COMPOSTING WORMS!?! UNBOXING & SET-UP 

Thanks! Hope your worm adventures are great!

Thanks so much for watching!

Oh wow, you started with a lot of worms! You will have a huge population in no time!

Hi Catherine, thanks for the tip! I've actually starting feeding my worms on the days that I make juice - they gobble up the juice pulp so quickly. I haven't had any stragglers yet, but I was very scared that would happen when I was away for ten days at Thanksgiving - luckily they all stayed put. Now, I am currently at the point where my bottom tray is full and will start the top tray soon. Once the worms have all migrated to the top tray, what do you suggest I do with the bottom tray of compost? I'm not doing any gardening now because it's too cold, but I saw something about that you should dehydrate the compost - what do you do when your compost is ready? I've considered just getting two more trays to eventually go on top of what I already have and just waiting until they are all filled up - by that time, it should be spring and I'll be set to plant. Help! And holy cow, 60,000 worms, wow!!!!!!!!!

Kendra once you remove and make sure there are no worms left in your compost all you have to do is let it get to the point where it's damp you never want it to dry out. One, it will turn to cement if dried too quickly and two if dried completely will kill all the microbes you worked so hard to get in it. I would just take it and stick it into a 5 gallon bucket that you can buy at most any store and store with a lid. Just leave it on loosely because it needs some air so the microbes can breathe, but you always have to keep it moist or damp. You need to keep that lid open if you have not taken all the cocoons out as they will hatch anywhere from two weeks to 30 days depending on their color. If you tighten the lid and they hatch you will have a mess of stinking dead baby worms. Lesson learned. I had a bucket and it had been sitting for almost 30 days, my husband decided to clean one of his guns and we tightened the lid down and forgot to take it off, three days later all the baby worms were on the lid, dead and smelly. As your castings sit I would turn it over and if you find any I would put them in your main bin. I tried a worm factory 360 but absolutely did not like it. That one that you have looks interesting and looks like i probably would have better luck with that then I had with the 360. I have six regular totes that I use now and three buckets that I have baby cocoons in just waiting for them all to hatch. When they are done hatching I will just add them to my main bins. I try different beddings and new things all the time that make it easier and make the castings nicer. All my castings are very fine and very light and airy and I have used them to put seeds in. It works great. Since I live in Alaska it is necessary to store in my home. All my worms and castings are in a spare bedroom as I don't have a garage or basement. If you have any more questions don't be afraid to ask. I would put up my own videos if I knew how to do it dang it. At 64 years old I'm not really that savy when it comes to this stuff. Happy Worming.

Thank you so much for all of the info, Catherine! So I'm guessing that when you say to put the finish compost into a five gallon bucket, I should leave it inside (not outside in Wisconsin where it will freeze)? Oh goodness, dead stinky baby worms, eeek! My cats would probably go crazy with that smell. :( When you plant your seeds, do you use any potting soil or just use the castings? It's only December, but I'm going to have to start really planning my balcony garden for next spring (and I'm also considering finding a community garden to join!). Happy Holidays!

African night crawlers eat way more than red wiggles. They eat 1.5 times their body weight a day .

Great info Catherine Thanks

So good to know, thanks so much, Bryan! Question for you because you seem to be very knowledgable about this subject...I was recently gone for about 10 days and fed both trays of my worms a lot before I left. I came back a couple days ago and made my veggie juice and fed the pulp to one tray (I will juice again tomorrow and feed the other tray). Last night after I turned the lights off, the worms from the unfed tray started coming out and crawling around on the lid!!!! (My husband came down for something and one of our cats always goes crazy for the worms, so she was playing with them.) Do you think they were coming out because they were hungry or because it was too moist or what? I know they don't like light, so I put a lamp next to the composter and left it on through the night - this seems to have kept them in. I turned the lamp off this morning and within 5 minutes, there were a couple worms out and about again! I had some coffee grounds and steeped tea leaves that I fed them - maybe they were just hungry. What do you think?! THANK YOU!

Kendra Lee yes the worms can get "traveling feet" if they are underfed, too wet, or ideal temperatures off, or, sometimes, if pH gets too acidic (low pH). They tend to adapt their spawning based on how heavy the population is, but when the pop gets more dense, then it can make food, moisture and temperature factors a little more sensitive to get out of whack-- and thus you can get more escapees before they have adapted to he conditions. To compound this, try to make sure you are using real red wrigglers and not blue worms; the latter aka Malaysian or Indian Blues look a lot like red wrigglers, but have a blueish sheen and are sometimes mis-sold as the former. They eat and reproduce faster but are more susceptible to conditions, especially cooler temperatures, causing them to escape.

Thanks so much, Bryan! I ended up moving the composter to my laundry room (where the cats can't get at it) and removed the lid and let it air out for a couple days. I then took the majority of the compost and the worms from that top tray and put them in my garden. I think the population was getting out of control - I haven't had any issues with them escaping since then. I think I have real red wigglers - I ordered them from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm - hope they're the real deal!

Glad your challenge just turned out to be too dense of population and you could send some expatriates off to happy gardening elsewhere.

I think they are very happy in their new home and my garden certainly is happy with their poop!!!

Excellent! I'm still learning a lot myself, but try to share what I've figured out!

Awesome, thanks so much for the info! Mmmm zucchini, one of my faves! I live in an apartment and am working with two balconies - do you think zucchinis would somehow work on a balcony? Just started my second worm tray, hopefully they have enough to eat for the next few days while I'm away for Christmas. :D

All the little bitty babies squirming around! Glad I'm not the only one!

Hi Sonny! I'm not an expert on worms or compost, but the reason I chose to do worms was because I could do it in my apartment. I think if you have the outdoor space to do a normal compost pile, do it (I can't wait til I can do this myself, but I will certainly continue to do worms even once I have the space for a compost pile). Worms can't eat certain things (onions, garlic, citrus, meat, cheese, etc.) and what you feed them generally needs to be pretty small. I usually feed mine juice pulp, vegetable peelings, coffee grounds, tea leaves. Luckily I have access to a legit compost pile at my community garden, so I usually go over there once or twice a week to dump a bucket of larger scraps or stuff they shouldn't be eating. As I've never actually done a regular composting system, I'm not super sure how it works and the maintenance required (I've heard you need to sometimes mix it up). Worms are very easy, though! I think one benefit with worm castings is that you can use them pretty quickly - once the worms have eaten the food and pooped it out, you're good to go. I think it would take longer to break down food scraps via microbes and bacteria. If you know someone who has worms, ask for a container of them. You can also easily make a worm composter with a couple plastic storage bins - I didn't do this myself because I was scared it might leak and mess up apartment carpet! Let me know what you end up deciding to do! Happy composting!

Oh that's a really good idea! Ever since I started this little project (actually about 3 or 4 weeks ago, filmed this in advance), I've realized that I definitely could use a bigger composter, but it's a good place to start. I've definitely noticed that they quickly eat pulp from when I make juice. I'll have to try your tip - they definitely don't seem overly interested in the couple big stalks of chard I mixed in!

You can buy extra sets of two trays for the Hot Frog, so if you make scraps too fast for your wrigglers to keep up, then stack four trays, feeding worms in two of them.

Mmmmm carrot cake! I sometimes make these really good Paleo carrot pumpkin muffins (from Nom Nom Paleo) with carrot pulp - so much easier than grating up a ton of carrots and squeezing out the juice like the recipe says.

Excellent! I think the trellis way would work really well on my balcony. And I also just saw a sign for a local community garden, so gotta check that out. :D

Oh let me tell you, I did it with bare hands that first time - now when I feed them, I wear garden gloves. :P Once I have a house and can have a proper compost pile outside, I will definitely do that (don't think the landlord at my current apartment would be too thrilled with a massive compost pile on the balcony!). Interesting about the comfrey tea - gonna tuck that little tidbit away for the future, thank you!

Kendra Lee you do need to watch the Mumbai balcony gardener!!! - Re compost on the balcony I do feel blessed that I have enough yard to move my co.post around/let it sit, or just dig my green leftovers right into the garden in the fall Yes, later you wear gloves BUT you touched the worms!!!!! 😉 Love your videos!

Checking out Mumbai balcony gardener now!!!

Woohoo Canada!!! And since you're from Canada, I just have to share a comment I heard recently that I LOVED! I saw an interview with Margaret Atwood (author of Handmaid's Tale who is Canadian) with an American journalist and at the end, the journalist asked what she was most proud of. And she answered, "I'm Canadian, we don't do proud." It was classic! Here's the link - that part is at the very end, like the last 30 seconds. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_rDoROcHbpI.html

Kendra Lee thanx I’ll check it out, I’m proud to be Canadian, although I was born in Australia 😊 love your glasses awesome frames ☮️❤️from Top the Mountains in 🇨🇦😊😊😊

An Aussie in Canada - awesome! My glasses were my first ever glasses I got after discovering my eyesight was starting to go downhill. They're from Warby Parker and the frame style is called Finch in Violet Magnolia. :D Enjoy the beautiful mountains!!!

Worms are super easy!!! I don't have a garden this summer, but have loads of compost, so need to give it to some friends who have gardens! I definitely need to do a worm update - thanks for the reminder!

Do you think I could use finely shredded barley straw an shredded leaves as the bedding and the carbon part of the feed??

I'm not 100% positive about the barley straw, but I know you can definitely use leaves (so I think the straw would be fine). I generally give my worms newspaper for the carbon part, so I'm sure your worms will be really dining in style!!!

@@crazykenz4203 thank you. Have a lovely weekend xx.

You too!!!

Well, I am definitely not like every girl out there!

Oh that's so neat!!! Yup, started worm composting a few months ago because I hate the thought of throwing away produce scraps (especially with all the juicing I do, just seemed like such a waste). My friend has chickens and I can't wait to take over some worm treats for them! I have one community garden plot reserved for this summer (and have requested a second one, fingers crossed I get it!) - can't wait!

I hope to start my worm composting after we move! I can't wait too! I hope you get the plot! in our community they have garden plots available, but the spray ROUNDUP!! So I won't be doing that!! Make sure you check to see if they do that too!

OMG no!!!! I know that the place I'm doing my garden plot says the use of weed killers is not allowed and they discourage pesticides, so hopefully people follow that! I'll definitely be planting lots of stuff in pots on my balcony, as well - just need to make a plan and figure out what and where I'm going to grow certain things!

Can't wait to see your progress! I'll be recording our preparation and move be more self sustaining!

Awesome, can't wait to see! I think my husband and I may end up building a house in a couple years and we are definitely going to include lots of energy efficient and sustainable features. We will really take the time to plan it out, but think self-sustainability is only going to become more and more important!

Holy cats, you should see them now! They have grown so much and are reproducing like crazy! The last time I fed them, there was this huge mass of worms - just all snuggling up together (worm orgy, let's say!). One of my cats go nuts with the worms - she can't figure out their smell!

Oh that is so funny that your brother sold worms as a kiddo - so much more interesting than a lemonade stand! Oh yes, this will definitely increase your worm population in the garden. I started in October 2017 and ended up putting a lot of compost and loads of worms into the garden - I'm constantly seeing little worm eggs when I harvest squash or melons. Hopefully they will survive the winter and make my garden extra ready next season (and hopefully I get the same plot next year!). The worm population apparently doubles every three months - my composter will be exploding with worms by next garden season (may ask Santa for a couple more trays for my composter). :D

@@crazykenz4203 thats awesome Kendra well ive collected a few worms made a makeshift composter and well see what springtime holds God bless you n your endeavors xo

Oh man, I'd gladly give you tons of worms if we lived nearby!

@@crazykenz4203 that would be fantastic!! yes closer is the issue thanks fir your kind words n thoughts 😁😁😁

hey Kendra do you have isdues with fruit flies using the 'Hot Frog' ?

I got it from Costco online, but I don't believe it's available there anymore. I've also seen it on Amazon and Uncle Jim's Worm Farm. I know there was a bit of an issue a few months ago with production because of some component to color the plastic (someone emailed me about buying a couple of my trays because they were sold out everywhere - I told him to get in touch with the company and that's what he found out).

Mission accomplished, I guess!!!

I wondered who was responsible for that. The slightest gap or wrinkle and ???!!!. Almost like it should have an inspector tag and initial every one.

I bought two times. those 2000 worms and the fos occasions came dead and stinky

Do you have any suggestions for dealing with bugs? I seem to have this annoying infestation of some type of bug (not normal fruit flies). They tend to lay eggs on the inside of the lid and on the underside of each tray. I had three trays going, but the worms kind of stopped eating and it was a smelly mess, so I ended up going through the trays, removing all of the worms (even rinsed them off to make sure I didn't have eggs), then cleaned absolutely everything super well and started one small tray with the worms I rescued and some newspaper. It was going well for a couple weeks, but there must have been some eggs still in there because some flies have returned. Thank you!!!

@@crazykenz4203 I are use diatomaceous earth (DE). It won’t hurt the worm.

OMG composting club, why did I not go to your school!? That's so cool! My friend's mom works at a pre-school that has a chicken coop - so cool to expose kids to this at a young age!

Worms in the classroom offer a tremendous cross-curricular learning opportunity! Ha ha I have worm composting, sprout growing and now laughter yoga! My presentations are not only engaging and informative, they are more fun than ever!

Cathy, your classroom sounds amazing! What grade do you teach? How fun!

Oh la la! Then they'd really be crawling all over the place!

VERMA COMPOSTER Thats the diet of the Alaskan Bullworm

Oh that is a really interesting idea. So you sprout the microgreens in the coir, then when they have grown and you've snipped off the greens to eat, you feed the coir and roots to the worms, right?

Kendra Lee yes you got it. I just use the coir and for bedding not really for food. However My production of micro greens far outstrips my ability to use up the coir and roots vermi composting by about 10 to 1. But I think the worms like it.

That is so cool! I definitely need to get into growing microgreens - thanks so much for the inspiration!

Kendra Lee search you tube “khang Starr microgreens”. He has great videos from 2 to 5 years ago on growing microgreens. Now he mostly teaches people to grow vegetables hydroponically and to grow super hot peppers in soil. With regard to the microgreens He even has suggestion about how to buy seeds cheap at ethnic stores. I grow broccoli microgreens because they are known to prevent cancer and are very easy to grow but they are expensive and I can only find them on the seed sprouting suppliers on the internet. Similar to them are kohlrabi, and cabbage. I have bought all my stuff online in Canada but there are many sites in the US. Radishes, wasabi mustard and arugula taste like intense versions of the big vegetable so if you like any of those vegetables the microgreens will taste the same. I bought lentils and chia seeds at whole foods and they shouted and grew nicely. Recently I just bought mustard seeds from the ethnic aisle at the grocery store and I will try to sprout them. After that I will sprout fenugreek ( very good for diabetes) from the ethnic aisle at the store Indian people call it methi. Good luck and you can ask me questions which I will try to answer.

Uh oh, worm runaways! I do sometimes find dead ones on the floor when I come down in the morning - I can't figure out if it's cuz the worms just wanted to get out or if they started to get out and then my cats decided they would be fun to play with. I usually feed them a bit of newspaper every time I give them juice pulp. And Squiggly, so cute! :D

I got mine from Costco online, but Uncle Jim's Worm Farm also has it, as does Amazon.

Love you, too! xo

Oh I know all about the benefits of having a house. We are still deciding if we want to move back to France, thus why we haven't committed to buying in America yet.

I usually don't have an issue with worms getting out. Sometimes worms will get near the cracks and one of my cats will somehow get it and play with it - and then I wake up to a dead worm on the carpet. But the worms don't just go for a frolic or anything!

@@crazykenz4203 thank you so much! In that case I might get one, I just have been weird about the worms inside the house but if that's the case, maybe I'll get one too! Lol thank you so much and Happy Thanksgiving! 🙏

Oh yeah, I very rarely have issues with worms escaping! My cats seem to not be super interested in the composter these days, but that could be because I currently only have one tray going - so there just aren't too many worms squirming around and making noise.

@@crazykenz4203 thank you! Awww lol that's so funny! I appreciate your reply very much you're very helpful! 🙏🙏🙏 Thank you

Thanks for the info! No chickens yet, but hopefully soon (I'm actually pretty sensitive to eggs these days...but I still want chickens because they are just so cute - and I want to get some of the fluffy varieties!). Worms are doing well and the garden seems to be doing ok - planning to film a garden update to post this weekend!

Wormies, is that anything like homies. Lol, what kind of veggies are you growing? Check out Larry Hall rain gutter grow system. Its been modified since it began, but it could be something that you might be interested in. I'm looking forward to your video. Keep up the good work : )

The wormies are totally my homies, lol! Oh I'm growing lots of stuff this year - tomatoes, beans, peas, carrots, four types of zucchini/summer squash, loofahs, butternut and spaghetti squash, radishes, greens, cabbages, kale, flowers - what am I missing?! Will look up that grow system, thanks for the recommendation!

Thanks for the info! I'm still pretty new with this worm situation (yes, I've had them over a year now, but haven't done loads of research - but they are still alive, so I must not be the worst worm mother!).

@@crazykenz4203 that you know of Uncle Jim, I'm sure you are fine now.

Gotta love Uncle Jim!

Thanks for all of the info!!!

Worms are totally badass!

Ooooh that's a really good idea! I've seen coffee shops that have signs for free coffee grounds - will have to get one sometime and add to my worms.

Hello, my composter is called the Hot Frog Living Composter and I ordered mine off of Costco (because I have a membership and because it was a lot cheaper there than other places). I've also seen it on Amazon and Uncle Jim's Worm Farm (I got my worms from Uncle Jim's and let me tell you, they are reproducing like mad!).

I think I found it on Costco for about $90 (I think it's about $120 on other sites).

Cathy, I watched your video on the Living Composter before I bought it - thanks for such an excellent video! I decided on this composter for now since I'm renting and was worried about making a mess with a DIY one (but once I have a house, you betcha I'm going to whip up some of my own composters!). I completely agree about worms being a huge role in the future of a great food system. I am still very new to this whole process, but plan on adding more videos once I have it figured out a bit more. I just started my second tray and also just got a five gallon bucket from my dad to put my finish compost in - can't wait for early spring so I can start some seeds! Do you have a seed company that you recommend? One of my winter projects is to plan and organize what I'll have on my two balconies for my garden!

I ordered it from Costco and think it was about $80 or $90, can't remember exactly. I have since ordered extra trays ($50 for two trays, ouch), but got those from Amazon.

#1 Thank you. :D . #2 - Nope, the compost doesn't really stink and the composter definitely keeps any weird smells inside the composter.

@@crazykenz4203 thanks for the answer :)

Yup, apparently worms will eat the bag and the tea leaves!

Just poke a hole in the tea bag so the worms/microbes get go in and get the tea. Tea bags are often made from synthetic fibers.

Good luck with your worms!

Sucks

When you start with this type of composter, you put the bedding and worms and food in the bottom tray, then eventually will put bedding and food into the top tray and they will migrate up there. I suppose if you wanted to, you could probably divide the worms up and put half in the top and half in the bottom - the instructions just said to put them in the lower tray, so that's what I did!

@@crazykenz4203 Thanks!

Thanks for all of the info, Leonard! Once we have moved out of our apartment, I will definitely be doing something like you suggest. I originally wanted to make my own worm bins, but decided to go for something more aesthetically pleasing to keep inside (everyone just thinks its a side table or stool or something I got for the cats to sit on while they watch the fish).

Kendra Lee I love the hot frog system. It’s so cute!! But in Canada it’s $150. I settled for totes from ikea, they come in pink and green. Good enough, but I would much rather have yours. It comes in purple

They seem to be fine now! The only time I've really had an issue with them crawling out was after I had been gone for about 12 days and they started to come out because they were hungry. All good with the worms these days!

If u put cardboard or cartoon bedding they won't come out