I’m so glad I just came upon this video! I did vermiculture years ago when I owned property and had a good garden, and I loved the worms! It was an easy process and really rewarding on many levels. I even got a blue ribbon one year at the small local county fair for my worm compost! I haven’t had property for a long time but now I have a decent-sized south-facing deck where I’m setting up for growing veggies in containers. I’m so happy to be reminded about vermiculture, and I’ll check out your videos to get started again. My system was different but yours looks great. Thank you so much!
I use two bins, one for worms, one for compost. I don't use bedding in the worm bin, it goes in the front end of the compost bin. Basically I use a cft system, my kitchen waste gets layered into the front end of the first bin wirh shredded newsprint and cardboard, turning once or twice a week. As I take castings out the back end of the worm bin, I put the same volume of compost in the front end. By the time the compost gets to the worm bin it's cooked and buffered. I sprinkle ground eggshell, dried and ground bones, basalt rockdust and some ground grain into the bin whenever I turn the bin, at least once a week and harvest castings every two weeks. I cover the bins with landscape fabric to keep out flies and gnats. And it's oderless, I keep both bins in my basement.
I just started my bin last year, and still don't always get the pH and moisture right. I aim to not have liquid come from the bottom, but there is a learning curve. The worst I've done was an overfeed that caused mites and pot worms within an anaerobic spot near the bottom of my setup. I collect hardwood ash, and keep hickory pellets and coco coir on hand, and they were a perfect quick fix for my bin when it was really bad. No dead worms, thankfully. Just a tiny scoop of the wood ash balanced the pH, and the wood pellets with coco coir absorbed all of the excess moisture. I let it set for a few days and when I checked, the pot worms and mites were gone. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I've always been intrigued by vermiculture...but I can't even dig in my raised bed without terrorizing a small group of them. So, in the pursuit of extremely good soil, I just kinda serendipitously adopted thousands.
I’m so glad I just came upon this video! I did vermiculture years ago when I owned property and had a good garden, and I loved the worms! It was an easy process and really rewarding on many levels. I even got a blue ribbon one year at the small local county fair for my worm compost! I haven’t had property for a long time but now I have a decent-sized south-facing deck where I’m setting up for growing veggies in containers. I’m so happy to be reminded about vermiculture, and I’ll check out your videos to get started again. My system was different but yours looks great. Thank you so much!
I use two bins, one for worms, one for compost. I don't use bedding in the worm bin, it goes in the front end of the compost bin. Basically I use a cft system, my kitchen waste gets layered into the front end of the first bin wirh shredded newsprint and cardboard, turning once or twice a week. As I take castings out the back end of the worm bin, I put the same volume of compost in the front end. By the time the compost gets to the worm bin it's cooked and buffered. I sprinkle ground eggshell, dried and ground bones, basalt rockdust and some ground grain into the bin whenever I turn the bin, at least once a week and harvest castings every two weeks. I cover the bins with landscape fabric to keep out flies and gnats. And it's oderless, I keep both bins in my basement.
I just started my bin last year, and still don't always get the pH and moisture right. I aim to not have liquid come from the bottom, but there is a learning curve.
The worst I've done was an overfeed that caused mites and pot worms within an anaerobic spot near the bottom of my setup. I collect hardwood ash, and keep hickory pellets and coco coir on hand, and they were a perfect quick fix for my bin when it was really bad. No dead worms, thankfully. Just a tiny scoop of the wood ash balanced the pH, and the wood pellets with coco coir absorbed all of the excess moisture. I let it set for a few days and when I checked, the pot worms and mites were gone.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Good information for us
Thanks for sharing this video
👍👍
Good information!!! So relieved that you were able to save the day for your worm setup!!!!’
I've always been intrigued by vermiculture...but I can't even dig in my raised bed without terrorizing a small group of them. So, in the pursuit of extremely good soil, I just kinda serendipitously adopted thousands.
Looks like you run your bins really wet. Try holding off on adding ing additional moisture