How about using a 55 gallon steel drum? Cut the top and the bottom off and cut the drum in half. on the bottom of each drum weld on a screen like the your worm cube with an agitator. Use the top/bottom you cut off as a lid. Now you have 2 25ish gallon worm bins. Add legs/wheels if needed.
There have been bag flow through systems for years like Urban Worm Bag and Vermibag. Without the risk of killing a large number of worms. The thing a long time vermicimposter can tell you is that worms do what they want not how designers predict they will.
How about experimenting? Have you seen the Aussie version called the "Hungry Bin"? Utterly simple and effortless. No need for moving parts, aside from the wheels necessary to move bin around the yard. I love how the hungry bin gets progressively small till its narrow snap off colander punctured lid at the bottom. This makes it effortless to harvest both worm liquid fertilizer that naturally drains as its produced and the compost that has "finished" its "digestion" naturally falls out into tray when you remove the bottom lid. The undigested material stays inside the hungry bin due to the tapered sides. Could you re engineer another version of this ingenious design that the DIY home gardener could make with stuff from garden supplies store?
I would love to see you reworked... I apologise in advance if I've missed something here... But, can anyone answer my below questions 🙂 1. how do the worms not fall through the grate at the bottom? 2. Where does the liquid get drained?
Yes interesting! Pls explain how it works in terms of just collecting castings and not loads of worms. Do they move up to the top all the time? I thought they would drag the food around so the castings are mixed with food... prob a stupid question!
Having had several gyrations of vermicompost bins, I think this looks great. I agree there are no really effective systems for sale (including the urban worm bag). I have succumbed to letting a bin finish, pulling out the bulk of the worms that have migrated to the feeding end of the bin, transferring to a new bin and skim the top. I would love to see what this operation looks like after 6 months
@@DiegoFooter I'm thinking concrete build, so it will be a little insulative... maybe allow the worms to survive the winters here? probably not lol I'll have to do more research. all the other CFT systems do not seem as fine as the stuff you're getting from here! side question, I have your johnson-su setup in the back, but going completely passive with it... are the two Ying and Yang? i know JS is more for fungal dominate, and woodland compost, I imagine worms would be more prairie and vegetative compost...
Would it be possible to get more info. about the "cube"? Measurements, mechanical drawing, ect. I have fabrication tools, and skills ect. but need an honestly excellent design to duplicate. Thank you!
I would love to know the materials and how they are assembled. Did the creator sell it because it didn't work well? The process of seperation sure is time consuming and hard on me and the worms. Can you please put it into production and show us how effective it is? Thanks for sharing!
I’m very interested in your break down of the worm cube! My first question is how do you protect the worms from the the agitator and/or falling through the bottom grate? Also wondering how to replicate all the metal work like rivets and welding. That’s quite beyond most basic diy projects. Can’t wait to see your solutions and innovations!
Superb! I really like the concept and the design. Thanks for sharing. After using for a while, I would love to know how the design could be improved...
Such great timing! I've been dreaming up a new flow through system in my mind with 5 gallon buckets... the drum design to harvest is super smart! Thanks for sharing!
I like this a lot. No muss no fuss. I like auto pilot deals. Put the energy and time in the beginning and then maintain. The fewer the moving parts and or actions the better. Thanks again Diego.
Thanks Diego! I have watched many videos on this subject. The concept is the same, but the actual workings of small or large scale vermicompost systems is highly secretive. I imagine, it is a competitive industry. Lets make the world a better place by designing an open-source system!
I have experience with computer aided drafting. I would be very interested in trying to get this design on paper. You would need to provide pictures, preferably with a tape measure in the shot for scale. It would likely take several back and forth sessions to get it right. It would be worth my time just to have the design. If in the future you would like to re-engineer the design to work with readily available components I would like to assist with that as well. I see you have commenters just waiting to get their hans on some drawings. Everything would be on 8.5"x11" PDF format.
The worms should mostly be living in the top layers where the food is. When you turn the crank, you should only be removing a little at a time off the bottom.
I think the worms hang out in the top few inches not at the bottom in their castings , but i guess like people some don't conform and run the risk of an untimely end . Also there doesn't appear to be much of a gap between blade and bottom .
@@shpuply Interestingly, I've watched A V's channel where he does a stop-motion month-long video of worms in a see-through bin. The worms are everywhere, including the bottom. It might be different if the bin is a lot older, but I also used to believe that they only hung out in the top inches of the bin until I watched those videos.
@@elizabethblane201 I've seen those vids. Those are pretty shallow bins. They get real active and come up high when he hydrates the upper levels by adding ice to the top. In this system the castings at the bottom may be quite dry as it seems the system is open at the bottom.
This is great. I have had similar ideas but not really done anything about it yet. It would be interesting to look at this in more detail. Having looked at some of the large scale flow through worm composters this looks be ideal for the small scale. Thank you for sharing.
Love the Channel Diego! Its good to learn about limitations of the tote system but I definitely had a fun time making my first worm bin last year and would encourage other newbies to definitely go for it! Im 56 btw haha :)
Oh oh your worms going to pass the hole (to big) and fall in the back and it will be mix whit the precious worm tea I have a vermicompost 2 years and I love it So Much Last month I begin to sow seed for the spring garden in greenhouse zone 5 I use a part of Worm compost and a lot of tomatos and pepper plants grow up ....free garden and free fertilizer (compost tea)!!
I am super interested in this topic and I appreciate you showing the viewers this awesome worm bin. I have been vermicomposting for a number of years and the castings (or 'black gold') is of a quality that I have never seen for sale in a store. I look forward to more videos on this topic.
The Cube is obviously Borg technology. Fun aside it should work quite well other than the screen being to large on the bottom. some points on the agitator, Red wigglers are top feeders and should stay near the top of the bin avoiding the "Spinning blade of Death". The " Spinning blade of Death" shouldn't be spun at all, it should be oscillated back and forth as it is an agitator and not a "Spinning blade of death". Think two steps forward and one back when using the agitator going about a quarter turn forward and an eighth back again. The difficulty will be getting it started. Until a decent bed of worm castings develop at the bottom the worms will have a tendency to fall out. I would start by lining the bottom with one layer of paper towels " the towels will decay soon enough" and loading the worms and castings in from an existing worm bin as a primer. Add new food and shredded paper on top and be patient. Plus remember the worm eggs/cocoons are in the castings, so even when you do get a layer of castings developed you want to leave it alone for about four weeks before you start harvesting the castings from the bottom. If you see to many cocoons or baby wrigglers in your collected castings give it more time before collecting again. All that being said, I am going to build one. The 100k or so wrigglers in my office think it looks interesting.
I have a suggestion. I use raised beds because I can't get up and down easily. Longer legs on something like that would be great. Tall enough to roll my garden cart under it...
Yes! I would love to follow your videos on vermicomposting as I dream of a Bioreactor in a staking system allowing the worms to move in a vertical flow like first flow and second floor. Thank You!
I’m seeing a top loading washing machine conversion. The washing machine drum might be the perfect vehicle for this. You would have to knock out the bottom of the drum but it has perforated sides which I would think would be of benefit.
I do not think the grate is fine enough. Those are some pretty large holes. I would have used hardware cloth. Also, it would be a good idea to have some polyurethane insulation surrounding the bin to help keep the worms cool.
@@DiegoFooter That is interesting. Is the compost clumping up or something? I figured it would be falling through the holes before it was fully vermi-composted.
@@DiegoFooter If only I had a basement, I would give it a whirl. Unfortunately, it is way too hot in the summer and way too cold in the winter and way too dry all year around where I live.
Worm grinder. The best separator I've seen is a trommel. The worms worked on the food scraps in one bin that collected the liquid portion at the bottom and then the reasonably dry result with worms went into a trommel which extracted the castings. The worms and undigested scraps then went back to bin #1.
2 questions: Is there some kind of handle to turn agitator? Also, do you not have to worry about "chopping the worms" or are they not in the bottom because those scraps have already been processed? Find your videos very informative. Keep up the great work, learning so much.
I think the handle was a tire iron, but it is MIA. I am using an old pair of vice grips. Inevitably y some worms will get chopped the bottom should not be heavily populated with worms.
I like the esthetics of this, but the cage at the bottom seems a little open. Is there a finer mesh beneath it to keep the worm from falling through or traveling down?
Here in Chihuahua, México, extreme heat and cold snaps affect worms... what insulation is used around the drum?... think it needs the Diego donut center ring for air flow? Not sure that the bottom blades would knock down sufficient castings... but I also don't want to mush up the worms... Is there a way that the worms stay up a little by food? persuasion?
I've taken up vermicomposting and would definitely be interest in seeing any ideas you have on a revised design for a flow through system similar to your worm cube or The Hungry Bin. Thanks!
Score!! I want to watch you take it apart and reverse engineer it! I think that blade on the bottom needs to be different to allow the castings to pass through easier, and the screen smaller as well. Cannot wait to see your new improved Diego Footer Worm Box!!
Wow Diego, you got lucky! $60?! That's a great deal! I'd love to get some more information about this as I am thinking about building a continuous flow bin! :)
It would also be nice to have some design/discussion on how over-wintering your worms. I'm not talking about in Minnesota or Wisconsin but at least places that get sub-zero but insulation consideration are likely necessary for large parts of the country/world.
You got a deal on that. The material alone would have cost several hundred dollars. The Hungry Bin is a neat flow threw worm bin. It is expensive though. I am interested to see what you come up with though.
What a great find, I'll be interested to see how well it works. I plan to make this CFT from a wheelie bin (thewormman.com.au/upgrading-to-a-wheelie-bin-cft-in-the-worm-farming-workshop/) , but there isn't a way of harvesting the castings automatically. It's excellent for ventilation. Maybe your find will lead to an even better design. Good luck.
Just some thoughts: Upon seeing the blade of death I initially had the same concern. However, if timed right, there will be finished compost at the bottom, meaning very little for worms to eat. They don't do well in their own castings (high percentage) so their numbers should be low at the bottom. My worms seem to shrink in size when my bins are past due for harvesting by hand held sieve/screening (time consuming). Also, with it being open at the bottom it will be dry with the moisture further up where the food is. This should keep them away from the very bottom. Finally red wigglers prefer to be in the upper layers of forest floor detritus. They aren't naturally deep soil divers. If you find them at the bottom of a worm bin its probably a shallow one or they are there for the moisture.
I'm skeptical because I want to see how that agitator is going to turn with 50 lbs of vermicompost weighing it down. Where is the handle to turn it? Missing? Non-existent? Sorry to be a downer but we want to see it in action.
I...MUST...have one! Please do reverse engineer this! Maybe even add some of your own engineering flair after running it for a while and seeing any possible downsides that can be remedied. I watch all of your videos,but I'll be first in line for this.
Sounds interesting. How does this compare to your mini Johnson-Su like Bioreactor for dispensing with food scraps? What are the advantages of one over the other? Thanks for the video.
Useless tiny cube in cold climate. Here in Northern Germany I digged a deep bed 50 cm into the ground for 8 m and fill it with horse manure etc.. There is a method used by scientists to get living earthworms out of soil with electricity...
I saw a video where a guy used electricity to gather worms from his yard. It worked, but in the comments were a bunch of old fisherman that did it in their youth. They all agreed that the worms always died by the end of the day.
Great video! Have you looked into this T55 system? ruclips.net/video/ngWJO_4RTKo/видео.html Is also a CFT and I guess is is almost entirely built with upcycled material with probably has much larger capacity. Maybe you can do a video on this system too?
If that design would work you would see it someplace. Unfortunatly worms don´t care much about human design approach. Sooner or later you will have the worms in that box either drowning or you checking more often for worm tea than you wished for. I have a similar design not with the mincer but a screened bottom and underneath a plastic bed box from ikea. My next approach will be to use screened elements that I stack on top of the lower one with air screens on the sides so the worms can come up once they are done. I can understand your enthusiasm about your box. Anyway have you seen any commercial beekeeper working with a flow hive ?
Let’s dig into this system
How about using a 55 gallon steel drum? Cut the top and the bottom off and cut the drum in half. on the bottom of each drum weld on a screen like the your worm cube with an agitator. Use the top/bottom you cut off as a lid. Now you have 2 25ish gallon worm bins. Add legs/wheels if needed.
That sounds like it might work.
Worms on the go.
Interesting
Yes I'm please show us how to make it
There have been bag flow through systems for years like Urban Worm Bag and Vermibag. Without the risk of killing a large number of worms. The thing a long time vermicimposter can tell you is that worms do what they want not how designers predict they will.
arent warms are also falling down from these big holes ?
No. They don’t.
There are at least two now.
How about experimenting?
Have you seen the Aussie version called the "Hungry Bin"? Utterly simple and effortless. No need for moving parts, aside from the wheels necessary to move bin around the yard. I love how the hungry bin gets progressively small till its narrow snap off colander punctured lid at the bottom. This makes it effortless to harvest both worm liquid fertilizer that naturally drains as its produced and the compost that has "finished" its "digestion" naturally falls out into tray when you remove the bottom lid. The undigested material stays inside the hungry bin due to the tapered sides. Could you re engineer another version of this ingenious design that the DIY home gardener could make with stuff from garden supplies store?
Needs a decal on the front :)
Yes please go deeper into this topic 👍👍👍👍
I would love to see you reworked... I apologise in advance if I've missed something here... But, can anyone answer my below questions 🙂
1. how do the worms not fall through the grate at the bottom?
2. Where does the liquid get drained?
The worms stay in the bedding and the liquid drains through to the collection bin.
Add your magic to it. I’d buy one.
Yes interesting! Pls explain how it works in terms of just collecting castings and not loads of worms. Do they move up to the top all the time? I thought they would drag the food around so the castings are mixed with food... prob a stupid question!
Generally the move and eat upwards so mostly castings are left at the bottom.
Lol, I love your dialog in this video. You had a blast.
Cool system also
Keep up the amazing work you are doing
what's hapen with vermilechee?
Into the bin.
Great stuff! Please go deep on this topic..!
Pull it apart! I want to see all the details!
Thanks Diego!
Having had several gyrations of vermicompost bins, I think this looks great. I agree there are no really effective systems for sale (including the urban worm bag). I have succumbed to letting a bin finish, pulling out the bulk of the worms that have migrated to the feeding end of the bin, transferring to a new bin and skim the top. I would love to see what this operation looks like after 6 months
instead of a rotating blade/stirrer how about two bottom screens which rotate to sieve?
Yes please do show us your thoughts on what the best vermacomposting systems are
This is a miniature version of a "WormWigwam"
do you have a link to the craigslist ad or the maker of this? im looking at my own design, but still would love to see this one!
Unfortunately I don't. I might get to plans at some point.
@@DiegoFooter I'm thinking concrete build, so it will be a little insulative... maybe allow the worms to survive the winters here? probably not lol I'll have to do more research. all the other CFT systems do not seem as fine as the stuff you're getting from here!
side question, I have your johnson-su setup in the back, but going completely passive with it... are the two Ying and Yang? i know JS is more for fungal dominate, and woodland compost, I imagine worms would be more prairie and vegetative compost...
Would it be possible to get more info. about the "cube"? Measurements, mechanical drawing, ect. I have fabrication tools, and skills ect. but need an honestly excellent design to duplicate. Thank you!
I would love to know the materials and how they are assembled. Did the creator sell it because it didn't work well? The process of seperation sure is time consuming and hard on me and the worms. Can you please put it into production and show us how effective it is? Thanks for sharing!
Interested in this topic... Thank you for sharing
Hey... How can we get the juice??? Like my little kid says, the worm pee...
You don’t. That would mean you are adding too much water.
I like that you're going to be covering vermicompost
Did you ever use the composter? What were the results?
Nice find.
Great idea, it looks insulated also. Looking forward to this series! Thank you
Yes...appropriate temperatures have always been a hard thing for me to maintain.
I’m very interested in your break down of the worm cube! My first question is how do you protect the worms from the the agitator and/or falling through the bottom grate? Also wondering how to replicate all the metal work like rivets and welding. That’s quite beyond most basic diy projects. Can’t wait to see your solutions and innovations!
The worms prefer the fresh scraps at the top to the finished compost at the bottom.
Superb! I really like the concept and the design. Thanks for sharing. After using for a while, I would love to know how the design could be improved...
Definitely want to see more about this.
Interesting. I think I would like to try this
Yes please! I would love to make a version of this great idea
Such great timing! I've been dreaming up a new flow through system in my mind with 5 gallon buckets... the drum design to harvest is super smart! Thanks for sharing!
Would love to see a build video
I like this a lot. No muss no fuss. I like auto pilot deals. Put the energy and time in the beginning and then maintain. The fewer the moving parts and or actions the better.
Thanks again Diego.
Looking forward to this series, thank you in advance.
Diego, in a relationship...with a worm bin.
Thanks Diego! I have watched many videos on this subject. The concept is the same, but the actual workings of small or large scale vermicompost systems is highly secretive. I imagine, it is a competitive industry. Lets make the world a better place by designing an open-source system!
I have experience with computer aided drafting. I would be very interested in trying to get this design on paper. You would need to provide pictures, preferably with a tape measure in the shot for scale. It would likely take several back and forth sessions to get it right. It would be worth my time just to have the design. If in the future you would like to re-engineer the design to work with readily available components I would like to assist with that as well. I see you have commenters just waiting to get their hans on some drawings. Everything would be on 8.5"x11" PDF format.
Do the worms get crushed when you turn the system to extract the castings?
Red wigglers tend to stay towards the top of a bin. If there's any loss,it should be minimal.
The worms should mostly be living in the top layers where the food is. When you turn the crank, you should only be removing a little at a time off the bottom.
I think the worms hang out in the top few inches not at the bottom in their castings , but i guess like people some don't conform and run the risk of an untimely end . Also there doesn't appear to be much of a gap between blade and bottom .
@@shpuply Interestingly, I've watched A V's channel where he does a stop-motion month-long video of worms in a see-through bin. The worms are everywhere, including the bottom. It might be different if the bin is a lot older, but I also used to believe that they only hung out in the top inches of the bin until I watched those videos.
@@elizabethblane201 I've seen those vids. Those are pretty shallow bins. They get real active and come up high when he hydrates the upper levels by adding ice to the top. In this system the castings at the bottom may be quite dry as it seems the system is open at the bottom.
This is great. I have had similar ideas but not really done anything about it yet. It would be interesting to look at this in more detail. Having looked at some of the large scale flow through worm composters this looks be ideal for the small scale. Thank you for sharing.
Love the Channel Diego! Its good to learn about limitations of the tote system but I definitely had a fun time making my first worm bin last year and would encourage other newbies to definitely go for it! Im 56 btw haha :)
Yes please. Do for the worm cube what you did for the Bioreactor!!
Very interested in what you come up with.
We would love more info on the cube!!
Diego Footer has grown to become Compost Man
Clever design - would defintely be interested in learning the parts, pieces and dimensions so I can make one.
Would love more on flow through vermicomposting! Sounds like the ideal solution for a "lazy" gardener like myself.
Oh oh your worms going to pass the hole (to big) and fall in the back and it will be mix whit the precious worm tea
I have a vermicompost 2 years and I love it So Much
Last month I begin to sow seed for the spring garden in greenhouse zone 5
I use a part of Worm compost and a lot of tomatos and pepper plants grow up ....free garden and free fertilizer (compost tea)!!
I am super interested in this topic and I appreciate you showing the viewers this awesome worm bin. I have been vermicomposting for a number of years and the castings (or 'black gold') is of a quality that I have never seen for sale in a store. I look forward to more videos on this topic.
The urban worm bag is a great home scale system. It grew out of the worm inn which itself came from the creepy pants worm system.
pretty interesting! Is there a handle attachment to make it easy to turn the agitator?
The Cube is obviously Borg technology.
Fun aside it should work quite well other than the screen being to large on the bottom. some points on the agitator, Red wigglers are top feeders and should stay near the top of the bin avoiding the "Spinning blade of Death". The " Spinning blade of Death" shouldn't be spun at all, it should be oscillated back and forth as it is an agitator and not a "Spinning blade of death". Think two steps forward and one back when using the agitator going about a quarter turn forward and an eighth back again.
The difficulty will be getting it started. Until a decent bed of worm castings develop at the bottom the worms will have a tendency to fall out. I would start by lining the bottom with one layer of paper towels " the towels will decay soon enough" and loading the worms and castings in from an existing worm bin as a primer. Add new food and shredded paper on top and be patient.
Plus remember the worm eggs/cocoons are in the castings, so even when you do get a layer of castings developed you want to leave it alone for about four weeks before you start harvesting the castings from the bottom. If you see to many cocoons or baby wrigglers in your collected castings give it more time before collecting again.
All that being said, I am going to build one. The 100k or so wrigglers in my office think it looks interesting.
I have a suggestion. I use raised beds because I can't get up and down easily. Longer legs on something like that would be great. Tall enough to roll my garden cart under it...
Yes! I would love to follow your videos on vermicomposting as I dream of a Bioreactor in a staking system allowing the worms to move in a vertical flow like first flow and second floor. Thank You!
I’m seeing a top loading washing machine conversion. The washing machine drum might be the perfect vehicle for this. You would have to knock out the bottom of the drum but it has perforated sides which I would think would be of benefit.
I do not think the grate is fine enough. Those are some pretty large holes. I would have used hardware cloth. Also, it would be a good idea to have some polyurethane insulation surrounding the bin to help keep the worms cool.
Grate functions fine. Could actually be quite a bit larger.
@@DiegoFooter That is interesting. Is the compost clumping up or something? I figured it would be falling through the holes before it was fully vermi-composted.
It naturally wants to stick together. It’s more like a cake than sand. It doesn’t flow.
@@DiegoFooter If only I had a basement, I would give it a whirl. Unfortunately, it is way too hot in the summer and way too cold in the winter and way too dry all year around where I live.
Great! Expound please.
I love it! I will buy plans to build one.
Worm grinder. The best separator I've seen is a trommel. The worms worked on the food scraps in one bin that collected the liquid portion at the bottom and then the reasonably dry result with worms went into a trommel which extracted the castings. The worms and undigested scraps then went back to bin #1.
Definitely take it apart! I wonder how effective an electric agitator would be..either a vibrating screen or small spinning motor. Just a thought
2 questions: Is there some kind of handle to turn agitator? Also, do you not have to worry about "chopping the worms" or are they not in the bottom because those scraps have already been processed? Find your videos very informative. Keep up the great work, learning so much.
I think the handle was a tire iron, but it is MIA. I am using an old pair of vice grips. Inevitably y some worms will get chopped the bottom should not be heavily populated with worms.
I like the esthetics of this, but the cage at the bottom seems a little open. Is there a finer mesh beneath it to keep the worm from falling through or traveling down?
Here in Chihuahua, México, extreme heat and cold snaps affect worms... what insulation is used around the drum?... think it needs the Diego donut center ring for air flow? Not sure that the bottom blades would knock down sufficient castings... but I also don't want to mush up the worms... Is there a way that the worms stay up a little by food? persuasion?
Popsicles ! Cold beer, get your cold beer here ! LOL Nice craigslist score. That thing is cool. Bring on the flow through worm bin info. Thank you.
More flow-through vermicompost,mate! Thanks a lot,I love your channel :)
I've taken up vermicomposting and would definitely be interest in seeing any ideas you have on a revised design for a flow through system similar to your worm cube or The Hungry Bin. Thanks!
Score!! I want to watch you take it apart and reverse engineer it! I think that blade on the bottom needs to be different to allow the castings to pass through easier, and the screen smaller as well. Cannot wait to see your new improved Diego Footer Worm Box!!
Wow Diego, you got lucky! $60?! That's a great deal! I'd love to get some more information about this as I am thinking about building a continuous flow bin! :)
How do you know it’s great if you don’t have worms 🪱 in it yet...???
I don't have to drive a car to know it's great.
It would also be nice to have some design/discussion on how over-wintering your worms. I'm not talking about in Minnesota or Wisconsin but at least places that get sub-zero but insulation consideration are likely necessary for large parts of the country/world.
You got a deal on that. The material alone would have cost several hundred dollars. The Hungry Bin is a neat flow threw worm bin. It is expensive though. I am interested to see what you come up with though.
I think the eve growingsystem is the easiest set and forget for home vermicompsters
Nice system , only problem I can see is the bottom screen has to much spacing , the worms would just fall into the harvesting tray and probably die
What a great find, I'll be interested to see how well it works. I plan to make this CFT from a wheelie bin (thewormman.com.au/upgrading-to-a-wheelie-bin-cft-in-the-worm-farming-workshop/) , but there isn't a way of harvesting the castings automatically. It's excellent for ventilation. Maybe your find will lead to an even better design. Good luck.
I worry that your worm cube will chop up the worms when you turn the agitator. Hopefully, your re-engineered design will avoid this potential problem.
Just some thoughts: Upon seeing the blade of death I initially had the same concern. However, if timed right, there will be finished compost at the bottom, meaning very little for worms to eat. They don't do well in their own castings (high percentage) so their numbers should be low at the bottom. My worms seem to shrink in size when my bins are past due for harvesting by hand held sieve/screening (time consuming). Also, with it being open at the bottom it will be dry with the moisture further up where the food is. This should keep them away from the very bottom. Finally red wigglers prefer to be in the upper layers of forest floor detritus. They aren't naturally deep soil divers. If you find them at the bottom of a worm bin its probably a shallow one or they are there for the moisture.
Hopefully the critters are not at the bottom when you turn the crank. Otherwise a brilliant concept
I'm skeptical because I want to see how that agitator is going to turn with 50 lbs of vermicompost weighing it down. Where is the handle to turn it? Missing? Non-existent? Sorry to be a downer but we want to see it in action.
You attach a wrench to the shaft to turn it. I don't anticipate it being hard to turn. With a pipe wrench you will get a lot of mechanical advantage.
@@DiegoFooter We're behind you all the way, Diego. Please keep us in the loop; we want to see how it turns out! From a fellow San Diegan (PQ).
I...MUST...have one! Please do reverse engineer this! Maybe even add some of your own engineering flair after running it for a while and seeing any possible downsides that can be remedied. I watch all of your videos,but I'll be first in line for this.
Sounds interesting. How does this compare to your mini Johnson-Su like Bioreactor for dispensing with food scraps? What are the advantages of one over the other? Thanks for the video.
Useless tiny cube in cold climate. Here in Northern Germany I digged a deep bed 50 cm into the ground for 8 m and fill it with horse manure etc.. There is a method used by scientists to get living earthworms out of soil with electricity...
I saw a video where a guy used electricity to gather worms from his yard. It worked, but in the comments were a bunch of old fisherman that did it in their youth. They all agreed that the worms always died by the end of the day.
Great video!
Have you looked into this T55 system? ruclips.net/video/ngWJO_4RTKo/видео.html
Is also a CFT and I guess is is almost entirely built with upcycled material with probably has much larger capacity.
Maybe you can do a video on this system too?
If that design would work you would see it someplace. Unfortunatly worms don´t care much about human design approach.
Sooner or later you will have the worms in that box either drowning or you checking more often for worm tea than you wished for.
I have a similar design not with the mincer but a screened bottom and underneath a plastic bed box from ikea.
My next approach will be to use screened elements that I stack on top of the lower one with air screens on the sides so the worms can come up once they are done.
I can understand your enthusiasm about your box. Anyway have you seen any commercial beekeeper working with a flow hive ?
There is no way for the worms to drown. The liquid drains freely. As an aside worms can only drown after weeks under water.