Turning A Wicking Bed Into A Worm Farm, Nothing Else Like It
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- čas přidán 12. 07. 2018
- Hallsome farm practices sustainable farming methods, in this video we show how we convert a Wicking bed into a worm farm. Nothing else like it anywhere. This is a game changer now everyone can make their own worm farm for the garden
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I've found that the best way to check the water level on a self wicking tub, is an old cork on a small dowel. The cork goes down into the filler pipe. The dowel sticks out the top of the filler pipe. You can tell at a glance what the water level is in the bottom by looking at how much of the dowel is sticking out of the pipe.
Great idea! :)
@@martatustanowska4178 Unfortunately it wasn't my idea. I got the idea from a youtube channel, I think it was called LDSPrepper. He had a lot of good ideas.
Brilliant, why I love CZcams with the gardening community 🙏
Excellent idea. Dave's warter also.
I've done something similar in an old bathtub we had laying around. It wasn't a wicking bed with a false bottom though. But what I did was filled the bottom 5-6 inches with twigs and tree branches that would slowly break down but also provide better drainage and covered those with a layer of egg cartons and cardboard boxes flattened. Then I layered in my goat manure and old hay, kitchen scraps and weeds from the garden and wood mulch from the floor of the wood shed (tons of worms were already living in that and the bark helps keep them cool and moist) and covered everything with old newspaper and a piece of scrap plywood on top with a cinder block to keep out the raccoons from eating all my worms. I had it set on some blocks and a bin under the drain to catch the worm compost tea. That worm farm worked like a treat! Everything was recycled materials so it cost me zero to build. The worms I added were leftover bait worms from our fishing trips I'd toss in to start my colony since wild night crawlers are notorious for escaping lol.
Sounds perfect. .. I had no idea a worm bin would of interest to raccoons. Thx for your comment.
@@dreamingrightnow1174 in southwest Missouri we had quite a problem with raccoons and opossums eating all our worms and looking for food scraps if we didn't put a heavy cover on top of the worm farm. We also had armadillos that loved digging up the garden searching for worms and grumbs.
I'd recommend an upgrade suggested by VergePermaculture: Use drain tile pipe for the fill pipe. It's larger diameter and already has holes in it, so that makes it easy and fast to fill.
Awww let your dog join you and be a part of the family and the garden beds. They are a gift from God and its time people realize that
Everyone that disliked this must be getting paid off by Big Worm.
Thank you Mr Hall
I built a 3x5 x18 inches high. I did what you taught me and I must say that this bed works wonders. I have produce several gallons of vermi-compost in this wicking bed design. Happy growing
is incredible how people take they valueble time to teach other . I just want to let you know I m one of those people that realy apreciate what you do for us . I watch all your video love it
Thank you very kind of you to say. Thanks for watching
Hallsome Farm - thanks for the reply much appreciated.
ok i think what you are suggesting is that i take my watering can to the wormery and give it a gallon evenly spread over the surface.
I dont think that would hurt the worms. This is how i harvested worm tea with my 'can o worms' set up. However your ;tank o worms; is on a much bigger scale and i cant wait to get started with this new method.
Even the big worm farmers in Australia are going to be impressed with this discovery.
Thanks for sharing as this has given me a new lease of life.
Jordie0001 has
@@HallsomeFarm Okay so do you only get a 'bottle's worth' of Worm Tea because I'm thinking a tote that big (happened to have just brought one for storage) and the way Worms 'multiply' you would need a BIGGER item to catch the tea.
@@Ms.Byrd68 the run off isn’t all tea it’s good to put in the compost, mostly I use the castings as fertilizer
If you will lightly sand or scuff up where your painting your paint will stick alot better and last longer!
Or use the plastic spray paint - I redo my faded flower pots in coordinating colors instead of buying new - also protects from the sun in southern climes.
This is an amazing setup.I have 4 bathtubs that I use for raising worms and producing compost-I will start converting to this as I also do wicking beds.THANK YOU.
YAY! This is fabulous!!! I understood the importance of worm castings but haven’t tried “the warm farms”. I have been hesitant because they do look as though they take some particular attention. This is going to be world changing for me. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.!!!
Glad you are excited about raising worms
My son has been doing this method for years now with success, thankyou for sharing to people great gardening ideas with easy to understand instructions.
Thanks for watching
This was totally amazing to me. We've been using piles for composting....this would be a back saver for us!!
Using your measurements, I had to tap the fittings together to exactly reach the bottom with no room to spare. Nice to see it work out as intended!
Mr. Hall, thank you for sharing this.
Definitely, that will make my garden more productive and save me tons of money.
Thank you, Sir.
Thankyou so much for sharing your knowledge and experience! Really appreciate this and the fact that you’ve taken time make this and share. Gratitude from Australia:-)
Thank you so much for taking the time to share this. We have just put in 6 raised beds and are so excited to get these bins going to help. We are in the Pacific Northwest. Love your videos!
Thank you
Been wanting to do a worm farm.. this will be so easy to do! Thank you!
You're right. That is revolutionary!! Deep respect to you for sharing this one.
been checking a bunch of different builds, this is my fav video so far i think
Thanks
Currently buying materials right now! Going over your vid to double check, thank you!
Thank you so much for this very helpful tutorial. It's inspiring and I can't wait to do this. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. God bless you!
I just started my Vermicompost for my garden. You are inspiring and I love all your videos! Thank you for sharing your tricks and tips.
Thank you
Simply wonderful. I haven’t the space for something this size. However, I’ve got all the upcycled materials to make a 5 gallon bucket version. Thank you!
Great
Thank you so much for sharing your fantastic idea. This is a great project to do with kids - I have an 8 year old in my life who I hope will dig this.
Warmest regards
Jennie
I love this idea! Thanks for taking the time for sharing the details you have here!
Great video. Thanks for making it. Great info, it's on my todo list
Thank you so much for sharing, regards from Brazil !
My father in law dug a hole and laid an old refrigerator back side down in it and raised worms in it
So excited I found your channel. Thank you 😊
VERY INFORMATIVE.. I PLAN TO TRY MYSELF THX FOR TAKING THE TIME TO SHARE...
Very nice video!
Thanks for sharing! I shared it with my friend as we were just talking about wicking beds AND worms! What a timely blessing!
Great that’s why I make the videos
Do you think lava rocks would work? It's light weight and passed the vinegar test.
Also curious why you only drill holes in 1/2 the pipe in the bottom. Why not all the pipe in the bottom?
Fantastic information... Making plans for our 2021 Garden. Thank you for sharing your knowledge
Great video.
I am an avid user of wicking beds, and I have more food scraps than my chickens will eat.
I plan on using a derelict fridge for my wicking worm bed.
Thanks for sharing the knowledge.
or an old bath?
I have an old bathtub I can convert into a worm farm.Thanks for all of your good info. God bless you.
Thanks you too
New way to do the worm casting - EASY to do ! Anyone CAN do it who is a garden enthusiast ! Thanks
Thank you so much for an excellent video explaining all the steps. Now I am eager to get started.
Thanks you''ll need to let us know how it works for you.
Great instruction. Thanks for the help.
Awesome we will be doing this for sure,,Thanks for the info
Thank you, Bob. This is a wonderful idea. I'm grateful that I found your channel. I subscribed.
I'm so glad you made this video. I've been looking for videos on wicking beds because I made a vertical
worm farm out of 5 gal buckets. I didn't have a drain on it, so I put lava
rocks in the bottom bucket to keep them from drowning and noticed a couple of
weeks later that these tiny bugs formed in the rocks. Red wigglers won’t eat them,
but the earthworms will. So, that’s how I found your channel and I see that you
have a lot of other great videos. Thank you, I’m subbing.
Thank you for watching and commenting
I have heard that you can add corn meal and rolled oat cereals for a dryer feed for worms, along with kitchen
Scraps, for a balanced ph for your worm diet.
Thank you!!!! I will be settling one up for sure!
Thank you for sharing this awesome idea!
Thank you so much for this! I was wondering what to do with my old SIP’s!
Thank you so much for sharing this very helpful information.
What a great idea! Subbed, super glad I found your channel. I think I'm going to give it a try!
It has worked really well
thank you sir for this valuable information. just bought the bin and pcv pipes and fittings. waiting for spring to order the red wigglers...don't want them to freeze in transit. once again thank you.
This is great and you're a great instructor...Thanks
Appreciate that
i created a wicking bed in a 300 gal horse watering trough, with an overflow spigot on the bottom. and left it outside under a shade tree, with just dry leaf mulch over a food base of about 4 to 6 inches of coffee grounds, with topsoil and coir mix for bedding above the 4 inch water/rock and pipe base. I work in the oilfield so i was away from the system for months at a time, but it worked excellently, thru this past Texas summer. all the food was turned to castings, so now I need to clean it out and replace the casting with new bedding and food. I did get some black soldier fly larvae, which is great in a compost/chicken food respect, but not being there, it is causing a management problem with protecting the red worms, because the bsf larvae outcompete them for food that I put in there. my refill spout cover came off in the wind, and some frogs set up in my refill spout, so, shows its a healthy system, at least. I really like this system and want to expand it into grow beds with worms , to try and build a complete system for growing food, with a high water efficiency. as my property is heavy clay and sand stone soils, so they are going to need a lot of work to get them up to speed for growing anything besides the cedar and cactus that currently thrive there. I am also in a poor area for water, so water efficiency is of the highest concern, due to having to ship in or capture rainwater, for all my irrigation needs, right now.
Thanks Mike for the excellent informative video. I have learned a lot from you.
Thanks for the vid!!!! Going to start this now!!!
Thanks for sharing! Great video, will be doing this setup!
Great
You could sand around where the cap fits on to make a loose fit.
Sure
That’s interesting. I’ve always thought about doing something like that but that one looks easier thanks.
I have been vermicomposting in-ground for many years. But the hot Texas summers require a lot of watering from above, and my worm population decreased last year probably because they dried out too much. So I ordered 500 mixed red wigglers from Jim's Worm Farm and divided up half to the in-ground worm bed and half to an indoor two-layer worm bin. I figured I could access worms better indoors during the winter and just put thick mulch over the outdoor ones and they could munch on one or two feedings until spring. Hopefully they are good with that! I do check them every once in awhile. I think they dive down more outdoors than the indoor bin ones. Or maybe they gravitate to where I last piled some kitchen scraps. But it is true you have to water them outdoors more and not forget them especially in the summer. I like your big bin setup. I will consider that to replace the in-ground system should my in-ground ones decline again. I have just the right amount of shade so they won't get too hot. Thanks for the video! I loved all the details, especially about the pH-neutral rock test.
Thank you starting my first garden this spring , I have hens and compost the shavings I use in their run and coup but would also like to have worm castings .
I'm sure it's different depending on the climate, but here in the pacific northwest, I just dump grass clippings in a shady corner of my yard and the redworms show up, so I stock the box with them. The soil around those spots is great too.
Alot of great info in this! Thanks for sharing!
Sure thanks for watching
You look like a guy I worked with at rrisd.thanks for video good job on wicking worm beds I will give it a try.thanks again
I found this useful. Thanks to you and you're wife for the information. I'm going to build this in the spring of 2019, zone 7b, and zone 10 in the winter.
Great good luck and thanks for the feedback
love your videos. thanks for all the help.
Thank you
Great technique It would also work well using a broken chest freezer Which are cheap and insulated and white
Found your video and am amazed. Can you give me an update on any improvements, other lessons learned int the time since this was posted.
I live in East Texas where you can just pile up leaves and have worms . I think I will try that bin.
Great, I like your name
Such a great idea! Thanks for sharing this idea,
Would it be better to use Sphagnum moss instead of peat since sphagnum is ph neutral and peat is acidic?
This was an amazing video! Thank you.
Hope you make one
I absolutely love this idea, and will certainly try my hand at it. Yesterday, I stopped a fishing tackle and bought a few cans of red wigglers. I wasn't sure if I would do things properly. Once I can tell it's all working out, I'll convert to the wicking bin. Thanks so much. BUT, I do have a question: Did I miss how we collect the castings? I call myself rewatching a few times and never understood how to get the castings out for the garden.
Me too...same question.
He said to just add compost material to one side and collect dirt from the other side of the bin. He mentioned you will probably have a few worms in your scoop. Throw them back or into your garden. They will reproduce anyway.
Thank you for your kindness in sharing.
Do you put a top on the bin if it is going to rain?
No let it rain on the worms
Great Job on this video sir
Brilliant. I've been researching expensive purpose built wormaries which in the UK are around £70. So going to have a go at a smaller version of this (we are only a 2 person household with a tiny garden). I'll let you know how I get on. But just wanted to say thanks so much - easiest one I've seen so far and am feeling inspired.
Great, thanks for the post and yes let us know how it works out for you.
Awesome!! Thank you for sharing!! Will share!!
Thank you
Good video guys!
Thank you very much.its awesome
Thank you great plan.
What prevents this from freezing in the colder climates? excellent video, Thanks Bob and company
Great work, didn’t know the soil was that bad
I live in Austin and east of the Balconies Escarpment is clay soil you could make bricks out of and some limestone. West of that is dry rocky caliche. Both are very high pH but low fertility and low organic matter so soil is compacted and useless for growing veggies or even most flowers. More east of me is some good farmland with rich soil that used to be part of an inland sea back in dinosaur days. They just add water and boom they can grow so much more in-ground than here. I do best in my location using highly amended soil or raised beds or even big grow planters. But I only plant trees in the ground here and I make sure to yearly topdress with compost or vermicompost! I am blooming where I am planted!
Those weeds are sure growing in your backyard!!!
Great revolutionary idea , I live in a very dry part of Australia where summer days are well over
100 Fahrenheit ( or 45 deg)
I seem to cook my worms in every medium iv tried. This looks like the water below may help to regulate the temp above for worms.
It does and here in Texas we get over 100 as well, but shade is a must or they will get too hot ever with the wicking
Even, sorry spell check. Let me know how it goes for you.
Hallsome Farm today I received the clay balls to use in the bottom of Toat ( storage container) as the medium. I think I will make the fill pipe at same hight as Toat so can use lid to close it off. Will update as I go along this path.
Thanks again
Ps. Our summer temps have cooled down now but I notice ants are still a problem so I’ll need to set up a moat around the base.
The Naked Lumberjack any pics of your setup and is the cooling element still in operation ?
Bob
Wow Cooked my worms( 45 °Celsius =113 °Fahrenheit outside at present) in the
"Urban Worm Bag Worm Composting Bin" i had.
But luckly iv also a Toat (storage container) set up (your plan) which works a treat so im going to do another Toat (storage contaainer) worms are happy in the Toat it seems to keep much cooler in the hot summer than any method iv tryed. i do add a bottle of frozen water to the toat each day as a little treat for the worms. thanks
Wonder if you stuck a 6" PVC tube with drilled holes down in the middle of the tote and used that tube to put your food scraps and leaves into the tube the worms would come in and eat and then go out and poop in the soil. That would make the harvest just the liquid gold worm juice which is the stuff that is like super vitamins for your plants.
My daughter decided she wanted a warm Farm. She gathered her material list for a wooden structure (from the internet) and enlisted her father to help her build her starter Farm. We dug worms and populated the farm. It was a nightmare and all of the worms died and we more or less had an ant farm. My question is... Will ants be an issue in this type of setup? I don't want to invest another $100+ in something that will attract more ants.
BTW: I really liked your video so I shared is with friends. I'm so hoping that ants will not be a problem.
I had ant problems myself, but then I started blending up the food scraps before feeding the worms and the ant problem went away
Thank you very very very much
Glade you liked it, have fun with it.
I put a foam bowl of worm in the fridge after fishing one night and forgot about them for 3 months and wen opened up the lid it was packed with huge worms still alive!!!
Hey! I love your videos, everything is clear and simple. Just one thing, could you up the volume a bit? Even at the highest level I can't hear your loud enough. thanks!
I’m working on it thanks for the tip
I agreed. I’m having a difficult time hearing you in this video.
It can happen, what i do is have an amplifier external of my computer. There will be other people and other vids that can be hard to hear, but not with the external amp. But to be honest, this video is not that bad, i didn't even need to turn the amplifier on. But my desk top volume had to be on 100%(10).
@@TheRebelmanone trust me, when you don't have an amp and you got my laptop, it's pretty bad :)
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Just found your vids, great idea.
Thanks have fun making one
I am thinking about putting a plexiglass viewer in the side of the bin so I can see the water level better and just for fun.:) But Im going to try this on a smaller toe first,to see how it goes
Good luck
Awesome. Thanks. ✌️
Excellent thanks
Thks for this great video. I think I could do this!
Have fun
Thank you!
Great video
Thank you
Hi = l have been looking all over = Utube for the best way to produce worm castings = l could not come up with anything l was very happy with = And l did look at Dozens of different designs = Well Buddy l will have 2 of these bad boys built within a week = And from the looks of things l can do this from my garage = l live In MINNESOTA = and l have a heater that will keep them warm enough in the winter = l leave the THERMOSTAT ON 50 degrees anyways to keep my to HOTROD CARS warm and Cozy when the TEMPERATURES DROP = I REALLY WANT TO THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR WOUNDER IDEA WITH EVERYONE OUT HERE IN GARDENING LAND = THIS IS THE BEST THING I HAVE SEEN YET... LET US KNOW IF YOU FIND ANY ELSE THAT = CAN HELP MAKE LESS WORK FOR MY 60 YEAR OLD BACK = AND BEAT UP BODY = I WOULD APPRECIATE IT = THIS WAS MY FIRST TIME I SEEN YOUR CHANNEL = I AM NOW A SUBSCRIBER = GOD BLESS PAUL M.
Thank you Tracy for your kind words, I too have a 60 year old back and my channel is all about easier ways for us to garden. Glad to have you on board, a couple of days ago I published a video on how to harvest worm castings.
This is fantastic! Where do we get peat moss? You are an amazing gifted teacher. Thank you so much
I get it at the local nursery
Thanks for sharing.....
Thanks for watching
I halve Ben doing this for a good while it works really good
Good
Love your video. Thank you for sharing. Only wish I could make it work up here in northern Wisconsin where it gets 30 below in the winter time.
You would have to keep it in a barn or garage wrapped up. Also you could try adding a large amount of food scraps to one half of the tote to compost down and that will generate heat.
I keep my worms in a bin inside my house. I live in the Midwest.
i keep mine in the basement in michigan
Try surrounding your worm bin with straw or hay bales to act as insulation. Autumn leaves will also work - either in bags or piled loosely around and over the bin. Once the snow falls, cover the bin with snow - another great insulator.
Great, great,great. I use . Uncle Jim’s
Good stuff.
Thank you
Stupid question probably but I don’t understand how rock can wick moisture through the soil. The stone isn’t porous so wouldn’t the soil just dry out once the water falls below the top just a little? Seems like there should be a soil pocket, of sorts, that would let a portion of the soil always remain wet and therefore allow it to constantly wick. But you said that this has been working for you for 2 years so obviously it works. I just don’t understand how. Thank you so much for your time, energy and knowledge. It’s a true gift you are sharing. Keep up the great work! I’m hoping to make one of these with my 12 year old.
The surface tension of the rock wicks the water and the media in the tote will continue to wick up to 12”
They also absolutely love old jack-o-lanterns aka pumpkins.
Unless the county recyclinv center has free plastic bathtubs, this is the way to go.
Either way the procedures, pa
Planning and i.plimentation perfect. Thanks for sharing the best method possible!!!!!!!