Kitchen Scraps Mulch - Update

Well it's been over two weeks since I used all sorts of kitchen wastes (even some meat and fat) to artificially raise the soil level of my Habanero.    So was this a successful experiment?  Well based on my criteria, it is.  The Habanero is still alive and thriving and it hasn't wilted once since the time I transferred it.  That's pretty good considering how dry the weather has been as of late.  In hindsight though, it wasn't such a hairbrained plot after all.  I've read some articles that make use of kitchen scraps mulch.  I think the way I did it was better though because putting the rotting food under the soil at least prevents fruit flies and other bugs from thriving and not to mention the lack of smell.    On top of the soil though, I still put a couple of layers of cut grass to help preserve moisture. 

Since the start of this experiment, I've also repotted (or resoiled) about 4 other plants.  It's a good thing I was very thrifty with purchased soil use in the past.  I have a lot of hiding places for the kitchen scraps I've been generating.    When all my pots have had soil upgrades, I am hoping I would have a lot more worms that can take in my kitchen waste.    Or perhaps I can do a second round for the various pots.  In fact for the Habanero, the soil level has gone down a bit already.  Must be due to the decomposing material underneath.  Maybe in a month or two, I'll dig it up again.  While I'm at it, I'll see if the African Nightcrawlers I dumped along with the organic material have survived and thrived in the pot.  It would be even cooler if I see lots of vermicast there. 

On another topic, if you look at my habanero before, it had a lot more leaves.  It was attacked a couple of months ago by white flying things.  I think they're powdery mildew.  The plant lost so many leaves!  They're gone now though.  I read that varying humidity discourages them.  So I make sure to wet the leaves so that the leaves will be wet and dry at different parts of the day.