Hate it when that happens. You come home after a long day of work and there she is, writhing on the floor, subsisting on dirt and the dead skin cells gathering in your carpet. You pretend you don't notice. "Hey honey, how was your day?" you ask, masking the terror in your voice. She does not respond. You rub the place where her shoulders had once been and kiss the top of what you hope is her head. "You seem stressed babe. Maybe we can cuddle up on the couch and binge that show you've been meaning to watch?" You receive nothing in the way of a reaction, save for frantic twitching and a steady pulsating of her body mass. You spend the rest of the night in fear and agony, but you do not waver. You do not waver. Women, amirite!
So my dad is 77yrs old and every time it rains, he goes out and rescues all the worms that get lost on the concrete. He walks for miles and saves hundreds and then puts them in his garden. He's been doing this for as long as I remember and I remember growing up he used to come home from work with worms on rainy days and my mom would get so mad. Lol. But then she saw how my dad saved his garden when the soil went bad, by collecting the worms and putting them in his garden.
Fun fact: If you have a Bokashi fermentation system, you can put meat and dairy products in it and put the fermented product in the worm farm once it is broken down. :)
DUDE. I've been having tons of rats out of nowhere in my neighborhood and your comment about rats/compost bin finally made it click for me. My city just gave out compost bins to about 40k local people and that is almost definitely what caused the sudden uptick. Great video as always, but mostly wanted to say thank you for that insight because it's been driving me crazy.
Finally the worm content we've (*I've) been asking for! Vermicomposting started as my quarantine hobby in 2020 and its slowly grown into a little side hustle (I sell castings to my neighbors). I've really learned so much about worm biology and their temperament; what they like to eat most (banana peel, melon skins, grains and coffee grounds) what conditions make them try to escape (too dry bin), etc. Plus worm farmers are truly some of the nicest people I've ever come across. It's impossible to be an ass when talking about the best methods to harvest worm poop.
@@llamzrt When the bottom bin has no visible food left, I pour the finished castings out on a tarp, form it all into a mountain, wait a few minutes for the remaining worms to start to burrow down away from the light, then scoop it all off the top. I keep removing castings and waiting and removing and waiting until most of it is gone and I get to the gathered up wormball at the bottom. Then I put those wormies back into the active feeding tray. I use a Worm Factory 360 with stackable bins, so others may have different methods depending on their set up.
Shaq could turn this channel into LITERALLY WHATEVER he wanted and I know I'd love it. His next video, in like two months, will prolly be about the phosphorus cycle or invasive frogs, and I'll be here for it. Come for the pizzas, stay for the WORMS!
I've had a worm bin for almost a year. about two thirds of our household's food waste is now kept from landfill. It's an amazing system. I feed the worms about once a week. they require very little attention, and I'm looking to have about 40-50lbs of grade A fertilizer for the next growing season. Do the smart thing. invest in some worms.
Worms. Worms. We're doing worms now. That's where we're at. Goddamnit this may be the good timeline yet. Why is this so wholesome. Having a positive relationship with traditionally scorned features of nature might be my favourite genre of lifestyle content and resource texts. Be they weeds and wildflowers to replace lawns, freezing chicken bones and veggie scraps to make soup broth, or even... Worms now I guess. Hell yeah.
Very pro-worm. When I was a kid I heard about a red-worm compost and always wanted one even though I wasn't even a gardener. Now I do have a garden and got me a subpod - super easy to set up and feel successful. It's black gold!!!
Dude, I had a roommate who was super into composting. She had it so figured out they could consume a banana peel in less than a day. The plastic bin she had them in got so hot it made the bin soft and malleable. It blew my mind. I think there’s something very special to this.
Having grown up in a small town in rural Europe, I was pretty shocked when I found out that the majority of city-dwellers are unaware of the ability to compost a lot of household trash. You can't get any closer to turning shit into gold in real life. Worms rock!
I'm a college student with a little apartment in the middle of the city that cooks for himself a LOT. Most days, I cook 2 meals from scratch and I don't really cook with meat so there's tons of bits of vegetables that I throw away every day. I try to use as much as I can by cooking my potato skins or whatever, but there's a lot that's simply unusable. Once I graduate and move somewhere with a bit more than 650 sft of space, I am definitely going to have a few worms in my compost and use that for a little garden. Even now, I grow my own basil, parsley, cilantro, chives, and dill to cook with. god I have to get out of the city
Had a worm bin high school that was literally a bin, I gave my worms every type of food and never had a problem. I would just rotate where I dropped my scraps and they did their thing!
Yaay, I also started composting in a regular apartment a couple of years ago. First with bokashi, then bought a vermicomposter. Unfortunately, my worms were donated to a greenhouse because of the war, but I'll restart the bin after it's over. I also think more people should do vermicomposting!
Hope you can get back to it soon! I've been looking into bokashi as a sort of "pre-composting" method to help break down the food so the worms go through it faster. Plus, I think you can also break down meat/poultry bones with bokashi!
@@IjeomaThePlantMama thanks, me too! :3 Yep, combining the two methods is great, I find bokashi especially helpful as a buffer - when there's too much waste to add simultaneously, it could wait indefinitely in a bokashi bin (while being worked on by the microbes).
I too have a worm farm! It is great way to dispose of extra scraps. Also, they can survive fairly low temps. I live in DC and my farm is outside; every spring I expect them all to be dead but they are always there! Apparently when it’s cold they group to the center and wiggle around each other to produce friction warmth or something.
Luv u Shaq! Thanks to you I'm halfway through building two SIPs out of a 275 gal water tote and once I have them set up I'll be setting up worm buckets. I've always had in the back of my head that I wanted to start gardening after moving last summer, but you making this video (paired with your SIP video) gave me the starting ideas to get going and figure out what I wanted to do. Looking forward to some yum yum vegs this year, I'll christen my first harvest in your name!!
I’ve kept worms for about five years. When I had yard space I would start a cubic meter sized compost pile every year. After the pile cooled off in October for November, I’d add worms from my indoor bins and cover for winter. Come spring I’d have enough to fill my planters and pots with the highest quality compost possible. I’d estimate that about 50 dollars in worms and containers has saved me at least 20 times that over the years.
My only gripe about worms is that they're not native to much of the US and are negatively impacting the worm-free ecosystems they've invaded (something Shaq briefly touched on). But unfortunately it is largely too late to do anything about that at this point, they've already been introduced pretty much everywhere due to gardening. So while I think it's important to know this and do your due diligence before buying worms, chances are you're probably not going to do any more harm than what has already been done.
Eisenia fetida aren't really the "problem worm" when it comes to forest erosion but definitely something to be wary of. There's also the "jumping worm" scare but that's entirely its own issue.
@@LunaZeidner I've been battling a jumping worm invasion, they turn your garden soil into a barren wasteland 😮💨. My landlord thinks they came from imported soil or manure.
thank you for reminding me of the time i secretly kept a plastic bin full of dirt and worms in the cabinet under the bathroom sink at my dads apartment. they were one of my favorite pets. too bad i got caught eventually
I really need a breadwinner so I can live the idyllic child-free stay-at-home lifestyle that shaq has sold to me without having to run a TH-cam channel for funding
We'll give this a try soon! I feel validated by the recognition that composting is harder than anyone says. We found our way around that by using stuck compost and sticks to do a lazy variant on hügelkultur. Basically I dig out my garden and layer stuck compost over everything we cut back from our trumpet vines and lavender. The tomatoes, basil, and marigolds love it, and by the end of the growing season you can't find any evidence of the original material except for volunteer avocado plants sprouting underneath other plants. We live in Albuquerque so similar but slightly different conditions.
Timely video for us. Our compost game was spot on, even including egg shells; but, alas, life moves on and we moved. New area doesn’t have the leaves we were accustomed to having easily and readily so likely time to move to worm bins!
I don't have any outdoor space (small urban apartment) and have lots of precious houseplant. I love vermicomposting but can't deal with the houseplant pests that also find a hospitable home in the worm bin.
I usually take your advice very seriously but my fear and disgust of worms overpowers your wisdom; still here to watch and absorb precious knowledge ! would 100% appreciate a "chopping boards for dummies/not snobs" guide in your efficient and pragmatic voice if it ever takes your fancy. love your stuff !
I have to agree here, I have a bucket O worms and I tend not to even think about them it is more that they are just a garbage can that makes soil and saves me space in my normal garbage can and every spring gives me a massive can of free compost that would cost me about 700-1200$ a year. Yes it is a massive worm house, it is literally a full-sized garbage can you would see in the lawn.
Anyone who’s owned a garden with a lot of earth worms knows how much work they do. Especially, if you had fruit trees/plants are around. I’d incredibly got fast they work and how healthy the trees and plants are.
Vermicomposition is great, I used to have a little worm farm, but had to give it to my neighbor when I moved out of my old house, he also likes gardening, so I hope they are doing well.
I’ve been doing vermicompost as a hobby for a couple years now and everybody thinks I’m crazy. I try to explain the wonders of owning worms but I just dig myself into an even bigger hole. Now I’m fermenting my food waste using Bokashi and feeding it to the worms
I became obsessed with worms and bugs in general as a kid (on the spectrum, introverted child who liked nature) and would become highly distraught when my mom planted flowers because I didn't want her to cut "my friends" (wormies) with her shovel. I always thought they were some cool, helpful little dudes and your video has confirmed my bias.
I was a total mealworm and microscope kid! Now as an adult, nothing calms my ADHD-addled brain more than spending an hour separating every worm and cocoon from finished castings. It's oddly quite relaxing 😌
I loved playing in the dirt and pulling out fat earthworms before putting them back when I was a kid. I love nature so much I started (but not finished 😪) a bachelors in evolutionary biology
my local council provide me with a big ol green bin that all this stuff goes in, and then they dump it in a worm / fungus rich pile of soil, (and a dehydrator i think) that gets turned into heat energy and/or fertiliser! very cool
_Some_ waste collection companies will collect food scraps separately to take to worm farmers or composters, or even pig farmers for the edible food scraps. Good for bigger cities where people don't have balconies or limited space in their overpriced apartments. Definitely a balance to be struck between large scale systems and many small systems working together, and all that.
I work on a golf course, and we judge the health of the greens on a daily basis by the visible castings on top. It's particularly satisfying after we plug the greens and the castings show up in a dotted grid pattern. But Shaq, I'm going to act sarcastically worried you're becoming a lifestyle channel lol
I harvested radishes today (first thing I’ve grown from seed other than herbs. I was proud) and i saw a lil worm in my planter and was so happy to see him
I love my worms. They do such cool work on compost, just motoring through it. And you only need a few to get started, so you can put them in a little bit of kitchen compost and you'll probably produce food at the same rate they grow. I do put the forbidden foods Shaq mentioned in there, but I blend everything. (get a countertop compost bucket about the same volume or less than your blender canister for this.) No problems so far. You can also put your worms in most brown/green compost systems and they'll sort themselves out, staying away from the hot parts or moving towards them in winter. (I wouldn't put them in a tumbler though or any other type of container where they can't escape the heat.)
I’ve been getting a lot of comments asking for a starter pack of worms from my worm farm so that’s a good sign! A lot of people in my area are starting worm bins
On board - My 8th grade science teacher was a worm nut too. There was also an episode of the classic medical drama ER that had red wrigglers as a sub plot
Holy moly! I've been having a heck of a time getting grass to grow under my red maple tree. The soil is really poor and the tree sucks up all the moisture and dries out whatever grass I plant, even if I water it regularly. I think I'm going to try farming worms under it and see if the grass improves. Thanks!
Oh man I've been looking into getting worms but the pod was what was concerning me the most, this gave me a better hindsight on what to look for. Thank you!
I really like these occasional gardening-related videos! I was interested in getting into vermicomposting at one point and never pulled the trigger, but recently we got a composting mandate in California and my apartment building hasn't implemented an easy system for it yet. Maybe this is my moment to pick up some worms!
You mentioned your compost doing nothing because of off green-brown ratios. I had the same experience and started a bin-based worm farm, but once the population got big enough I just dumped them into my compost. Now I have two 300l composters that take me a year each to fill, and they're full of worms! One bin matures while the other gets filled and it works a treat! The only downside is seeds still survive so weeds can be a problem. Upside is I get random veg popping up that I grew last year and forgot about when I threw those unripe tomatoes or bolted fennel into the worm megalopolis. I do feel like the whole system is going to collapse one day though, as I don't see anyone else recommending it 😬
your compost needs more water I think. the green to brown ratio doesn't matter that much, anything in the neighborhood of correct wikl still work, and even if you're way off its just slower (for extra brown) or smelly (for extra green). the compost should be damp/wet to the touch, but you shouldn't be able to squeeze water out if you grab a handful.
but if you've got a worm system that works then it's probably better to relegate the compost pile to just things like old plants you're pulling out or other stuff that there's too much of it to give to the worms
omg i loved the wedding footage, y'all looked so good!! and the crowd was clearly having a great time awesome video i think i'm gonna jump on this worm business asap
I used to have a phenomenal compost pile, that was swarming with worms. My neighbor used to beg to raid for worms for fishing. No dude, I love those little guys. They aren't fish food.
I'm thinking of doing something like this, but for a much smaller scale in an indoor potted plant because I think my house plant is not getting enough nutrients. Maybe I could use something like a yogurt container as the bucket? And maybe in that case I only need a small number of worms, like how they are sold in stores for fishing. After a quick research, it should work out like that, as long as I give them enough food so they don't feed on the plant roots. It might be a good way to dip my toes into gardening. Every time I wanna start gardening, I get overwhelmed by all the steps and information, and all the considerations and variations/alternatives. Even "simple" guides to gardening have so much information, but at the same time don't explain the actual step by step that well, that it's hard to use this information to understand what I'm supposed to do. So starting something like this on a much smaller scale might be helpful for me
@@internetshaquille I see! That does sound more appropriate, thank you! I'm anyway figuring out how I will start gardening on the balcony, so hopefully I will eventually also start getting some worms for that. By the way, thank you so much for all the videos you make!! ❤ They are all very well made and helpful! The one for home-made burritos, for example, helped me to experiment more and get more involved with cooking, which used to be super daunting for me personally, with all these complicated cooking methods and recipes out there.
my aunt used to keep a box of worms in her apartment and that only stopped because once she forgot to put them somewhere dark/cool on an especially hot day. so it's doable even in cities (as long as you don't accidentally bake your worms...)
This is such a great idea! I've also long given up on composting, and have worked with worms before but never fully invested because it gets so cold where I am in the winter. Will be looking into overwintering options and I think I'll start worm farming next spring :D
I did something similar to this - I got a bunch of spent coffee grounds (from Starbucks) and just buried them (I have a yard) - the coffee by itself didn’t “compost” and it attracted the red wigglers naturally (didn’t have to buy any). It also wasn’t a pest problem initially - rats and moles and possums don’t dig up the coffee. I did notice that the worms also love paper egg crates - similar to your setup with the paper. Anyway, I feed them with all my food scraps and occasionally big bags of spent coffee from Starbucks (I work next to one, so I just grab 1 or 2 per week). Rats and stuff will dig in and pull some stuff out of there - I don’t think a plastic container would keep them out - I’ve seen them chew threw 3/4 inch plywood. Bastards.
We're giving this a shot, thanks! Have you thought of painting the underside of the lid black or stapling/wrapping some burlap around the lid to overcome the need for shadepaper?
The shade paper tucked into the bucket helps to keep the top of the dirt and food scraps from drying out. Vermicompost companies sell burlap "worm blankets" for this exact purpose.
Your comment at the end about the worms being with you in death reminded me of a song you might like. Same Worms by Viagra Boys. Some great post-punk music. "The same Worms that eat me will some day eat you too"
Me: "all these kids idolizing influencers are so dumb"
Also me: "Hunny, I think we need to buy worms"
My girlfriend just turned herself into a worm to test my love for her, so this was perfect timing! Thanks!
is she still refusing food as a worm or the food you gave her disappears in one day?
🤣
your girlfriend is the God-Empress
More like perfect sliming, amirite!
Hate it when that happens. You come home after a long day of work and there she is, writhing on the floor, subsisting on dirt and the dead skin cells gathering in your carpet. You pretend you don't notice.
"Hey honey, how was your day?" you ask, masking the terror in your voice.
She does not respond.
You rub the place where her shoulders had once been and kiss the top of what you hope is her head.
"You seem stressed babe. Maybe we can cuddle up on the couch and binge that show you've been meaning to watch?"
You receive nothing in the way of a reaction, save for frantic twitching and a steady pulsating of her body mass.
You spend the rest of the night in fear and agony, but you do not waver.
You do not waver.
Women, amirite!
“Worms have been paid to be mentioned at the end of this video.”
netshaq on cooking: 4 minute videos
netshaq on worms: 7 minute videos
as he says he takes a few minutes to sell the idea 😂
So my dad is 77yrs old and every time it rains, he goes out and rescues all the worms that get lost on the concrete. He walks for miles and saves hundreds and then puts them in his garden. He's been doing this for as long as I remember and I remember growing up he used to come home from work with worms on rainy days and my mom would get so mad. Lol. But then she saw how my dad saved his garden when the soil went bad, by collecting the worms and putting them in his garden.
Whelp, you weren't joking about your next video being about worms...
that’s what I thought 😭
I expected different worms tho
Bro said "whelp" 💀💀💀
Fun fact: If you have a Bokashi fermentation system, you can put meat and dairy products in it and put the fermented product in the worm farm once it is broken down. :)
My partner bought worms earlier this year and became OBSESSED.
DUDE. I've been having tons of rats out of nowhere in my neighborhood and your comment about rats/compost bin finally made it click for me. My city just gave out compost bins to about 40k local people and that is almost definitely what caused the sudden uptick.
Great video as always, but mostly wanted to say thank you for that insight because it's been driving me crazy.
40k poorly maintained compost bins sounds like absolute hell on Earth 😳
Finally the worm content we've (*I've) been asking for!
Vermicomposting started as my quarantine hobby in 2020 and its slowly grown into a little side hustle (I sell castings to my neighbors). I've really learned so much about worm biology and their temperament; what they like to eat most (banana peel, melon skins, grains and coffee grounds) what conditions make them try to escape (too dry bin), etc. Plus worm farmers are truly some of the nicest people I've ever come across. It's impossible to be an ass when talking about the best methods to harvest worm poop.
How do you collect the castings?
This is so wholesome. I love it.
@@llamzrt When the bottom bin has no visible food left, I pour the finished castings out on a tarp, form it all into a mountain, wait a few minutes for the remaining worms to start to burrow down away from the light, then scoop it all off the top. I keep removing castings and waiting and removing and waiting until most of it is gone and I get to the gathered up wormball at the bottom. Then I put those wormies back into the active feeding tray. I use a Worm Factory 360 with stackable bins, so others may have different methods depending on their set up.
take the tip not to add CITRUS seriously! Otherwise you'll not only have pet worms, you'll have pet DUNG FLIES
Shaq could turn this channel into LITERALLY WHATEVER he wanted and I know I'd love it. His next video, in like two months, will prolly be about the phosphorus cycle or invasive frogs, and I'll be here for it. Come for the pizzas, stay for the WORMS!
I've had a worm bin for almost a year. about two thirds of our household's food waste is now kept from landfill. It's an amazing system. I feed the worms about once a week. they require very little attention, and I'm looking to have about 40-50lbs of grade A fertilizer for the next growing season.
Do the smart thing. invest in some worms.
Worms. Worms. We're doing worms now. That's where we're at. Goddamnit this may be the good timeline yet. Why is this so wholesome. Having a positive relationship with traditionally scorned features of nature might be my favourite genre of lifestyle content and resource texts. Be they weeds and wildflowers to replace lawns, freezing chicken bones and veggie scraps to make soup broth, or even... Worms now I guess. Hell yeah.
Hell yeah
Very pro-worm. When I was a kid I heard about a red-worm compost and always wanted one even though I wasn't even a gardener. Now I do have a garden and got me a subpod - super easy to set up and feel successful. It's black gold!!!
Dude, I had a roommate who was super into composting. She had it so figured out they could consume a banana peel in less than a day. The plastic bin she had them in got so hot it made the bin soft and malleable. It blew my mind. I think there’s something very special to this.
I'm surprised you haven't got into it. You learned a lot from in the worm business. Cool
Wife: Would you love me if I were a worm?
Shaq:
I love how whenever you release a video I have absolutely no clue what it's going to be about. It's refreshing. Thank you.
Hey, can you do a part 2 about how you effectively distribute your worms/worm castings from the raised garden bed to your garden plants?
I think the idea is that the worms distribute the castings themselves.
@@ry4nolson for the subpod, i think that's the idea, but harvesting castings from a stackable worm bin (what I have) is a whole other process
Having grown up in a small town in rural Europe, I was pretty shocked when I found out that the majority of city-dwellers are unaware of the ability to compost a lot of household trash. You can't get any closer to turning shit into gold in real life. Worms rock!
I'm a college student with a little apartment in the middle of the city that cooks for himself a LOT. Most days, I cook 2 meals from scratch and I don't really cook with meat so there's tons of bits of vegetables that I throw away every day. I try to use as much as I can by cooking my potato skins or whatever, but there's a lot that's simply unusable. Once I graduate and move somewhere with a bit more than 650 sft of space, I am definitely going to have a few worms in my compost and use that for a little garden. Even now, I grow my own basil, parsley, cilantro, chives, and dill to cook with. god I have to get out of the city
I live in Northern California. How do you grow all those herbs in what temperature please? You start all by seed or combination plant and seeds.
Had a worm bin high school that was literally a bin, I gave my worms every type of food and never had a problem. I would just rotate where I dropped my scraps and they did their thing!
I've been preaching the gospel of vermicomposting for decades now. Thank you for this video.
Yaay, I also started composting in a regular apartment a couple of years ago. First with bokashi, then bought a vermicomposter. Unfortunately, my worms were donated to a greenhouse because of the war, but I'll restart the bin after it's over. I also think more people should do vermicomposting!
Hope you can get back to it soon! I've been looking into bokashi as a sort of "pre-composting" method to help break down the food so the worms go through it faster. Plus, I think you can also break down meat/poultry bones with bokashi!
@@IjeomaThePlantMama thanks, me too! :3 Yep, combining the two methods is great, I find bokashi especially helpful as a buffer - when there's too much waste to add simultaneously, it could wait indefinitely in a bokashi bin (while being worked on by the microbes).
I too have a worm farm! It is great way to dispose of extra scraps. Also, they can survive fairly low temps. I live in DC and my farm is outside; every spring I expect them all to be dead but they are always there! Apparently when it’s cold they group to the center and wiggle around each other to produce friction warmth or something.
didn't know that but i'm glad i now know they hug each other and do a little dance to survive
I love how you explain the basics of complicated topics in simple ways. This feels like a perfect baseline knowledge to get started on this
holy crap. its been a few months since ive last visited you, and you're up to 500k+ now : ') we're so proud of you dude!
keep doing what you do at your own pace & style and we'll always come back to watch!
Luv u Shaq! Thanks to you I'm halfway through building two SIPs out of a 275 gal water tote and once I have them set up I'll be setting up worm buckets. I've always had in the back of my head that I wanted to start gardening after moving last summer, but you making this video (paired with your SIP video) gave me the starting ideas to get going and figure out what I wanted to do. Looking forward to some yum yum vegs this year, I'll christen my first harvest in your name!!
How far have you gotten since posting this 6 months ago? I haven started yet but love to hear how it's coming for you. Thank you
I’ve kept worms for about five years. When I had yard space I would start a cubic meter sized compost pile every year. After the pile cooled off in October for November, I’d add worms from my indoor bins and cover for winter. Come spring I’d have enough to fill my planters and pots with the highest quality compost possible.
I’d estimate that about 50 dollars in worms and containers has saved me at least 20 times that over the years.
My only gripe about worms is that they're not native to much of the US and are negatively impacting the worm-free ecosystems they've invaded (something Shaq briefly touched on). But unfortunately it is largely too late to do anything about that at this point, they've already been introduced pretty much everywhere due to gardening. So while I think it's important to know this and do your due diligence before buying worms, chances are you're probably not going to do any more harm than what has already been done.
Eisenia fetida aren't really the "problem worm" when it comes to forest erosion but definitely something to be wary of. There's also the "jumping worm" scare but that's entirely its own issue.
Similar issues in australia due to introduced worms, but bio security don’t seem to make a big deal about it
@@LunaZeidner I've been battling a jumping worm invasion, they turn your garden soil into a barren wasteland 😮💨. My landlord thinks they came from imported soil or manure.
@@IjeomaThePlantMama see now I'm scared to buy any manure or soil that I don't know the exact source of. Time to worm farm!
I just learned this in my bio class. Almost all earthworms in the US come from European colonists! What!
More content on gardening please, especially as some of us hunker down for the winter. Plans for the spring would be great.
thank you for reminding me of the time i secretly kept a plastic bin full of dirt and worms in the cabinet under the bathroom sink at my dads apartment. they were one of my favorite pets. too bad i got caught eventually
I can vouch for the fact that worms are a great asset to have. Thank you Internet Shaquille for bringing more attention to it.
I really need a breadwinner so I can live the idyllic child-free stay-at-home lifestyle that shaq has sold to me without having to run a TH-cam channel for funding
We'll give this a try soon! I feel validated by the recognition that composting is harder than anyone says. We found our way around that by using stuck compost and sticks to do a lazy variant on hügelkultur. Basically I dig out my garden and layer stuck compost over everything we cut back from our trumpet vines and lavender. The tomatoes, basil, and marigolds love it, and by the end of the growing season you can't find any evidence of the original material except for volunteer avocado plants sprouting underneath other plants. We live in Albuquerque so similar but slightly different conditions.
He is slowly transitioning from a TH-camr to a farmer.
reject modernity, embrace tradition
I'm gonna vicariously live through you on this one
You know that woman’s a keeper when she loves your composting
Timely video for us. Our compost game was spot on, even including egg shells; but, alas, life moves on and we moved. New area doesn’t have the leaves we were accustomed to having easily and readily so likely time to move to worm bins!
I don't have any outdoor space (small urban apartment) and have lots of precious houseplant. I love vermicomposting but can't deal with the houseplant pests that also find a hospitable home in the worm bin.
I usually take your advice very seriously but my fear and disgust of worms overpowers your wisdom; still here to watch and absorb precious knowledge ! would 100% appreciate a "chopping boards for dummies/not snobs" guide in your efficient and pragmatic voice if it ever takes your fancy. love your stuff !
I have to agree here, I have a bucket O worms and I tend not to even think about them it is more that they are just a garbage can that makes soil and saves me space in my normal garbage can and every spring gives me a massive can of free compost that would cost me about 700-1200$ a year. Yes it is a massive worm house, it is literally a full-sized garbage can you would see in the lawn.
Anyone who’s owned a garden with a lot of earth worms knows how much work they do. Especially, if you had fruit trees/plants are around. I’d incredibly got fast they work and how healthy the trees and plants are.
Vermicomposition is great, I used to have a little worm farm, but had to give it to my neighbor when I moved out of my old house, he also likes gardening, so I hope they are doing well.
I’ve been doing vermicompost as a hobby for a couple years now and everybody thinks I’m crazy. I try to explain the wonders of owning worms but I just dig myself into an even bigger hole. Now I’m fermenting my food waste using Bokashi and feeding it to the worms
I became obsessed with worms and bugs in general as a kid (on the spectrum, introverted child who liked nature) and would become highly distraught when my mom planted flowers because I didn't want her to cut "my friends" (wormies) with her shovel. I always thought they were some cool, helpful little dudes and your video has confirmed my bias.
damn i thought i was the only worm kid here, up until like age 6 worms and snails were like my favorite thing in the world
I was a total mealworm and microscope kid! Now as an adult, nothing calms my ADHD-addled brain more than spending an hour separating every worm and cocoon from finished castings. It's oddly quite relaxing 😌
I loved playing in the dirt and pulling out fat earthworms before putting them back when I was a kid. I love nature so much I started (but not finished 😪) a bachelors in evolutionary biology
I loved insects a lot when I was younger
my local council provide me with a big ol green bin that all this stuff goes in, and then they dump it in a worm / fungus rich pile of soil, (and a dehydrator i think) that gets turned into heat energy and/or fertiliser! very cool
_Some_ waste collection companies will collect food scraps separately to take to worm farmers or composters, or even pig farmers for the edible food scraps. Good for bigger cities where people don't have balconies or limited space in their overpriced apartments. Definitely a balance to be struck between large scale systems and many small systems working together, and all that.
I have some in my intestines!!! Actually super useful, never been as snatched in my life
Thanks! I actually needed these tips. I have a pretty big compost that isn't breaking down as fast as I'd like.
Check for moisture. If you're in a climate like Arizona, you're gonna need to keep it more moist in order for it to break down
I work on a golf course, and we judge the health of the greens on a daily basis by the visible castings on top. It's particularly satisfying after we plug the greens and the castings show up in a dotted grid pattern. But Shaq, I'm going to act sarcastically worried you're becoming a lifestyle channel lol
hold up what is a lifestyle channel
@@internetshaquille goat, I share everyone's excitement of watching you branch out from what might be strictly categorized as "cooking content"
My younger dog's name is Victor, and he burrows in blankets a lot so we call him Wormy. Please do with this information what you will.
I harvested radishes today (first thing I’ve grown from seed other than herbs. I was proud) and i saw a lil worm in my planter and was so happy to see him
You are the only guy with a mustache I would ever trust
I love my worms. They do such cool work on compost, just motoring through it. And you only need a few to get started, so you can put them in a little bit of kitchen compost and you'll probably produce food at the same rate they grow. I do put the forbidden foods Shaq mentioned in there, but I blend everything. (get a countertop compost bucket about the same volume or less than your blender canister for this.) No problems so far. You can also put your worms in most brown/green compost systems and they'll sort themselves out, staying away from the hot parts or moving towards them in winter. (I wouldn't put them in a tumbler though or any other type of container where they can't escape the heat.)
I’ve been getting a lot of comments asking for a starter pack of worms from my worm farm so that’s a good sign! A lot of people in my area are starting worm bins
Also, in my experience, worms love a big piece of cardboard on top of them that will retain moisture but not dissolve.
I do lots of cooking and those worms REALLY REALLY HELP! I feel better knowing that I no longer need to throw away vegetables scraps
On board - My 8th grade science teacher was a worm nut too. There was also an episode of the classic medical drama ER that had red wrigglers as a sub plot
Holy moly! I've been having a heck of a time getting grass to grow under my red maple tree. The soil is really poor and the tree sucks up all the moisture and dries out whatever grass I plant, even if I water it regularly. I think I'm going to try farming worms under it and see if the grass improves. Thanks!
I am just finishing up a house purchase and I can't wait to do this in spring here!
This video made me cry tears of joy.
Oh man I've been looking into getting worms but the pod was what was concerning me the most, this gave me a better hindsight on what to look for. Thank you!
damn that INTERNET SHAQUILLE wasn’t joking that NEXT VIDEO really IS ABOUT WORMS
I really like these occasional gardening-related videos! I was interested in getting into vermicomposting at one point and never pulled the trigger, but recently we got a composting mandate in California and my apartment building hasn't implemented an easy system for it yet. Maybe this is my moment to pick up some worms!
Also if you pivot to being a drama channel maybe cover the Uncle Jim's worm drama. Asking for a friend. 🤨
You mentioned your compost doing nothing because of off green-brown ratios. I had the same experience and started a bin-based worm farm, but once the population got big enough I just dumped them into my compost.
Now I have two 300l composters that take me a year each to fill, and they're full of worms! One bin matures while the other gets filled and it works a treat!
The only downside is seeds still survive so weeds can be a problem. Upside is I get random veg popping up that I grew last year and forgot about when I threw those unripe tomatoes or bolted fennel into the worm megalopolis.
I do feel like the whole system is going to collapse one day though, as I don't see anyone else recommending it 😬
i love that i tab away from your vids, and come back thinking ive learned 5 minutes of stuff, and usually only around 1m30s passed
I already have worms, I keep them in a box under my sink. In fact, I'm cutting up bedding for them out of takeout napkins right now.
your compost needs more water I think. the green to brown ratio doesn't matter that much, anything in the neighborhood of correct wikl still work, and even if you're way off its just slower (for extra brown) or smelly (for extra green). the compost should be damp/wet to the touch, but you shouldn't be able to squeeze water out if you grab a handful.
but if you've got a worm system that works then it's probably better to relegate the compost pile to just things like old plants you're pulling out or other stuff that there's too much of it to give to the worms
Whatever you do, don't get your worms confused with Worm, the webnovel. It won't do very well in your garden
End of the vid was surprisingly poetic, I'm sold!
omg i loved the wedding footage, y'all looked so good!! and the crowd was clearly having a great time
awesome video i think i'm gonna jump on this worm business asap
Alright, you've convinced me. I'm taking the Wormpill.
I used to have a phenomenal compost pile, that was swarming with worms. My neighbor used to beg to raid for worms for fishing.
No dude, I love those little guys. They aren't fish food.
I'm doing a presentation on soil health and bio-weathering, so this came at a good time
My god, that outro was a masterclass in how to write and perform a script for a video like this
I have a lot to learn still. As a city staff who educates others on recycling, composting, etc. for my job, please share more!
Dude, you love cooking and gardening AND raise worms? My respect for you just increases with every video. Ever try natural Korean farming techniques?
Wait, I need to know about Jim’s worm drama he’s embroiled in! You can’t just leave it at that in the video description
Apparently they are slipping OTHER types of worms into sacks of red wigglers !!!!
I'm thinking of doing something like this, but for a much smaller scale in an indoor potted plant because I think my house plant is not getting enough nutrients. Maybe I could use something like a yogurt container as the bucket? And maybe in that case I only need a small number of worms, like how they are sold in stores for fishing.
After a quick research, it should work out like that, as long as I give them enough food so they don't feed on the plant roots. It might be a good way to dip my toes into gardening. Every time I wanna start gardening, I get overwhelmed by all the steps and information, and all the considerations and variations/alternatives. Even "simple" guides to gardening have so much information, but at the same time don't explain the actual step by step that well, that it's hard to use this information to understand what I'm supposed to do. So starting something like this on a much smaller scale might be helpful for me
I wouldn’t do all that for an indoor plant. I would simply fertilize the plant with organic fertilizer
@@internetshaquille
I see! That does sound more appropriate, thank you!
I'm anyway figuring out how I will start gardening on the balcony, so hopefully I will eventually also start getting some worms for that.
By the way, thank you so much for all the videos you make!! ❤ They are all very well made and helpful! The one for home-made burritos, for example, helped me to experiment more and get more involved with cooking, which used to be super daunting for me personally, with all these complicated cooking methods and recipes out there.
thank u :,)
my aunt used to keep a box of worms in her apartment and that only stopped because once she forgot to put them somewhere dark/cool on an especially hot day. so it's doable even in cities (as long as you don't accidentally bake your worms...)
Yaaaa buddy! I've been waiting for this video ShaqDaddy! Thanks!
That beautiful lighting and shading is wonderful!
Didn’t know about the citrus, I’ve been feeding mine it for years. I think as long as it’s not crazy amounts you’ll be ok.
We finally have an answer to "Who up late playing with they worm?"
i will watch literally anything this man makes
start onlyfans now.
i love this, more worm content please. or maybe more gardening content? that epic gardening guy needs more competition
I live in Michigan so outdoor worms aren’t possible, but I might try having some indoor worms. Sounds sustainable and fairly cheap!
Shaq with a mustache saying the word "kooky" has provided heating and electricity to my 1000 square foot home.
This is such a great idea! I've also long given up on composting, and have worked with worms before but never fully invested because it gets so cold where I am in the winter. Will be looking into overwintering options and I think I'll start worm farming next spring :D
Sir I leave in a studio appartment.
If buying worms makes me half the chad Uncle Jim appears to be how can I say no
I did something similar to this - I got a bunch of spent coffee grounds (from Starbucks) and just buried them (I have a yard) - the coffee by itself didn’t “compost” and it attracted the red wigglers naturally (didn’t have to buy any). It also wasn’t a pest problem initially - rats and moles and possums don’t dig up the coffee. I did notice that the worms also love paper egg crates - similar to your setup with the paper. Anyway, I feed them with all my food scraps and occasionally big bags of spent coffee from Starbucks (I work next to one, so I just grab 1 or 2 per week). Rats and stuff will dig in and pull some stuff out of there - I don’t think a plastic container would keep them out - I’ve seen them chew threw 3/4 inch plywood. Bastards.
We're giving this a shot, thanks! Have you thought of painting the underside of the lid black or stapling/wrapping some burlap around the lid to overcome the need for shadepaper?
The shade paper tucked into the bucket helps to keep the top of the dirt and food scraps from drying out. Vermicompost companies sell burlap "worm blankets" for this exact purpose.
This video made me want to get worms! And I intend to, now. I didn't realise I have all the tools already, thank you!
The multi-flannel stitched shirt is fantastic. Thanks for the info!
Your comment at the end about the worms being with you in death reminded me of a song you might like. Same Worms by Viagra Boys. Some great post-punk music. "The same Worms that eat me will some day eat you too"
I still add the occational onion and citrus peels. Once the food breaks down enough, the worms will get into it. Cheers my worm loving friend
Instresting! I live in the desert but i still really wanna get worms bc i plan to make a garden soon. I always assumed you needed worms to compost.
I expect Shaq to transform into a giant worm god-emperor of Dune style.