Using compost worms around the yard.. Wicking worm beds, Aquaponics & compost..
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 15 дек 2013
- Been focusing on the Compost worms a bit more lately with the addition of some African night crawlers to the family.. Not only do we put them to work in worm farms but also have them working away for us in all our wicking bed/barrels, in the aquaponic grow beds & in the compost piles.. There are plans to segregate some of the night crawlers into their own farm at a later date so they can be raised to feed the fish with (That jobs a bit further down the list)..
Colin Austin's "water right" site is packed full of useful information on wicking worm beds as well as other helpful topics like soil, nutrition & conserving water..
waterright.com.au/
Scarecrow's Garden blog has some great examples of wicking beds & containers as well information on dry climate gardening.. First found wicking beds through this blog & haven't looked back since ;)
scarecrowsgarden.blogspot.com....
Have found a great American based community of Worm/Vermi enthusiast on Face Book for those that might be interested called "Vermicomposting - Worm Farming"..
/ wormfarm
They are a friendly bunch of folks that are helping to spread the joy of worm raising & composting..
More of our clips on all things worm/vermi can be found here
• Compost Worm / Vermicu...
& if your interested in checking out our wicking clips, they can be found here
• Playlist
Our latest lot of worms came from Nutrigold Worms..
nutrigoldworms.wix.com/nutrigo...
Thanks Nic :)
Subscribing to us at Bits Out the Back is as easy as clicking below
ruclips.net/user/subscription_c...
You can also find Bits Out the Back on Facebook, Instagram & G+ where we post mini updates on the aquaponics/aquaculture, chooks, worms, wicking bed gardens & other small tidbits..
Bitsouttheback
bits_out_the_back
plus.google.com/u/0/+RobBob/posts
Have a great one everyone... 
Хобби
I love having the composting worms in our aquaponic system. They really are a key component to keeping the media beds clean and healthy!
Wish mine would eat through all the solids Rob but I fear I left the water unfiltered for too long.. pH drops very fast here (0.1 - 0.2 a day) & I have been told it could be due to the accumulation of the fish solids.. Fish are still happy & feeding but it is a bit of a balancing act.. Do you have any thoughts on that ?
Going to be fun to clean all the clay out in a few weeks time methinks as the system is getting a rebuild while Bianca is having a break..
Cheers sir :)
Happy worms!
I think it is so cool to watch your garden from the other side of the world when I am sitting inside trying to keep warm from the freezing temps.
Glad to bring some "sunshine" to your day... I get the chills watching some of the American garden clips at the moment.. *****'s clips make me reach for the blankets :/
Stay warm & all the best from sunny (most the time) Ipswich :)
Rob..
Rainbow Gardens l....
Rob, you and your garden are a real inspiration. All that green can definitely lift the spirits of those of us who are snowed in.
You and I have a very similar approach to using the squirmers in garden beds and compost bins. I'm amazed at how fast they multiply in our garden, especially considering they take a hit in the winter.
Have you ever experimented with worm towers? I've been thinking about trying them out in the spring. It's sometimes hard to find enough suitable mulch for the squirmers, so I was thinking the worm towers would enable me feed them food scraps, used coffee grounds, and spent brewery grains in addition to the mulch on the beds.
Morning Patrick :) We did have the towers in the first wicking beds we installed but quickly found that the worms rather feed on the manure & organic material in the soil than the scraps in the tubes.. goo.gl/a975CH They were pulled after a while as the scraps just weren't being consumed & we didn't want the odours to attract unwanted visitors..
That's been my experience with the tubes but others swear by them.. Will be interesting to see how you go with them..
All the best,
Rob..
your videos are the best and most well thought out videos on RUclips in my opinion. Keep it up sir, my fiancee and I really admire your videos.
Yes the Worm Farm, I got from the Wife Daughter for $20 was probably the best investment ever, and also for the Worm 1000/1500 bonus stater pack from Bunnings, and they have more than crippled there numbers for sure, and make awesome Worm Tea and Castings, which I have already sold some, so I can eay the system has now paid for itself , and that do a wonderful job with our Kitchen veg scraps, so its always a win win with worms aye Rob Bob :-)
Nice one George :) Think I might have a few issues soon trying to get enough food to keep all the farms satisfied soon :/ :D
Cheers mate & hope you all have a great Christmas/New years...
Rob..
Very nice work! Thanks for this video. I have just entered worm farming world, now i have got lot to work after looking at your farm. Best video i watched till now. :)
+Vivek Muliya
Hi Vivek.
Glad you like the clips & hope you get a few ideas from them. Hope your farm is coming along well. Sorry it took so long to get back to you.
Cheers & all the best.
Rob.
good one rob. I never thought of putting the worms in the garden bed just the castings but like you said that increases worm populations in different parts of the yard. You are so right about the worms lasting for ever. I bought mine from Bunnings back in 2007 and I thought they died off a couple of years after that, changed their location and bang, their still going.
They're very hardy animals Brad & came from the outdoors to start with so can't see why they shouldn't be used out in the patch.. Will be interesting to see how the Africans go out in the patch..
Cheers mate & hope you had a great one..
Rob :)
Thank you for all that you do.
I love watching & learning more & more.
Just starting out. 1st time with worm's. Wish me luck. :)
But, have some experience in Gardening.
+Nita Farmer
Hey Nita & thanks :-)
Hope the worm farming is coming along well :)
Cheers,
Rob.
Very nice harvest Rob. I just moved my guy out back again after their first winter.
Hope they pulled through OK.. Ours haven't been that active this summer... Hardly any cocoons in our farms unfortunately..
Cheers again :)
Rob..
Great video Rob. Lots of people under value the role of these guys in the garden but they really do a lot of work.
They do all the hard work when you think about it & I have never once heard them complain John ;)
Have a great one :)
GREAT VIDEO! Chock full of information! Thanks for sharing.
Hope the information is useful for you..
Thanks & all the best,
RB..
This is the second time I have watche this one. So cool to think that you got all those worms from that first purchase a couple years back. I can't wait for my little worm farm to grow in numbers like that.
I think they will love your climate there Paula.. They will be working all year round like ours here I would think :)
Hope all are happy & well,
Rob.
Great looking soil Rob ! Enjoy the sunshine.
We were loving it until the mercury started to climb this week Larry :/
Cheers mate & all the best to you & yours for Christmas..
Rob..
I loved my wormies. They were like pets that gave me compost. People thought I was crazy. I plan to start a new bucket soon.
:D I get friends laughing at me all the time about my worm & manure "addiction".. I can't help that they are great soil conditioners :D
Cheers & all the best..
Rob.
Wow!... your soil mix looks amazing!
I'm definitely going to have to get some worms!
Some of the best workers in the garden are the worms methinks..
Cheers A B..
good on you Rob. Worms earn their rights. Stick up for them :-)
Even down here,over winter many moons ago, the indigenous population of earthworms ate a stack of straw in 3 years. ( Things intervened and the stack wasn't used for mulch ) Gotta love the worms. All that was left was the binder twine.
Dianne Fitzsimmons I think they are the hardest workers in the patch.. It amazes me how fast they can chew through a litre of worm slushie..
All the best to you & yours Dianne,
Rob..
Nice worms working for you, your garden is looking good!
Is looking very green at the moment Susan & some of the leafy plants are booming :)
Thanks & have a great one..
Rob.
Your soil looks utterly fantastic Rob. I think I am going to have to build myself a worm farm.
Some beds look better than others Andy.. Thinking I will be adding a bit more mushroom compost to a few of the beds to try & pick them up a bit..
Cheers sir..
All the best to you & yours Andy :)
Top job Rob, Thanx.
Cheers Michael..
All the best to you & yours sir :)
RB.
Hey, I talk to my plants, you talk to your warms, as long as we don't ear them answer us, I think we're OK :D Happy holidays to you and your family!
I might do :/
Well, I hope it's them because if it's not them it's the fish :O
:/
Thanks Elyse & all our best to you & yours as well :)
Rob..
Great Video. 3 cheers for worms :o)
Best Wishes, Chris
Hooray
Hooray
HOORAY !!!
Cheers to you as well Chris,
Rob..
I imagine your weather may be similar to what we have here in Tampa, Florida we have frequent rain showers in the summer, just enough to cool things off a bit but temperatures range from 23 degrees celcius (75 F) to 35 degrees celcius (95 F). Just bought my first batch of red wigglers from the local seed store.
Hi Cynthia :)
Does sound very similar to here... We don't get the rain that Florida gets, mainly thunder storms that blow through quickly during summer the past few years..
Hope the worms go well for you.. Are you setting them up in a worm farm ?
Cheers :)
Brisbane. North side. He is at eatons hill. He also has a guaranty fix for fruit fly. Which I need to get the name of again. No nets and he has not had fruit fly for 12 yrs I think he said. His hives are $250 established.
Thumbs up to our li'l friends, the worms and to you Rob ol' buddy, yeah what would we do without any worms? So you're also in the suptropics, the climate up here on the central plateau is classified as subtropical, that means here, pines growin' next to banana trees, apples and pears next to avocados and so on, thankin' ya for the COOL Share!! =)
You've got the best of both worlds then :D We can grow tropical apples here but haven't got a spot for them yet..
Thanks Joe & all the best to you & yours..
Rob..
Great vid once again Rob :-) All Hail the wrigglers!! Just pray they don't form a Union :/
:D
:/
Think I keep them happy enough that I would be spared if there was a revolt..
Cheers Nathan..
What is the mulch you used on the first bed Rob?
Outstanding
Thanks Bruce..
Best place to have them is where their castings do the most good I figure ;)
Cheers mate,
Rob
Much Thanks
Rob how much worm wee/juice do you guys get from your farms ? And how often.? We set up a farm starting with 1000 worms about 3 months ago, they have multiplied massively and eggs everywhere. But not
You`re sure getting them worms going!
And it seems that your plants are getting very lush and healthy from them.
+33C? That one really hurts.. lol..
Middle of winter here, and hardly any sunshine..
Best wishes,
Halvor.
More like -33C around here, it hurts me too :D
Wrangled a few more around the yard yesterday Halvor.. Found a few barrels lacking when some turmeric & ginger got planted out so pinched a few of the newbies from the bathtub.. I think they'll be happy out in the patch :)
Think I might make a clip up just for all you "Northerners" ;)
Cheers sir & all the best,
Rob...
*****
:/
Sounds like it's time to jog around the house Elyse ;)
Cheers :)
Rob Bob Jogging in snow shoes is no fun :D
*****
:D
would make for a great clip though ;)
I'm loving your videos, Rob. Lots of great info to help me start my own worm wicking vegetable garden in old fruit/apple bins, plenty of them here in the Goulburn Valley in Victoria (think SPC peaches).
I have a couple of questions, are "garden worms" from a fishing and tackle shop ok (hubby uses them) or should I get compost worms from Bunnings? And, is there such a thing as too many worms and castings in the garden bed, at what point would you thin them out?
Hope the weather hasn't been too crazy up there for you, we've had some wicked thunderstorms lately.
Hey Bec..
Glad you like the clips & hope they've given you some food for thought..
Am not too sure on the bait worms.. I think most are composting worms but am not 100% sure.. You could always ring the supplier & check..
I would probably buy direct from a worm farm.. Have bought from Bunnings but found I got more healthier looking worms from the small worm farmers.. We bought the last lot from A1Bait for a fair few dollars less than the stores were selling them for.. www.a1baitsupplies.com.au/store/Compost+Worms
The worms will regulate their own population I've found so no need to worry about too many in there..
Last year I did have one bed that was crawling with worms due to me using far too much mushroom compost in the soil blend that went in.. Turned it into one big worm farm which was great as I have added some of the into other beds around the patch..
The storms have been parting around us so we have gotten off very lightly so far this year.. We will get hammered really bad at lest once though just to make up for all the times we missed out if history is anything to go by ;-)
Cheers Bec & hope that helps you out some..
Rob.
Thanks for your help, Rob, and the quick reply. I looked at the worms at Bunnings the other day, the compost they were in was very dry and had mould on top so I left them on the shelf. I figured if "we are what we eat" is true then I'm sure I could find some healthier worms. Again, thanks for your help. Bec :)
I'm a newcomer to your humble channel. Where I have enjoyed your videos, but unfortunately haven't seen all of them and don't really know how to maneuver around RUclips. Was wondering if you had a video showing how you're running the water coming from where you're raising the fish into all of you're growing beds?
I have a short clip that goes through the basics of aquaponics & shows the water flow through the system & is fairly up to date..
What is aquaponics, the bare bones basics.. The flow explanation starts at around 3:30 if that helps..
I found this interesting, thanks bob, what I've found funny is the amount of extra chemical surplus that people feel is necessary for plant growth - if you think about nature it's just worms and leaf mulch. Time for a quick question now, with your liquid fertilisers/seasol/fish poo/AP water/etc do you water it onto the soil or do you put it through the wicking bed downpipe so it goes into the reservoir? Cheers
I water straight onto the beds themselves... It could go down the fill tube but I think it does the plant better to have it directly on their roots :)
Hope that helps some..
Cheers & have a great one..
Rob.
Quick question, what are you going to do with the compost pile in the IBC frame once it's settled and composted. Add more on top or use it and start over fresh? Good video Rob Bob, I look forward to watching the fish eat the worms! lol
The compost will be used to top up a few beds/barrel Wayne.. Trying not process all the manure & hay we bring in first as I think some of the disease & pest problems we are having at the moment might of come in with them :/ Hopefully the heat from the cooking & further processing from the worms will knock a lot of the issues we are having on the head before the compost gets added to the beds..
Cheers sir & hope all's well there :)
Rob.
Ok Rob Bob, that makes sense for sure, I appreciate the answer and the detailed content you produce! I'm doing much better, thanks for asking.
worms from bunnings we will have a look
Check out local worm farms first Vicky & Brett.. We got 4000 freshly harvested worms delivered to the door for the price of 1000 worms from Bunnings that could of been on the shelf for a while..
Hope that helps :)
Hope you all have a great one,
Rob..
Hi rob love your clips ! I'm new to aquaponics, I have had mine set up for only 6 months. Do you add minerals or any other fertilizers to your systems. I am so scared of hurting my fish, I have goldfish and red claw in my set up. Thanks Janet
Hi Janet..
I add chelated Iron when the leaves look like they are yellowing a bit as well as potassium bicarbonate & calcium hydroxide when the pH needs to be buffered up.. The only other thing we add is Seasol seaweed emulsion just to give the system a bit of a kick every month or so..
Hope that helps some Janet.. Have a great one,
Rob.
Hey rob.
Hiw often do you feed the worms in the bath tub. I have 2 black 3 level farms. Rounds ones.
O and do you have a native bee hive for pollination
Hi Daniel.. Normally feed them about 1L/¼gal of worm slushie (processed veggie scraps) & then leave it 2-4 days before feeding again.. Depends on what was in the slushie as to how fast the worms process it though.. Like to have some damp shredded paper in there for them to feed on as well when we have bills to shred..
No native hive here at the moment but we are looking into getting one :)
Cheers & have a good one :)
have you tried using a spot with wood chips where there is hard soil?
Hi Richard..
Haven't tried it directly on the hard ground.. Have seen it work well for others at loosening it up once the worms & other critters move in..
Cheers mate..
Hi Rob … just want to ask are you breeding up the African Night Crawlers to feed the fish in the aquaponics ? If yes , why that breed of worm ?
Hi there..
The plan to start with was to use the compost worms as feed for the fish but the reality is that it would take a lot of resources & feed to be able to make worms a viable food source for the amount of fish we have.. I think crickets & meal worms may be a better alternative & is something I am yet to seriously look into..
Hope to have a clip on the crickets or meal worms soon..
Cheers,
Rob..
Have seen other aquaponic videos where they're growing plants using those sharp small rocks or your clay-balls. My question is, can corn, potatoes, carrots, or other plants that grow under the soil. Be grow not using dirt or soil, but grown in rocks, clay-balls, or anything that’s not dirt or soil? Can rice or wheat be grown, in the clay-balls or anything that’s not dirt or soil? Guess what I want to know is how many kinds of food can I grow to live off of.
I have grown beetroot, short kuroda carrots & currently have some sweet potato growing out of control in there :/ We had a look the other day & found that it has set at least one tuber set on the roots :)
Have been told that some have had great results growing potatoes hydroponically so cant see why it couldn't be done in aquaponics..
I have grown wheat in as sprouted greens for our chickens & had one missed plant flower & give us a head of grain :) Was a bit of a surprise to find it in the middle of the kang kong..
Hope that helps you out some..
Rob..
Do the worms damage any live plants or do they prefer dead plant matter? I dug some worms out of a jasmine bush pot, and shared them in my aquaponics systems and some grow beds. Im thinking about going to a store and buying worms like fishing worms and adding them to my garden and aquaponics systems, do you recommend that or should I go with some other kind of worms?
Composting worms are really after bacteria as their main food source.. They do eat small amounts of decaying organic matter so the roots of your plants should be sake.. From what I have seen in the aquaponics they are normally feeding on the roots of dead or dying plants..
Compost worms would be fine for the aquaponic system but earth worms won't last long in there at all.. They prefer different food sources as I understand it & may not tolerate the damp conditions as much as the compost species..
Hope that helps some Jimmy..
Cheers & have a great one..
Rob.
Thank you Rob for taking the time to answer my question.
Jimmy in Mexico
No problem Sir.. :)
I’m so happy to have worms.
Does that sound strange. . ?
🤣🤣 Not at all David. Wish I had more here. 🤔😉
Cheers & have a top one.
Do you have snow in the winter
Hi Ryan.. No snow here.. We are in the subtropics west of Brisbane in Australia.. Very lucky in that we can grow all year round here..
Cheers Mate..
hi Rob,
sometimes, when i ad to much food to the worms, the food mold... . Are there any harms for the worms? best regards, i love your videos!!! max
Hi Marcus.. The same happens to ours from time to time & I don't think it is too much of an issue as long as there isn't too much.. I have found that it does attract the small fruit/vinegar flies.. If it is taking too long for them to process you can always scoop it out & pop it in the compost..
Hope that helps a bit & Thanks :)
Have a great one,
Rob..
Rob Bob Thanx, good idea :)
thanks for this vid.....I always thought "compost worms" should not be used in the garden and that they would die if not in a compost. I too have a starter box from Bunnings and they are going great guns.....now I know I can add them to all of my garden! Have just subscribed and have been really enjoying your info on aquaponics. I hope to start a setup with my disused septic tanks...any thoughts on that?
Hi there Valeria..
Compost worms will do fine in normal soil beds as long as there is enough food for them to survive.. We have been top dressing our beds with horse manure as well as adding deep layers of mulch so the little squirmers always have something to feed on.. Some people like to add feeding stations in the beds as well for the worms..
What sort of material are the tanks made out of & have they seen "service" as septic tanks ?
Thanks & have a good one :)
HI Rob, thanks for the advice on the worms and yes these are septic tanks that are in use but our little town is now connecting to sewerage. Some people are choosing to keep their tanks for grey water and the standard way of cleaning them as recommended by the council it to have them washed with a chlorine solution which is to be left on the surfaces for at least 15 minutes. whadyareckon?
Valeria Vine Not sure if I would use it for aquaponics if they are concrete tanks Valeria.. If they are plastic you could probably get away with it once they are well & truly cleaned & all the chlorine removed after they are cleaned out..
Not much help there really sorry.. Would be interested to know how you go though..
Cheers,
Rob..
OK will let you know how I go. Thanks for taking the time to respond Rob. Love your vids. :-)
Do u still have any worms videos lately
None recently. They do turn up from time to time in aquaponics videos & still have LOADS in the yard under mulch & in compost.
sorry for the mispellings. Big fingers and small tablet
:D That's what I only use my "smart" phone as a phone... To many embarrassing slip ups :/
Cheers again Sir..
g'day mate,
It's not a good idea to mix different breeds of worms in the same farm, the reproduce together and the result is sterile. You end up pretty quick with a sterile bunch of worms. It's like mixing horses and donkeys.
I use different farms for each variety and the breed fine now.
Hope this will help.
Hi there Gilles... From all that I have read & been told by worm producers that isn't the case... A lot of the worm breeders here have mixed farms, sell their worms in mixed bags & have done so for many years.. I did read that there is some chance of some closely related species crossing but not the commonly used worms in the compost trade..
Cheers mate & have a great one..
Rob..
do you make your own sugar cain mulch?
Hey Bob...
No we don't.. It's fairly popular here & can be purchased from hardware stores or from the farmers themselves.. Did get given a few sections of sugar cane but I didn't get ant shoots from them unfortunately :/
Cheers, Rob..
thanks
I live in North central Texas. It's hard to find here. I may have to go to South Texas
Morning Bucko Bob..
Straw works just as good if that's all you have.. I do find that the cane mulch does take a bit longer to break down though..
thanks. In Texas we got lots of straw.
I have a guys number if you need it. He heaps he is trying to sell off at the moment. They make a big difference.
Much juice!?
Hi Jamie :)
I really don't see a lot of juice/wee from the larger bath farms as I don't water them once they are set up.. I find that the slushies we feed them keeps the beds moist enough.. I prefer to make up castings tea to get liquid fertiliser for the patch & find that it works much better than the worm juice.. The small dribble that collects in the bucket gets added into casting teas when I brew them & is quite often well under a few cups worth..
Hope that helps some & all the best to you & yours..
Rob.
Ok great thanks for your reply, I was under the impression that there would be juice'a plenty! Hehe merry Xmas to you and the fam!
Jamie Russell
Cheers Jamie :)
For Afican night crawler info check out Larry Hall here on you tube
Subbed to Larry a fair while back thanks Walt :) He mainly keeps his in farms, I like to have most of ours working hard for us out in the garden... Yet to put any night crawlers in the beds as of yet though..
Cheers..
Watching Larry Halls vids seems the alabama jumpers are the best to freerange in a garden loosen up hard soils
Walt Lars We grow in large self contained, self watering wicking beds loaded up with organic matter so don't have that problem.. The compost worms get to feast on the manures & compost we add in.. We also don't get the Alabama jumpers here in Australia but there are one or 2 beds that have got a healthy population of native earth worms as well as the compost ones.. I think they came in with the the small amount of soil we used from the yard to build them..
Selling worms as bait I cant compete with large retailers (Wal-mart) My Summet temps here up to 90-100°F 40ish C° presents some problems
Not haveing a car/truck presents several problems for scroungeing. the bus company would frown on Me hauling home a couple buckets of horse manure etc
Email sent. Re number
your videos are the best and most well thought out videos on RUclips in my opinion. Keep it up sir, my fiancee and I really admire your videos.
Thanks Marcus & glad you both like them..
Cheers & all the best to you both..
Brisbane. North side. He is at eatons hill. He also has a guaranty fix for fruit fly. Which I need to get the name of again. No nets and he has not had fruit fly for 12 yrs I think he said. His hives are $250 established.
I have a guys number if you need it. He heaps he is trying to sell off at the moment. They make a big difference.
Whereabouts are you Daniel ?
Think we are nearly at out limit here but might be interested ;)
Cheers, Rob.