
peter j.
Ocoee High School
agriculture

Related from Jerald Ashby:
Marilyn's Beauty Shop operator is a male gardener. He has transplanted over 500 bushes and trees in the last 5 years on his home/acreage. Before worm castings he typically had a 50% loss in transplants, in the last 1 1/2 years he's had 100% success with transplants due to castings. --Yukon, OK

3-3-05

Our Vital Earth:

Thank you very much for the excellent presentation about earthworms that you gave to our kindergarten students yesterday. It was very hands-on, which is an excellent way to keep the interest of students with short attention spans. The students were very excited about taking home their personal worms. In fact, I heard from some older students today who seemed a little jealous that their siblings got to work with earthworms and they didn't.

Thank you for being so easy to work with.

Take care,

Randy Sedgwick

Science Enrichment Teacher/Cypress Ridge Elementary School

9-2004

My plants love worm tea! I want to get a can of worms and be one of your suppliers---
How hard is it to be an at-home worm cultivator?-- Lisa [Michigan]

8-2004

I have a plant nursery as well as twin sons. When I found there was a better alternative to fertilizing and spraying with chemicals I decided to try it. Am so pleased with the results and even more pleased that I have an environment that is safe for my children as well as for me. Just think---no special training for using a harmful substance and my insurance liability has definitely been lessened. Organics give you a Peace of Mind. --Megana, [Apopka, Fl]

I got this stuff and it transformed my garden. It made everything greener and stronger and more blooms and less insects, AND a Happier Person!!! I’ve come back for MORE. Anyone who is organically growing----this is the way to go. -- John, [Ocoee, Florida]

5-2004

I had an orchid that looked like it was dead. All it was ---was a green stalk.
It was like that for six months. I decided to try the Worm Tea.(Vermi-Liquid)
Once a week, I would spray my plant with "worm juice" and now it is sprouting leaves. We came to the market today just for that "worm juice." --Marilyn, [Kissimmee, Fl]

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 outselves and several family members. This year was no different we harvested 5 Fraser Firs from a tree farm on November 23, 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 flowers 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 draining the stand. In my previous experience 24 oz. would last for 7-8 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 only drank 8 oz., Day 2 only 4 oz, and Day 3 only a scant 3 oz. I attributed the step down to 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 15.

On January 10 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 1/2 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 26, 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 26 and March 15 routinely hit the 75 degree Farenheit mark. The side exposed to the sun became dry and brittle losing most of its needles. The side away from the sun continued to thrive with little needle loss and good needle response to "hand-crushing." These needles remained green, soft, and aromatic 3 1/2 months after harvesting.

Finally removed our Christmas tree from its stand on March 15 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 [Central Florida]

For years I have cut, scraped, and filed the nail on my toe. It would continuously grow longer and thicker infected by fungus. Nothing I tried worked. Cutting, scraping and filing, only left a shorter nail with fungus. I said, "I’d try anything". WORM TEA---didn’t sound like something I wanted to drink, but someone told me that it may work on the fungus.

For three nights I soaked a cloth in worm tea, wrapped it on my toe and covered it with a baggie and taped it. After three nights, the nail, back to the cuticle was soft and could be removed by lightly scraping.

Six weeks later, with several applications per week, the nail has grown to half it’s normal length with no sign of fungus. WORM TEA, ain’t good for drinking---but does wonders for nails covered with fungus.-- John, [Sanford, Fl]

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