Great demo of the moisture level with squeezing the castings together and then showing how easy they crumble!! I love this DIY worm tower!! So much great information in this video!! Awesome job Ann!! Now I know why I am starting to get gray hair...I must have been worrying about pH😂🤣😂 I give this as many muddy thumbs up as I'm allowed to give for one video!!🪱🪱🪱
My bin temp is around 35 °C atm. I was worried it'd be too warm but they are absolutely chomping through food. Massive feeds are gone in days. Keeping an eye on things but so far they're happy. They went down to about -10 °C in winter too. Red wrigglers are the best!
That is an interesting observation. I don't however consider them invasive. I think of them as part of the ecosystem now. They seem to pop up when the conditions are right then disappear.
@@PlantObsessed I had a bunch of them in there. I'm often finding them riding on the wigglers. I've rebedded the wigglers with some calcium carbonate and keeping it dryer. I'm looking to increase my numbers so I'd like to run it wetter. I'll keep increasing moisture and see how it goes. Invasive may not be the right word. I'm bringing them in since my bedding is made with wood chip compost.
I've found that when my bins are "at population capacity" that I have a big drop in cocoons regardless of how ideal the moisture and temp is. Have you not noticed the same? I saw some text fly by that implied that you have too many worms and they just keep breeding. What do you consider too much for a population? I give away worms to friends, go fishing, or feed them to my chickens when I stop noticing cocoons. Dropping the population down suddenly brings the coccoons and more voracious baby worms back for me.
I 100% agree . They quit having cocoons when the population is large. I just gave away about 2 pounds this week so fingers crossed the population bounces back and the worms get bigger.
Question: We use a lot of butter in our veg prep, ie. broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, etc - would those leftovers be problematic for the worm bin due to the butter and seasonings?
I am willing to say they are likely called pot worms. They seems to show up when there is a bit too much food. They are not harmful also not fly larvae. I have a microscope series play list that shows them up close. :)
I live in St. Louis and my worm bin is outside do I need to worry about the heat in the summer? Also if I leave them outside for the winter will the worm survive, or do I need to bring them inside?
I would make sure they are in the shade. Make sure it has good moisture. Red wigglers should have no problem surviving a STL winter. They won't eat much but they will survive.
The literature I have read only mentioned them on passing. It is interesting that they only seem to show up when there is a glut of food and then disappear again in my bins.
So their eggs are in the bedding or food, our bins get overly moist or warm, they hatch, feed, mate, lay eggs and die? Until the conditions are right once again?
Have you ever observed that the worms seem to process through everything faster at higher moisture levels, or is that just me? In my head it sort of works out that both the microbes and the worms work better in higher moisture bins, and in practice I am observing it play out that way in my own bins... But could be observer bias. 🤷♀
Ok. Timely information to this newbie. I'm in S. W. Florida and the moisture level on top is very high but it's not overly damp, still makes the normal squeeky, squishy sound. My worms are fast eaters
