The #1 Vermicomposting Mistake You're Making!
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- Опубликовано: 17 мар 2019
- My favorite worm bin: growepic.co/3O6Ayrk Is your worm bin too wet? Are there a ton of other bugs in your bin? You'll be surprised to know that almost all of these problems have the same root cause...over feeding. It's a common myth that worms can eat 100% of their own body weight in scraps per day. This is almost never true!
A more accurate number is around 25-50% by weight. So for a pound of worms, a quarter pound of a mixture of bedding and food per day is adequate.
Today I had my friend Steve Churchill, owner of the Urban Worm Company, over to chat about this problem. He's much more savvy about the finer details of worm composting than I am, so I figured I'd let him drop some vermicomposting knowledge and showcase his flow through worm bin, also known as a CFT worm bin.
IN THIS VIDEO
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→ Composting Full Article: growepic.co/48Xk4d4
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Just use dirty kitchen napkins, paper towels, cardboard to-go boxes, pizza boxes, leaves, or mulch, for a carbon material instead of using recyclable materials or purchasing straw or coco fiber. Most ecofriendly and resourceful way of doing it
And egg cartons!
Thanks for the tip!
I agree
Cool. Thanks for confirming everything I've been posting about what RUclipsrs are typically doing wrong with their Urban Worm Bag...
Important takeaways about what you be doing...
1. Start small,, only 6-12" from the bottom. Don't fill the bag up all at once from the beginning.
2. Add food in layers and don't mix up the contents of the bag. This allows the worms to fully digest and process the initial bedding and food completely before moving upwards. Mixing everything up destroys the layers and never allows the bottom to be processed fully because you keep mixing in fresh food.
3. Despite the Urban Worm Bag's conical shape and possibly breathing material, I do not recommend spreading food across the top. It's more important in other bin designs but I highly recommend burying food in a hole of a few inches along an edge. This not only eliminates any fly problem but also avoids suffocating your worms due to aerobic bacterial activity no matter how fast or slow the food decomposes. I suspect suffocation may be less a potential disaster in a Bag, but would be a major potential danger in other bin designs so good practice is always recommended to be safe. Done properly, I have sometimes fed enough food to last a month or two so they don't need constant care.
Only other hint from personal experience since I throw a lot of food packaging material in my bin (along with all other packaging materials). There are still a lot of packaging that has a thin film of plastic on it to provide some resistance to moisture. I understand this is sometimes done for fast food packaging as well. If you want to avoid having to pick plastic out of your castings,, figure out what has that plastic and avoid it.
What a pleasure to see Steve! Hi, Steve! I love my UWBs and always recommend it.
I just turned a green wheel bin into a follow-through system. Not perfect by any stretch, but sawed a lil' door on a hinge and lock to harvest castings. Thanks for this great video!
i want to know more! please share
Hey Steve, good to see you! I did an experiment with 3 worm in horse poop with incredible results. My 2 month old bag system is full of tiny baby worms!!!
Y'all are awesome, as are the other people you make videos with! Thanks for making so many great videos!
Thank God for intelligent posts. Love you Kevin & Co.
Older video but I’m purchasing one without the coupon. Love the ease of use.
I ordered mine over the Black Friday Event and can't wait for it to arrive!
Thank you mine also is in the house and the bugs are all over my plants. I took the cover off the bin and there they were. Will give it a try. Thank you❤
You're welcome Karen, good luck!
I am going to start doing this soon. Very good information.. It’s so great to anticipate problems, and know what to do if you have them. It prevents a lot of discouragement. Thanks very helpful!
Glad to hear Jeannie, wishing you success!
Okay. sold! Just ordered my urban bag. So excited to start my first vermicompost!!
How did it work out for you? I'm curious.
Thank you for the extra advice with this video
Great video! Loved the input.
Excellent analogy! Great info Steve.
😉
Great Advice Thank You Juno 👏👏👏👏
I just love my new worm bag
💕💕
i add ice to provide moisture and (i hope lower heat) in a 3 tier system, but i also havent had a heat issue yet since im new
I hate anything tiny that wiggles, flies, or runs fast. Yet here I am...
You can just use grow bags the rectangle one or a round 15g one... Cover the top and ur all set... The grow bag will allow air through... No need to drill holes or open the top to let air in.
I've had my bag for a couple months now. It's great. We overfed the worms with too many scraps with high water content. I'll be adding more coco coir. Thanks for the video.
it just makes me think, couldnt someone just make this out of an old suitcase and line it with something waterproof? Fit a tap onto it. Its the same material as a suitcase.
@@thegreatest3651 I think that would work. Or something similar. The only question you have to ask yourself is, is the time that you spend constructing this on your own worth 100 euros? If so, then go for it. If not, then buy the pre-made bag. I love mine, and the humidity has balanced with more coco coir.
@@godzillaburger9690 yes thats the problem i have with my current one, added lots of cardboard to soak it.
Lol All hell breaking out in the bin. Yeah been there.
The BIGGEST tip from this video is the adding of bedding. The 4:1 ratio is 4 parts veg scraps, 1 part dry bedding.
It makes sense, when you do the math, this reduces a 90% moisture vegetable scraps to roughly 70% average moisture.
I knew about the "overfeeding problem" and was very careful to test, learn and avoid. BUT the bin still got too wet.
I will always do this in my feeds now.
Glad to hear!
I’m confused; I thought he was saying 4 parts browns to 1 part food scraps for the richest foods (like pumpkin).
@@Knittinvegan you are correct. It should be 4 parts carbon: 1 part food. What I usually do when I'm adding scraps that are high in water content like lettuce/spinach is mix in a dry carbon source like shredded paper or sawdust into the food source to help absorb the water content and then add an additional carbon bedding layer on top. Seems to help.
I own this worm hotel and I love it!!!! Is it ok to add gro Kashi to a worm bin? I tried it but I don't think my worms liked it at all, they seem to have scattered and clung to the sides avoiding the material
Some say do this and some.say don't do that \o/ I'm lost ... Just going to freestyle it and learn from my mistakes..
That's gardening in a nutshell
Good for you, I’m in the same boat. I’m thinking with a little bit of care, not too hot, not to cold, not too dry, not too wet….they seem to be doing find. I bought 250 worms, 4 months ago. I don’t see any babies or eggs, but the worms I received, were all pretty much juveniles.
@@peggywaters2589 hi Peggy, can you get hold of horse manure or cow manure? I've been feeding my worm's this and some fruit and veg and they love it! Lots of eggs but of course in winter they slow down.
Worm Saint! Sweet halo bro keep up the good vibes
You too brother
I appreciate this video and information. You’re doing great work, Kevin! I do find the placement of this video as a weird spot. Almost like that door-to-door salesman that you want to give a shot selling their product, but not enough to let them into your home/garden 😂
🤣😄
I have a geo-bin. I put whatever the heck I want in their. We have about 1.5 plastic grocery sacks worth of kitchen scraps per week. I also put acorns, twigs, leaves, grass, weeds in there. No issues really ever. I don't really think about ratios.
Yo Kev, you can also add lactobacillus serum to help with odors and digestive enzymes, I've heard some people say bokashi is something that helps worms too. Maybe you could do some research and make a post about it? Keep killing it epically✊
Great tip there, thank you my friend. Will research
Epic Gardening Did you try Bokashi and even use the bokashi as pre-compost for the worms? I'm starting that now and will report back.
Following....
Anyone have an update?
@@realfortin any update on the bokashi in the worm bin? It's been a year 🤔
Coupon code still works! Thanks
Super interesting
I just ordered the #2 bag. Hope it works! I can mess up anything!
Does it work?
Just setting up my bin this week!
Dry Leaves would be considered basically a carbon material then right? if I dump a ton of leaves from last fall (its april now) in my bin that can be considered more of a bedding substance like the coco?
Hello,
I have been watching your videos for a while and enjoy the information you have put out. I actually choose to get this particular worm bag in this video. So I have a question about my current worm bag. I got it back in July and added the worms per the guide. Today I finally decided to check on the casting to see if it was time to harvest and it looks similar to how I put it in. I started to look for the worms at this point because I was curious what was going on in the bag. I could not find any worms but I found a few roly-poly, a centipede, and a couple of either fruit flies or gnats. I would put food scraps in the bin maybe once a week or more and dried grass from my lawn every few weeks. When I went looking in the bin I could not find one worm. I live in Colorado Springs and the worm bin was in my garage this whole time. Do you have any ideas where all the worms have gone and should I toss the whole bin and start over?
I believe that centipedes kill worms
the link doesn't work anymore and I didn't realize this video is a few years old, is these worm bags only available thru amazon now?
So I got 5 cold compost piles of all kinds of stuff. The worms just come up outa the earth. Every day I dig a whole and dump a bunch of food scraps in their. Never measure anything. Then I soak it in water. The worms keep multiplying like crazy They eat anything I put I. There carbon or no carbon. I even started putting them in bins with tons of food scraps and leaves.
Ya, nothing seems to even slow these guys down. I seriously don't know what the hell to do with them all.
what happ;ens to coccons in either bag or totes or how to expand into growing more worms...thanks
I have one of your bins & so far love it. My question is when & zip up the top, can worms still get enough air to survive?
Yep
Thanks for the video. Any thoughts on specifics of serving the food: should I mix it with shredded browns before adding? Then bury lightly under the surface? or just plop on there and then cover with more browns? Or is it not critical one way or the other?
I’ve been putting chopped up veggie scraps on the surface, under a couple sheets of brown paper bag that I use over and over, then occasionally spreading some more shredded browns over the surface.
I usually layer food / browns / food / browns like that, always with browns on the surface to prevent flies, etc.
Is it possible to under feed? Like if I want a very small amount of worms over the winter(there is less space indoor) , how do I keep them alive and small?
my frame broke from my urban worm bag when I moved. Is there a place that I can buy the frame? thanks
I have caused wormageddon by adding watermelon rinds lol… so much water!
Is it okay just to feed the worms with unfinished (cooled) hot compost? Our daily food scraps go into our hot compost bins everyday. Maybe I can collect some unfinished compost weekly for the worms. Btw, thanks for the very informative videos you’re making. I’m learning a lot! Cheers! 🍻
Yes, they'll be quite happy with that as it's typically a nice blend of carbon and nitrogen
Very informative video! Thanks Kavin for doing this video. Does the company ship to Europe?
email steve@urbanwormcompany.com and ask :)
So where is the compost tea collected?
I have never found the trays to be effective.
1 thing iv always heard is NOT to feed any differently when going out of town... Just make sure they have plenty of bedding the worms consume bedding sources also .
Yup, this works quite well
If the bag has several pounds of castings (eg the Urban Worm Bag is at least half full), I guess that if the bag isn't in a place that's too hot or too cold or a very dry place that the worms will do fine for a few months on their own. If you want to give them a regular feeding, that's fine. But if you know how to feed your worms properly (in a hole dug to one side and not strewn across the top) you could also load up with food that would take a long time to decompose and not risk suffocating your worms by causing a massive aerobic bacterial population explosion.
I'm a bit confused, is he talking about moisture problem in a container (that's what is sounds like). My understanding about one of the benefits of the continuous method is that excess moisture falls through and out the bottom and/or, since the bag has airflow bottom to top (and maybe sides depending on the design) these bag systems tend to run a bit on the dry side because of the additional air flow.
They should run on the dry side, but if you have too much green compost going in and it rots it gets too wet
Kevin, I have been using the Urban Worm Bag for about 6 months now and I really appreciate Steve's great product. I am wondering if by chance you have ever had worms escape through the bottom? I have tightened the cord to the max but every day or so I see poor little worms that have come through the bottom and are now dead on the floor. I put a tub under the bag in hopes I will see them before they crawl on the floor and die. It breaks my heart when I see the little critters on the floor dried up and dead. Any suggestion would be much appreciated if this has ever happened to you. What can I put in the hole that they can't get through. Was thinking of putting a light under the bag to keep them in the bag but I think I am starting to think of some crazy things to keep my worms in the bag.
You can cut a scream to place down on that bottom layer so large stuff or worms don’t fall through? I guess that defeats getting castings out though.. can you keep a double layer bucket under ther bag with some soil on Top layer for the worms to fall into and below that is a screen that lets the liquid seep down to the bottom layer… Does that make sense!? Kind of like the triple been composting system but this is just Spotify to catch little worms that are falling out of the bag
I always take an Old rag or a piece of fabric and stuff it in the bottom hole. Solves the problem
Screen? Fabric? I'd recommend something like a small plastic bag that would would not deteriorate or let worms of any size through.
After harvesting castings, just push the bag back in place before cinching up the drawstring.
Would like to see this in action to get a better idea of how to feed or cut up the food.
I can do a vlog style video out feeding the worms
So corn husks would that be considered a 'paper'? Due to it being fiborous?
Yup you'd want to shred them a bit
What about worm care? can I put the bag in my garage or will that be too hot? And what about in the winter? I live in a snowy place will I freeze and kill my worms?
Kristen Burr depend what kind of worms you’ll get ,red wiggler can’t stand hot weather not more than 60 F but African night crawlers have to be warmer weather but not more than 90F ! Canadian night crawlers have to be in cold weather and can’t be in hot weather!
I have just about 20-25 worms in my worm bin. I just gathered them up from my backyard and stuck them in a plastic tote (no holes for aeration, I just open the tote everyday for a few minutes) with about 30 pounds of green tea, coffee grounds, sawdust, and banana peels, and they seem to be doing fine. No smell, no overheating, no issues so far. (The total amount of food and sawdust are only about 5 inches deep)
Are these worms going to multiply eventually, or do they have too little space to grow?
They have to be composting worms that live in leaf mould, usually fast little ones, or the red wigglers you can buy. My worms actually migrated naturally to my worm bin, it was an old open bottom compost bin, and they sniffed out the vegetable worm food. I now have a huge number of red wiggler, some stripy ones, and some bright greeny-yellow ones. Yes your worms will reproduce, but make sure worms from your leaf mold under your trees can get in
You need a special kind of work for this. Red wrigglers are one type. They probably don’t grow in your yard, though!
I live in the northeast and would want to keep this outside year round. Will the worms in the bin survive winter?
I heard they are mostly water and below freezing they will freeze and die... maybe the cacoons will survive?.
Good evening,
I live in Virginia. How do we feed, how the worms survive in cold winter?
Different types of worms prefer different temp ranges
If you look up the temp range for red worms it's around 55- 75 degrees Fahrenheit. With that being said, you'll need to bring it inside. Like they say here, if you feed properly it shouldn't smell, but not everyone has the room inside.
DOH. Ordered last week XD Oh well. Thanks for the info!
Darn! Hit Steve up anyways 😉
Where do I get the pound of material to add? There are only two of us at home and I don't think we create enough waste for a Worm farm.
I live alone and have 44 worm bins. I don't produce enough food scraps to feed even one, but I turn to the yard and other things from the house. Every napkin, tissue, paper plate, toilet paper roll, paper towel roll, newspaper, junk mail, plant clippings, dog fur, cardboard boxes from anything and everything. Old shoe boxes, any kind of paper waste. If you have a paper towel that you cleaned up a spill with that's even more valuable because it's going to have food on it. weeds from the yard is my number one source of food during the months the ground isn't covered in snow. I can pick 20 lb a day of weeds if I need to. Leaves off trees. If you don't have a yard due to apartment living then take a walk with a bag in your hand you're going to find so much stuff blown to the side of the road and so many weeds along the side of the road, just wear a glove to be safe. Pine needles, I could go on and on. There's actually absolutely nothing that you can't feed worms. The only things I ever refrain from are garlic and onions because of the sulfur level. If it gets moldy, rotten, stale, outdated. It goes in. Walk or drive to a park and bring a garbage bag to scoop up leaves or pull some weeds. Any kind of weeds I think people don't realize what powerhouse's worms really are and what they eat. If it's nitrogen or carbon, it's food. They will eat cardboard all day long
Do you recommend putting worms in large potted plants?
I add worms to my plants, all of them. That also means I need to add in a food source so every now and then I will stick a little piece of something below the soil line.
Can I use fall leaves as the browns?
yes I think so. Cardboard, paper works too
1:30 No need to thank me.
Vermibag is the way to go !
Did you guys go out for drinks that evening? Sure seems like you guys are ready to go
What happens to the worm tea with this bag
I believe what you're referring to is leachate, the liquid that can drain through the bottom if you're running a bin too wet. Leachate is not a good thing and if your bed is creating it then you're running it way too wet. People used to think it was good, now people know never to use it on anything edible. A bin should never be wet enough to have water drainage
What do you do if you have tiny bugs in your compost?
Usually that's a result of not covering up your food scraps with more bedding, or leaving the compost open too long. Or, you could have introduced eggs and little larvae are in there.
I didn't get a notification that you were looking to contact me. I know 3 weeks is a long time to live with the bugs.
If they are small, crawling and climb on you when you are working in the bin probably mites. Use melon rind to attract and remove.
If what you have are fruit flies, bless your heart, my answer isn't as clear cut. Especially since they have had weeks to get established. If you catch the problem really early, setting traps may get the situation under control. Traps are small containers of liquid, often vinegar or wine. You might add bait like a small piece of fruit. Some designs recommend covering with plastic wrap with small holes, others have tricky paper funnels to allow entry without exit. Leaving the container open but adding a drop of dish detergent to prevent escape also works. Google fruit fly trap.
If you are beyond traps, we're entering a grey area. I'm kinda paranoid about the health and safety of the worms. Like when you're faced with garden pests, only in this case you know you have beneficials that you don't want to compromise. And I don't always trust what I've read from random people online about safe products.
I haven't used either of these solutions personally so use your judgement before trying.
I've read that a small amount of food grade diatomaceous earth will work, but only if it stays dry. Worm bins are moist environments so you would have to sprinkle enough, but not too much, on top and not disturb it until the job was completed.
The second "I've heard it works" solution involves a chemical found in Dunks. Search for Dunks in Hardware type stores or your favorite online supplier. Dunks are little donut shaped discs, which need to be broken up. You can also purchase in granule form ready to be sprinkled. They are marketed as a solution for mosquito control in stagnant water, think abandoned pools.
The final option is to start over. You are wiser now. You know you need to freeze food first, to kill fly eggs you cannot see, before you feed the worms. And next time you won't overfeed because overfeeding leaves material to rot and attract flies in the process. And you will keep a deep layer of dry bedding on top to discourage flies from finding the food below.
Starting over is just an extreme harvest. When you process your bin in normal circumstances you return chunks of incompletely processed food and bedding back into the bin. This time only worms go back. I would suggest you work outside if possible, don't need the flies sticking around indoors. Empty the bin onto a tarp. Clean the bin. Put clean fresh, need I say, fly free bedding in the bin. I watched a video of a worm supplier use a dry paintbrush to harvest worms cleanly for shipping. When you are satisfied with the number of worms you have in the fresh bin, take the remaining material from the tarp and use it in the garden or add to your compost bin. This material is still excellent garden fertilizer. Any worms you didn't see or eggs will go to work in your garden beds.
People pay a lot of money for "pretty" screened castings, however, incompletely processed castings work as well, perhaps even better in your garden.
I'll try to follow this post for awhile in case you still have questions. I'm hesitant to put my personal contact info in a public forum. I can however be found on Facebook, Desert Inspired Gardeners (DIG)
Don't lose hope, keeping worms usually isn't this hard.
@@robinpatterson8659 wow thank you so much for the extreme info.❤ I did put sticky pads in the bin and have changed it twice. I don't see anymore in the bin on the sticky pads but will keep it in there anyway. Yes Jess mentioned Dunk also. Now I just have them flying around the house. And they are on the dirt that my seedlings are in. Jess said sprinkle cinnamon , so I did that. Still have them on the dirt on the seedling I just started. Adding boiling water to the dirt before I add the seeds. My email is wjmers@yahoo.com
Thank you so much for your help❤❤❤❤❤❤
What can I add to compost to get rid of them?
If you are dealing with mites, I've successfully trapped them by placing a nice piece of melon rind, fruit side down (not a lot if melon needed) on top, slightly covered. The mites love it, you can lift it out, rinse off the bugs and put it back in the bin to attract more bugs.
I have not been as successful in eliminating fruit flies. My bin is in my house and it was a real problem. I finally dumped the bin out and picked out the worms and started over with fresh bedding. This sounds like a lot of work but, took far less time than I spent trying to trap them in liquid bait and vacuuming them off my ceiling.
Prevention has worked best for me. I now freeze all my produce before feeding. I know, I don't have a lot of available freezer space either. But this will kill any fruit fly eggs that may be lurking. And I've found having a bag of food at the ready allows me to feed based on what the worms are consuming not what I have available to compost at the moment.
Also I shred newspaper in my document shredder and keep several inches of dry paper over the surface. You can easily push it aside to feed then spread it out again. Fruit flies don't seem to dig down through the dry paper to reach the food. The paper will also absorb excess moisture from the top of the bin. When the paper isn't fluffy and dry anymore, I encorporate it into the bin, where it absorbs more excess moisture and because it entered the bin as little pieces, it breaks down, gets processed pretty quickly. Then I put another thick layer of fluffy dry paper back on top.
Best of luck.
Incredible comment Robin, thank you so much for adding your experience
Dude, that light behind your head...?!? WTF.
$130 for that unit? Come on man! Even the BEST commercial bins ate under $100!
The discount code is no longer valid. Can we get a new one?
ty kevin11, kevin12 etc. I don't know just an idea :D
You don't need any fancy bin. How much did that bin cost?
It's not that complicated.
Worms eat leaves...especially maple leaves. Egg shells, paper, and cut up boxes. All veggies and fruits. No fat or meat...or cooked food.
I use metal trash cans...with holes bottom , top, and sides....worms do not like light...they will not escape. Put in a shady under tree area. Cover in the winter...and feed once a month till spring.
i know that guy! on the left :)
The only moisture i add to my worm fridge is the materials provided, i don't have pests but i do have mycelium which the worms literally don't even mind, it's the right temp for them since they have been making the right environment for the perfect heat loving bacteria, which apparently there isn't a ton wrong or it wouldn't be black and smell great
Will worms eat whole coffee beans?
Eventually but much better to put in used grounds
Could I just add like 5000 worms to that bag to be able to feed more kitchen scraps?
I give my worms maybe a pound of food a week
Is it not vermicomposting? because thats what i'm doing.
I couldn't resist lol
Nothing line putting the dude on the spot for a discount code.
The only problem is this video is 3 years old and the coupon code was good for 3 days
Can this support a vegan family of 2..we have a lot of scraps!
Seems like two guys who really love gardening has gotten together and realizing that they don't really like each other a whole lot. Is what I'm seeing. Lots of aggressive body language. Great video by the way!
I thought the same thing but thought I was over analyzing it too...
If you watch both of their channels on a regular basis, you will see this is not the first or last time they get together. They're just men doing what men do but there's no hostility between them
Carbonatious😂 did you invent a word?
No. Carbonaceous is a real word.
This is what Ben Affleck would look like and be doing if he wasn't rich and famous.
May the peace of Christ be with you and I hope that you have a good day
moron
Robin Patterson, do you have an email address?
steve changed alot especially his eyebrows and he is bald now
must have alzheimers cause ion remember asking
I over watered my bag awhile back and realized that any amount of water in there will stay. I put about 6 or 7 square foot of cardboard on the top inside and it absorbed the excess water. The cardboard was ripped in pieces but with the evaporation of the water it was absorbed instead of just dripping back inside. A closed system and a very great ecosystem. I'm going to buy 7 more systems so I can sell european night crawlers on a regular basis. An easier way to make the money it takes to keep my old lady's trap shut. It's always blah blah blah and gimme the money. Hells bells I may need to buy more and sell them world wide but still be in the poor house. Lol Just kidding but she will have to learn to handle them when the time comes to fill resale cups. They last long and don't need a refrigerator . Thanks and Peace