Top dress from tea smells like mildew?

Hey all, I hit my girls with a compost tea about 3 days ago... I was told I could use the leftover sludge at the bottom of the tea as a top dressing, so I did. Now the topsoil is hard and the room smells like mildew... lol. Is this normal?

Coincidentally, I have started noticing small flying bugs in the tent... sheesh. 99% sure they are fungus gnats. I'm not too concerned as there is definitely no infestation, as of yet... I see maybe one or two flying around after shaking the plants, checked the top 3 inches of soil in the pots and there are no maggots or whatever. Anyway, I put up a bunch of sticky traps, got some diatomaceous earth, and some azamax. I am letting the soil totally dry out at the moment, in hopes to kill any larvae that may be in there. On the next watering, I am going to hit them with the diatomaceous earth. If I am still noticing issues then I will pull out the azamax. The tent in question is in week 2 of flower and I have been growing totally organic, so I'd rather not have to use the azamax unless absolutely necessary.

Side note, I have 2 other tents in the room... my 5x5 which is about a week away from harvest, and then a 3x4 for veg. I am not 100% sure if the fungus gnats are coming from the veg tent or from the 3x4 mentioned above that is in flower. I put sticky traps in all the tents. I probably won't hit the 5x5 with anything else as it is so close to done, but is it ok to top-dress young veglings with diatomaceous earth? I am questioning if maybe the bugs are coming from them... I may have overwatered a few of them a little. The plants look fine, but they're definitely drying out at different rates for whatever reason. I'm also going to let all of them dry out before moving forward.

Thanks as always to anyone who chimes in! If you need anymore info just let me know.

Sounds gross man.. lol!

Compost tea as a top tress shouldn't have a place indoors... IMO

You created the situation with the compost , the bugs are coming. Don't drench the plant to keep that compost top dress happy lol...

DE, in excess will create a weird drainage for u. It's almost like a flour. I don't think u will like the result u see after adding what ur saying

I'd remove the nasty top dress. Sounds like it's decaying and just nasty..

Watch the bugs follow

mistergrafik said:

I'd remove the nasty top dress. Sounds like it's decaying and just nasty..

Watch the bugs follow

Click to expand...

Removed the top few inches of soil and replaced with some nice amended soil I've had cooking for a couple months. Should add a bit of nutrients back in there too. I went ahead and order some nematodes and hypoasis miles too. I've got some hypoasis miles and springtails living in my other tent and haven't had any pest/mold issues, so I'm going to introduce some beneficial bugs to this tent as well. I plan on reusing soil and stuff too, so hopefully they stay alive over harvests. Not quite sure how they work though, other than that they kill shit I don't want in there haha.

I get the same thing. If I add Fish Sh!t or Neptunes Harvest to the tea....it smells like fishy mildew for a day or two. Pretty sure plants don't have noses so I doubt they care and as long as your tea is made right, it should be fine. It's a bit of a pain in the ass when the "sludge" as you call it cakes up but some Yucca extract with the water and my hands in the dirt to break it up beforehand makes it a moot point.