Strictly Cardboard Only Worm Bin - 2 years Later
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- Опубликовано: 21 мар 2021
- This bin was set up on the 27th Feb 2019 with 27 worms.
It was set up with carboard, nothing else, and was fed only moist cardboard, nothing else.
Now, two years later, it's time to end the experiment.
Most informative video I've seen in months on vermicompost... Absolutely going to impact how I manage my worm bin. Very awesome to see straight cardboard is viable for survival.
I consider this experiment an astounding success. All the cardboard is gone. There are still worms in the bin, even though there is little food or moisture. I used to work in retail and made countless cardboard bales that weigh several hundred pounds. The bales of cardboard were recycled somehow (the stores get about $200 per 500 lb bale or about 40 cents/lb of cardboard), but now that I see what worms can do, I image it is feasible to convert the cardboard bales into soil amendments (worm castings which cost considerably more than 40 cents a lb).
Great video - eagerly awaiting the results of how the plants did growing in it!
That's been going for 2 years wow, I just created a couple of vids on this subject and how I am using cardboard in my systems. I have to take my hat off for pure diligence on keeping this experiment going for so long. 😀 All the best from Australia.
Hey Marty .... always good to hear from you mate 😁 I'll be along to check those out. Hope you're all keeping safe and well my friend 😊👍
That's lovely material and it a struggle to keep the worms happy.
♻️Happy gardening, Terry King.
That's amazing. What great worm castings from only cardboard. Worms are incredible. They have done their job and then left and found somewhere with more food. You could see from the trails up the sides. I have no doubt they are busy else where in your garden.
I have two worm bins now and love them. I often add cardboard. Your video confirms that it does no harm to the worms, so thank you for sharing your experiments.
Cheers Zoe. Much appreciated my friend. Great to hear you have two thriving bins 😊👍
thank you for all the info,i had two diy wormbin's one with earth and the other one with cardboard,what can i tell from my experience is that the worms from the cardboard bin grew much more bigger than the others,since i have notice that i use only cardboard bin
Thanks for the follow up!
Hiya Agatha. Hope all is well. Thanks for watching. Much appreciated my friend
I just found your videos today and I was super excited to find this follow up that was just posted a week ago :)
Thanks for the lesson.
My 8 year old daughter and I harvested a bunch of garden earthworms, put them into 2 nylon grow bag that have good sized holes in the bottom. We filled the bags with banana peels, coffee grounds, and. other kitchen scraps, this was last October or November. Then we left them outside over the winter. Today we opened the bags, they were full of rich, black worm castings, and a bunch of worms of all sizes. We emptied out the worm castings into a couple of beds, and returned many of the worms to the bags with more kitchen scraps. I'm going to make sure to start adding cardboard too. I never knew we could put cardboard in there, thanks for that info.
That's great to hear and great your daughter is involved 😊
Awesome experiment! Thank you for doing it.
Loving that your experiments go for so long and teach us so much!! It is not a failure in my eyes... essentially, you've created a nursery! Yes, they do escape but, they have babies first!! you do have lovely soil there and it will be great for your plants too!! I think the experiment proves it does work, you did get vermi-cardboard, you must have had cocoons to still have worms, and in the end, you have a new experiment for veg!! I loved this so much, Andy!! Thank you for all that you do!! 💖
So much appreciated Felicity 😊
I actually sifted the vermicardboard in readiness for it's tomato plant and you're spot on... there was literally hundreds of tiny tiny tiny teeny hair like worms .... so small for the most part until finely sifted you couldn't see them among the vermicardboard. They've all been moved to another bin now but as you say it became essentially a nursery 😁
I'm delighted to hear that there were so many hidden gems in the vermicardboard nursery!!! I can now imagine them thriving in their new home! I think your tomato plant will be happy for the goodness and the company!! Have an awesome day, Andy!!😊💖@@LondonWorms
Great experiment, beautiful stuff! Take care, Poo
It's really interesting how they converted everything except the tape, clever worms.
Hiya Cara ... they're pretty smart alright 😁👍 hope all is well my friend
LookS great compost that, well worth doing ,, I try and remove as much plastic as possible before adding to my bin ,, best wishes, Lisa
Thanks for the video - it fed our curiosity as well as the worms! An interesting follow up experiment with, say, the tomato plants might have been to have one pot with just the cardboard vermi-compost and another half-and-half with some of your other compost. My inexpert guess is that both would do well but the half-half one would probably do better, because of a richer mix of trace elements etc. (I'd also be inclined to remove all the non-organic plastics, naturally, but to leave the worms in their original environment, although that itself would then be transplanted into richer and damper surroundings, of course.)
Well it wasn't a wast of time as you have worm compost, worms and the knowledge that next time to make sure the moisture is ok, It will be interesting to see how it grows stuff. Thanks for posting.
Hiya Graham. Yep and when I thought about it a bit it made sense .... as I was only adding cardboard there was nothing to slowly release moisture over time such as veg and fruit scraps which is what normally happens. I shouldn't have left the gap from the last feed of cardboard for so long - it did surprise me how much it had dried out .... But it does kinda make sense on reflection. Cheers my friend. Hope all is well.
Thanks for sharing thumbs up🤘👍
Regarding the nutrient level ... there might be phosphor in the Cartboard. And you should keep in Mind that some Bakteria do have the ability to get nitrogen from the air and bind it in the ground. Without nitrogen your worms could not even grow.
Good point. It'll be interesting to see how the plant grows.
Your castings are so nice !They are definitely going to give you nice vegetables !
Cheers Val. I've got a baby tomato plant selected so when it's ready to pot on it'll go into the vermicardboard so we'll see how it goes. In the experiment a few years ago the lettuce salad leaf beetroot and radish all grew really well. I'm curious to see how a more demanding plant does 😁
How did using it in containers go?
Now that is very interesting I have tons and tons of Cardboard, I went crazy on Amazon and I have only been putting a layer of Cardboard in my compost pile and try not to get too many layers so consequently I can just put them in (all tore up of course) and let my little wormies have a good snack
They'll love it Babette. A lot of the cardboard I used over the two years was those plain brown amazon boxes 👍
@@LondonWorms this is exactly what I wanted to read :) so we can keep shopping haha...we're doing it for the worms haha
Great video! How did the grow test go in the end?
Definitely remember 🤗 hope to see future video posts soon. Stay Safe 👍
Hiya CEO Amaru 👍 good to hear from you my friend. Hope all is well
I appreciate your dedication to the experiment, and it does show that a worm bin can survive quite a while without feeding beyond a bedding of shredded cardboard. Go on vacation, or suffer an illness, or get busy with work, it's not the end of the world, or of the worm bin. But I would be interested to see what happens if you do make sure to keep the bedding a little damp, and not run it down to the point where the worms are just living in their own castings, with no bedding or food at all. How much of the escaping was because of lack of moisture, how much was because of lack of food, and how much, if any, was because of anything related to the cardboard itself?
Great experiment. Do you think if you were to repeat the experiment and keep it moist. The results would be better?
Thank you for sharing my friend wish you were near need advice on my large bin
Cheers Penny. Ask away if you can describe what's going on I'll do my best to help.
@@LondonWorms can I send a photo Andy ?
Very interesting indeed. Subscribed.
Much appreciated my friend 😊👍 Hope all is well.
Thank for the video
Escapees. Maybe they created a satellite nearby. The product is broken down but it's only got cardboard
I'm pretty sure that's exactly what they did ... bailed out once all the cardboard was finished. I've sifted it now and found hundreds of tiny tiny baby worms that have all been moved to another bin. I'm going to grow a tomato plant in the sifted vermicardboard and see how it goes. Hole all is well with you my friend.
@@LondonWorms Thanks for sharing your experiment! How did the tomato plant grow? I am so curious to know if it is possible to get a good nitrogen-rich end result on just cardboard.
They decided to come to my house for some moose poop.🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Much love xoxox
Did you intentionally not give it water?
I have a question for you. I have a shoe box sized bin that has about 20 worms. (I’m very new at this and wanted to start small) I’m going on vacation for the month of April. Will my worms be okay if I left them alone? How should I prepare my worm bin while I’m away?
Hiya yes the worms will be fine. You don't say what kind of bin other than the size ... I'm guessing it's like a tupperware container with lid and air holes? Make sure there is plenty of bedding. The bedding will eventually become rich in bacteria and so food for the worms. I would only add a very small amount of well blended food scraps so you reduce the chance of the bin becoming too moist or turning sour. Also make sure it's not somewhere it will get too warm and so dry out. Good luck and don't worry about them. They'll be fine. 😊👍
@@LondonWorms yes I have it in a Tupperware container. The smaller bin has its lid off. It’s in a 20 gallon container that has holes. Eventually I want to use the bigger container until then I’m just storing it in the bigger container. Thanks!
As you're going to be away for a month I'd make up some bedding of shredded damp cardboard and have the shoe box size bin sit on that in the bigger bin. That way if you have some escapees they'll be fine in the damp cardboard of the bigger bin until you get back.
Good looking compost made just from cardboard. I thought you might have worm casting to keep the compost moist.
Hiya Patrick yep it surprised me that it dried out so much. Vermicardboard .... I can't see it catching on somehow 😁
I wonder if I am the only one suffering because of the sound :(
Why didnt you water it more?
There were long gaps between feedings. It was a combination of thinking it was wet enough ... and forgetting to check it.
would be interesting if you could do a nutrient analysis on this compost :)
Definitely. I'm growing a tomato plant in it as a sort of bioassay to see how well the plant does which would give some indication of how much nutrients are in the vermicardboard.
They look like they are surviving not thriving. I think, just because you can doesn't mean you should. Does it really hurt to give them some food?
What a let down. To run your experiment for 2 years and then blow the whole thing by not even bothering to check on them for months! What's even stranger - I seem to be the only one who finds the whole thing to be a complete waste of time and effort due to pure neglect. Shame on you.
I don't think that's a great wholesome life for the worms, but it is what it is, they're worms lol
Poor worms they must to live in this poor conditions.
It is understandable to feed only cardboard for such a test, however, you should add more water and feed more often. For GOD sake man, SOAK your shredded cardboard with rain water and it more often.