Leachate is a liquid that has leached out of your worm farm is full of anaerobic bacteria. This can be toxic to your worms and plants.
The cause is your bedding is too wet from added water or the food is too wet. Another cause is sweating of the bedding commonly occurring in those Stackable Worm Farms. Avoid leachate as much as possible.
Your better alternative is to use the Worm Castings which is a slow release fertiliser. Castings are full of good beneficial aerobic bacteria, nutrients and trace elements which will make your plants thrive.
You can add it to your pots or garden on top or mix it into your potting mix at the rate of about 25% castings. The castings can also be used to make Worm Tea which contains millions more beneficial aerobic bacteria and is even better than straight castings.
How to make Worm Tea
All you need is:
- A 20 litre bucket of de-chlorinated water (hint, leave a bucket of water out in the sun for a day and the chlorine will evaporate out)
- 500 grams of Worm Castings in a cloth bag
- Some unsulfured molasses
- Seaweed or Kelp liquid fertiliser
- An aquarium air pump with a 150mm air stone.
The first thing is to add 2 tablespoons of molasses and one tablespoon of seaweed or kelp fertiliser to the bucket of water. Mix these in, then suspend your bag of castings into the water. You can attach it to the handle of the bucket making sure it is just submerged in the water.
Then add the air stone from the air pump and ensure it sits at the bottom of the bucket. Switch on the air pump and let the mix run for 48 hours. The molasses feeds the massive explosion of aerobic bacteria while the seaweed/kelp fertiliser is good for fungi growth.
After this time your Worm Tea is ready to use. You can either water it in or spray the foliage. You can’t over dose your plants or burn them with this mix. This mix will promote healthy disease and pest resistant growth.
How to keep the Worm Tea alive.
Every 2 days the mix is going add two tablespoons of molasses and one table spoon of seaweed or kelp fertilizer. This will continue to feed the bacteria.
When you take away some mix, just top up with water and again add a bit more molasses and fertilizer. As long as there is air bubbles and food added the mix will last indefinitely. There is no need to change the castings. You can sit the lid of the bucket lightly on top if you wish.
If you’re looking for worms, woodies, or even just some friendly advice, don’t put it off – please contact me here or give me a call on 0423 380 482.
