Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I wish mate the sand here is well just that sand no life


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free

OK, thanks Rupe.
First time I have heard that about it not being called tea.
The stuff I have read refers to it as tea. But so often with these kind of things the information just gets generalized.
So maybe they are referring to everything as tea from the resources I have read.

But you certainly would get more nutrients from using a steppe method.

I'm on Perth coastal plain bottomless grey sand and I've still got some in my veg garden and compost pile, but if you definitely can't find any in your yard then go to someone's place you know that has a good veg garden, or even a well maintained garden with mulch covering, even a local public garden, or in the leaf litter down along the Preston or Collie river banks... great nature exercise for the kids.

I dilute down the leachate from the bottom of my worm farm 500ml into a 9L watering can of "aged' water and my veg seedlings love it!... why do you suggest it's not good for plants Rupe?

While leachate can have some value as a liquid fertilizer... it should be treated with a lot more caution than good quality worm tea....

As water passes down through a worm bin it can pick up all sorts of unstable metabolites (various products/intermediates of the decomposition process)...

If for example, you have anaerobic zones in your worm bin... you can end up with various phytotoxic (plant harming) compounds in your leachate....

And if leachate is present it probably implies your worm bin is too wet.. and is, or probably becoming "cold" and anaerobic...

The worms are waste processors... feeding on other wastes from animals higher up the food chain...

Extracting whatever is of any real benefit.... either for their own benefit, or by "recycling" other things back into the air, or soil.... completing the nitrogen and carbon cycles...

There are other organisms below worms... fungi, bacteria etc... that perform similar functions with whatever wastes the worms excrete...

Until eventually what ever is left is basically useless grit and refractory solids...

I should probably have said leachate is more likely to be detrimental.. or of limited benefit...

Putting it into the compost heap.. where warm temperature aerobic processes are occurring...

Is more likely to kill off any detrimental bacteria/microbes... or even add some beneficial microbes... to the compost heap... creating a much more valuable resource...

Diluting it down as you are... would most certainly lessen any detrimental effects...

Yep, the catchment in the bottom of my worm farm is normally dry, and I don't think I've ever had (that I know of) anaerobic zones in the beds. When I want some leachate to dilute down for my seedlings I water some aged water through the bottom layer (the pure worm castings layer), just enough to collect a 500ml peanut butter jar of leachate. It's normally very clear , looks like river water with high tannins, if it ever comes out cloudy (has a couple of times) I don't use it. Guess it comes down to management, I try not to let my worm bin get rotten or smelly. The growth I get from leafy greens, especially Asian greens, outstrips Thrive, Seasol etc.

I managed on 4 worms in each bed. Over run now. Not as fast as Mr D but it still got there.

Was lazy went to Bunnings after having a dig in the garden and not finding any lol half in the FB and the rest in a make shift worm farm


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free