Below are some of the items I use for vermicomposting & my channel's videos. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you if you use these links. Thank you for supporting this channel! Worm Bins I use: Vermihut 5-Tray Worm Compost Bin amzn.to/3Xs1eGe Urban Worm Bag V2 amzn.to/3XE9QsT 20 Gallon Fabric Grow Pots amzn.to/3EBYhdr 3 gallon Rubbermaid Roughneck tote amzn.to/3eKDLhO Other Worm Bins: Worm Factory 360 3-Tray Version amzn.to/3AHnjqK Worm Factory 360 5-Tray Version amzn.to/3tYfWY4 Bus bins amzn.to/3fd8AvP Equipment I use: 12 Sheet Cross Cut Micro Shredder (I use it to shred cardboard) amzn.to/3xYZKYu Magic Bullet Small Blender (to pulverize egg shells) amzn.to/3gwEzb4 or amzn.to/42SQ4w9 (with extra coffee bean & nut blade) Indoor Outdoor Wireless Thermometer for worm bin amzn.to/3wIdXbO Additional thermometer sensors 433 MHz amzn.to/41juD7v Please make sure Thermometer & sensor are the same MHz Additional thermometer sensors 915MHz amzn.to/3WTFgua Please make sure Thermometer & sensor are the same MHz Wrigglebrew Worm Casting Tea amzn.to/46PhV2A Food Dehydrator amzn.to/3O5Uj2H Mosquito Dunks 6 pack amzn.to/3Oe4Sl0 granular amzn.to/42KDtM0 or 20 pack amzn.to/42Br4Kf Kitchen scale to weigh worms & food: amzn.to/3HnOQjg Blue gloves amzn.to/3XsBg5n Spray bottles to mist bedding amzn.to/3Fq23rN Digital handheld Thermometer amzn.to/3EWfC2j Compost Tea Bags amzn.to/3fCb5o1 Solar powered light amzn.to/3nOucAq Reusable Keurig Coffee K-cups amzn.to/3FNXvt6 Other useful equipment for worm farming: 5 stackable sifter with different sized mesh: amzn.to/3S2k184 Cameras & camera equipment I use: GoPro HERO11 amzn.to/3jkRpLa Flexible Tripod amzn.to/3CGTjcF Insta360 GO 2 camera amzn.to/3oxCc80 Insta360 One X2 camera amzn.to/3nqV6hp iPhone 13 Max Pro amzn.to/3nq52aU Canon EOS Rebel T8i amzn.to/3HcBuX6 4 Ocean bracelets I wear Multiple colors to chose from bracelets amzn.to/3HMbHEx Books on worms & worm farming Worms Eat My Garbage amzn.to/3L4FXN2 Where to buy worms: www.TheGardenAndWormLady.com
Hi Patrick and Autumn, cool dinosaur jack-o'-lantern! I'm so glad Autumn evolved on her willingness to have pumpkins in worm bins. That should send some nice juices down through those bottom layers. ~ Sandra
Yes, she has come around on a lot of things with regards to the worm bin...but she is used to gross craziness raising three boys😂🤣😂 The new old inoculating bin should get nice and juicy after this feeding for sure!! Thanks so much for watching, I hope you and Landon have a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!! Thanks so much for all your support this year!!🪱🪱🪱
😁 If your worms are alive and your food scraps are being eaten then you are doing it right!! I like to find ways to make things more efficient and faster when it comes to my worm castings production!! There are an infinite number of right ways to run this VermiHut and I like to try different things out until I find the best way for me and my worms. It is such a fun way to feed my garden and get free fertilizer!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Thank you Peggy!! We hope you have a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year as well!! It has been so much fun to watch your videos this year!! Thanks for stopping by!!🪱🪱🪱
Thanks for the shout out Patrick. I like the setup and your step by step procedure. I’m coming up on a year of running this system this way and it’s definitely one of my favorite worm systems. That was a good looking dinosaur 😁🪱🪱
👍 It's really fun to watch your Vemihut from the beginning with the weekly updates on your channel! I think you should buy one for your brother and get that extra tray back to expand the stack😂🤣😂 Thanks for stopping by to watch & thanks for all your support this year!!🪱🪱🪱
They always save it for last if I put it in whole! I love my castings conveyor belt worm tower!! Thanks for watching Ann, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!🪱🪱🪱
It took me a moment to see the dinosaur 😂, but its great once I saw it! I have a giant pumpkin we forgot about. The worms are gonna love it! Great demonstration Patrick. Have a Merry Christmas! 🪱🪱🪱🪱
Oh yeah, the worms are absolutely gonna love that pumpkin you have for them! It was really fun to watch them devour our Dino pumpkin and I can’t wait to put the full time lapse on the next VermiHut video! Thanks so much for all your support this year Ann, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!🪱🪱🪱
Awesome!! I'm so glad you found our video helpful!! You may have seen this start up video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-g5Sag75OAXY.html and my latest video which shows that I would add two dry inoculating trays under a new top feeding tray if I had to restart again: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZXdvqGa4X6s.html Thanks so much for taking the time to let us know you're enjoying our videos & of course thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
You got more castings in one harvest than we used all year 😂, awesomeness!! Welcome back!! Your card is on our tree !! Have an awesome Christmas you two !! Cheers J&C 🌱🤞👍🤜🤛🇨🇦🇺🇸🎄🎄🎄🎄
Guess I am a little slow, I never really understood worm towers until now, Thank You!!! For the last 4 years I have been just using totes and grow bags as bins, with decent results fortunately. My next worm journey is making a continuous flow through bin out of a 55 gal food grade barrel. I initially picked it up for a rain barrel, but that got voted down. Then, I thought I would cut it in half and end up with 2 large bins Like Nanna has. Decided against that because I love the 50 gal grow bags as bins. I saw an old video from Captain Matt, where he took a garbage can, the ones that are rectangular and are emptied by a truck, and turned it into a CFT bin. So today, I'm heading to The store to pick up some PVC pipe and a few bolts to put it together. Once I have help getting my channel back up, will post a video. Enjoy your videos! Have a beautiful Christmas! Stay Well!!!
I absolutely love my grow bag, worm bin! I’m so excited for you on your build of your new CFT that is gonna be epic! It will be neat to watch if we can get your channel back up and running! Merry Christmas and happy new year. Thanks so much for all your support this past year Brian!🪱🪱🪱
Hi Patrick and EP, Yet another great video. Perfectly explaining your method of how to use a worm tower. I too use your method as it makes logical and scientific sense. It seems, by the number of worm tower keepers using your method, that this is becoming the go to method. I have recently had a delivery of a second hand 6 tray Worm Factory (worm tower), into which I will split the contents of my existing tower with this one received to up the worm population, and production of castings. I do have a third one that I purchased with my first one, but haven't used yet. My plan is to have one with red wigglers, one with european knight crawlers, and one with a mix, then I can do some experiments between the bins. Looking forward to the rest of this time lapse video. Merry Christmas, have fun, Mark : )
Thank you Mark!! That is going to be a great set up for experiments with 3 worm towers and different types or mixes in each! I do like to compare my bins with just red wigglers versus the mixed ones. I probably should get my hands on some African Night Crawlers based on being so warm year around here in Florida. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you and yours!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Thanks!! It accelerated pretty quickly after this!! It is so cool to see them take something and turn it into nothing!! Thanks so much for watching Mikko!!🪱🪱🪱
Anyone starting out with a tower system should watch one of these great demos and adopt this approach to running their systems. I'm not sure if this is the management approach suggested by the manufacturer... but if it isn't it's hard to imagine that they could suggest a more logical method of running such a system :) Looking forward to seeing the finished time-lapse of the pumpkin being feasted on by the wormies 👍🏻
Thanks AV!! I appreciate the good words form everyone's favorite worm farming RU-vidr!! This is not the way the manufacturer suggests to run it, but it is so much easier and efficient than prepping bedding and just stacking on the top each time. The pumpkin went pretty quick after this short sneak peak!! And once again the egg shell grit was gone in 24-48 hours...just amazing how much they like that stuff!! Thanks so much for stopping by to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
Huh.... that's interesting. You would think that the manufacturers of such tower systems would observe/monitor the usage trends of their products & adopt methods that work well for their users (or maybe not)... :)
This is exactly the way I’ve run my towers, sometimes even adding wet casting from other systems and letting it dry out and for worms to migrate down. The way the bottom of these towers can get so wet, smelly and filled with worms, was such a turn off that I adopted this method years ago. It works good store dry bedding, it stopped the super wet sump, I quit finding a smelly mess and the active layer (after having been inoculated) gets processed in what feels record time. Also if I make a mistake in my active layer the worms have a nice place to slither off too. It’s been so darn cold up here in the Pacific Northwest, although the last few days unseasonably warm, that I haven’t needed to get into my own worm bins much so I’m binge watching all my favorite worm & law and crime channels! 🪱🪱🪱
I think I started with a little too much cardboard and coco coir so after 2 months i flipped the top 2 trays. I want them to work a bit of the material down in the starting tray then I'll flip them back. Under them i have 2 trays of just shredded cardboard. Smooth sailing. I even had the avocado seed sprout on me in the bin 🤣🤣
That sounds like a great plan!! Although I always say there is never such thing as too much bedding, sometimes when a bin is first started out it is too hard to see progress amongst all the new fresh bedding we start out with. I like to experiment with my trays and bins so I'm all up for testing things out and seeing how they work!! Let us know how it works out! Worm bins are amazing sprouting and seed starting machines!! Thanks again for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
You are THE guru of vermicomposting! My Vermihut seems to be doing well and seeing lots of worms. I have been worried about over-feeding, so I may be going on the lean side. (I do freeze and process their food.) My question is: If I am feeding one bin, in a 5-bin tower, will the population increase over several bins, and do they move up and down to get to the food? Also, I recently read a post on FB that cautioned coffee grounds are too "hot" and acidic, so they add garden lime to balance pH. I see that you use them pretty generously. How much do you think you add with a feeding? As always, grateful for any time you have to share insight!
Thank you for the kind words Mary!! If your worms have completely eaten all their fast food with just a little slow food left by the next checkin, then up the amount you give just a little bit, and see how they do with it. If you are feeding one tray (the top one) your worms will come up to eat it and go all around anywhere there is moisture eating the bedding as well. This video will help demonstrate just how many worms are in the pre-harvest tray (the one I have below the current top feeding tray) that formerly was the previous top feeding tray: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TfQgUwdMPrY.html Used coffee grounds are just fine, most of the acidity comes out when you brew the coffee. I also add egg shell grit that acts as a buffer for pH in my bin. But just like humans the acidity of foods going into our mouths is not the same as when it comes out the other end (thanks fully!!!) So there really is no natural food that I can think of...even a whole barrel or apples...that will "acid burn" the worms. Now overfeeding them by giving them a whole barrel of apples will cause fermentation and possibly ammonia which will "suffocate" them, but natural, non processed, or lightly processed foods such as coffee should be just fine in moderation. As for heat, yes, too many coffee grounds will heat up your bin due to their incredible surface area, so just sprinkle some on the top and keep adding more with each feeding until you start seeing some left overs then you will know how much they like. I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost Thanks. Your response came in as I was binge watching some of the videos I have missed. Thank you for all the work that goes into these.
So glad to have you back! Are you at all concerned that the bin is going to heat up with all that pumpkin? Or are you comfortable bc you're checking in on it daily? I'm surprised at how quickly it molded! Can't wait to see the official timelapse results
Thank you!! It's good to back from our trip to Brazil...it was a fun adventure! We ended up taking time lapses twice a day so we were able to check on it and make sure there was not too much heat. But yes, this is definitely an overfeeding situation if I had buried it and not allowed big bursts of oxygen in! I'm not sure if you have seen this video but I had a really bad overheating situation when my luck ran out on a huge feeding while my Air Conditioner broke in the middle of summer: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_fJNg0-1X6M.html It was so cool to see the worms form a temperature gradient circle around the food! Thanks so much for watching and for all your support this year Amber!!🪱🪱🪱
Hello Patrick! A new follower here and I've ordered my shredder and my Vermihut. I really like your system of having inoculating trays beneath the active trays. My question is, for setting up the very first time (I haven't even ordered the worms yet) should I start with one or two inoculating trays under the first active feeding tray? I think I will need to number the trays to make sure I keep track of where they are in the system!
Thank you so much for watching and Subscribing Margo!! You are gonna love your new VermiHut! Here is a video of setting it up if you haven't already seen it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-g5Sag75OAXY.html The only thing I would do differently is add an inoculating tray or two to the bottom. My son just set up a new VermiHut a couple of months ago and he put two inoculating trays on the bottom. This has been working out great so I would go with 2. You can almost think of the inoculating trays as a place to store your trays. After the first 60-90 days when you do your first rotation you can increase to 4 total trays on the VermiHut. I like to run mine with 4 trays so I have a spare tray to use as a sifter. Your VermiHut will come with a block of coco coir to use as bedding but you can just add shredded cardboard after the initial setup with each feeding. I'm super excited for you!! I suggest getting 1000-2000 worms to start off but 500 will work as well. The more worms you have the easier it is to know how much to feed them because you will see the food disappear and not be tempted to overfeed. Feel free to ask any questions in a comment to any of my videos! Thanks so much again for subscribing & watching!!🪱🪱🪱
I really enjoyed this video. I currently have two trays on my Vermihut indoor worm bin! I am thinking it might be time to add another tray. I am using your technique! I currently have 3 different bins. I CFT I purchased from Samantha Flowers. It is like the Urban worm bag. I really like it except the getting down on the floor to harvest. I purchased another one because it holds greater volume and you don’t have to worry about over watering. If anything, it dries out quicker if you’re not careful. I have a mortar tray like a lot of the wormers use. I just had to try it because you can do different techniques with it. With all that said, I am still trying to get things figured out do I don’t kill my worms. 🫢🫨 I was wondering, you use your have shredded cardboard that was basically brown. I’ve noticed that your cardboard is all different colors now. Can you share what type of boxes you shred? I have avoided the cereal boxes and many that have shiny surfaces. That’s a lot of boxes. We live in the country and so we can burn all our trash that can’t be composted. Merry Christmas to you and your precious family! Have a wonderful New Year!!
I'm so glad you're enjoying our videos!! With the VermiHut, if you want, you can put more trays of dry bedding than just the two inoculating trays I show almost like a place to store them. With a new VermiHut, as the trays progress, you'll eventually end up with 2-3 inoculating trays, a preharevst tray, and the top feeding tray. It sounds like you are really enjoying the CFTs...I love my Urban Worm Bag for the sheer volume of stuff I can put in it and all the castings that come out! My son (and we as well) shops at a grocery store where their cardboard boxes are color coded and he brings them to us to shred for his VermiHut and ours. The color side texture is the same as regular corrugated cardboard, not the shiny kind you find on cereal boxes. After doing a little research I discovered that the shiny cardboard is layered with a little coating of clay to make it shiny, so no harm to the garden, but I have found that it takes a long time to break down in a worm bin...so we can (and I have) use it in our bins, but I prefer not to! We had an acre of land when we lived in Valdosta, GA about 20 years ago and we loved our burn piles!! Thanks so much for watching!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!🪱🪱🪱
That was a very nice casting haul! Do you just use the castings in your garden, or what do you do with them since it seems like you have plenty coming in.
Great question!! I brew a lot of worm casting tea with them to water my garden & plant with...in fact I always have some brewing on a 48 hour cycle. I use the castings for my seed starter mix in a 20% ratio, I use them when I plant my seedlings in the ground and I use a lot of them when I refresh the soil in my grow bags. I also find myself giving some away throughout the year. Here is a video I made a while back explaining some of this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WMVNEk57ORs.html I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for the great question!! I should probably do a video about this in the new year. Thanks so much for watching Lisa & thanks for your support this year!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost Thanks for the great reply! I'm asking because I'm hoping to increase my casting production in the New Year, based on the things I've learned from your videos! Hope you and the Executive Producer have a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and productive casting New Year! :)
So if I bought a new tower, how many tiers would you recommend to start with? Obviously there would not be an old inoculation tray, so do I need to worry about that?
That is a great question! So on the very top, I would put a tray that you’re going to be feeding and it’s going to be your top active feeding tray. Next put an inoculating tray that just has dry bedding in it and that should be below the top feeding tray. You can even put another dry inoculating tray below that one to have a 3 tray system to start. After 60-90 days put one of the old inoculating trays on top and start feeding it and add another dry inoculating tray below for a 4 tray system. Now you should be able to rotate and harvest every 60 days! I hope that all made sense! Thanks so much for the great question and thanks for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Yes, it makes sense, I had to ask the question as no one out there really explains how to set up these tower systems from new. Appreciate your time.@@Vermicompost
Yes. The leachate that drains down there in a standard running worm tower or one that you purposefully add water to is great to use if you are able to take it out for garden use every couple of days before it goes anaerobic (like a standing smelly pond). Unfortunately I never know when or how much gathers down there to make sure I'm using it before it goes anaerobic (and unfit for the garden)...so I started rotating this way to allow any liquids to end up getting absorbed by the dry bedding in the lower trays where it stays aerated. I do brew worm tea constantly in a 4 gallon bucket with a fish tank aerator and I drench my garden and landscape with it. Here is a video you might have already seen about a visit I did to see some young entrepreneurs worm teas business: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Q-Lfcsx0xUM.html I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Please, I own 200 worms and I tried to create a cast production environment, but it turned into an environment of decomposed cardboard with a sticky consistency, suitable only for reproduction. How can I harvest cast that has a sandy texture
It sounds like you may need to try some techniques to dry things out. If you want the castings now, you can pluck the worms out individually like I did in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uH3xPs9T5s0.html then spread out the castings on a cookie sheet or other container that has a large surface area, and let them dry, mixing them around once or twice a day. If you need the castings within a week, then maybe put a little bit of food on one side of the bin and let the worms migrate to one side and then pull out the castings and dry them as I described above. If you don't need the castings anytime soon, I would suggest adding a bunch of dry shredded cardboard and mix it around to try to dry out the castings. In general, at the beginning of a worm bins life it does not retain moisture very well, after a few months, when there are more castings, a worm bin tends to retain moisture almost too much, so it is important to slow down the feedings and stop feeding really wet juicy food. Also, if you have a lid or put plastic on the top surface take that off about a month from harvest to try to dry things out. Then you may want to store them in a container that has lots of holes and no lid to help further dry them out...castings that are too dry will lack a lot of the microbiology that is great for plants so you may not want worm castings with a sandy texture, but more like brownie mix. I hope this helps! My Tiny Worm Bin playlist might have several videos that you find helpful: ru-vid.com/group/PLimznaPXKV09y9X94Q4aNpNzwUoLoVXug Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
I was so dejected when I saw they had gnawed on one of my trays...mostly because it was my fault for being lazy and leaving the tray outside😂🤣😂 Thanks for stopping by to watch!! I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas!!🪱🪱🪱
I use a 12 sheet cross cut micro shredder. Here is an Amazon affiliate link amzn.to/3xYZKYu It is awesome!! Mine is 4 years old and absolutely pulverizes corrugated cardboard. Whatever you end up getting, make sure it is at least 12 sheet ands is both "cross cut" and "micro" this is what will get you the tiny pieces you see me use! All the other equipment I use can be found in links in the description of all my videos as well as the pinned comment in every video! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
