This week I've drained-off about a litre of leachate and converted it to liquid feed for my tomato plants. The second batch of liquid smells of, well, liquid compost. It's not too bad but I wouldn't splash it behind my ears. Whitefly continue to be a problem. I noticed a few of them floating around in the liquid feed. I've tried leaving the lid off the wormey to let the little critters escape but this hasn't worked. Still open to suggestions, folks.....
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HI Carl!
ReplyDeleteI am fairly new to delights of having a bunch of worms working for me - have a wormery since March. My liquid fertiliser surprisingly smells of nothing at all. I wonder if your wormery is getting too acidic?
I go by my nose in deciding when to add more lime - if it smells of anything else than wet earth when gently mixed, I add some (more or less once every 3 weeks). I also had some little white flies - they just reduced in numbers - did not present a problem at all. I accepted all the creatures that made their way in somehow (how???) as a part of the community... What else can you do? Good luck!
If the leachate smells bad, it has gone "anaerobic" - in other words it contains excessive quantities of harmful bacteria that may damage your plants. No smell is a good thing! The levels of bacteria are dependent on what you are putting into the wormery; it has nothing to do with acidity. Incidentally, my whitefly have vanished, too. The must have completed their breeding cycle and expired.
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