Below are some of the items I use for vermicomposting & my channel's videos. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you if you use these links. Thank you for supporting this channel! www.youtube.com/@vermicompost?sub_confirmation=1 Worm Bins I use: Vermihut 5-Tray Worm Compost Bin amzn.to/3w15lQt Vermihut Worm Tower by Vevor amzn.to/4dSvEt9 Urban Worm Bag V2 amzn.to/3XE9QsT 20 Gallon Fabric Grow Pots amzn.to/3EBYhdr 3 gallon Rubbermaid Roughneck tote amzn.to/3eKDLhO Other Worm Bins: Worm Factory 360 3-Tray Version amzn.to/3AHnjqK Worm Factory 360 5-Tray Version amzn.to/3tYfWY4 Bus bins amzn.to/3fd8AvP Equipment I use: 12 Sheet Cross Cut Micro Shredder (I use it to shred cardboard) amzn.to/3xYZKYu Magic Bullet Small Blender (to pulverize egg shells) amzn.to/3gwEzb4 or amzn.to/42SQ4w9 (with extra coffee bean & nut blade) Worms Red Wiggler mixes amzn.to/3yGNhwl & amzn.to/3R5tKvD ENC's amzn.to/4bXN5XP Indoor Outdoor Wireless Thermometer for worm bin amzn.to/3wIdXbO Additional thermometer sensors 433 MHz amzn.to/41juD7v Please make sure Thermometer & sensor are the same MHz Additional thermometer sensors 915MHz amzn.to/3WTFgua Please make sure Thermometer & sensor are the same MHz Wrigglebrew Worm Casting Tea amzn.to/46PhV2A Food Dehydrator amzn.to/3O5Uj2H Mosquito Dunks 6 pack amzn.to/3Oe4Sl0 granular amzn.to/42KDtM0 or 20 pack amzn.to/42Br4Kf Kitchen scale to weigh worms & food: amzn.to/3HnOQjg Blue gloves amzn.to/3XsBg5n Spray bottles to mist bedding amzn.to/3Fq23rN Digital handheld Thermometer amzn.to/3EWfC2j Compost Tea Bags amzn.to/3fCb5o1 Solar powered light amzn.to/3nOucAq Reusable Keurig Coffee K-cups amzn.to/3FNXvt6 Other useful equipment for worm farming: 5 stackable sifter with different sized mesh: amzn.to/3S2k184 Cameras & camera equipment I use: Insta 360 ace pro amzn.to/3vgdmR8 Flexible Tripod amzn.to/3CGTjcF Insta360 GO 2 camera amzn.to/3oxCc80 Insta360 One X2 camera amzn.to/3nqV6hp iPhone 13 Max Pro amzn.to/3nq52aU Canon EOS Rebel T8i amzn.to/3HcBuX6 4 Ocean bracelets I wear Multiple colors to chose from bracelets amzn.to/3HMbHEx Books on worms & worm farming Worms Eat My Garbage amzn.to/3L4FXN2 Where to buy worms: www.TheGardenAndWormLady.com www.youtube.com/@vermicompost?sub_confirmation=1
Best purchase I ever made!! She absolutely loves shredding cardboard, so I always have a fresh supply!! To tell you the truth it is so meditative to rip up the boxes and shred them myself!! Thanks so much for the kind words & thanks for watching Nick!!🪱🪱🪱
What’s great about the time lapse is the often twice a day check-ins. It tells me you have the same problem I have…”How you guys doing in here? Can you eat, poop, and breed a little faster?” 😂😂😂. For the person in the comments who just bought a vermihut, welcome to the weird world of worms! Watching them work is an amazing process. Patrick - hope you guys did all right through the storm. It wasn’t too bad near Orlando. Although I had a few breeders freak out and climb out of bins. Never had that from a storm before. 5:49 good to know about the berry pad. 🪱🪱 7:21 really? Not for 60 full days? We’ve established that you have the same “NEED” to check on them 😂
Yes!! I totally love to check in on them & doing a time lapse gives me a great excuse!! We did good through the storm. We're 10 miles east of Tampa Bay with no threat of storm surge. My son & daughter-in-law who live in Largo rode it out with us but the Clearwater Marine Aquarium where he works got 4 feet of water and lots of their life support equipment & pumps were damaged or destroyed not to mention the other damage flooding does. My Outdoor Worm Bin had a similar reaction to yours and I took some pics to show on my next video. I think because of how fast the storm was moving, the barometric pressure dropped rapidly causing them to react the way they did. At 7:21 I'm talking about this tray going down to be the pre-harvest tray at my next rotation; it sits right below the top feeding tray. This allows any worms that want to stay down there to finish off all the food particles and give me beautiful castings during the next rotation. But since there will be a new top feeding tray, I get to peek at them to see how many climb up to the next level!! Thanks for watching and checking in on us!!🪱🪱🪱
Hey Pat & Autumn! 🙋🏼♂️ This tray's looking fantastic! The harvested castings will be perfect, that's for sure! 💪 I'm still trying to get my bins back to a decent moisture level. I keep them inside, since it's either too hot in the summer, or too cold in the winter over here 🇨🇭. Usually we get low air humidity during summer amd winter, but this year is extremely humid. Like, normally ~35-40%, this summer we've usually had over 65%... Moisture's been very challenging this year! Anyway, just rambling a bit here. 😅 Thanks for the upload and the awesome content! Keep it up guys! Cheers, Thomas
Thank you for the kind words Thomas!! My favorite place for a worm bin is inside!! Although in the winter here it can be a bit challenging since we don't need to keep the air conditioner or heater on so the humidity creeps up! It is remarkable how much the air humidity can affect a worm bins moisture! I'm so glad you are enjoying our videos!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
I'm so excited for you!! You are gonna love it and the VermIhut is the best way to start in my opinion!! Thanks for using our link! If you haven't already, watch the how to start a worm bin videos in this playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLimznaPXKV09VLDzBAl71EZhmiBGmIMUN The most common mistake when first starting out is overfeeding and the hardest thing to do is leave them alone and keep yourself from checking in on them constantly!! Feel free to ask any questions and remeber that my VermiHut is 4 years old & has 4,000-5,000 worms so it can eat a lot of food scraps now. Whatever number of worms you start with worms you start with, start with very small feedings and slowly increase their feedings. Your worms will double their population every couple months. You & your new VermiHut are gonna do awesome!! Feel free to ask any questions in the comments section of any of my videos! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Awesome!! I'm so glad you liked the time lapse!! They are fun to make and getting a peak at what is happening!! Shredding cardboard is so meditative and peaceful!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
We should be ok as far inland as we are, but we have a generator for our fish tanks and refrigerator if we lose power! UCF canceled classes so we may get some refugees (our sons) in our house to "help" eat our food!! Thanks for stopping by to checkin on us and watch the worms!!🪱🪱🪱
Nice to see in the time-lapse how much of what you gave them on the top surface was already almost all gone within 8-10 days 👍🏻 60 days from now I'm guessing that the food you gave them and everything else that's still in that top tray will all be history.... :)
I seriously was so surprised how quickly they ate the top feeding...just half an inch underneath was a huge full feeding they could have feasted on! I think I underestimate (and I know Autumn way underestimates) how much they can eat!! Thanks so much for stopping by AV!!!🪱🪱🪱
Awesome video as always. I went back and watched your earlier videos and it's nice to see how far you've come. I've noticed in your video where you started a new worm bin, you only used wet cardboard as bedding. I put quite a lot of coconut coir in mine and recently found out worms don't necessarily eat the coir as food they just use it to burrow down. when you put the wet cardboard as you're bedding did you put any soil or dirt on top or did the worms just kind of burrow down in the cardboard? should I change my bedding to just cardboard as well. thanks again!
Thank you! Great question! I like to use shredded cardboard because I have an endless supply & they eat it faster (still very slow) than any other bedding I’ve tried. My shredder gets it pretty small. Coco coir is just fine to start with and some people like to use it, but you can just start giving them shredded cardboard with each feeding. It is sometimes hard to tell what is castings & what is coco coir, but I used it to get my VermiHut started and it worked out well for me. I just kept adding in cardboard. I would not try to take it out. I hope this helps! I’m so glad you’re finding our videos helpful! Thanks so much for watching!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost that was my concern with the coconut coir too is I won't know which is castings and which is coir. however I'm hoping that by the time spring rolls around, they will have begun to make some progress (i.e reproduced more and start to eat the food faster) so I can maybe start taking some coir out. I can use the coir directly on my plants too anyways. I'm hoping that by then, there will be at least some castings but we will see. thanks again for the reply!
I loved watching the tails disappear on the close up! I found this about your peanut shells: "it can take up to two years for a boiled peanut shell to biodegrade." I think your worms will do better with that watermelon, Patrick! ~ Sandra
😂🤣😂 I think watermelon will be eaten faster as well....but if my worms heard you I think they're up for the 2 year challenge!!! Thanks so much for watching Sandra!!🪱🪱🪱
This is helpful thank you! My bin is brand new, and I have some food sitting in there that's now a week old and looks a long way off from being eaten. Should I pull it out, and put it fresh food just way less?
I'm so glad you found our video helpful!! I would say if it is easy to pick out, go ahead and take it out. For a brand new bin I would put in just a few strawberry tops or just a few small pieces of lettuce. Be sure to freeze whatever food scraps you put in as this helps to physically break down the food for the worms & microbes (you can thaw it out before placing it in if you want). After about 5-6 days of leaving the bin alone, check to see if they have eaten it all and then slowly keep increasing the size of their feedings as long as they eat almost everything. This video shows you how much I feed my new worm bins and what it looks like 5-6 days later if you haven't already seen it: ruclips.net/video/1IRP-Nu6_90/видео.html this one might also be helpful: ruclips.net/video/UsH3k92KhYg/видео.html As long as you slowly scale up your feedings as you see how much your worms eat and you add some more shredded cardboard with each feeding you will be in great shape!! I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching Sarah!!🪱🪱🪱
It absolutely amazes me now how thoroughly the worms eat things up now that I have grown their population and the microbes over the past three years. The Vermihut was a great way to get started! Thanks to you Patrick and your great instructional videos! 👏🪱🪱🪱🪱
Yes!! It is amazing what a machine a 3 year old bin is with all the microbes and ecosystem & worms working all the bedding & food scraps into verimcompost!! I'm so glad the Vermihut got you started!! Thanks for watching & for all your support of the years Ann!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost Your videos are one of the few that show from the very start of a bin to making it work, which takes time. Lots of time and patience. So worth it now, as my garden was terrific this year! Oddly, the only plant that struggled was zucchini 😂 which may be was because started indoors. Everything else was full on improvement. Biggest garlic bulbs and shallots ever. The greens were very happy. Incredible peas and green beans, herbs, etc.
Thanks you Ann!! That's so awesome that your garden saw such a wonderful improvement! No better produce than organic picked right at home fertilized by worm castings!!
I was just thinking the same thing!! It has been a while since I did a good worm ball time lapse in my Outdoor Worm Bin! After this hurricane passes by I'm gonna go outside and work on that bin, harvest it and do a time lapse with those worms at the end. Thanks for the reminder & thanks so much for watching Joe!!🪱🪱🪱
I have never had a problem with ants or other pests getting into my worm tower...and we sometimes get ants in our house. So I don't use the feet that come with it. I like how each foot is a little moat to prevent pests but I find that I just don't need them! I will occasionally see a fruit fly or two, bit that is because they can be attracted when I open the lid. I freeze all my food scraps so I really have never had an infestation of any sort. I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching Thomas!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost thanks for the reply. I have another question. Why do you only have one active feeding tray in your tower? Aren't you limiting the amount of castings produced by having only one active tray?
That is a great question!! I have never tried 2 active feeding trays!! I do find that the worms are constantly traveling between the trays, so in order to feed them I would be pulling them up and down a lot which probably deterred me from trying to feed multiples trays early on. But I think you could give it a try! I harvest every 60 days or so with this tower and it gives me a constant supply of castings every 60 days but I supposes 2 active feeding trays might be able to harvest twice as much every 60 days??!? Right now I have one tray resting just below the feeding tray that I harvest, so I'd have to rethink the role of each tray within the system...maybe have 2 pre-harvest trays, 2 feeding trays and one dry inoculating tray? Maybe skip the pre-harvest trays altogether and run it more like a traditional worm bin? The big question is will any of this modifications give more castings in the end? I don't know, but I'd love to see if the effort results in more castings faster!!
I don't think that will be a problem at all!! I have given lots of tea of various kinds and types to my worms. I usually just have it together with my used coffee grounds. Some tea bags are made of synthetic material that won't break down and some tea bags are totally natural and break down but I can never tell from the packaging...luckily the worms let me know!! Great question Jeff!! Thanks for dropping by to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
I estimate I have 4,000 to 5,000 worm in my entire VermiHut worm tower. I actually counted one of the trays to get an estimate of the amount of worms in the whole system: ruclips.net/video/TfQgUwdMPrY/видео.html The worms are free to travel between all the trays but most of them are in the top two trays! I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for stopping by to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
Yes!! I actually did an experiment in this bin about 6 months ago because I was wondering the same thing! Here is the video with a time lapse showing the results: ruclips.net/video/Ty3FNheJFoc/видео.html Freezing then blending is even faster!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
@Vermicompost that was interesting! Last question of the day , would composting the food , and feeding the worms almost the finished compost that isn't hot be any easier for them to process? Could dry shredded leaves be used instead of cardboard or with cardboard? I apologize for the extra questions, I just followed your instructions on starting a bin , I'm going to give it the couple weeks before i order them. With it being fall, we will have yards and yards of leaves here
No problem, keep the questions coming! Pre-composting and adding shredding leaves are absolutely superb for a worm bin!!! But if you are just starting I would add some pre-composted material to help inoculate the worm bin with microbes, but I would add a combination of shredded cardboard and shredded leaves to get started. Leaves take a little longer than cardboard to start to break down enough for the worms to eat & digest, so I like to start with cardboard, which also retains moisture better. But a mature bin will thrive on dry shredded leaves & pre-composted material alone!! I like to use my worms to recycle the nutrients of my food scraps into my yard and keep my cardboard boxes out of the landfill in a lazy way, but what you mentioned is the next level of vermicomposting!!
You are exactly right Rick!! I left this tray outside after I harvested one time and the squirrels got to it!! I think they were watching me in the tree hoping I'd leave it for them!! Now I get to slowly watch the tray start at the bottom and work its way up as a constant reminder for me to clean up after myself!! But it still works just fine!! Thanks so much for dropping by to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
Ur worms are really hungry u can see in timelapse, how quickly they eaten those veggies.i thinking why my worm tower not like this.Can we put tea dust or tea waste to the compost bin.
Believe it or not they had a full feeding underneath as well!! Very hungry worms!! This was done over two weeks and they are telling me to feed more AND more often!! This worm tower is almost 4 years old and has a very mature ecosystem running in it...I always challenge my worms with bigger feedings if I see them eat all of the last feeding, so maybe you can slowly give bigger feedings! Tea leaves and ground tea dust are fantastic to put in a worm bin...in fact some of the coffee grounds have ground tea leaves in there from the tea we drink! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Here is the update: ruclips.net/video/9x467PSF2xE/видео.html It took us a little longer than usual to get to the next feeding! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
😂 Oh boy!! Sounds like I'm gonna be talking about peanut shells for a long time!! I wonder if boiling and freezing them will speed up the process at all??!!? Thanks for sharing your experience with peanut shells...I think I'll save them for my regular compost pile in the future!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
It might help to see the video before this one when I put the food in: ruclips.net/video/sItTCZbqLAU/видео.html Those were boiled peanuts that we kept in the freezer for a few weeks, I decided to give them a try in this worm bin and we'll see how the do!! So far the shells don't seem to be broken down that much!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Below are some of the items I use for vermicomposting & my channel's videos. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you if you use these links. Thank you for supporting this channel! www.youtube.com/@vermicompost?sub_confirmation=1
Worm Bins I use:
Vermihut 5-Tray Worm Compost Bin amzn.to/3w15lQt
Vermihut Worm Tower by Vevor amzn.to/4dSvEt9
Urban Worm Bag V2 amzn.to/3XE9QsT
20 Gallon Fabric Grow Pots amzn.to/3EBYhdr
3 gallon Rubbermaid Roughneck tote amzn.to/3eKDLhO
Other Worm Bins:
Worm Factory 360 3-Tray Version amzn.to/3AHnjqK
Worm Factory 360 5-Tray Version amzn.to/3tYfWY4
Bus bins amzn.to/3fd8AvP
Equipment I use:
12 Sheet Cross Cut Micro Shredder (I use it to shred cardboard) amzn.to/3xYZKYu
Magic Bullet Small Blender (to pulverize egg shells) amzn.to/3gwEzb4 or amzn.to/42SQ4w9 (with extra coffee bean & nut blade)
Worms Red Wiggler mixes amzn.to/3yGNhwl & amzn.to/3R5tKvD ENC's amzn.to/4bXN5XP
Indoor Outdoor Wireless Thermometer for worm bin amzn.to/3wIdXbO
Additional thermometer sensors 433 MHz amzn.to/41juD7v Please make sure Thermometer & sensor are the same MHz
Additional thermometer sensors 915MHz amzn.to/3WTFgua Please make sure Thermometer & sensor are the same MHz
Wrigglebrew Worm Casting Tea amzn.to/46PhV2A
Food Dehydrator amzn.to/3O5Uj2H
Mosquito Dunks 6 pack amzn.to/3Oe4Sl0 granular amzn.to/42KDtM0 or 20 pack amzn.to/42Br4Kf
Kitchen scale to weigh worms & food: amzn.to/3HnOQjg
Blue gloves amzn.to/3XsBg5n
Spray bottles to mist bedding amzn.to/3Fq23rN
Digital handheld Thermometer amzn.to/3EWfC2j
Compost Tea Bags amzn.to/3fCb5o1
Solar powered light amzn.to/3nOucAq
Reusable Keurig Coffee K-cups amzn.to/3FNXvt6
Other useful equipment for worm farming:
5 stackable sifter with different sized mesh: amzn.to/3S2k184
Cameras & camera equipment I use:
Insta 360 ace pro amzn.to/3vgdmR8
Flexible Tripod amzn.to/3CGTjcF
Insta360 GO 2 camera amzn.to/3oxCc80
Insta360 One X2 camera amzn.to/3nqV6hp
iPhone 13 Max Pro amzn.to/3nq52aU
Canon EOS Rebel T8i amzn.to/3HcBuX6
4 Ocean bracelets I wear
Multiple colors to chose from bracelets amzn.to/3HMbHEx
Books on worms & worm farming
Worms Eat My Garbage amzn.to/3L4FXN2
Where to buy worms: www.TheGardenAndWormLady.com
www.youtube.com/@vermicompost?sub_confirmation=1
Hi Patrick I love the clip of your mum shredding the cardboard, she looks like she's loving it. Great video.😁👍👌
Best purchase I ever made!! She absolutely loves shredding cardboard, so I always have a fresh supply!! To tell you the truth it is so meditative to rip up the boxes and shred them myself!! Thanks so much for the kind words & thanks for watching Nick!!🪱🪱🪱
What’s great about the time lapse is the often twice a day check-ins. It tells me you have the same problem I have…”How you guys doing in here? Can you eat, poop, and breed a little faster?” 😂😂😂. For the person in the comments who just bought a vermihut, welcome to the weird world of worms! Watching them work is an amazing process. Patrick - hope you guys did all right through the storm. It wasn’t too bad near Orlando. Although I had a few breeders freak out and climb out of bins. Never had that from a storm before. 5:49 good to know about the berry pad. 🪱🪱 7:21 really? Not for 60 full days? We’ve established that you have the same “NEED” to check on them 😂
Yes!! I totally love to check in on them & doing a time lapse gives me a great excuse!! We did good through the storm. We're 10 miles east of Tampa Bay with no threat of storm surge. My son & daughter-in-law who live in Largo rode it out with us but the Clearwater Marine Aquarium where he works got 4 feet of water and lots of their life support equipment & pumps were damaged or destroyed not to mention the other damage flooding does. My Outdoor Worm Bin had a similar reaction to yours and I took some pics to show on my next video. I think because of how fast the storm was moving, the barometric pressure dropped rapidly causing them to react the way they did. At 7:21 I'm talking about this tray going down to be the pre-harvest tray at my next rotation; it sits right below the top feeding tray. This allows any worms that want to stay down there to finish off all the food particles and give me beautiful castings during the next rotation. But since there will be a new top feeding tray, I get to peek at them to see how many climb up to the next level!! Thanks for watching and checking in on us!!🪱🪱🪱
Hey Pat & Autumn! 🙋🏼♂️
This tray's looking fantastic! The harvested castings will be perfect, that's for sure! 💪
I'm still trying to get my bins back to a decent moisture level. I keep them inside, since it's either too hot in the summer, or too cold in the winter over here 🇨🇭. Usually we get low air humidity during summer amd winter, but this year is extremely humid. Like, normally ~35-40%, this summer we've usually had over 65%... Moisture's been very challenging this year!
Anyway, just rambling a bit here. 😅 Thanks for the upload and the awesome content! Keep it up guys!
Cheers, Thomas
Thank you for the kind words Thomas!! My favorite place for a worm bin is inside!! Although in the winter here it can be a bit challenging since we don't need to keep the air conditioner or heater on so the humidity creeps up! It is remarkable how much the air humidity can affect a worm bins moisture! I'm so glad you are enjoying our videos!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
I just ordered the vermihut through your link. I've never tried to vermicompost before. I'm nervous and excited. Thank you for your videos!!!
I'm so excited for you!! You are gonna love it and the VermIhut is the best way to start in my opinion!! Thanks for using our link! If you haven't already, watch the how to start a worm bin videos in this playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLimznaPXKV09VLDzBAl71EZhmiBGmIMUN The most common mistake when first starting out is overfeeding and the hardest thing to do is leave them alone and keep yourself from checking in on them constantly!! Feel free to ask any questions and remeber that my VermiHut is 4 years old & has 4,000-5,000 worms so it can eat a lot of food scraps now. Whatever number of worms you start with worms you start with, start with very small feedings and slowly increase their feedings. Your worms will double their population every couple months. You & your new VermiHut are gonna do awesome!! Feel free to ask any questions in the comments section of any of my videos! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
I dug that timelapse, what a bunch of lucky worms you have. Watching this while shredding cardboard in the garage
Awesome!! I'm so glad you liked the time lapse!! They are fun to make and getting a peak at what is happening!! Shredding cardboard is so meditative and peaceful!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Hi Patrick, I hope you guys are safe tomorrow. It looks like we'll get some wind and rain here, but nothing extreme.
The Worms 🪱 are lookin' great !
We should be ok as far inland as we are, but we have a generator for our fish tanks and refrigerator if we lose power! UCF canceled classes so we may get some refugees (our sons) in our house to "help" eat our food!! Thanks for stopping by to checkin on us and watch the worms!!🪱🪱🪱
Great video 🇦🇺🪱
Thank you Darren!!! I appreciate the great feedback from a fellow YT channel and master worm farmer!!🪱🪱🪱
Nice to see in the time-lapse how much of what you gave them on the top surface was already almost all gone within 8-10 days 👍🏻 60 days from now I'm guessing that the food you gave them and everything else that's still in that top tray will all be history.... :)
I seriously was so surprised how quickly they ate the top feeding...just half an inch underneath was a huge full feeding they could have feasted on! I think I underestimate (and I know Autumn way underestimates) how much they can eat!! Thanks so much for stopping by AV!!!🪱🪱🪱
I've been thinking that I might go with feeding closer to the surface. I wonder if I might be submerging their feedings too deep... :)
Based on your awesome time lapse videos I'd say they like the food anywhere you put it!!
:)
Awesome video as always. I went back and watched your earlier videos and it's nice to see how far you've come. I've noticed in your video where you started a new worm bin, you only used wet cardboard as bedding. I put quite a lot of coconut coir in mine and recently found out worms don't necessarily eat the coir as food they just use it to burrow down. when you put the wet cardboard as you're bedding did you put any soil or dirt on top or did the worms just kind of burrow down in the cardboard? should I change my bedding to just cardboard as well. thanks again!
Thank you! Great question! I like to use shredded cardboard because I have an endless supply & they eat it faster (still very slow) than any other bedding I’ve tried. My shredder gets it pretty small. Coco coir is just fine to start with and some people like to use it, but you can just start giving them shredded cardboard with each feeding. It is sometimes hard to tell what is castings & what is coco coir, but I used it to get my VermiHut started and it worked out well for me. I just kept adding in cardboard. I would not try to take it out. I hope this helps! I’m so glad you’re finding our videos helpful! Thanks so much for watching!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost that was my concern with the coconut coir too is I won't know which is castings and which is coir. however I'm hoping that by the time spring rolls around, they will have begun to make some progress (i.e reproduced more and start to eat the food faster) so I can maybe start taking some coir out. I can use the coir directly on my plants too anyways. I'm hoping that by then, there will be at least some castings but we will see. thanks again for the reply!
By spring all the coco coir will be consumed and you will have lots of worm castings for your garden!!
I loved watching the tails disappear on the close up! I found this about your peanut shells: "it can take up to two years for a boiled peanut shell to biodegrade." I think your worms will do better with that watermelon, Patrick!
~ Sandra
😂🤣😂 I think watermelon will be eaten faster as well....but if my worms heard you I think they're up for the 2 year challenge!!! Thanks so much for watching Sandra!!🪱🪱🪱
@@VermicompostI had un-boiled peanut shells and it took about a year and a half so I’d estimate under a year if you boil them first.
Oh cool!! That's a little bit of good news!!
This is helpful thank you!
My bin is brand new, and
I have some food sitting in there that's now a week old and looks a long way off from being eaten. Should I pull it out, and put it fresh food just way less?
I'm so glad you found our video helpful!! I would say if it is easy to pick out, go ahead and take it out. For a brand new bin I would put in just a few strawberry tops or just a few small pieces of lettuce. Be sure to freeze whatever food scraps you put in as this helps to physically break down the food for the worms & microbes (you can thaw it out before placing it in if you want). After about 5-6 days of leaving the bin alone, check to see if they have eaten it all and then slowly keep increasing the size of their feedings as long as they eat almost everything. This video shows you how much I feed my new worm bins and what it looks like 5-6 days later if you haven't already seen it: ruclips.net/video/1IRP-Nu6_90/видео.html this one might also be helpful: ruclips.net/video/UsH3k92KhYg/видео.html As long as you slowly scale up your feedings as you see how much your worms eat and you add some more shredded cardboard with each feeding you will be in great shape!! I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching Sarah!!🪱🪱🪱
@Vermicompost thank you for taking the time to respond, this was very helpful and encouraging!
My pleasure!!
It absolutely amazes me now how thoroughly the worms eat things up now that I have grown their population and the microbes over the past three years. The Vermihut was a great way to get started! Thanks to you Patrick and your great instructional videos! 👏🪱🪱🪱🪱
Yes!! It is amazing what a machine a 3 year old bin is with all the microbes and ecosystem & worms working all the bedding & food scraps into verimcompost!! I'm so glad the Vermihut got you started!! Thanks for watching & for all your support of the years Ann!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost Your videos are one of the few that show from the very start of a bin to making it work, which takes time. Lots of time and patience. So worth it now, as my garden was terrific this year! Oddly, the only plant that struggled was zucchini 😂 which may be was because started indoors. Everything else was full on improvement. Biggest garlic bulbs and shallots ever. The greens were very happy. Incredible peas and green beans, herbs, etc.
Thanks you Ann!! That's so awesome that your garden saw such a wonderful improvement! No better produce than organic picked right at home fertilized by worm castings!!
Have I missed one, or has it been a while since you’ve done a worm ball time lapse?
I was just thinking the same thing!! It has been a while since I did a good worm ball time lapse in my Outdoor Worm Bin! After this hurricane passes by I'm gonna go outside and work on that bin, harvest it and do a time lapse with those worms at the end. Thanks for the reminder & thanks so much for watching Joe!!🪱🪱🪱
Do you have pests get into your worm tower? Do you have the feet attachments that you fill with water to prevent pests? Do they work?
I have never had a problem with ants or other pests getting into my worm tower...and we sometimes get ants in our house. So I don't use the feet that come with it. I like how each foot is a little moat to prevent pests but I find that I just don't need them! I will occasionally see a fruit fly or two, bit that is because they can be attracted when I open the lid. I freeze all my food scraps so I really have never had an infestation of any sort. I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching Thomas!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost thanks for the reply. I have another question. Why do you only have one active feeding tray in your tower? Aren't you limiting the amount of castings produced by having only one active tray?
That is a great question!! I have never tried 2 active feeding trays!! I do find that the worms are constantly traveling between the trays, so in order to feed them I would be pulling them up and down a lot which probably deterred me from trying to feed multiples trays early on. But I think you could give it a try! I harvest every 60 days or so with this tower and it gives me a constant supply of castings every 60 days but I supposes 2 active feeding trays might be able to harvest twice as much every 60 days??!? Right now I have one tray resting just below the feeding tray that I harvest, so I'd have to rethink the role of each tray within the system...maybe have 2 pre-harvest trays, 2 feeding trays and one dry inoculating tray? Maybe skip the pre-harvest trays altogether and run it more like a traditional worm bin? The big question is will any of this modifications give more castings in the end? I don't know, but I'd love to see if the effort results in more castings faster!!
Do you think it's okay to give the worms tea bags with turmeric?
I don't think that will be a problem at all!! I have given lots of tea of various kinds and types to my worms. I usually just have it together with my used coffee grounds. Some tea bags are made of synthetic material that won't break down and some tea bags are totally natural and break down but I can never tell from the packaging...luckily the worms let me know!! Great question Jeff!! Thanks for dropping by to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost that would be a fun video for you to do. Using different types of tea bags and seeing the outcome.
Great idea!!
Can you explain how many worms are in this bin?
I estimate I have 4,000 to 5,000 worm in my entire VermiHut worm tower. I actually counted one of the trays to get an estimate of the amount of worms in the whole system: ruclips.net/video/TfQgUwdMPrY/видео.html The worms are free to travel between all the trays but most of them are in the top two trays! I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for stopping by to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
Would there ever be a benefit to feeding the worms a mash or blending the food instead of giving it whole? An established bin that is
Yes!! I actually did an experiment in this bin about 6 months ago because I was wondering the same thing! Here is the video with a time lapse showing the results: ruclips.net/video/Ty3FNheJFoc/видео.html Freezing then blending is even faster!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
@Vermicompost that was interesting! Last question of the day , would composting the food , and feeding the worms almost the finished compost that isn't hot be any easier for them to process? Could dry shredded leaves be used instead of cardboard or with cardboard? I apologize for the extra questions, I just followed your instructions on starting a bin , I'm going to give it the couple weeks before i order them. With it being fall, we will have yards and yards of leaves here
No problem, keep the questions coming! Pre-composting and adding shredding leaves are absolutely superb for a worm bin!!! But if you are just starting I would add some pre-composted material to help inoculate the worm bin with microbes, but I would add a combination of shredded cardboard and shredded leaves to get started. Leaves take a little longer than cardboard to start to break down enough for the worms to eat & digest, so I like to start with cardboard, which also retains moisture better. But a mature bin will thrive on dry shredded leaves & pre-composted material alone!! I like to use my worms to recycle the nutrients of my food scraps into my yard and keep my cardboard boxes out of the landfill in a lazy way, but what you mentioned is the next level of vermicomposting!!
What’s going on with your feeding tray? Looks almost like squirrel damage. Feeding tray is breaking down nicely. Good feeding Patrick.
You are exactly right Rick!! I left this tray outside after I harvested one time and the squirrels got to it!! I think they were watching me in the tree hoping I'd leave it for them!! Now I get to slowly watch the tray start at the bottom and work its way up as a constant reminder for me to clean up after myself!! But it still works just fine!! Thanks so much for dropping by to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
Ur worms are really hungry u can see in timelapse, how quickly they eaten those veggies.i thinking why my worm tower not like this.Can we put tea dust or tea waste to the compost bin.
Believe it or not they had a full feeding underneath as well!! Very hungry worms!! This was done over two weeks and they are telling me to feed more AND more often!! This worm tower is almost 4 years old and has a very mature ecosystem running in it...I always challenge my worms with bigger feedings if I see them eat all of the last feeding, so maybe you can slowly give bigger feedings! Tea leaves and ground tea dust are fantastic to put in a worm bin...in fact some of the coffee grounds have ground tea leaves in there from the tea we drink! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost ok thanks for the reply👍
My pleasure!!
update?
Here is the update: ruclips.net/video/9x467PSF2xE/видео.html It took us a little longer than usual to get to the next feeding! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Oh man peanut shells take forever
😂 Oh boy!! Sounds like I'm gonna be talking about peanut shells for a long time!! I wonder if boiling and freezing them will speed up the process at all??!!? Thanks for sharing your experience with peanut shells...I think I'll save them for my regular compost pile in the future!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
1:46 the hwat?
It might help to see the video before this one when I put the food in: ruclips.net/video/sItTCZbqLAU/видео.html Those were boiled peanuts that we kept in the freezer for a few weeks, I decided to give them a try in this worm bin and we'll see how the do!! So far the shells don't seem to be broken down that much!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱