Main thing for any newbie using this bucket worm bin (and I assume most people using this bin method will be newbies) Is that feeding must be "vertical" and not in horizontal layers. The reason is because when the bin is so deep relative to the horizontal surface area, the temptation is to simply feed the worms by simply tossing food into the bin. The problem is that the fresh food will cover the entire surface and as it decays the aerobic bacteria will consume all the oxygen at the surface which will suffocate the worms which also need oxygen to breathe. The solution is to carefully dig a hole in the bedding along the wall and carefully put all the food in that hole, then cover it up. That way, the food will take up at most a few square inches of surface area so that the worms have the rest to come to the surface to breathe. Hope this saves a number of catastrophes where people will suddenly find their entire worm herd dead.
I have many (FREE) frosting buckets from the Bakery Dept from WalMart used as a container garden. & now a worm bin!! (Once I finish your other videos using my compost) **** I really wanted to let people know they may be able to get FREE frosting buckets and recycle instead of sending to landfills!**** Especially people those in small spaces.
They sell it at Walmart here for a $1.00 and I’m going to use it on my flower bed to protect my base foundation from termites cuz it gets soak with water. I don’t know if my husband will like the appearance of the house outside with all the white buckets on the side of the house 😬😬😬😳😊👩🌾👩🌾 I’m sure he doesn’t like it. Oh well, I asked for a big yard not a cemented pool around 🙄
some folks had questions on how to separate the worms from the castings. i spread out all of the castings on a large empty plastic bag. if you cover one half of the spread out castings to keep it dark and cool, the worms in the sunny half will move over to the covered half! collect the part that they vacated, you can repeat until you have collected as much of the castings as you want. there may be a few rebels that won't move, but they are easy to pick out by hand. it works because worms that are exposed to light are vulnerable to drying out and to predators!
I think I need to try this big screen circle on the bottom bucket trick because I do get them in the bottom bin. They do climb up the walls sometime and survive. I also recommend drilling a lot of holes at the top of the water catching bucket because otherwise the section that you can't get the bins apart it's horrible. I also took extra buckets cut off the rims and drilled holes in it to make a spacer between my water bucket and my bottom warm bucket again because I could not get the bins apart myself and my husband could barely get the bins apart with me
Thanks! I'm making mine today, all I need is to pick up the glue. I have 3 buckets. I'm going to add a screened bottom bucket in between so that it can catch castings and worms from falling into the composting tea.
With 1k+ views somebody has probably already mentioned just rubberbanding a piece of screen to the bottom. I've tried a lot of worm bins in the past but as the wife of a painter, I ❤️ this recycling project! 👍😉
Thanks Cheri. In another build I added a circle of screen on the inside of the bucket. It helped reduce the number of worms in the bottom bucket. Thanks for watching. Happy recycling. :-)
GreenShortz DIY, another thing that you might suggest is a flip top bait lid for a 5 gallon bucket. I found one at Academy for only $1 more than a traditional lid and not only is it easier to remove but flipping the center shoot is great for adding kitchen scraps.
+Wazoo123 Hey Wazoo! I did a little more research on the compost tea dilution question you raised. I saw different things...as you can expect on the internet. :-) I saw everything from "no need to dilute" to the 1:10 ratio that you mentioned. I also saw a recommendation to use the 1:10 ratio as a "maximum dilution" indicating that there are multiple options in between. I usually have diluted mine 1:1 with rain water just to get more liquid to use on plants and shrubs. I've never had a problem with my plants. You might consider testing your worm tea with different dilution ratios to see what works best. Let me know what you find.
Hey just a thought, but it may be easier and use less caulk if you cut a single 3.5" hole in the center of the lid, it has the same area as the sum of all of the smaller holes, and would only require one piece of mesh, so you would be saving more mesh as well (factoring for less loss due to the overhang into the silicone area. I also believe it may be easier to do for free since you could trace a single circle and easily cut it with an exacto knife or something similar) Sweet video, Love everything about it!
I know this is an older video... but good job none-the-less. Great call on the Uncle Jim's worms... just got my first batch in this week. Now, working on my worm towers - also courtesy of Green Shortz. Keep it up - I'm loving the knowledge! :D
OK Mr. Greenshorts, I've made me a bucket system and my worms just arrived from Uncle Jim's worm farm. Wish me luck. If this works as planned, I'll be making a tote system in the spring. Then on to the bottom harvester system next fall. Thanks for the great videos. Keep 'em coming...
GreenShortz DIY ok, so here is an update. I had great success with the bucket, so I decided to make the tote. The tote took off so good, I’ve actually made three others for friends. I ordered a small bag of worms from Uncle Jim’s and they multiplied like crazy. From the small bag, I’ve been able to populate all four totes in a little over a year and a half. This has been a real fun and educational project. Because I’ve been sharing with my friends, I haven’t really had any castings to put in my garden. I haven’t built the flow through system yet. That’s still in the list. Thanks again for the videos Mr. Greenshorts. And for anybody interested, there are many groups on Facebook dedicated to vermiculture. There are people from all over the world sharing their knowledge and experiences with worms.
Thanks, this is great. Minor change I'll probably make; Instead of using screen on the bottom of the pail, I'm probably going to just make more smaller holes.
I'm a little confused, both by the video, and your comment. He didn't use screen on the bottom of the bucket, he just drilled holes there. He used screen on the lid. So, that's why I'm a little confused about your comment. The reason why I'm a little confused about the video, is because I would think that you would run into curious worms crawling through those holes and drowning in the liquid. I could be wrong about that though, they may not like that sensation of burrowing down only to discover they are entering a pocket of open air.
Buckets for FREE! Go to the baking section at ur grocery store and ask them if they have buckets to recycle. that’s what icing, etc comes in. 5 gallon tall or squat! Food grade too!
Ok, I know I'm four years late. I also get free buckets from bakery departments. My best resources in southwest Ohio have been Meijer and Sam's Club bakeries. For the screen, I buy cheap round spatter screens in the kitchen section at Dollar Tree. I have a step-bit, bought with a coupon from Harbor Freight, which eliminates changing bits.
Usually, if your Kroger has a bakery section where they make cakes they get their frosting in big buckets if you ask nicely they will give the empty buckets to you.
Large flower pots on a deep tray works well too for worm bin. I make compost tea in 5 gal buckets from veggie clippings. Just add water and keep covered for 3- 5 days, depending on climate. Strain liquid and there is your fertilizer.
Nice video! Add another bucket with holes at bottom with some food to greet them and worms go up there instead of down to drown...they're done n want to move out.
Thanks for the feedback. The problem with is a third bucket is that the wormed will crawl up the side of the list bucket and get trapped. The way to avoid this is to drill holes in the sides of the inner bucket where it meets the top bucket. This will give the worms a path in when they can’t go up any further (in theory). I’ve thought about this, but haven’t tried it. Let me know if it works for you. Thanks for watching.
Could you use garden rock in the bottom of the worm tea bucket to allow the compost bucket to sit higher and add weighted stability to the system? Just pour the “tea” off the rocks and reuse? Thoughts? Hope to make one of these today. I have all the materials on hand. Also, can I use the compost from my compost bin or do you advise ordering the compost starter from a Uncle Jim’s? Thanks for the video.
Great idea.Di you put holes on the bottom of the other bucket?I I didn't see you put any but I saw the one you put on top.Thanks for sharing.I appreciate it very much.
@@GreenShortzDIY Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it.Usually. I get a thumbs up or a ❤ and left with no answer. So I get left in the dark.So thank you again very much appreciated.
@@lydvincecruz824 I can't answer all the comments, of course, but try to do so as much as possible for good questions. Especially when I sense people are wanting to do projects. 🙂
Hi! Have you ever tried this with 3 buckets? I read that if you start another bucket on top when the castings are finished in the 2nd bucket, the worms will move up to where the food is after a few days and then you don’t have to filter out the worms from the castings. Then you just alternate the top 2 buckets. I’m in my planning stage right now, and was just wondering if that actually works. I’m really eager to start my worm bin!
I tried that with an early bin design, but it wasn’t working well for me. The worms end up climbing the sides of the lower bin and getting trapped between the sides of the top bin and lower bin. To help this type of design, you could consider drilling holes along the sides of your top bins as well. The stacking bin systems are very shallow, but wide. The bucket and plastic bin systems tend to be deeper and narrow. One thing to try is a perforated plastic disk that would sit midway up the bucket. When the castings below this divider are finished, you could lift it out, dump out the lower castings and the put back the compost and worms from above the divider.
@GreenShortzDIY not entirely sure how to try the disk method but I think I'll give the 2 buck style with a 6 or 8 spaced out 1 inch chucks out of the rim of a 3rd buckets for the cycling the finished with the stuff above. My fail and smell or make tons of bait lol
Mate, first of thank you so much for the video. I will do that. I have some questions. 1- how can/should I put the worms in my bucket? How many worms should I need for that bucket, approximately? Doesn't it smell terrible? Approximately, how many days, weeks should I wait to get my compost ready? Thank you so much
Thank you, Rifat. I think 250-300 worms is a good start for a bucket system. If you get worms online and put them in, they’ll want to move out initially. I leave the top off and shine a light down into the bucket for the first few days. Eventually they figure out it’s their new home, chill out and get to work. Worms are not fast. It may take 1-2 months to get finished compost, and then it will be part of the bucket, since ideally you’re adding more material on a regular basis. The smell is not bad if you keep new material covered well with a damp layer of fresh bedding (newspaper). Thanks for watching.
I want to suggest, IF you have the lid to the second pail, attach it to the bottom of the top lid with the screens, and have a layer of charcoal or cedar chips to control odor.
Terry M: I actually have had an in-house composter during Winter, to deal with food scraps and shredded natural fibre. It was impossible to smell a thing. The worms deal with the food scraps beautifully, so there’s never any liquid in the composter to go sour. Because I left the lid off, there was plenty of airflow. The only thing was, when I first put the worms in there and brought them in right before the first hard frost, they were not happy about being in the house, And that day a few of them crawled out of the bin. A hard frost at night meant that I couldn’t release them back out into the vegetable beds because they were frozen. So the best I could do for the poor little guys Was to put them back in the bin, and put a layer of sheer fabric, like an old curtain that you can absolutely see through no problem, over it with a bit of elastic to security around the edge. No odour though. I think that if you watered it heavily enough that the soil was saturated, then you would get an aerobic activity going on there.
Hi Candy. Answer is yes. Remember, these worms are used to working below ground. There is enough air infiltrating the compost and bucket for their needs. Thank you for watching. Good luck with your build.
You said that you 'run water' through the castings for the tea. How long do you wait to do that and how often do you do it? Is it done at regular intervals and when you do take the castings?
Hi Tom. Running the water through can be done every month or so. Really more dependent on how processed the castings are. I do this to get liquid nutrients out without a major disturbance to the worms that happens when you harvest castings. I do that about once a year. Also depends on the size of the worm colony and how much feedstock they are getting. Thank you for watching.
Decent video. A few thoughts. You can get free FOOD GRADE plastic buckets from most grocery store bakers. Their muffin mixes come in them. The chemicals in the paint and cheep plastic are now getting transferred to your soil and your consuming them in the food you are growing and eating.
Thank you for your input. All #2 buckets are food grade. But, but I get those used for food delivery get a good washing before they are used. Thank you for watching.
Thanks you so much for video. I made one last weekend, bought red wiggler from the bait store. For some reason, I found a lot of my worms dead. The bottom bucket smells really bad(stink). I suspect maybe it's too hot outside. I live in GA(zone 7). Do you store your bins indoor or outdoor?
If you add the screen in the bottom to prevent the worms from crawling out and into the lower bucket, do you find it easy to still water your bin and have the water drain through to the lower bucket to make tea, while still keeping the top bucket not too moist? What are your thoughts? Or do you have any suggestions or upgrades? I understand you could add more carbon such as cardboard to make it less moist but id rather not do that every time I water the bin
Adding a screen to the bottom helps. Some worms will still find their way through. The moisture element has lots of variables, including what veggies get put in the bin and how much liquid they contain. I think it’s ok to have more liquid drain through to the lower bucket. I just apply that to my garden beds or trees. In all, I think a simpler bin system makes the most sense in the long run. That is my main suggestion…keep it simple. Thank you for the comment. Thank you for watching.
I would have glued that large piece of screen to the bottom of the top bucket, that way the worms can't get between or under the screen and you can rinse it out with a hose.
I love it, i loveeee it. I was looking for exactly that idea on your video. Thanks for take your time to do this video. Very explained. I’m your new subscriber,
If you made it a 3 bucket system with second drain bucket (but without worms, makes more space for juice on bottom, therefore less likely to drown if levels get to high. And what if you did 100’s of tiny holes the worms can’t fit through?
It is pretty stagnant fro the get-go. I empty 2-4 weeks depending on how much is generated. I'll add some rain water to extend and dilute the leachate. I divide these worm bins once a year (usually 1 to 3). I don't really clean the buckets. Mixing rain water with leachate for dilution does kinda rinse it out, but I wouldn't call it clean. :-) Thanks for watching.
Thank you so much for this video. Simple, sweet, and direct. I love that you added an element of anticipation by adding a timer. Certainly kept me watching. I am wondering if this model can be left outside all seasons? Or, does this only work indoors? This model is smaller than some other designs I've seen, and so there would be less soil to act as insulate, for the worms to retreat to during extreme temperatures. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks again!
Inside for the winter would depend on how cold your winter is. In Georgia (USA), I keep mine indoors all year. By indoors, I mean my not-conditioned garage. In the summer, if it were outdoors, it would get overrun with soldier fly larvae and winter would be too cold for the worms. I hope this helps. Thank you for watching.
Love your videos! I am a teacher, so I don't have a lot of time for fun projects during the school year. I am also not very strong so some of your projects I cannot physically handle. I made the worm tower and love it. However, I don't have any shade around my home, at all. When I set up my worm tower, I had to install a permanent umbrella above. So, I found an irrigation valve and dug a hole for it. I filled hole with all my scraps and just remove lid when I want to feed my worms that just roam freely around my garden. I have installed 4 irrigation valves and my clay soil has really improved. Thank you for all your inspiration. I do have one request, could you make a detailed video on making worm tea, not too heavy, please. ;--) Thank you, M
Maria Lucia Gomez-Greenbetg: Just a suggestion, take it to school and make it a class project, recycled/environmental impact/How It Works. You can even work math into it, having students calculate output from input. Worm tea is just the liquid waste of the worms.
I have tried different worm beds, problems I find is keeping them cool in the summer, tried out of the sun, under my deck, in the garage , how do I keep them from dying?
Avoid food waste or ground coffee, those makes your worm bed to warm up. Instead of food waste, add some cow manure on the corner, so they have what to eat. Try using paper, cardboard or newspaper pieces to give them an alternative of food. Once every two or three weeks, add one spoon of melase, sugar or syrup to the water you normally use to moist your worm bed. The sugar helps the bacteria to grow up, worm eats bacteria too
I keep them in the garage, otherwise the soldier flies take over. You could do a screen house around the bin, if you needed to keep it outside. Shade tree should work. Thanks for watching.
I am new to all of this so I have a 2 part question one how do you know if your container is getting overpopulated with worms and 2 how do you actually know how many worms are in there
Because the microbes plays such an important role, you want to do so with sufficient time for the plants to benefit before the winter starts if you are in a cold country. Anytime after the last frost is good. Freezing kills microbes.
I have a lady working in a cake factory. They throw them out so I told her I need 10 more of those. I also look for buster old water containers that will serve as a underground watering can.
Hoping you're still getting comments on this... for the screen before the top bucket-- if there is sufficient space between the 2 buckets, could you attach the screen to the 'bottom' of the first bucket? (The same way you did with the top bucket) Or would there be any safe way to actually attach the screen to the inside bottom of the bucket? Thanks in advance!
Hi Bobbi. I think the screen needs to be inside the bottom of the first bucket. Otherwise worms would get trapped between the bucket and the screen. It could be secured with screws and flat washers, but I think that the compost will hold it down just fine as long as the buckets aren’t getting agitated. That’s the last thing you want...buckets with anxiety issues. :-) Thanks for watching.
@@GreenShortzDIY..I can't even imagine! 😂 I think I'd rather count on the compost holding it down, as opposed to adding metal screws, etc. Thank you so much for your reply!
great diy! was wondering if I use a fabric like a felt sort of fabric in place of the screen for the holes do you think that would work as well? possibly keeping out flies and what nots?
Nina, I think that would work. I'd make the holes bigger. You'll need more surface area for air exchange. Twice as big or twice as many ought to work. Thanks for watching.
I have experimented with different size screen, and there is a fabric screen that you can pick up at most fabric stores... that is very fine, and bugs can't get through. It's the kind of fabric that is used to make cosmetic bags that you see in some stores. I have made several of these worm farms and am very happy with the results. I have decided to eliminate the bottom bucket and there have been no need for the drain holes, as over the past 8 months of having this set-up... the moisture is easy for me to control, never have had any in the bottom bucket. This may be because I place the worm food on top of shredded paper, and then the paper over the top of the food, thus sealing the moisture between layers of paper... never any bug problems either. I do really like the Dap adhesive that GreenShortz shows in the video! I have tried other brands... and after a few weeks... the screen comes loose, not with the Dap Kitchen & Bath adhesive! I make these little worm farms and have sold them at craft shows, with 50 -100 Red Wigglers to start them out. The moms and kids are really liking them. I do use smaller buckets. :)
Great video style. I like the timer idea. Looking back, do you now feel this was a little over-engineered? Perhaps more small holes, rather than fewer big holes in the base of the internal bucket would save the worms from falling through, but perhaps that causes drainage problems?
I tend to over engineer to start and then work back toward simplicity. I think this could be refined further. I do think your "more smaller holes" might help keep the worms from dropping into the bottom bucket. Although, I'm not sure how much the worms can squeeze through a hole smaller than their body. I've updated this bucket bin with a window screen cut to cover the bottom of the bucket (inside). Thanks for the feedback. Thanks for watching.
Main thing for any newbie using this bucket worm bin (and I assume most people using this bin method will be newbies)
Is that feeding must be "vertical" and not in horizontal layers.
The reason is because when the bin is so deep relative to the horizontal surface area, the temptation is to simply feed the worms by simply tossing food into the bin.
The problem is that the fresh food will cover the entire surface and as it decays the aerobic bacteria will consume all the oxygen at the surface which will suffocate the worms which also need oxygen to breathe.
The solution is to carefully dig a hole in the bedding along the wall and carefully put all the food in that hole, then cover it up. That way, the food will take up at most a few square inches of surface area so that the worms have the rest to come to the surface to breathe.
Hope this saves a number of catastrophes where people will suddenly find their entire worm herd dead.
Great tips! Thank you, Tony.
Thank you : )
Thank you much!!!
I never would have thought that starting out thanks
I have many (FREE) frosting buckets from the Bakery Dept from WalMart used as a container garden. & now a worm bin!! (Once I finish your other videos using my compost) **** I really wanted to let people know they may be able to get FREE frosting buckets and recycle instead of sending to landfills!**** Especially people those in small spaces.
Awesome suggestion! FREE buckets from Walmart...a Goddess worthy comment. :-) Thanks for watching.
Speaking of Walmart: Many of their plastic containers that hold their bakery goods make great, and cheap (free), indoor seed starting containers.
They will just give them to you for free?
They sell it at Walmart here for a $1.00 and I’m going to use it on my flower bed to protect my base foundation from termites cuz it gets soak with water. I don’t know if my husband will like the appearance of the house outside with all the white buckets on the side of the house 😬😬😬😳😊👩🌾👩🌾 I’m sure he doesn’t like it. Oh well, I asked for a big yard not a cemented pool around 🙄
@@emylytle7149 garden is more important than a pool
"We're gonna pull the caulk away from the hole" 😅 I giggled lol
some folks had questions on how to separate the worms from the castings. i spread out all of the castings on a large empty plastic bag. if you cover one half of the spread out castings to keep it dark and cool, the worms in the sunny half will move over to the covered half! collect the part that they vacated, you can repeat until you have collected as much of the castings as you want. there may be a few rebels that won't move, but they are easy to pick out by hand. it works because worms that are exposed to light are vulnerable to drying out and to predators!
Do you add some worms to other plants?
I think I need to try this big screen circle on the bottom bucket trick because I do get them in the bottom bin. They do climb up the walls sometime and survive. I also recommend drilling a lot of holes at the top of the water catching bucket because otherwise the section that you can't get the bins apart it's horrible. I also took extra buckets cut off the rims and drilled holes in it to make a spacer between my water bucket and my bottom warm bucket again because I could not get the bins apart myself and my husband could barely get the bins apart with me
Thanks, that's what I like somebody showing a good inexpensive way to make something anybody can.
Thanks for the feedback. Thanks for watching.
I Found it easy and cheap.
I did this on a smaller scale with two one gallon buckets. I spent nothing. My lemon bonsai began showing new shoots instantly. Thank you!
Thanks! I'm making mine today, all I need is to pick up the glue. I have 3 buckets. I'm going to add a screened bottom bucket in between so that it can catch castings and worms from falling into the composting tea.
Thank you for the information. I'll give it a go. Newly retired an spring fever getting to me.. Thanks again stay safe.
With 1k+ views somebody has probably already mentioned just rubberbanding a piece of screen to the bottom.
I've tried a lot of worm bins in the past but as the wife of a painter, I ❤️ this recycling project! 👍😉
Thanks Cheri. In another build I added a circle of screen on the inside of the bucket. It helped reduce the number of worms in the bottom bucket. Thanks for watching. Happy recycling. :-)
GreenShortz DIY, another thing that you might suggest is a flip top bait lid for a 5 gallon bucket. I found one at Academy for only $1 more than a traditional lid and not only is it easier to remove but flipping the center shoot is great for adding kitchen scraps.
@@GreenShortzDIY I was looking for this comment! Thank you :)
I've heard that the worm tea is very concentrated and could be diluted to a 1:10 ratio with water. Great tutorial!
+Wazoo123 Thank you. I'll have to look into the tea thing. Interesting. Let me know if you end up making this composter.
+Wazoo123 Hey Wazoo! I did a little more research on the compost tea dilution question you raised. I saw different things...as you can expect on the internet. :-) I saw everything from "no need to dilute" to the 1:10 ratio that you mentioned. I also saw a recommendation to use the 1:10 ratio as a "maximum dilution" indicating that there are multiple options in between.
I usually have diluted mine 1:1 with rain water just to get more liquid to use on plants and shrubs. I've never had a problem with my plants. You might consider testing your worm tea with different dilution ratios to see what works best. Let me know what you find.
Great video… newspaper also works for helping the worms not fall through.
Hey just a thought, but it may be easier and use less caulk if you cut a single 3.5" hole in the center of the lid, it has the same area as the sum of all of the smaller holes, and would only require one piece of mesh, so you would be saving more mesh as well (factoring for less loss due to the overhang into the silicone area. I also believe it may be easier to do for free since you could trace a single circle and easily cut it with an exacto knife or something similar) Sweet video, Love everything about it!
Thank you for the suggestion, Connor. I think that would work well. Thank you for watching.
Just FYI, old jeans or similar fabric helps to cover the holes too 😊
Thanks for the idea. :-)
I know this is an older video... but good job none-the-less. Great call on the Uncle Jim's worms... just got my first batch in this week. Now, working on my worm towers - also courtesy of Green Shortz. Keep it up - I'm loving the knowledge! :D
Thank you Stevo! Glad you’ve got the worms on the way. Good luck with your build. Thanks for watching.
This is so cool. I have a feeling we're going to need this knowledge.
You were absolutely correct
OK Mr. Greenshorts, I've made me a bucket system and my worms just arrived from Uncle Jim's worm farm. Wish me luck. If this works as planned, I'll be making a tote system in the spring. Then on to the bottom harvester system next fall. Thanks for the great videos. Keep 'em coming...
Rock on Joe Baker...rock on! Keep me posted and let me know if you have questions. Thanks for sharing.
so how did you go?
;
GreenShortz DIY ok, so here is an update. I had great success with the bucket, so I decided to make the tote. The tote took off so good, I’ve actually made three others for friends.
I ordered a small bag of worms from Uncle Jim’s and they multiplied like crazy. From the small bag, I’ve been able to populate all four totes in a little over a year and a half. This has been a real fun and educational project. Because I’ve been sharing with my friends, I haven’t really had any castings to put in my garden. I haven’t built the flow through system yet. That’s still in the list. Thanks again for the videos Mr. Greenshorts.
And for anybody interested, there are many groups on Facebook dedicated to vermiculture. There are people from all over the world sharing their knowledge and experiences with worms.
Cassandra's Rollercoaster Journey updated response below.
Your idea is very nice. I am impressed by watching the video.....Thank you brother
Thanks, this is great. Minor change I'll probably make; Instead of using screen on the bottom of the pail, I'm probably going to just make more smaller holes.
The little bugs will still get through small holes.
I'm a little confused, both by the video, and your comment. He didn't use screen on the bottom of the bucket, he just drilled holes there. He used screen on the lid. So, that's why I'm a little confused about your comment.
The reason why I'm a little confused about the video, is because I would think that you would run into curious worms crawling through those holes and drowning in the liquid. I could be wrong about that though, they may not like that sensation of burrowing down only to discover they are entering a pocket of open air.
@@scottcantdance804 He cut a circle with the screen and laid it at the bottom of the pail.
Your the man Bro. This is a cool idea, especially the compost tea part. Wow dig it.
Buckets for FREE! Go to the baking section at ur grocery store and ask them if they have buckets to recycle. that’s what icing, etc comes in. 5 gallon tall or squat! Food grade too!
I love the streaming Blue Jay in the background! Lol!
Ha. Yes. That back yard was a bird haven. Thanks for watching.
Ok, I know I'm four years late. I also get free buckets from bakery departments. My best resources in southwest Ohio have been Meijer and Sam's Club bakeries. For the screen, I buy cheap round spatter screens in the kitchen section at Dollar Tree. I have a step-bit, bought with a coupon from Harbor Freight, which eliminates changing bits.
nice now i have to follow the contractors around for buckets !! ! !
Did bottom mesh helped save little ones?
Great video, also fun to watch. I was enjoying and smiling when it was on high speed. Thanks
It's great and wat happened to the transporting worms from 1 bin to another
Usually, if your Kroger has a bakery section where they make cakes they get their frosting in big buckets if you ask nicely they will give the empty buckets to you.
That is a good idea, Ingada. Thank you for sharing.
That's what I did also!
Lard buckets at Mexican restaurants are also free
That’s a great idea as it’s food grade plastic as well, which I imagine paint buckets aren’t.
Thank you! I was just gifted my first worms. I'm going to make this today. I have everything on hand. Yay!
Large flower pots on a deep tray works well too for worm bin.
I make compost tea in 5 gal buckets from veggie clippings. Just add water and keep covered for 3- 5 days, depending on climate.
Strain liquid and there is your fertilizer.
Nice video! Add another bucket with holes at bottom with some food to greet them and worms go up there instead of down to drown...they're done n want to move out.
Warm fertilizer are so nice for plant. Thank you for your viedo and you tube is my nearest teacher.
Thank you for watching. I’m glad you thought the video was valuable.
Love it- I’ve been looking for an easy worm compost design- I think I will add a 3rd bucket to give the worms more layers too- thank you!
Thanks for the feedback. The problem with is a third bucket is that the wormed will crawl up the side of the list bucket and get trapped. The way to avoid this is to drill holes in the sides of the inner bucket where it meets the top bucket. This will give the worms a path in when they can’t go up any further (in theory). I’ve thought about this, but haven’t tried it. Let me know if it works for you. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for this I was planning to use 3 buckets and didnt think of this
Could you use garden rock in the bottom of the worm tea bucket to allow the compost bucket to sit higher and add weighted stability to the system? Just pour the “tea” off the rocks and reuse? Thoughts? Hope to make one of these today. I have all the materials on hand. Also, can I use the compost from my compost bin or do you advise ordering the compost starter from a Uncle Jim’s? Thanks for the video.
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TH-cam: If you add four or five buckets, it will break them down more thoroughly. Stagger the holes just a little to save a HUGE fall for the worms.
You can put the screen with caulk in the underside of the bucket just like you did the lids and still be able to rinse it clean.
Great idea.Di you put holes on the bottom of the other bucket?I I didn't see you put any but I saw the one you put on top.Thanks for sharing.I appreciate it very much.
Hi Lyd. The bottom bucket stays whole to capture the leachate, which can be used as fertilizer or made into worm tea. Thank you for watching.
@@GreenShortzDIY Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it.Usually. I get a thumbs up or a ❤ and left with no answer. So I get left in the dark.So thank you again very much appreciated.
@@lydvincecruz824 I can't answer all the comments, of course, but try to do so as much as possible for good questions. Especially when I sense people are wanting to do projects. 🙂
Hi! Have you ever tried this with 3 buckets? I read that if you start another bucket on top when the castings are finished in the 2nd bucket, the worms will move up to where the food is after a few days and then you don’t have to filter out the worms from the castings. Then you just alternate the top 2 buckets. I’m in my planning stage right now, and was just wondering if that actually works. I’m really eager to start my worm bin!
I tried that with an early bin design, but it wasn’t working well for me. The worms end up climbing the sides of the lower bin and getting trapped between the sides of the top bin and lower bin. To help this type of design, you could consider drilling holes along the sides of your top bins as well. The stacking bin systems are very shallow, but wide. The bucket and plastic bin systems tend to be deeper and narrow. One thing to try is a perforated plastic disk that would sit midway up the bucket. When the castings below this divider are finished, you could lift it out, dump out the lower castings and the put back the compost and worms from above the divider.
@GreenShortzDIY not entirely sure how to try the disk method but I think I'll give the 2 buck style with a 6 or 8 spaced out 1 inch chucks out of the rim of a 3rd buckets for the cycling the finished with the stuff above. My fail and smell or make tons of bait lol
Mate, first of thank you so much for the video. I will do that. I have some questions. 1- how can/should I put the worms in my bucket? How many worms should I need for that bucket, approximately? Doesn't it smell terrible? Approximately, how many days, weeks should I wait to get my compost ready? Thank you so much
Thank you, Rifat. I think 250-300 worms is a good start for a bucket system. If you get worms online and put them in, they’ll want to move out initially. I leave the top off and shine a light down into the bucket for the first few days. Eventually they figure out it’s their new home, chill out and get to work. Worms are not fast. It may take 1-2 months to get finished compost, and then it will be part of the bucket, since ideally you’re adding more material on a regular basis. The smell is not bad if you keep new material covered well with a damp layer of fresh bedding (newspaper). Thanks for watching.
I was going to take a big sports container. The 5 gallon ones with the valve on the bottom and put trays in it but this looks easier. Thanks
I heard it’s a thing to drill plastic like this with the drill on reverse. Thank You!!
I want to suggest, IF you have the lid to the second pail, attach it to the bottom of the top lid with the screens, and have a layer of charcoal or cedar chips to control odor.
You shouldn't have a strong odor. If you do have odor the compost is most likely too wet.
Terry M: I actually have had an in-house composter during Winter, to deal with food scraps and shredded natural fibre.
It was impossible to smell a thing. The worms deal with the food scraps beautifully, so there’s never any liquid in the composter to go sour.
Because I left the lid off, there was plenty of airflow. The only thing was, when I first put the worms in there and brought them in right before the first hard frost, they were not happy about being in the house, And that day a few of them crawled out of the bin.
A hard frost at night meant that I couldn’t release them back out into the vegetable beds because they were frozen. So the best I could do for the poor little guys Was to put them back in the bin, and put a layer of sheer fabric, like an old curtain that you can absolutely see through no problem, over it with a bit of elastic to security around the edge.
No odour though.
I think that if you watered it heavily enough that the soil was saturated, then you would get an aerobic activity going on there.
Will follow this method. But question - do the worms get enough air with just the top and bottom holes? Thanks
Hi Candy. Answer is yes. Remember, these worms are used to working below ground. There is enough air infiltrating the compost and bucket for their needs. Thank you for watching. Good luck with your build.
Cool. I've done this but only cut 1 screen like plate size, then adhere down, good video!
You said that you 'run water' through the castings for the tea. How long do you wait to do that and how often do you do it? Is it done at regular intervals and when you do take the castings?
Hi Tom. Running the water through can be done every month or so. Really more dependent on how processed the castings are. I do this to get liquid nutrients out without a major disturbance to the worms that happens when you harvest castings. I do that about once a year. Also depends on the size of the worm colony and how much feedstock they are getting. Thank you for watching.
Cool! Gotta try this. Now I gotta find your setup video.
its so good and smart
Thanks for watching Asmaa. :-)
Did the screen at the bottom help prevent drowning?
It did reduce the number of worms getting into the bottom bucket. Thanks for watching.
Are the holes in the necessary? I have lids with vents in them, so air will get in.
No need for extra holes if you’ve got vents. Thank you for watching.
I'm giving this a try. bucket cost me $13 but worth it if it does work. thank you for your help.
very nice thankyou very much-good job
Thank you for watching.
thank your videos . i get new ideal with this
Just saved me a few dollars im going to home depot to get 2 5 gallon buckets thanx
If you have a firehouse subs near by they sell old pickle buckets (5 gal buckets) for $3. The money goes to firefighters
Can I keep this indoors?
Excellent.
Very helpful! Keep it up!
💚 From 🇵🇭
Decent video. A few thoughts. You can get free FOOD GRADE plastic buckets from most grocery store bakers. Their muffin mixes come in them. The chemicals in the paint and cheep plastic are now getting transferred to your soil and your consuming them in the food you are growing and eating.
Thank you for your input. All #2 buckets are food grade. But, but I get those used for food delivery get a good washing before they are used. Thank you for watching.
I really enjoying ur videos, can i have quick questions. Why we need make hole for the lid? Does without hole, the compsoting still working?
Thank you. The holes in the lid allow airflow, which is important for composting to happen. Thank you for watching.
Thanks you so much for video. I made one last weekend, bought red wiggler from the bait store. For some reason, I found a lot of my worms dead. The bottom bucket smells really bad(stink). I suspect maybe it's too hot outside. I live in GA(zone 7). Do you store your bins indoor or outdoor?
May be it was too wet. Also the bad smell signals bad bacteria, bad for us, bad for worms as well.
Inexpensive and effective. Thanks.
If you add the screen in the bottom to prevent the worms from crawling out and into the lower bucket, do you find it easy to still water your bin and have the water drain through to the lower bucket to make tea, while still keeping the top bucket not too moist? What are your thoughts? Or do you have any suggestions or upgrades? I understand you could add more carbon such as cardboard to make it less moist but id rather not do that every time I water the bin
Adding a screen to the bottom helps. Some worms will still find their way through. The moisture element has lots of variables, including what veggies get put in the bin and how much liquid they contain. I think it’s ok to have more liquid drain through to the lower bucket. I just apply that to my garden beds or trees. In all, I think a simpler bin system makes the most sense in the long run. That is my main suggestion…keep it simple. Thank you for the comment. Thank you for watching.
Going to be doing this or similar this week. Thank you for the video.
Great video! Thank you for posting. This is exactly what kind of information I was looking for.
Thanks for watching, Thurman. Good luck with your build.
Thank you! Very much
Very simple and effective.
Ty for d idea i learned
You’re welcome. Thank you for watching.
Hi awesome video, how often do you add water to the worm farm?
Great work! I love the salvaging!!
so question? why cant you just glue the screen to the outside bottom of the bucket?
I would have glued that large piece of screen to the bottom of the top bucket, that way the worms can't get between or under the screen and you can rinse it out with a hose.
Would a grit guard work to hinder the worms from going to far down?
I love it, i loveeee it. I was looking for exactly that idea on your video. Thanks for take your time to do this video. Very explained. I’m your new subscriber,
this was very helpfull! Thx
Thank you for watching. Happy composting.
If you made it a 3 bucket system with second drain bucket (but without worms, makes more space for juice on bottom, therefore less likely to drown if levels get to high. And what if you did 100’s of tiny holes the worms can’t fit through?
how do you stop the water going stagnant, how long would you let it sit before harvesting the tea? what frequency on cleaning cycles-the buckets?
It is pretty stagnant fro the get-go. I empty 2-4 weeks depending on how much is generated. I'll add some rain water to extend and dilute the leachate. I divide these worm bins once a year (usually 1 to 3). I don't really clean the buckets. Mixing rain water with leachate for dilution does kinda rinse it out, but I wouldn't call it clean. :-) Thanks for watching.
Thnx for the vid. Why didnt u just cut 1 circular piece of mesh for the top as well!!
Question. Will the worm multiply to the extent that you could add additional bucket harvesters, without having to purchase new worms?
Absolutely! Those red wigglers reproduce quite easily and rapidly. 🪱
Thanks ✅️
Thank you so much for this video. Simple, sweet, and direct. I love that you added an element of anticipation by adding a timer. Certainly kept me watching. I am wondering if this model can be left outside all seasons? Or, does this only work indoors? This model is smaller than some other designs I've seen, and so there would be less soil to act as insulate, for the worms to retreat to during extreme temperatures. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks again!
Inside for the winter would depend on how cold your winter is. In Georgia (USA), I keep mine indoors all year. By indoors, I mean my not-conditioned garage. In the summer, if it were outdoors, it would get overrun with soldier fly larvae and winter would be too cold for the worms. I hope this helps. Thank you for watching.
@@GreenShortzDIY Thanks so much!
Love your videos! I am a teacher, so I don't have a lot of time for fun projects during the school year. I am also not very strong so some of your projects I cannot physically handle. I made the worm tower and love it. However, I don't have any shade around my home, at all. When I set up my worm tower, I had to install a permanent umbrella above. So, I found an irrigation valve and dug a hole for it. I filled hole with all my scraps and just remove lid when I want to feed my worms that just roam freely around my garden. I have installed 4 irrigation valves and my clay soil has really improved. Thank you for all your inspiration. I do have one request, could you make a detailed video on making worm tea, not too heavy, please. ;--)
Thank you,
M
Thanks for the feedback, Maria. Happy worm composting. Enjoy your summer break. :-)
Maria Lucia Gomez-Greenbetg: Just a suggestion, take it to school and make it a class project, recycled/environmental impact/How It Works. You can even work math into it, having students calculate output from input.
Worm tea is just the liquid waste of the worms.
does compost tea smell bad?
I have tried different worm beds, problems I find is keeping them cool in the summer, tried out of the sun, under my deck, in the garage , how do I keep them from dying?
Avoid food waste or ground coffee, those makes your worm bed to warm up. Instead of food waste, add some cow manure on the corner, so they have what to eat.
Try using paper, cardboard or newspaper pieces to give them an alternative of food.
Once every two or three weeks, add one spoon of melase, sugar or syrup to the water you normally use to moist your worm bed. The sugar helps the bacteria to grow up, worm eats bacteria too
Thanks for the coupon code! It still works :)
Excellent! I’m glad they still honor that. It’s been a few years. Thank you for watching. :-)
How did u make the compost. What did u used?
Where do you keep your worm bins? Under a shade tree adequate?
I keep them in the garage, otherwise the soldier flies take over. You could do a screen house around the bin, if you needed to keep it outside. Shade tree should work. Thanks for watching.
@@GreenShortzDIY thanks so much! Off to get some worms!
I am new to all of this so I have a 2 part question one how do you know if your container is getting overpopulated with worms and 2 how do you actually know how many worms are in there
I got a Ryobi drill just like that does the exact same thing every time I bet falls out I want to check that drill as far as I can
What time of year is a good time to fertilize plants outside with the liquid? And what about house plants? Thank you for your informative videos.
Because the microbes plays such an important role, you want to do so with sufficient time for the plants to benefit before the winter starts if you are in a cold country. Anytime after the last frost is good. Freezing kills microbes.
I have a lady working in a cake factory. They throw them out so I told her I need 10 more of those. I also look for buster old water containers that will serve as a underground watering can.
Great job👍👍
Hoping you're still getting comments on this... for the screen before the top bucket-- if there is sufficient space between the 2 buckets, could you attach the screen to the 'bottom' of the first bucket? (The same way you did with the top bucket) Or would there be any safe way to actually attach the screen to the inside bottom of the bucket? Thanks in advance!
Hi Bobbi. I think the screen needs to be inside the bottom of the first bucket. Otherwise worms would get trapped between the bucket and the screen. It could be secured with screws and flat washers, but I think that the compost will hold it down just fine as long as the buckets aren’t getting agitated. That’s the last thing you want...buckets with anxiety issues. :-) Thanks for watching.
@@GreenShortzDIY..I can't even imagine! 😂 I think I'd rather count on the compost holding it down, as opposed to adding metal screws, etc. Thank you so much for your reply!
great diy! was wondering if I use a fabric like a felt sort of fabric in place of the screen for the holes do you think that would work as well? possibly keeping out flies and what nots?
Nina, I think that would work. I'd make the holes bigger. You'll need more surface area for air exchange. Twice as big or twice as many ought to work. Thanks for watching.
I have experimented with different size screen, and there is a fabric screen that you can pick up at most fabric stores... that is very fine, and bugs can't get through. It's the kind of fabric that is used to make cosmetic bags that you see in some stores.
I have made several of these worm farms and am very happy with the results. I have decided to eliminate the bottom bucket and there have been no need for the drain holes, as over the past 8 months of having this set-up... the moisture is easy for me to control, never have had any in the bottom bucket. This may be because I place the worm food on top of shredded paper, and then the paper over the top of the food, thus sealing the moisture between layers of paper... never any bug problems either. I do really like the Dap adhesive that GreenShortz shows in the video! I have tried other brands... and after a few weeks... the screen comes loose, not with the Dap Kitchen & Bath adhesive! I make these little worm farms and have sold them at craft shows, with 50 -100 Red Wigglers to start them out. The moms and kids are really liking them. I do use smaller buckets. :)
Love your video, thanks. Would landscaping fabric work as well as screen. I use it for making grow bags so it's porous.
I think it would work fine. You might do one larger hole (6 inches?) to allow for enough air movement since it is a tighter mesh. Thanks for watching.
Thank you @@GreenShortzDIY
Awesome and easy! Gonna share with my friends, thanks!
Thanks for watching, Daniel. Thanks for the feedback.
Nice
Thanks for watching.
Thank you!
You’re welcome. Thanks for watching.
Maybe this is a dumb question but, what kind of worms?
6 years later this worm bin will cost you 68$
Please tell me the name of worms using composite please
Dumb question, can you use any worms? I have a ton in my yard already wasn't sure if I could just use them
I usually grab worms out of the garden after a rain. Then toss them in the bin.
Great video style. I like the timer idea.
Looking back, do you now feel this was a little over-engineered?
Perhaps more small holes, rather than fewer big holes in the base of the internal bucket would save the worms from falling through, but perhaps that causes drainage problems?
I tend to over engineer to start and then work back toward simplicity. I think this could be refined further. I do think your "more smaller holes" might help keep the worms from dropping into the bottom bucket. Although, I'm not sure how much the worms can squeeze through a hole smaller than their body. I've updated this bucket bin with a window screen cut to cover the bottom of the bucket (inside). Thanks for the feedback. Thanks for watching.
Thanks! Why buy worms when you have other worm composters going?
I like trying different methods. And I also want to make more videos. Usually one or two methods is enough for most home owners. :-)