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
1:31 next time!😂. 4:05 do you keep more than one sensor in the bag at different depths? 5:59 I feed egg cartons as well. This summer I froze blended veggies in the cartons and fed those off to help keep the bin cool. You know the Florida worm summer struggle. Once again, Love the timelapse Patrick.. 🤙
I think I'm knuckles deep in the harvest every time I remember I should have that little rake! I usually have one sensor under food scraps until it gets lost below, and I keep one on the surface. It helps me to know if the food is heating up and what the overall temp of the system is so I know the worms always have somewhere to flee if one area runs away hot or cold. Those blended food scrapsicles are a brilliant idea for our FL heat! I'll try to remember to do another time lapse when I harvest the Outdoor Worm Bin next...I always get a good squiggly worm ball going!!! Thanks so much for stopping by to watch Mike!!🪱🪱🪱
Nice harvest Patrick!!!! I think you have done a terrific job maximizing the potential in that worm bag. When I harvested my 50 gal grow bags in the spring, the 5 gallon buckets I was weighing the castings in were all around 25 to 27 pounds. I probably had a little more than 4 gallons in each bucket, very similar weights to what you got from your worm bag. I went to do a harvest on my cft bin about a month ago, and the castings were like mud at the bottom, way too much moisture. The castings were too wet to harvest, so I cranked up a dehumidifier hoping to dry things out a bit, need to check it out and see if it worked. I will be using a lot of this years castings in my garlic and onion beds this fall Bet that sock will be full of worms next go around. Stay Well!!!!
That's good to know our weights and volumes are very similar!! That dehumidifier should help out immensely!! We bought one for my youngest son's apartment and it brought the humidity down big time!! I've never been able to grow onions or garlic very well down here...maybe I need to use a bunch of castings!! Thanks so much for watching Brian!!🪱🪱🪱
I can't wait either!! I've got lots of seedlings and this huge haul should help refresh all my grow bag soil!! Thanks so much for stopping by to watch Peggy!!🪱🪱🪱
I love your videos, they inspired my family to start our own bed! We've been going strong for just over a year and are getting great castings! We use the same 12 sheet shredder for cardboard and it works great. A couple of months ago I had the random idea to soak the cardboard shreds in water with some amendments and grit mixed well into the water! We mix ground oats, expired flour, dry coffee grounds, and a spoon of molasses in the water and stir until mostly dissolved and soak the cardboard in that! The idea is that it soaks evenly into the cardboard, encouraging the worms to eat the bedding itself right away rather than moving around it to get the sprinkled powder. I could swear that our bedding is disappearing into castings significantly faster since I started doing this, but it could be the placebo effect where I want my idea to be a good one, but I thought I'd mention it nonetheless!
That's so awesome to hear!! I'm so glad our videos inspired you!! It sounds like you have an excellent shredded cardboard marinade you've come up with!! I can almost guarantee it helps the worms and microbes break down the cardboard faster!! I really love how well my shredder tears the cardboard into tiny pieces and you've made it that much better!! Thanks so much for watching & passing on your cardboard marinade recipe!!🪱🪱🪱
I tend to feed every few days and over harvest, I end up having to sift more unfinished pieces out and I get that tunnel down to the bottom every time. After seeing how pure your harvest was I’m going to slow down the harvests! Great video!💚🪱🫡
I'm glad you mentioned that!! I think slowing down the harvest combined with many small feedings helped keep the castings mostly free of worms and bigger cardboard chunks! I'm really happy with how this Urban Worm Bag is performing!! Thanks so much for watching & passing on your experience!!🪱🪱🪱
Good idea to move the feeding zone around the system - reminds me of my "pocket-fed" system :) The banana, broccoli & watermelon are sure to draw a major crowd to that sock 👍🏻 As for that pile of coffee though, I suspect that the stuff will, in large part, likely just sit there......
That's true, it is kinda like rapid fire pocket feedings between big feedings! I'm hoping I get some kinda traction out of that old sock...or it's gonna get the boot out of the system!! I'm thinking it contains little to no natural fibers. The coffee pile will be a monolith in this bin until many moons from now!! Thanks so much for watching AV!!🪱🪱🪱
I'm sure there's gotta be some natural fibers in that sock that the worms will nibble on - but there'll definitely some of it that gets left untouched - then you can give it the boot 👍🏻
I've never tried a sock, but 100% cotton T-shirts before. The shirts get broken down but the thread doesn't. I'm guessing they are 99.9% cotton. 😊 Nice harvest.👍
That's awesome!! I really should have started with a 100% cotton T-shirt or towel!! I mistakenly thought my socks were 100% cotton but now I'm wondering if there is even any cotton in them at all! Thanks so much for watching Gerry & for passing on your experience with your worms eating your clothes!!!🪱🪱🪱
I was really happy with how few worms were left in the casting compared to my last few harvests! I think the many little rapid fire feedings have kept the worms busy up high!! Thanks so much for stopping by to watch Rachelle!!🪱🪱🪱
Great point!! They are getting mostly organic food scraps but being fed industrial cardboard!! But one good thing about compost worms is they sequester many toxic substances in their bodies...we just have to be sure we don't eat them😀 They have been used to clean up contaminated soil & are mother nature's little decontaminators & recyclers on a massive scale but you are right, we need to be mindful of what is going into our worm bins!! Thanks so much for watching and passing on your tip!!🪱🪱🪱
@Vermicompost you have a good point as well. Worms are great at cleaning, so folks should avoid feeding their chickens with these. Kind of like avoiding clams raised in waters by a large city lol
That's good to hear!! I guess I'm used to looking at it. I will try to find it's match and compare to see how it is doing! Thanks so much for taking the time to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
Yes I do! Here it is: ruclips.net/video/6S8j0HdRz_o/видео.html I also have a playlist of how to start a worm bin in general and what things look like after a week: ruclips.net/p/PLimznaPXKV09VLDzBAl71EZhmiBGmIMUN This is such a fun worm bin that gives me huge harvests!! Thanks so much for watching Jeff!!🪱🪱🪱
@Vermicompost thanks for the links. Your worm bin video is what got me started into this hobby. I think I'm ready for the next step in mass production, lol.
@jeffhernandez5247 Awesome!! Yes!!! You’re gonna love an Urban Worm Bag!! It is so big compared to a typical worm so it takes a while to fill up as you feed it, but after a few months it really starts to devour feedings as the population explodes!!
how come the castings are collected at the bottom. how do they get there. because everybody using a worm bin collects the castings at the top. i would assume this is just a big worm bin
This particular kind of worm bin is called a Continuous Flow Through (CFT) worm bin. You put the food scraps and bedding at the top and the worms it it...as you ad more and more food & bedding they keep climbing up to eat it as their worm castings stay down below. You harvest from the bottom and keep feeding from the top and the worms always move up in the system. You are right! CFT type worm bins work best in bigger and commercial size bins where weight and size of the material work to your advantage! I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Great video! I am curious if you've ever had any issues with your UWB being too dry? Mine is only about 6 months old but it seems like the edges dry out so fast... I just did my first harvest and the castings were almost bone dry as well. My feedings aren't as wet as yours but I do use soaked cardboard bedding with each feeding, and I also add ~1/2gal of water weekly to keep the worms happy on top. Any tips?
Is your UWB outdoors or indoors? I have noticed when we bring it indoors (usually when we are on a road trip) the UWB releases some moisture (I sometime see a little bit of liquid in the mortar tray I have below it) and the castings tend to have the same uniform moisture throughout. But in the heat of the summer, even when I'm putting frozen water bottles in it and occasionally ice cubes, I'll see it more dry, probably because of the heat dissipating. I find this ironic, because here in the Tampa, Florida area, outside is way more humid than inside our house like 80% versus 45% humidity! Now when I spray it down with water and really load it up with ice cubes and a big wet feeding I do get liquid coming out of the bottom. But as you can see, when I pulled the bedding off the sides, it was moist after being in our house for a week. I think what you may be running into is a relatively newer bin that will retain moisture better over time as you get more castings forming quicker with a growing population of worms and microbes. I dumped my first harvest back into the top of my bin: ruclips.net/video/humugmaw6_I/видео.html I would feed some more wet foods, maybe more often if you don't think you are in an overfeeding situation, maybe put a large piece of plastic right on the surface of the bedding to keep the moisture recirculating down right back on the surface, keep adding moist bedding and maybe supplement the 1/2 gallon of water with some ice cubes on top which will slow release water into the bedding helping it to absorb. I think things will improve over time and with the cooler temps coming if you are in the Northern Hemisphere like me! If your UWB is 6 months old it has mostly been a summer time bin if it is outside. I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost Mine is currently in my garage. Since I live in the far north I definitely can't leave it outside through the winter. I keep a mortar tray underneath like you mentioned and have never seen any signs of moisture making it through to the bottom. I keep a layer of loose plastic on top and the worms seem to be doing great on the top 6" after I added that ~2 months ago. I'll try the ice cube trick and see if that helps, otherwise I'll just give it time in hopes that the castings hold more moisture than my original coir/cardboard combo bedding. Thanks for the reply!
My pleasure!! I think you'll see more moisture retention with more castings, but you can also test it by adding more moisture daily until you see liquid come out after a few days! Then you'll know what it takes!
Very occasionally...in fact this is a good reminder! I do it about 3-4 times a year by adding some vegetable oil to a sheet of paper that I then send through the shredder. I have had my shredder for almost 5 years and have been shredding cardboard in it for 3+ years with no problems!! It is getting a little less use now that my mom helps with the shredding in the shredder I got for her, but it is an absolute beast!! I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
😀Great question!! It was an experiment I started about 6 weeks ago...Compost worms will eat & turn to castings anything that once living and I thought this sock was made of cotton...the worms are showing me I was wrong!! If the sock doesn't break down after the next check in I will attempt to take it out and maybe start with something that has the 100% cotton tag on it!! I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
I love it!! It does get better and better each time I harvest as my population keeps growing!! I don't think I'm close to its carrying capacity of worms yet! You know what I think....You should get one!! Thanks so much for all your support Ann!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost I am trying to decide, if I get one, where to put it. It took you, if my memory is correct, about a year and a half to really get yours like it is now. I am thinking of dumping my more recent castings where I have not separated the worms out yet and let this be both casting storage and compost bin.
That would be a great use for it!! I started with sterile cardboard bedding...I could have skipped months had I started with a bunch of my stored castings and the baby worms and cocoons that reside in it to start it off!!
😂 So far it has been staying steady but that may be because the temps are coming down a little at night for us! The pineapples started to runaway on day 2 and I had to put a few big ice cubes and frozen water bottles right over that spot!! Thanks so much for watching Ann!!🪱🪱🪱
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
I'm glad to see that you were able to harvest your castings. Have a great weekend.
Thanks AJ!! Have a great weekend as well!! I'll be refreshing my soil with these castings!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
23lbs of castings is fantastic! Great job!
Thank you Lisa!! I was so excited with how good all of it looked and how few worms were in it!! Thanks so much for dropping by to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
1:31 next time!😂. 4:05 do you keep more than one sensor in the bag at different depths? 5:59 I feed egg cartons as well. This summer I froze blended veggies in the cartons and fed those off to help keep the bin cool. You know the Florida worm summer struggle. Once again, Love the timelapse Patrick.. 🤙
I think I'm knuckles deep in the harvest every time I remember I should have that little rake! I usually have one sensor under food scraps until it gets lost below, and I keep one on the surface. It helps me to know if the food is heating up and what the overall temp of the system is so I know the worms always have somewhere to flee if one area runs away hot or cold. Those blended food scrapsicles are a brilliant idea for our FL heat! I'll try to remember to do another time lapse when I harvest the Outdoor Worm Bin next...I always get a good squiggly worm ball going!!! Thanks so much for stopping by to watch Mike!!🪱🪱🪱
Nice harvest Patrick!!!! I think you have done a terrific job maximizing the potential in that worm bag.
When I harvested my 50 gal grow bags in the spring, the 5 gallon buckets I was weighing the castings in were all around 25 to 27 pounds. I probably had a little more than 4 gallons in each bucket, very similar weights to what you got from your worm bag.
I went to do a harvest on my cft bin about a month ago, and the castings were like mud at the bottom, way too much moisture. The castings were too wet to harvest, so I cranked up a dehumidifier hoping to dry things out a bit, need to check it out and see if it worked.
I will be using a lot of this years castings in my garlic and onion beds this fall
Bet that sock will be full of worms next go around. Stay Well!!!!
That's good to know our weights and volumes are very similar!! That dehumidifier should help out immensely!! We bought one for my youngest son's apartment and it brought the humidity down big time!! I've never been able to grow onions or garlic very well down here...maybe I need to use a bunch of castings!! Thanks so much for watching Brian!!🪱🪱🪱
Hi Patrick,
Good one! That's a Huge Haul!
You must be getting ready for a Fall Garden 🍂
I can't wait ❤
I can't wait either!! I've got lots of seedlings and this huge haul should help refresh all my grow bag soil!! Thanks so much for stopping by to watch Peggy!!🪱🪱🪱
What a lovely harvest! Love your videos. Just started my second bin, I am all aboard the vermicompost train.
Thank you Jay!! That is great to hear you are all in on vermicomposting!! It is very addictive!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
I love your videos, they inspired my family to start our own bed! We've been going strong for just over a year and are getting great castings! We use the same 12 sheet shredder for cardboard and it works great. A couple of months ago I had the random idea to soak the cardboard shreds in water with some amendments and grit mixed well into the water! We mix ground oats, expired flour, dry coffee grounds, and a spoon of molasses in the water and stir until mostly dissolved and soak the cardboard in that! The idea is that it soaks evenly into the cardboard, encouraging the worms to eat the bedding itself right away rather than moving around it to get the sprinkled powder. I could swear that our bedding is disappearing into castings significantly faster since I started doing this, but it could be the placebo effect where I want my idea to be a good one, but I thought I'd mention it nonetheless!
That's so awesome to hear!! I'm so glad our videos inspired you!! It sounds like you have an excellent shredded cardboard marinade you've come up with!! I can almost guarantee it helps the worms and microbes break down the cardboard faster!! I really love how well my shredder tears the cardboard into tiny pieces and you've made it that much better!! Thanks so much for watching & passing on your cardboard marinade recipe!!🪱🪱🪱
All good!
Thanks for stopping by Scot!! We appreciate you watching & leaving a nice comment!!🪱🪱🪱
I tend to feed every few days and over harvest, I end up having to sift more unfinished pieces out and I get that tunnel down to the bottom every time. After seeing how pure your harvest was I’m going to slow down the harvests! Great video!💚🪱🫡
I'm glad you mentioned that!! I think slowing down the harvest combined with many small feedings helped keep the castings mostly free of worms and bigger cardboard chunks! I'm really happy with how this Urban Worm Bag is performing!! Thanks so much for watching & passing on your experience!!🪱🪱🪱
Good idea to move the feeding zone around the system - reminds me of my "pocket-fed" system :) The banana, broccoli & watermelon are sure to draw a major crowd to that sock 👍🏻 As for that pile of coffee though, I suspect that the stuff will, in large part, likely just sit there......
That's true, it is kinda like rapid fire pocket feedings between big feedings! I'm hoping I get some kinda traction out of that old sock...or it's gonna get the boot out of the system!! I'm thinking it contains little to no natural fibers. The coffee pile will be a monolith in this bin until many moons from now!! Thanks so much for watching AV!!🪱🪱🪱
I'm sure there's gotta be some natural fibers in that sock that the worms will nibble on - but there'll definitely some of it that gets left untouched - then you can give it the boot 👍🏻
I've never tried a sock, but 100% cotton T-shirts before. The shirts get broken down but the thread doesn't. I'm guessing they are 99.9% cotton. 😊
Nice harvest.👍
That's awesome!! I really should have started with a 100% cotton T-shirt or towel!! I mistakenly thought my socks were 100% cotton but now I'm wondering if there is even any cotton in them at all! Thanks so much for watching Gerry & for passing on your experience with your worms eating your clothes!!!🪱🪱🪱
Wow that is a lot of castings for one harvest. I’m surprised there is so few worms.
I was really happy with how few worms were left in the casting compared to my last few harvests! I think the many little rapid fire feedings have kept the worms busy up high!! Thanks so much for stopping by to watch Rachelle!!🪱🪱🪱
That's a cool flow thru system. A warning though, avoid cardboard tubes since they have lots of glue that contains all sorts of chemicals.
Great point!! They are getting mostly organic food scraps but being fed industrial cardboard!! But one good thing about compost worms is they sequester many toxic substances in their bodies...we just have to be sure we don't eat them😀 They have been used to clean up contaminated soil & are mother nature's little decontaminators & recyclers on a massive scale but you are right, we need to be mindful of what is going into our worm bins!! Thanks so much for watching and passing on your tip!!🪱🪱🪱
@Vermicompost you have a good point as well. Worms are great at cleaning, so folks should avoid feeding their chickens with these. Kind of like avoiding clams raised in waters by a large city lol
Absolutely! Toxins get concentrated up the food chain!
The sock actually does look thinned out, like its mossing threads. Next time you could try washing the dirt off and comparing it to a new sock?
That's good to hear!! I guess I'm used to looking at it. I will try to find it's match and compare to see how it is doing! Thanks so much for taking the time to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
Do you have any videos of starting one of these?
Yes I do! Here it is: ruclips.net/video/6S8j0HdRz_o/видео.html I also have a playlist of how to start a worm bin in general and what things look like after a week: ruclips.net/p/PLimznaPXKV09VLDzBAl71EZhmiBGmIMUN This is such a fun worm bin that gives me huge harvests!! Thanks so much for watching Jeff!!🪱🪱🪱
@Vermicompost thanks for the links. Your worm bin video is what got me started into this hobby. I think I'm ready for the next step in mass production, lol.
@jeffhernandez5247 Awesome!! Yes!!! You’re gonna love an Urban Worm Bag!! It is so big compared to a typical worm so it takes a while to fill up as you feed it, but after a few months it really starts to devour feedings as the population explodes!!
how come the castings are collected at the bottom. how do they get there. because everybody using a worm bin collects the castings at the top. i would assume this is just a big worm bin
This particular kind of worm bin is called a Continuous Flow Through (CFT) worm bin. You put the food scraps and bedding at the top and the worms it it...as you ad more and more food & bedding they keep climbing up to eat it as their worm castings stay down below. You harvest from the bottom and keep feeding from the top and the worms always move up in the system. You are right! CFT type worm bins work best in bigger and commercial size bins where weight and size of the material work to your advantage! I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Great video! I am curious if you've ever had any issues with your UWB being too dry? Mine is only about 6 months old but it seems like the edges dry out so fast... I just did my first harvest and the castings were almost bone dry as well. My feedings aren't as wet as yours but I do use soaked cardboard bedding with each feeding, and I also add ~1/2gal of water weekly to keep the worms happy on top. Any tips?
Is your UWB outdoors or indoors? I have noticed when we bring it indoors (usually when we are on a road trip) the UWB releases some moisture (I sometime see a little bit of liquid in the mortar tray I have below it) and the castings tend to have the same uniform moisture throughout. But in the heat of the summer, even when I'm putting frozen water bottles in it and occasionally ice cubes, I'll see it more dry, probably because of the heat dissipating. I find this ironic, because here in the Tampa, Florida area, outside is way more humid than inside our house like 80% versus 45% humidity! Now when I spray it down with water and really load it up with ice cubes and a big wet feeding I do get liquid coming out of the bottom. But as you can see, when I pulled the bedding off the sides, it was moist after being in our house for a week.
I think what you may be running into is a relatively newer bin that will retain moisture better over time as you get more castings forming quicker with a growing population of worms and microbes. I dumped my first harvest back into the top of my bin: ruclips.net/video/humugmaw6_I/видео.html I would feed some more wet foods, maybe more often if you don't think you are in an overfeeding situation, maybe put a large piece of plastic right on the surface of the bedding to keep the moisture recirculating down right back on the surface, keep adding moist bedding and maybe supplement the 1/2 gallon of water with some ice cubes on top which will slow release water into the bedding helping it to absorb. I think things will improve over time and with the cooler temps coming if you are in the Northern Hemisphere like me! If your UWB is 6 months old it has mostly been a summer time bin if it is outside. I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost Mine is currently in my garage. Since I live in the far north I definitely can't leave it outside through the winter. I keep a mortar tray underneath like you mentioned and have never seen any signs of moisture making it through to the bottom. I keep a layer of loose plastic on top and the worms seem to be doing great on the top 6" after I added that ~2 months ago. I'll try the ice cube trick and see if that helps, otherwise I'll just give it time in hopes that the castings hold more moisture than my original coir/cardboard combo bedding. Thanks for the reply!
My pleasure!! I think you'll see more moisture retention with more castings, but you can also test it by adding more moisture daily until you see liquid come out after a few days! Then you'll know what it takes!
Hello! Do you oil your paper schredder? if yes, how do you do it and how often? Thank you.
Very occasionally...in fact this is a good reminder! I do it about 3-4 times a year by adding some vegetable oil to a sheet of paper that I then send through the shredder. I have had my shredder for almost 5 years and have been shredding cardboard in it for 3+ years with no problems!! It is getting a little less use now that my mom helps with the shredding in the shredder I got for her, but it is an absolute beast!! I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
It helps for sure. I will do the same. I never oiled my schredder yet. Thanks again.
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So why the sock?
😀Great question!! It was an experiment I started about 6 weeks ago...Compost worms will eat & turn to castings anything that once living and I thought this sock was made of cotton...the worms are showing me I was wrong!! If the sock doesn't break down after the next check in I will attempt to take it out and maybe start with something that has the 100% cotton tag on it!! I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Thats the best harvest I have seen of your urban worm bag! It is making me consider trying one. 👍🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱
It’s too easy not to get
I love it!! It does get better and better each time I harvest as my population keeps growing!! I don't think I'm close to its carrying capacity of worms yet! You know what I think....You should get one!! Thanks so much for all your support Ann!!🪱🪱🪱
I totally agree!! This Urban Worm Bag is awesome!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost I am trying to decide, if I get one, where to put it. It took you, if my memory is correct, about a year and a half to really get yours like it is now. I am thinking of dumping my more recent castings where I have not separated the worms out yet and let this be both casting storage and compost bin.
That would be a great use for it!! I started with sterile cardboard bedding...I could have skipped months had I started with a bunch of my stored castings and the baby worms and cocoons that reside in it to start it off!!
Lol do I dare? Yeah I dare. I am really interested to see the temperature data since you increased the frequency of feedings. Good worms🎉🎉👍🏼🪱😃
😂 So far it has been staying steady but that may be because the temps are coming down a little at night for us! The pineapples started to runaway on day 2 and I had to put a few big ice cubes and frozen water bottles right over that spot!! Thanks so much for watching Ann!!🪱🪱🪱