Store Fall Leaves for Worms in Fraction of the Space 

Love it, been using the Worx for 15 to 20 years. I set mine in a large kids pool to collect the leaves. I also shred paper, wet cardboard and wet cardboard egg flats. Fluff up packaged peat too.

You can save yourself a heap of money by easily making your own leaf shredder. All you need is a container such as a plastic barrel , garbage bin or even just a sturdy cardboard box. Fill halfway with leaves and then use a strimmer to shred the leaves. There's a guy on you tube showing how it's done. Look for - Brian Dow, how to leaf muching cheap and easy.

I do this but I use my riding lawn mower and bagger. I usually mow them, dump the bagger on the ground and spread the leaves out and then mow over them a second time. I have billions of leaves on my Georgia property! My worms love them!

How fun that Jude has his own worms.

Pro tip if you have access to a 55 gallon drum it sits nice on top of it.( If you pull off the legs.)

I have the same unit and have a couple of pieces of advice. You are correct to do it directly with no bag. It jams less often if there isn't material obstructing it below. I'd also recommend not putting it in at too fast a rate. It jams on the outside of the funnel area. On the positive side it bumps into the leaves repeatedly and shreds it even finer, on the negative side it shortens the line which exacerbates the issue. I made about 400 Cubic feet of it this year. I put it all down on billboard vinyl and sprayed it down with water. Hoping to do that again when feasible during the winter. (*I am outside Chicago) Using the dry shredded material as needed and plan to turn it quickly into leaf mold which should be even better for the bedding. btw, I have tried about everything for the line. from thin plastic covered braided wire to larger star shaped dimensions and it appears to me that the .65 round material like what came with the unit) I think that it might shred even better if the spindle was taller and had an upper line placement too but it would definitely void the warranty. ALSO Please be careful about jamming it full and placing bare hands in to push it down. There is nothing to protect you from line or twigs in the unit.

We could really use all the leaves you have, down here in Florida...as long as you keep the cold!! Excellent demo of your leaf pulverizing machine!! Great job 1st Mate Jude!!🪱🪱🪱

And here I was trying to shred leaves by drying them out and crunching them up by hand... Gotta love apartment composting! I'll have to get one of these once I get out of my tiny apartment situation. Looks handy!

I have several trees on my place and I use the lawnmower to grind the leaves. Thanks for sharing!

Hey Capt! I want to point out that you can put a collapsible bin that fits right under that Worx unit in fact Worx makes one but any of the other 30 gallon collapsible fabric bags would also work. I'm still mulching my oak leaves with the mower and/or the string trimmer. (I put leaves in 20 or 30 gallon garbage can and stick the string trimmer in and voila, shredded leaves.)

I do the same thing . Some I put in the outside compost pile and some for the worms. It's fantastic bedding and fluffs up the bedding . Great too if your bin is a tad bit wet. Thanks for sharing Capt. Matt and Jude 👍

Love to see product demonstrations by real people, thanks for sharing. I developed a leaf mulching method that works for me using a WORX blower adaptor for my leaf blower. The insert design simplifies the process of collecting and emptying a fully mulched trash can full of leaves. The mulching machine: I burned through 5 or 6 big box leaf blower/ mulchers before biting the bullet and getting an ECHO brand blower with steel impeller blades, a serviceable engine and a five-year consumer warranty. Best equipment purchase ever and I've used this blower for over 10 years now. The collector: The WORX mulch bag kit is simply a bonnet that fits the top of a common plastic garbage can and drawn tight with a drawstring. The bonnet has an input for the hose that is included, but I replaced it with a 4"x 20" standard grey dust collection hose. The other end of the hose is adapted to the leaf blower output (I had to use the ECHO leaf bag fitting as, sadly, the WORX "Universal" kit does not support the ECHO blower. The System: My mulcher is a blower/ mulcher connected to a hose that is connected to the bonnet. Here is how it come together: 1) Get 2 trash cans. 2) Cut off the top 18-24 inches of can #1 and set aside; the bottom will not be used here. 3) Attach the bonnet (with the dust collector hose) to the top of the cut can#1 using the drawstring. Can #1 is now an insert that slips into the can #2. 4) Slip the insert into Can #2 and you are ready to mulch some leaves. When the can (cans) are full, simply lift the insert out of Can #2 which can weigh as much as 40 lb. YOu can even put a black plastic trash bag into can #2 if you need to store leaves that way. I get roughly 12-15 to 1 reduction in volume. If the leaves really dry, maybe more. The blower/ vacuum can be handheld or placed on the ground (rake the leaves into the inlet) to collect leaves. It will accept leaves almost as fast as you can rake them in! This system works best with dry leaves and works very poorly with wet leaves (leaves become compacted and clog the hose). Given the spirit of Capt'n Matt's "Worm People" campaign, I wanted to share my method as I spent 10 seasons developing it. I have LOTS and LOTS of leaves to remove each fall.

I’ve been thinking about gettin one of those contraptions for my farm. Does make for a great bedding and carbon source. Thanks for your demonstration.

Well, OK, some situations would benefit from this machine but many worm people don't need it. I do use a lawn mower to get a reasonable grinding and it works for me. I have some acreage and lots of maples and poplar and fall leaf collection is a yearly fall operation for me. 20% or so I will use in fall/winter and 80% is for spring when things start to get interesting. I use lots of leaves for worm bedding along with other stuff like kelp, biochar, humic acid, crab meal, coffee grounds, azomite, old compost, newspaper, brown paper, cardboard, egg cartons, comfrey, eggshells, peat and insect frass. The idea is to get the bioactivity going but not get hot. The brew is thoroughly mixed with moisture and fluffed, and quantities are store separately so I can add bedding as needed throughout the year. If you get the biology going the worms will eat the bedding very fast so it's nice to have more to add when needed. Nothing really wrong with just paper, leaves, cardboard etc but trust me when I say a bioactive bedding is much better and the worms will love you for it. Most of the leaves I add are old and I keep some leaves in a tumbler to make leaf mold to add to my bedding brew. Of course, my situation is not your situation, so this is only a suggestion and not carved in stone.

My leaf blower doubles as a vacuum & bagger - and this year I held onto a few bags stuffed full of pulverized worm food too 👍🏻 Now the question is whether or not I can use it all up in a single year. As a point of reference, the 1 bag a put aside last year around this time is still not entirely used up. I might need to grow my worm farm to permit me to rise to the challenge :)

Hi Captain Matt. Thanks for sharing. A very useful piece of equipment. I'm sure the worms will love it. That's how it works in nature. I was just worried about your fingers when you were pushing the leaves down. I was just wondering Captain Matt, do we still feed the worms all the other goodies like vegetable scraps, the usual bedding, worm chow, etc.

I collect roadside leaves that are bagged and shred using a 6.5hp chipper/shredder from Harbor Freight. I started to get one like the Worx, but didn't want to be bothered with replacing the string. A couple of things I've learned is that if the leaves are damp (which they usually are in a plastic bag) the Worx will get stopped up. This is not a problem with the larger gas powered shredder. Also plastic roadside bags are often packed tightly. For me I get about a 2 to 1 reduction. Yes, they are finally chopped afterwards. Sometimes I run the leaves through twice to get a more uniform finished product. I blow onto a tarp and sweep up back into the same bags for storage until I get enough to either fill raised beds or build a compost pile.

Thank you for all the info i got my worms today watching all your videos all the way from south africa

That machine made short work on the 2 bags of leaves. Leaves are my preferred bedding for the worms. Unlike paper, the leaves have nutrients.

Have you had anyone ask you about adding biochar (at different graded (sizes) ratios) to your system? Say from biochar dust to 1” graded sizes. What do you suspect the positives and negatives could be? This could be a good video to do if you have information on this topic. I just found your site. I’ve watched a few of your video with your first mate👍 and I really enjoyed what I’ve seen. Thank You.

Excellent idea

I have the same exact shredder and I have something like 40/50 big bags of leaves to shred

Great idea!

Thanks Captain! I picked up one used but it was not effective. I’ll see if I can find one of these and try. Did you find the replacement of the nylon whip reasonably easy?

My wife has a horse business and all the manure available. What is your recommendation ratio of compost for bedding. (I know it needs to be aged, not fresh) We get some free wood chips but not often.

What about the spiders and other bugs in fresh leaves. The composting lady soaks hers in warm/hot water first to get rid of them. Then she crunches them. Do you just put them in straight from the ground?

Ummm...I just run over the leaves with the lawnmower with the bagger on, No new equipment to cost.

Where can I get this?

How come it doesn't mulch your hands as well?

“It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world” Darwin.

optimize the process: put unter the machine a bag... (like a miller) and the bags will be filled automaticly....

What is the name of the machine ?

❤👍

When you have lots of leaves what’s the max ratio for bedding? i.e. 50% leaves with 25% ea shredded paper and aged manure I was wondering what the max would be for them to be happy, in anyones experience. I’m currently using 1/3 leaves 1/3 shredded paper and 1/3 mix manure (rabbit, cow and sheep/goat. The people with the sheep and goats are moving so I’ll loose the source I just found and the cow is slow to breakdown during winter so I’ll run out very soon. Although I have a big supply of rabbit pellets, but that’s not great bedding if too much is used.

A tin garbage can and a weed eater will do the same thing without having to buy something else. I get a lot of leaves shredded in just a few minures.

Captain Matt I found this old brockwood sifter advertisement and thought it interesting from this model sifter to yours ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OPOEzUfHhR0.html