Keep It Moving Small Worm Sifting Tip - Save Time and Worm Lives!
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- Hi! Ever want to sift castings out of a worm bin full of small worms?? If you don’t do it in a good way you can end up with lots of little worms dangling half and half out of the mesh. Then they need to be removed. And that can cause injury to the worms as well as add considerable time to the process.
Who needs that?!
Watch and learn how you can better sift out small worms using an easy method 👍🪱😎
Thanks for watching! Please consider subscribing if you haven’t already and become a Castings Crew worm wrangler 🤩
Yours in the dirt,
Jayne
Hi Jayne and the camara man! thanks for another great video and tips! Your channel is my favorite throughout the journey to start a mid-scale worm farm to cut down my household waste! As a spritual business coach, I'm all about start heartful soul business and working with what we have to share with my community. Just found that 2 qualities on you. Full of wisdom and great tips from experiences 🥰 Love that regards "Yours in the dirt".
Thank you! That means a lot to both me and Cameraman 🥰. I like your name too - soil4soul 👍. Doing something to help the earth and ourselves just makes a lot of sense. And let’s face it, raising worms isn’t that hard once you get the basics. Mistakes happen, oh boy do they, but the benefits outweigh the occasional disaster! I love the challenge of finding new ways to use what we got or what people throw out. It’s fun! Glad you do the same 🤩🪱!
5:59 5:59 Hello Jayne I am so grateful to you for your channel. I am so happy you showed us your mess. Using the paint brush to clean up is genius. I am on day 4 of indoor precompost. Today, 121 degrees! What I did: I do not have access to lots of coffee grounds. I decided to use comfrey, dandelions, and fennel (a "weed" here in Seattle); made it into a slurry. I figured it was also a way to get minerals and other good stuff into my soil. I am watching Huw Richards who uses weeds and grass in soil amendments. I used yeast. Now here are my questions: The corners are at 80-83 degrees. I put some rolled felt over the corners after putting on cardboard thinking I was losing heat; it did not help. Turning it I am sure is the answer but I cannot physically do that as often as I would like. Next: does it need air when storing? Feed bags are not accessible to me. I have HDX bins; would I need to put holes in them--I do not want to do that but if I have to I may. Thanks again. There is more I want to share but it will wait. Kathleen
Hi Kathleen! Welcome! My indoor work space is often a mess🤣. Just keeping it real 😎.
Yea! 121F is great for pre-composting. You’ll get good biota growth and breakdown of your materials. I love that you used what you had available to you for free! Good job 👍. If it works, it works!
The outside edges and/or the top layer will be cooler as they are away from the center mass with most of the action is occurring. Also they are against the sides of the container which will be cooler due to lower ambient lights. This normal and nothing to be concerned about. Mix it in or mix it by offloading it to another similarly sized tote as you can. If you can’t don’t worry about it too much. It’ll still be fantastic bedding and food for your worms. It being a little chunkier here and there is absolutely fine. I’ve stopped turning my compost in the big totes completely mid cycle. I don’t have the time and again, I’m ok if every little particle isn’t broken down completely.
Let me clarify the pre-compost is usually still in the low 100F range - so still active and cooking - when I offload it into smaller totes. Offloading it does mix it, redistributes moisture (solving the dry top, cool corners and any anaerobic pocket issues) as well as breaks up the mass, which allows for quicker cooling down so the pre-compost is ready to use faster. Even offloading it into 5 gallon buckets - which I do too - does the same job.
At some point you’re going to have to remove the pre-compost from it original tote and get it to your worm bins. Mix it then, perhaps let it sit for a day or two to equalize moisture and cool down to safe worm bin temps. Then use it see your worms go crazy for it!
Yes! Castings need air and a bit of moisture to keep the biota alive during storage. Not a lot of each but definitely some minimal amount. I wouldn’t want to drill holes in lids or sides either! 😳. You can open the storage totes every once in a while and run your hands thru it to aerate and check on moisture. Timing is too dependent on your environment for me to tell you exactly how long you can go between aeration’s. Sorry! Start at a month and then adjust from there.
Also there’s other storage options like breathable bags, pillowcases, sandbags. etc. I don’t know what volume you’re dealing with here…? Or how long your storage timeframe is. Sandbags can be a good option as they hold a decent amount, are breathable, and not terribly expensive. They can be stacked as well. You might want to look into that option.
I hope I’ve addressed your questions/concerns…? 🪱🪱
Hello Jayne, thank you for your helpful and quick reply. I use my castings pretty quickly except in winter. I will be making and storing the pre-compost. Does that need ventilation as well?
@@kathleenperezmartinez8303 Yes it does. The storage requirements are the same. That’s because both the castings and pre-compost value is mostly dependent on their biota loads. And that biota needs air and some level of moisture to survive. 🪱🪱
I'm in Portland and there are at least 10 Starbucks near me. They are great about giving me coffee grounds but one just let's me go into the garbage storage place and get full bags or if their green compost bin in there. I can take however much I want and I don't have to waste time going to several Starbucks.
Seattle (the home of Starbucks) also has tons of Starbucks so if you want, I'm sure you can get the grounds for free.
I also get all my cardboard from Costco for free. Only other things I add is my kitchen scrapes.
@@anncoombs6787 Hi Ann! How are you? It’s been a minute 😊. Have you gone bigger into breeder bins yet?
Starbucks is a wonderful resource! There’s a new one going in much closer to me than the ones I usually have to hit up for coffee grounds. Only one town over instead of 3 🙄. I concur that’s so much easier to get one big score than have to stop at multiple stores but you do what you gotta do 🤩. I’m actually working on my stockpile right now, to reduce it just a bit.
I didn’t know they had a green bin at Starbucks! Hmmm. Do they have a name for it so I can ask correctly? What kind of stuff is in it? 🪱🪱🪱
Good tip Jayne. Makes alot of sense. Thanks for sharing
I find the little wisps stick to the side of the green plastic. I gently use a toothpick to pick them up and put them in the worm bin. Sifting is surprisingly a lot of work.
Hey Julie! That happens to me too. Or on the bottom of a bin. I’ve found using a small handful of bedding and swirl it around or gently rub it where the wisps are helps a lot to remove most of them. 😎. I like the toothpick idea! I’ll have to try that with the persnickety ones that won’t let go. Thanks for the great idea 🥰🪱🙏
I forgot to agree with you on sifting being work and physically tiring. After several bins I’m pooped! Several worm wranglers have said the slide back and forth sifter is easier and less tiring. I may have to break down and look into that. 🪱🪱
@@RockinWorms I’ll try that with the bedding!
Great idea how sift your worms out🇳🇿🪱
Sharing what works! Thanks for watching ❤️🪱🥰
Wow, that's a great idea, Jayne 👍🪱👍
Thanks Peggy ❤️🪱
Good workout program you have going on with your sifting system too lol I do wish I had the physical ability to use something bigger than my little one, but at least it gets the job done. Smal as the whole are in it though, you're right about keeping them moving. Crazy little things can tie themselves in knots if left unattended in one.
Hi Suzanne! Thanks for stopping by 🤗. Exactly! They get themselves hung up and it can be frustrating to get them out unharmed. I’ve been known to work up a little sweat sifting 🤣🤣. Not Gene Simmons dancing with the oldies sweat but still… 😝
Great tip! Thanks 😊
You are welcome! Its a great little work out too 🤣🤩
I shudder when I see a wisp or a juvenile caught in a sifter! One of my sifters has coated wires, which I think helps protect them a little bit.
~ Sandra
Hi Sandra! If I get a few worms hung up in a sifter - not often but it does happen - I’ll place the sifter on the pile of bedding and worms in the holding bin and give them time to untangle themselves. It doesn’t work for every worm but for many of them. 🪱🪱
That movement kills my back as have tried those sifters. I use a very small trommel, hand cranked, which works fairly efficiently. The mesh is coated with plastic and easy on the worms. I do let worms go thru, then the castings and worms are put in a secondary storage where I let them hang out and eventually bait them out to go back to work.
Hi Ann! Yeah, I can see where the method wouldn’t work for everyone. It’s good that you have a set that fits your needs - that’s what really matters ❤️😎🪱. Thanks for stopping by and sharing how you do it. It may help someone else with a bad back 🤩🪱
That bin is how my bins look, the ones I’ve split as not getting bigger
Hey Cheryl. It takes time for the worms to chonky up. Give them a chance 🤗. In the meantime you can sift the castings and give them fresh bedding and food. That’ll help them size up too. Thanks for watching 🥰🪱🤩
@@RockinWorms what I did was to put have into a new bed with new precompost bedding and added new to the original bedding bed. So started with one container empty and put have in mass to both and filled with precompost.
So they should be ok for a while I think. Definitely till 21st after my holiday.
Just need to check moisture before I go and they should be fine.
@@cherylhowker1792 I think you are right and do exactly the best thing. The worms will be fine while you have your holiday. Good job! 👏 🪱
@@RockinWorms the worms themselves are not mature yet but will eventually, but they were like the ones in here, smaller by not wisps. I had hoped one lot would have matured by now. But what I might do in the future if I wanna keep more of an eye on it is to date the bins at caccon, nursery and then grow our stage so I know roughly when they be mature. As so far only got noon mature worms in all this time doing it, still working on my original 600
@@cherylhowker1792 Worms take longer to mature than what I’ve read on blogs and seen on RUclips in my own experience. Same with my chickens 🙄. I need to get animals that read and follow the manual 😝. Or I’m doing something wrong 🤷♂️.
If the worms are healthy and happy then they’ll mature when they’re ready 😍🪱
Dating your bins is a good idea so you’ll have a better idea of what your experience is. I’ve found that I put more and more info on my sticky notes as I go along 😊.