My daughter is doing her science fair project on vermicomposting. This timelapse video helped her decide. She is doing it on a smaller scale, no time lapse, but she did layer her material with the hopes that her before and after pictures will show the worms mixing the layers.
Just found this today. What a great way to show people what it is the worms do, and how important they are. Just one reason why I am so glad to have them for my household waste, and have compost piles in our yard. Thank you for sharing this. Have a great today! Catherine
Don't release them into forests. American forests in the east have no native worms and the presence of worms destroys mycorrhiza fungi as well as removing the primary rooting layer of most trees-this causes sapling mortality and slow tree growth. Very bad for the beautiful and tall trees of the USA!!!
This video made me buy a bag of 500 red worms from Uncle Jim's, and they are now happily gorging themselves in my composter...just finishing off the Halloween pumpkins!
since vermicomposting doesn't reach the high internal temperatures found in traditional compost piles, it wont kill the pathogens manure may have, so only plant material is recommended for vermicomposting. Although if it's very aged dung and composted at high temperatures, the pathogens should have died already. So I say use your own judgement. The compost serves mainly to provide the worms with a refuge with safe ph levels and kickstart bacterial growth. If you don't wan't to risk getting any pathogens in your pile, you can use coconut fiber instead of compost as ph friendly refuge, the worms will eat that too. Eventually the bacteria decomposing the green material will colonize the pile thanks to the aeration provided by the worms, but it will take a little longer.
That is true but in the worms intestine there are enzymes and MO that help kill off some of the pathogens also there are some other processes of pathogen reduction happening in the process of vermicomposting. This has been scientifically proven but one should still use caution because it was proven for only some types of pathogens.
I bought worms from the same guy. I bought like 25 and they multiplied so fast! Now im worried they will starve to death and winter is hitting. Gonna relayer the bin and stock it with garden crap and hope that they are happy through the winter. I even added a good bunch to the base of my compost pile hoping they thrive their through the winter. Its a pretty good size compost pile.
I am 69 and I think back, all the time I was struggling to build a business, raise a family, working, playing, vacationing, and all the while little worms were making my earth healthier, more fertile, and they never stressed out like I did a few times. They never lost sleep like I did a few times. These little fellows make you stop and think!
Don't release them into forests. American forests in the east have no native worms and the presence of worms destroys mycorrhiza fungi as well as removing the primary rooting layer of most trees-this causes sapling mortality and slow tree growth. Very bad for the beautiful and tall trees of the USA!!!
I LOVE THESE FRICKIN WORMS! I mean, they are so amazing for what they can do! Such hard little workers.. and while they are busy turning compost into gold, they are also making making laying tons of eggs( from which little near-microscopic babies will hatch). I’m so happy I have my worms:) I’m doing my part for the planet and that feels great!
They dont stress out over what someone else thinks or says, they dont stress out over what to wear to church Sunday. We could learn a lot from these guys!
Don't release them into forests. American forests in the east have no native worms and the presence of worms destroys mycorrhiza fungi as well as removing the primary rooting layer of most trees-this causes sapling mortality and slow tree growth. Very bad for the beautiful and tall trees of the USA!!!
That was so Cool, Thank You! I always wondered what happens to my worm bin when I lightly water it, and now I know; I saw quite a few venture towards the top after you watered it, very interesting.
We have a mantis barrel composter, 55 gallon. I added red worms about 5 years ago and they eat their fill and break down our food scrapes, leaves, and grass. When we spread the finished compost in our gardens, the worms are spread with the compost and aerate our garden beds. We have never run out of worms!
Interesting the see how earthworm living manage it's good to see where my earthworm castings come from it's a dream material for helping mushrooms grow
Congratulations Gregor for the video! One question: I thought the worms don't like the light but seems in the video that they don't mind it... can you please explain?
My guess is that the light was only turned on for an instant at the time the photo was taken. If you watch how BBC creates time-lapse films for David Attenborough productions you'll see them run a greenhouse with fans blowing the leaves etc, but a couple of times a day the fans are stopped and photographers flashes are automatically fired when the images are taken.
There are three typs of earthworms, surface ones, who stay horizontaly in the first centimeters of soll, and who tolerate light, transitional ones, who migrate verticaly between soil profils, who also tolerate light, and deep soil ones, who are working horizontaly a bit deeper and don't like light at all. I'm speaking here about soft day light, and of course not about sun light! Some of them are more than 2 meters long! Sorry for my strange english.
hello, how is it possible to see the worms, even with the lights on? don't they retreat? or is it most of the time dark and only bright when the pictures are taken? i'd like to try this by myself 🤗
As expected, the grass clippings were still sitting on top, after 20 days. Also, "sawdust"? What kind of sawdust? Was it treated with formaldehyde? Oil? I've been composting with red worms for years. Almost ALL videos and other online information is greatly lacking.
Hey Happytime? Harry, untreated spruce sawdust that was. I am avare of missing information and trying to fill in the gaps here in the comment section. About the top layer I believe it was just getting too dry for some serious degradation (microbial activity) and consumption by worms.
A friend told me to put red worms in my compost. What if I just let it break down without worms? Will it just take longer to compost? A few people told me to put worms in it but I figured the worms would naturally get into it.
