The Fastest Way to Harvest Compost Worms and Castings- DIY Worm Compost Bin
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- čas přidán 10. 09. 2024
- / @plantobsessed The Fastest Way to Harvest Compost Worms and Castings- DIY worm bin
Plant Obsessed Merch here -- www.spreadshir...
This bin is x3 ten-gallon totes I purchased at a big box store for about 7$ USD each. Today we get them harvested and restart the bin. They are the uncle Jim mix of red wigglers, blue worms and European night crawlers. To make the stack of 3 10 g/38l bin I placed ½ in (13mm) air holes in the sides of the totes and holes in the bottom of the top 2 layers for the worms and liquid to move throughout the bin. I drilled half inch holes and covered them with screen on the top layer upper walls. The middle layer has smaller holes. The lowest layer does not have holes in it. The middle layer of the worm bin has 1 sixteenth inch holes (3mm) drilled in the bottom. This layer was meant to only drain off liquid from overly wet food. The worms had their own plan and demanded I place bedding down there. I did and we have lived happily ever after. The top layer has 1 quarter inch holes drilled in the bottom to allow the worms to migrate down or up. This bin needs harvested about every 5 or 6 months.
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I am old lady who recently began worm farming. I hark back to the times in my life when I have had to not hover and to “let go”. When I brought my first child home and watched to make sure that she was breathing, then off to day care and kindergarten sitting in my car and watching just beyond the fence to see my child come outside and play at recess. Then off to college and the worry associated with it. So, at 80 years old I set up my first bin and it was so hard not to constantly peek and finger around. But as with my child, they are doing well. Thanks for the great education I have gotten from you. Mary
Lol I was really bad in the beginning with my child and my worms. It is a mom thing I think 🤔
New viewer here that found you while exploring the worm world. I enjoy your delivery and calm clear voice. You are an excellent narrator. Thanks for the videos !
Thank you for the kind words 🙏☺️🪱👍🏼
New to your channel. I have had my red wigglers for about two months and I'm anxious to learn from you. I'm a newbie (at 75). Thanks and I really like the time lapes. Blessing from San Diego.
Welcome to my worm family. Thank you for watching 😃
Hi Susi good to see those in their 70's. I am 73 started worm farming Jan this year. Hope you well.
You can tell she loves getting her hands in there.
Yes I do! It is a sort of therapy for me.
I like the funky tunes during the harvest part also lol, very smooth hahaha
Thank you 😊
I love when the worms make that sound lol, that’s funny
They are awesome 😎
Love the stop and go time lapse as you harvested!! It is always so amazing to have that huge ball of worms at the end!! Fantastic video!!🪱🪱🪱
There was probably another half pound in the super wet casting that blue will get to have custody of. Thank you for watching 😃
The way we do it with light this way, we do it in a long volcano type mound so long and high t instead of round and high.
That way as you scrape from the top and the sides the go down into a long line.
Good idea. I'll try that next time. 😀🪱👍🏼
Thanks for the thorough explanation. Can’t wait to harvest my castings!
Thank you for watching 😃
Thanks for the video.
I've kept Red Wigglers for years in a three-tray shop-bought worm farm and free-standing garden compost bins, and never thought until recently how to make it all work. I've now started watching your videos and some others, and like magic I've now got a gazillion happy worms, lots of worm tea fertiliser from the worm farm, harvestable castings, and excess worms to share with other worm herders.
I've even started a second worm family of European Night Crawlers which are intended to come fishing with me now that I'm retired.
I'm interested to see how I go with sifting cocoons and worms out of finished bedding. I think I'm going to be ok with everything else but that idea is newest to me.
Cheers from South Australia.
I'm glad everything is going well.
You're doing a great job
Thank you 😊
You're very welcome 😁
Recently found your channel because I started worm bins about a year ago with a couple packs of fish bait red wiggles... enjoying your knowledge thanks for sharing!
You are welcome. I learn as much from my viewers. Cheers,😊
Wow look at all those worms, very jealous. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for watching 😃
Oh... I luv this method... I play with the castings ...so nice to feeeel n touch. And then there's quite a worm ball. He he
That is the big bonus I get to see all the worm family in a reunion. 😁
I think the squishing sound of the worms sounds like rice krispies
I think so too. 👍🏼😁🪱
I have one of these DIY bins with Euros and one with Red Wigglers . I love it . I got the idea from you and maybe you remember me asking all kinds of questions before I started mine . Thank you for the info and the inspiration .
Oh and What a worm ball !!!!
I love answering questions to help people in their worm journey. Thank you 😌
I just harvested a lot too used it for my jalapeños pepper tomatoes plants.
I don't know what I did before worm castings? They do amazing work.
I used to use miracle grow and mushroom compost and manure now I'm a worm momma......lol 😆
Excellent demo 👍🏻 Fun system 👍🏻 Beautiful results
Thank you. 👍
Amazing video Ann - I hope you do well!
Thank you 😁
I use a paint brush at the very end and to get the tiny worms off my surfaces at the end. I don't mind castings on my hands but I do sell my extra worms as I breed for spring and summer and sell those.i use a paint brush so people don't pay for castings. I go from 14 systems to 29 by spring. Now down to 17. It's my side hustle. Because there are no local sources here so I try to help in my small way.
Nice. I'm sure most professional worm sellers try to keep the casting to a minimum. I have started to bag casting to sell at a plant sale this month. I'll see how it goes.
@@PlantObsessed hope you get all the sales and trades you want! How's your husband doing now? Well I hope! Virtual hugs!
@@ontherocksinthesoilmichael6739 he is all better. I left with more plants lol didn't sell any worm bins. I gave one worm bin away. Fellow CZcamsr was doing a live show.
I keep my worms in commercially sourced worm towers, which stack vertically. To harvest, I take the bin I want and put it on the very top and then put a strong light above it and leave it for 20 minutes or so. All the worms go to the bottom and when they get to the bottom, the bottom is actually a lattice work of holes and they just go through the holes and wind up in the next tray. After 20 or 30 minutes, I take the entire top tray and dump it out and there're no worms in it. All I have left is castings and cocoons and sometimes little bits of food and that's it.
It makes harvesting castings much easier that way and the worms actually do all the work. All I do is hide and watch.
Lol I love the hide and watch part. I keep thinking about getting one of the towers.
That sounds like a brilliant way to migrate and harvest. I always thought you had to migrate upwards to a new bin, but this way of doing it sounds so much more natural as worms like to hang out where it’s moist and the microbes are aplenty. I’ll definitely try this method when it’s time for me to migrate my worms and harvest
You mentioned that you had tons of worm cocoons in the mix. So the cocoons were left behind with the castings, right? Are you going to try to retrieve them at all?
I will sift the castings and keep the overs. Most of the cocoons will be in that part.
worm burrito, that's cute and like when AJ says he packs a lunch for them. this is good for me to watch; i was thinking of quitting the whole hobby It's just too easy to forget about. I am getting praised from my "Customers" (ha that's rich, so are my castings!), about how their plants are doing. They nice ladies at work save the celery stacks and broccoli for the salads. Looks a little wet. Seriously, I can hear them when I zip open the Vermi bag Mammoth. The hobby makes me feel like I ate paint chips as a kid. lol Don't get worm religion on us now Brian, you're too far down the road! haha Always enjoy your work,
and videos! Cheers.
Yes I am sometimes i feel like I'm a weirdo but I always was a science nerd. I have a new job and many people don't know about my worms or my channel. Keep at it we are saving the world one worm at a time.
@@PlantObsessed uh oh! Just say your a General Biologist. With the confusion that is America, You'll be Great!
Love This.
Thank you!!
So… I wondered what that noise from the basement was that woke me up the other night. I will try to make a noise suppression system for those little wigglers 😂😂😂👍🏻
On a serious note ,
I’m not promoting the use of vaccines , that is a persons’ own choice , I was lucky that I did get vaccinated for Covid 19 . I was in Italy where Covid 19 had caused almost 200k deaths and almost 20 million cases reported , even after being vaccinated this virus mutated in Italy and I caught this strain . I have a compromised immune system due to my cancer and I want to live and be a pain in my wife’s backside , I am not taking any needless chances to let some virus to take me down . That could have ended differently had I not been vaccinated, and yes it was my choice to be vaccinated and thank goodness I did .
If you can't hear me in the same room I don't think our worm babies are keeping you up. lol also yes good job keeping my executive produce and engineer healthy.
I was just going to ask what you did with the long-term food and the chunky bits! You definitely would have found it in your cleanup. What a bonanza of a harvest, Ann.
~ Sandra
Lol I and a dingbat sometimes.
You had mentioned that you would further process the castings. I looked for this vid and could not find it. Can you share this for me, please? I’m going to build a three bucket system for a one dude house tomorrow and need to find some worms also for myself.
I usually light harvest when the castings are too wet to sift. After they dry enough I use a quarter inch /6 mm sieve. That way the chunks and seeds don't get into my garden. There may not be a dedicated video. Most of the recent 55 Gallon worm bin videos show me sift the dry castings.
Thanks for showing the harvesting and reset of the DIY bin. How many worms did you start with in this system?
I usually restart it with 2 or 3 pounds.
Just got mine on Saturday half pound to start and she gave me tones of dirt with wisps and cacoons
That is good you have the next few generations ready to roll. Good luck worming!🪱👍🏼
Most of my worms are uncle Jim’s mix. What was that last type of worm you mentioned? The darker ones?
The dark ones are likely blue worms. they do the same job but they are not ever going to be good sized fishing worms. They are also cold sensitive so they do get slow in the winter here. Thank you for watching.
My worms never eat the avocado shells no matter how long they are in there. I end up having to break them up myself. Are yours the same?
My worms all get around to it after about 4 or 5 months. I think the other bin critters like spring tail and mites help.
I just drowned my worm bin by accident.
I placed my new worm bin under my quail cages thinking the rain wouldn't get in the bin. But I was wrong. Have rescued most of the worms.
Yes that happened to my lasagna bin. It is Recovering. Good luck getting your bin to recover too.
How long did this process take and what was the bedding composed of?
It takes about 45 minutes. The bedding is made out of cardboard and coco coir.👍🏼🪱🙂
@@PlantObsessed thank you for the answer. My question though is how long did the process of turning the food scraps to castings take.
@@ryanhildebrand9868 for shredded cardboard bedding it takes about 4 months on average in an established worm bin ecosystem. In warm months it can go faster. In a new system it could take 6 months. 👍🏼🪱🙂
@@PlantObsessed thank you
Awesome.
Thank you😁😁
For a single bin the Light separation is always the fastest way
Well if I had a big cool indoor trommel that would be fast too😁
@@PlantObsessed LOL, yes of course
Why go through all that work, when you can buy a high quality large worm casting bag for very little money, compared to many other gardening products? No to mention that it takes a lot of knowledge and time to be able to produce the same high quality as some of these top manufacturers.
To each his/her own I guess.
Thank you for watching
@@PlantObsessed
I didn't know you would be getting upset.
@@lev2727 lol not mad. It is a worm channel
It does take time and effort to practice vermicimposting. I live in a cold climate where it’s simply not practical to compost during the winter. My worm setup allows me to compost my food scraps and excess paper ( cardboard and junk mail) without going into the landfill.