Helloooooo wormie friend!! 🪱🪱🪱🪱 listening as I deliver flower subscriptions today! This worm bin is doing fantastic! Sometimes it pays to not obey the instructions hahahaha because look at the results!! So awesome 👏 great video as always Patrick, have the best weekend you guys!! 🌷🪱🌼🌸☀️🌻💐
Helloooo Anita!! That's so great...I'm coming along for the subscription route ride!! Sometimes you gotta bend the rules a little🤣😂🤣or modify the instructions!! It really is a worm casting machine!! Thanks so much for dropping by!! We've had a wonderful weekend and we hope you have as well!!!🪱🪱🪱
After grinding my egg shells I take it outside, with a fan & a strainer, and run it through the strainer in front of the fan... ensuring that all the particle sizes are right and also to blow away all of that membrane material that is on the inside of the egg shells. Yeah - I know, I know - major OCD at work here :)
That may be a good idea, my husband, a lung specialist, wants me to wear a mask went using the powdered eggshells. He is concerned about them getting into my lungs and causing micro scar tissue which is bad
That sounds scary bad!! I keep my face pretty far away when I'm adding them and I leave the lid on after I grind them until things calm down in there!! But maybe I need to use AV's technique as well!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Sounds like a good technique to eliminate the membrane and get a lot of the dust away...I think meticulous is a good word for it and it's a great trait to have!! Thanks for stopping by to watch AV!!🪱🪱🪱
I'm a tad weird too about that membrane. I use warm water and I rub against the eggshells til that membrane peels out in sheets even if that means losing a couple small chips to get ahold of that membrane. Then I hand crunch it like it's a fidget toy (lol) til it is tiny grit since I don't have a grinder yet. Thank goodness my bf bakes a lot.
Great demonstration as always. I’d use your instructions over the manufacturer’s if I owned a VermiHut. You prove your method to be cleaner and more efficient.
Thanks Joe!! It really is the most effective and efficient way I have found to rotate the trays and get to the harvest with the least amount of mess & most amount of worm castings!! Thanks so much for the comment and thanks for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
That is a great question!! It came with 5 trays but I have only been able to run it with 4...by the time I fill a tray up with food scraps over 60 days the next tray is ready to be harvested. if I go down to 45 days between harvests then there is not enough time to get the feeding tray up to capacity before the next one is ready to come off. I guess I could feed a couple trays at a time but that is too much work for this lazy worm farmer 😂 Things seem to want to work with 4 trays and one left over to use as a sifter...in my opinion/experience! But, I'm sure there is someone that has perfected 5 trays out there!!! Thanks so much for watching Ann!!🪱🪱🪱
Wow - it’s that easy! Thank you so much for the video. I think I just wasn’t grinding my eggshells enough in the blender to really turn them into powder. Maybe I’ll also try some of the other suggestions that some of the other commenters said. Thanks again for the great videos! 👍
Thank you for the great idea! You might want to put either more or less egg shells in at once and see if it grinds them better. I also shake it up and swirl it around as it is grinding. I think I grinded for a total of 6 minutes on this time around. So glad it was helpful!! Thanks for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
The "present" is a scary place, there's no awesome comments to read yet, No Sandra, Rick, Ann, AV, Nick, Steve.... 🤔😉 Lol, they sure do like pressure, but I think they like the millions of bacteria,fungi, and other microorganisms building up under the food more🤔🤣. Decomposition might create a perfect moisture level aswell!! Btw it's Lania, not porch 🤣🤣🤣 Awesome observations, insights, and resulting adjustments you've made to make that even better than what the manufacturer's vision, wicked smart !! Awesomeness Brother, back to the past, I go 🤣🤣🤣 Cheers J&C 🪱🌱🪱🤞🤜🤛
😂 I knew the pressure had something to do with it besides all that other stuff! When I was editing I almost wrote in lanai with an asterisk!! There may be an even better way of running it but I haven’t found it yet!! Dry on the bottom becomes inoculated and ready to go on the top is the way!! Thanks so much for dropping by early to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
Another great, instructional video! Thank you! I use a coffee grinder to grind up my egg shells, as I don’t have a magic bullet - lol! BTW since I got the paper shredder through your link, my cardboard has been decomposing and simultaneously airing my bin sooo much better than when I was ripping up cardboard boxes by hand. A real game changer. Thank you so much for the link and for sharing all your knowledge. Big smiles from a newbie in South Spain 🙂
Thank you!! I'm so glad your are reaping the benefits of the new shredder!! Total game changer!! That is too funny you use your coffee grinder for the egg shells because I use my magic bullet blender to grind my coffee beans!!! They both get the job done...for both jobs!! Thanks so much for taking the time to watch from South Spain!!!🪱🪱🪱
Great video and so close to 5K❤️ I love your way of putting a fresh tray with shred on the bottom. I'm trying it with the 3 tray, Can-O-Worms. Happy Valentine's Day to you and Autumn 💕
Thank you Peggy!! That bottom tray full of dry bedding works so well in this VermiHut!! Hopefully it will save you some time in your Can O' Worms!! Happy Valentine's Day to you and Rick and your 50 years of marriage!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
I made tiramisu today for my valentine Julia and I ground up some coffee for the first time!🤯 my worms will get coffee for the first time.🪱☕️👍🏻🤠💗🙏 didn’t even know I had coffee beans! Espress too.👍🏻☕️🤯
That's fantastic!! Your worms are gonna be addicted to coffee in no time!! That tiramisu sounds delicious for you two!!! Thanks so much for dropping in Nick!!🪱🪱🪱
by the looks of the new tray, you will come close to maxing out the systems output. 5-6k worms does fly through your feedings. Excellent explanation on how you run this system.
Thank you!! How many trays did your Worm factory 360 come with? I have 5 for my VermiHut but I can't seem to get a 5th tray on it...they turn it into castings too fast for me to fill up the 5th tray!! Thanks so much for dropping by to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost I bought 4 trays. All together right now. 3 trays filled with leaves, one on the bottom with cardboard like you. And the top one gets food and more cardboard.
I started my Vermihut 4 months ago. I use your system as a model. Started with an innoculating bottom tray, a filled tray and castings from my nieces Vermihut, and my top feeding tray that I started with coconut coir that came with the kit. I fed once a week. The worms would come up to eat in the feeding tray, but seemed to want to stay in the castings on the donated tray. After 3 months I added a new top feeding tray, but left the uneaten food in the coir tray. The new tray was started with shredded cardboard, shredded leaves, coffee grounds and rainwater. The worms moved into the new tray up through the coir tray and are even producing cocoons. The coir tray is has a few worms, and doesn't seem to be turning to castings. The donated tray still has a decent population, and the innoculating tray has castings and a few worms. What is up with the coir tray?
That is so cool that you and your niece have VermiHuts going!! That is a little odd that the worms seem to pass through the coco coir tray for the others. I used the coco coir that came with mine and then switched to shredded cardboard, which my worms seem to love!! They may just like the other stuff in the other trays better so they are staying there possibly because they have more microbial life, but after 3-4 months that should have equalled out?!? I would just harvest the coco coir tray and use what you can from it, then the next tray to harvest after a couple months will be the one your niece gave you (all while adding inoculating trays down below each time you take a tray off). I think as your population grows and the system gets into a routine your will see that the worms are mostly populating the top feeding tray, with the one below it (the pre-harvest tray) with about 1/3rd to 1/4th as many worms, then the bottom two inoculating tray with about 1/10 the amount of worms or lower especially for a new one just put on. I think you are doing everything right and the worms are just liking one substrate over the other because they are all so different now. Once all the trays are started in similar ways the worms will start to form a flow for you!! I'm not sure how many worms you have, but be sure not to overfeed...I have about 6000 worms in mine so I give enormous feedings compared to a system with 1000 worms in it. Thanks so much for letting us know about you and your niece's VermiHuts!! I hope this helps!! Thanks for watching!!!🪱🪱🪱
@Vermicompost I am very careful not to overfeed. My niece feeds all her levels of her Vermihut. We don't know how many worms were in the donated tray. I have a tote that I started with 1000 a month prior. After about 2 months its population exploded. I just added some of its worms to the new tray I added 2 weeks ago. So far they are doing well. Between the 2 systems I still cannot use all my coffee grounds, which is only 1/2 pot per day. I would guess I add about 1 1/2 cups of food total between the 2 systems a week. The tote getting most of it. Keep up the great videos. I like all of your systems.
Excellent!! Your systems are doing very well!! I love to see the population explode after a couple of months!! I can't get rid of all the coffee grounds my wife and I use either...When the container I collect them in starts to get too high I end up putting them in my regular compost pile....I'm hoping my new Urban Worm Bag will be able to make a bigger dent in my coffee ground stash once it grows its population more!! Thanks for all the kind words!!!
Happy Valentine's Day Patrick and Autumn! Once again, you are showing your worms some 💕, Worms may not have big brains, but they definitely know to come back to check that trench of food, so it's no wonder they find their way into it so quickly. I've wondered that about rotating feeding areas - are we slowing down the bin because the worms have to find the goodies? You must tell me how you speed up your hands but keep talking 😉 ~ Sandra
Happy Valentines Day to you and Landon!! Nature...and worms are smarter than all us smart people combined 😂🤣😂 I think we are actually speeding things up!! The worms don't have to travel far to their next meal!! The speedy hands are all magic...well the magic of editing, and me not liking dead air in my videos!! And unfortunately, with my caveman speaking skills, there is a lot or dead air!! Thanks so much for taking the time to watch Sandra!!🪱🪱🪱
Bo!!!! So wonderful to see you here!! They really do like to get inside those mango seeds!! And they really love avocado, but it does take them a while to eat it all!! Thanks so much for stopping by to watch!! I really appreciate your support!!🪱🪱🪱
Great question. About every 60 days when I rotate the trays, I'll aerate each inoculating tray. So each tray gets aerated twice before it goes on top as the top feeding tray. Here is a video of my last rotation showing me aerate them: th-cam.com/video/5zqKfUi2R4U/w-d-xo.html It also shows what happens in the bottom basin if I don't harvest and rotate every 60 days! Thanks so much for watching and for the great question I'm sure other folks have as well!!🪱🪱🪱
Below are some of the items I use for vermicomposting & my channel's videos. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you if you use these links. Thank you for supporting this channel! Worm Bins I use: Vermihut 5-Tray Worm Compost Bin amzn.to/3Xs1eGe Urban Worm Bag V2 amzn.to/3XE9QsT 20 Gallon Fabric Grow Pots amzn.to/3EBYhdr 3 gallon Rubbermaid Roughneck tote amzn.to/3eKDLhO Other Worm Bins: Worm Factory 360 3-Tray Version amzn.to/3AHnjqK Worm Factory 360 5-Tray Version amzn.to/3tYfWY4 Bus bins amzn.to/3fd8AvP Equipment I use: 12 Sheet Cross Cut Shredder (I use it to shred cardboard) micro amzn.to/3gCwQIv or small amzn.to/3Ey0Ugx Magic Bullet Small Blender (to pulverize egg shells) amzn.to/3gwEzb4 Indoor Outdoor Wireless Thermometer for worm bin amzn.to/3wIdXbO Additional thermometer sensors 433 MHz amzn.to/41juD7v Please make sure Thermometer & sensor are the same MHz Additional thermometer sensors 915MHz amzn.to/3WTFgua Please make sure Thermometer & sensor are the same MHz Kitchen scale to weigh worms & food: amzn.to/3HnOQjg Blue gloves amzn.to/3XsBg5n Digital handheld Thermometer amzn.to/3EWfC2j Compost Tea Bags amzn.to/3fCb5o1 Solar powered light amzn.to/3nOucAq Reusable Keurig Coffee K-cups amzn.to/3FNXvt6 Other useful equipment for worm farming: 5 stackable sifter with different sized mesh: amzn.to/3S2k184 Cameras & camera equipment I use: GoPro HERO11 amzn.to/3jkRpLa Flexible Tripod amzn.to/3CGTjcF Insta360 GO 2 camera amzn.to/3oxCc80 Insta360 One X2 camera amzn.to/3nqV6hp iPhone 13 Max Pro amzn.to/3nq52aU Canon EOS Rebel T8i amzn.to/3HcBuX6 4 Ocean bracelets I wear Multiple colors to chose from bracelets amzn.to/3HMbHEx Books on worms & worm farming Worms Eat My Garbage amzn.to/3L4FXN2 Where to buy worms: www.TheGardenAndWormLady.com
I use a Keurig coffee maker and reusable coffee filters made of metal mesh and plastic so I don't usually have coffee filters...but if I did I would throw them in as bedding!! Great question!! Thanks again for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
I have Red Wigglers and Blue worms, but I don't have any experience with European Night Crawlers. I would try to go with just the red wigglers for now so that all the worms you get, can breed with each other and reproduce faster. Maybe after you get the hang of things branch out and get a mix or some European Night Crawlers...but honestly I would go with what ever type of those two you can get cheaper. Mixes of worms are fine too if that is all you can get. I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for the questions & for continuing to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
That is a great question and I have often thought about using it for grit in my worm bins but I'll be honest, I haven't heard of it being used for grit. I make my own bone meal with chicken bones and I know they are bendy and pliable when I cook them enough...which leads me to believe that they would not make a good grit...I think the best grit doesn't change it's physical nature when soaked, so things like sand (in very small quantities, otherwise you'll have sandy soil) crushed oyster or shrimp shells, and some folks buy azomite but I prefer not to buy things specifically to give my worms. Now putting bone meal in your worm bin for food or because you know it will eventually make its way in the garden is just fine, in fact I add it to my worm casting teas, but for grit, I'm just not sure they would use it as such. I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
If I needed to buy worms I would use www.TheGardenAndWormLady.com or www.northeastworms.com I haven't purchased worms from them but from what I have seen on their TH-cam Channels and their very satisfied customers, they are who I would use. The only problem is I don't think they are shipping worms right now due to the cold weather. If you can find a local seller of worms where you live, you could probably get started sooner. I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Serious question here. Where in the world are you getting all that food for the worms? I don't eat pumpkin every week or even every month. Same with the watermelon. I grow vegetables or try too lol. I'm worried I won't be able to feed them right
😀 Great question!! This past Halloween I gathered up several Jack O' Lanterns from the neighborhood and cut them up and froze them...so I have a pretty good supply of pumpkin. I have one boy in High School one in College and one graduated from College, but they all like to come back home to eat, so we have lots of food scraps!! My mom also occasionally gives us her food scraps, but I think you'll be surprised how much food scraps you produce and what they will eat!! I have more than 10,000 worms total and I have no problem feeding them. I have a little container I keep in the freezer and just put food scraps into it throughout the week. You can start saving now and see how much you collect in a week as a little test. You will be surprised how it all adds up!! Thanks so much for watching and asking a great question!!🪱🪱🪱
Thank you. I've approximately 500 and counting worms. I see several people including you feed some items like tomato, onion, and pineapple to the worms. So many sites say don't do it that too much could cause the bin to become too acidic. Do they just mean don't go overboard in those food items? I have a ton of cherry tomatoes and green onion tops. I'll be hitting my vegetable eating friends for scraps now. They will just love you for that lol.... me pestering them for their goodies. I appreciate your time and your knowledge.
That's a great colony so far...it will rapidly increase over the next few months!! I think you are right, they fear worm bins becoming too acidic or become smelly (onions). Most issues in a worm bin come from overfeeding so putting too much of any food can become a problem. But too much onions can allow them to decompose faster than the worms can eat them so they can get smelly...over feeding pineapple or citrus can cause things to ferment or become acidic for a short period of time...so the best rule (as in life) is everything in moderation😂 Worms will eat just about anything that was once alive so just test things out in very small quantities to see what they like!! I'm sure your friends will love to help feed your worms!! I find people oddly fascinated by my little hobby😂🤣😂
I am about to set up my Vermi Hut for the 1st time. I bought 500 worms. How much food do you recommend I start with? I’ve been freezing the food scraps in 4 cup portions. Is that to much?
That is fantastic news!! It is so exciting to start a new bin and especially a VermiHut!! Here is a video showing how I start a new VermiHut and how much I feed it: th-cam.com/video/g5Sag75OAXY/w-d-xo.html Believe it or not the first few feedings need to be very small. For 500 worms I would use 4 strawberry tops (or a small piece of lettuce) that has been frozen. The worms will not starve, because they eat the bedding as well. A new worm bin can go anaerobic or produce ammonia which is deadly to worms if it is overfed. At your second or third feeding you can put in about a half of a cup of frozen food per week and see if there is any left after 7-10 days. If there is some food left, fed less, if there is no food left, feed just a little bit more each time...It is slow going but after a few months when your population really starts to bloom you will be able to put much bigger portions in. Here is a bin I just started a month ago with 500 worms so you can see what the 1st feeding looked like before and after they ate it: th-cam.com/video/1IRP-Nu6_90/w-d-xo.html and here is the bin after 21 days receiving it's third feeding th-cam.com/video/8qYPJaz6aMQ/w-d-xo.html I think these videos will be able to help you get an idea of how my worms start off small and build their way up. Frozen food is the way to go so you are off to a good start!! Just maybe break up those 4 cup portions into 1/2 cup portions for now. I hope this helps!! I'm so excited for you and your new VermiHut!!!🪱🪱🪱
Wow thank you for such a prompt and detailed reply! Your content is by far the most details and helpful on TH-cam I can’t wait to watch the videos you recommended. Would you recommend that I set up two trays? One that the worms will be placed in and one dry inoculating tray, underneath the worms, just above the M board? Thanks again for your time.
Thank you!! I appreciate your kind words!! Yes, I would start with two trays just as you described! Then, after 60 days, no matter how far along your top feeding tray is, I would rotate that inoculating tray on top and put another dry bedding inoculating tray on bottom...Your old top feeding tray will be the new pre harvest tray for a three tray system. Now you can choose to run it as a three tray system or just put another dry bedding inoculating tray on the bottom for a 4 tray system and just rotate & harvest every 60 days!! Easy Peasy!!
Great questions! Worms work hand in hand with microbes (including bacteria, protozoa, fungi, etc.) to decompose food scraps and bedding. In fact without microbes, the worms would not be able to do their job of making castings at all! An older worm bin will typically have a large biota of microbes, and other "bin critters" such as mites, springtails and pot worms all helping to break down and shred the bedding and food scraps. Worms get most of their nutrients and nourishment from the microbes within the food that they eat (not unlike humans and our gut micro biome). Their castings (worm poop) are full of microbes that help plants uptake nutrients as well, which is why vermicompost or worm castings are such great soil amendments. When we put fresh bedding, such as shredded cardboard and paper, into our bins it is more or less sterile as far as good microbes for worms and plants. So what I like to do is get my bedding filled with these good microbes by putting trays full of dry bedding underneath my top two trays of worms and let any moisture full of these microbes drip down into the dry bedding, inoculating it with all these beneficial bacteria, protozoa and fungi. So I'm using the Micro Biology use of the term "inoculate" to describe "introducing microorganisms into surroundings suited to their growth, as a culture or medium" and not the clinical one dealing with stimulating disease resistance by implanting an antigen into an animal or person. I hope this helps! Sorry if I over explained things. Thanks for asking a great question I'm sure lots of other folks have as well, and thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost thank you!!! First, I appreciate the through explanation. Thank you. Second I just had that “ah-ha” moment of everything coming together with the worm condo towers! I’m moving from my underground outdoor to a multi-tiered system .. I felt so dumb not being able to reconcile the layers and why we put them where… What is funny? I know what “to inoculate” means and I know that worms eat the microbes and Fungi but I kept going back to inoculating spores for mycelium growth, yeast into dairy, bacteria in a petri dish, viral pathogen into a test tube with a medium.,, 🤦🏻♀️ the little buddies love them some mycotoxins/ mycelium. Have you experimented with a mycelium colony / substrate as bedding and food? I have caught 100% my worms from my garden during a landscape remodel (I didn’t want to kill them and saved all of them in a 5 gallon bucket) and I had always found them living/eating in huge concentrations in and around mycelium. (Now that I added composted organic steer Manuer /plant blen - that brings the giant earthworms to the yard. I never know these critters existed at this length.. Thanks again for the help and all your great vid!
I definitely over explained things there😂 I majored in Biology in college so I go down the rabbit hole a little when I get a good question! Yes, my worms love a little fungi/mycelium when I can find it or grow it accidentally! My upcoming Urban Worm Bag video has a bunch of it since we just got back from a trip and didn't disturb the bin for about 3 weeks! That is fantastic you were able to source all your worms from your yard!! Free worms are the best worms!!
@@Vermicompost The Bio major makes sense and why your video’s are so great! I bet all of us here are down to “nerd out” on the science of vermicompost and worms. Myself, I am finding it is the worms that are fascinating. It is so funny how I never paid any mind to them until I went down the rabbit hole … and now I am obsessed. The rabbit hole is nuts. I am a floral designer and want to grow a lush garden with create designs from my own garden (I live in a townhouse so I had to learn how to maximize space and as I started to understand that my soul was crap, I researched soil science. To upgrade my soil, castings were necessary and worms would aerate the clay soil. Okay, fine. As I mentioned I started a landscape project in my four growing areas and that is where I started saving each and every worm. To save the worms, I painstakingly sifted through dirt and rocks from an 8 x 4 x 3 and would walk them over to the temp home. (Because of this, digging took a long time I’m sure my neighbors thought I was trying to bury someone) In stead of putting my little buddies back, I built an underground worm station that they could come and go as they please. Poor things, I can’t leave them alone. At this point, literally a month ago, I did not know that a worm would ever grow past three or four inches and the width of a spaghetti. My husband tells me that works can get huge and in Texas they would commonly find worms 12 inches… I didn’t believe him. Literally the next week I found three in the top soil after a rain. These ones were about 8-9 inches maybe and as thick as a sharpie? (The composted steer manure probably enticed them). Now when I walk my dog in the evening (he is old and goes out about 5-6 times overnight), I bring a headlamp with an infrared light and holy moly I have found the coolest biggest night crawlers. One was larger than three of my hands and still partially in his hole as he was sussing out his mate. Six hours later, the two were mating, another hour later still mating. When they are mating, light from a camera doesn’t bother them.. weird! Now I am obsessed with going out and just counting how many my community has and watching their activity. Started with floral designing and now am spending all of my time learning about these critters.
😁That is wonderful! I find myself obsessing about them as well!! Your poor doggie having to go 5-6 times a night...and poor you having to walk him!! Something fun to research if you haven't already is the three types of earthworms: Epigeic or compost worms (above the soil or in the duff layer), endogeic top layer of soil and finally enecic deep burrowers. Fascinating!!
Looking good! Happy Valentines Day 🌹🪱🪱🪱
Thank you so much Ann!! Happy Valentines Day!! I really appreciate all your support!!🪱🪱🪱
Hi Patrick when you were talking about the avocado the worms below reminded me of the pit of snakes from Raiders of the Lost Ark!👍🏻🤠🤪💪💗
😂🤣😂 You're right!! You could see them wiggling around below as I was taking about the avocado!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost snakes, I hate snakes!🤠😅😀 I actually don’t mind snakes but I’m terrified of big spiders!🤠👍🏻🕷️
Snakes?...ok, Spiders?...no problem, Cockroaches?...I turn into a screaming banshie!!!
Nice to see the new tray and how you make grit great video 👍🏼👍🏼
Thank you!! How many trays do you have on your VermiHut now? Thanks so much for taking the time to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost 3 and I have a inoculating tray🙂🙂
Awesome!!!
Helloooooo wormie friend!! 🪱🪱🪱🪱 listening as I deliver flower subscriptions today! This worm bin is doing fantastic! Sometimes it pays to not obey the instructions hahahaha because look at the results!! So awesome 👏 great video as always Patrick, have the best weekend you guys!! 🌷🪱🌼🌸☀️🌻💐
Helloooo Anita!! That's so great...I'm coming along for the subscription route ride!! Sometimes you gotta bend the rules a little🤣😂🤣or modify the instructions!! It really is a worm casting machine!! Thanks so much for dropping by!! We've had a wonderful weekend and we hope you have as well!!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost 💝🌻💝🌻
The worms enjoy living in the Vermihut. 😎
They are living large in their Florida Condo!! Thanks for stopping by AJ!!🪱🪱🪱
After grinding my egg shells I take it outside, with a fan & a strainer, and run it through the strainer in front of the fan... ensuring that all the particle sizes are right and also to blow away all of that membrane material that is on the inside of the egg shells. Yeah - I know, I know - major OCD at work here :)
That may be a good idea, my husband, a lung specialist, wants me to wear a mask went using the powdered eggshells. He is concerned about them getting into my lungs and causing micro scar tissue which is bad
That sounds scary bad!! I keep my face pretty far away when I'm adding them and I leave the lid on after I grind them until things calm down in there!! But maybe I need to use AV's technique as well!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Sounds like a good technique to eliminate the membrane and get a lot of the dust away...I think meticulous is a good word for it and it's a great trait to have!! Thanks for stopping by to watch AV!!🪱🪱🪱
Yeah - meticulous... that sound so much better 👍🏻
I'm a tad weird too about that membrane. I use warm water and I rub against the eggshells til that membrane peels out in sheets even if that means losing a couple small chips to get ahold of that membrane. Then I hand crunch it like it's a fidget toy (lol) til it is tiny grit since I don't have a grinder yet. Thank goodness my bf bakes a lot.
Great demonstration as always. I’d use your instructions over the manufacturer’s if I owned a VermiHut. You prove your method to be cleaner and more efficient.
Thanks Joe!! It really is the most effective and efficient way I have found to rotate the trays and get to the harvest with the least amount of mess & most amount of worm castings!! Thanks so much for the comment and thanks for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Wow there are going to be so many worms in there. Can you go more vertical than 4 trays? You have it down to a science for sure.
That is a great question!! It came with 5 trays but I have only been able to run it with 4...by the time I fill a tray up with food scraps over 60 days the next tray is ready to be harvested. if I go down to 45 days between harvests then there is not enough time to get the feeding tray up to capacity before the next one is ready to come off. I guess I could feed a couple trays at a time but that is too much work for this lazy worm farmer 😂 Things seem to want to work with 4 trays and one left over to use as a sifter...in my opinion/experience! But, I'm sure there is someone that has perfected 5 trays out there!!! Thanks so much for watching Ann!!🪱🪱🪱
Wow - it’s that easy! Thank you so much for the video. I think I just wasn’t grinding my eggshells enough in the blender to really turn them into powder. Maybe I’ll also try some of the other suggestions that some of the other commenters said. Thanks again for the great videos! 👍
Thank you for the great idea! You might want to put either more or less egg shells in at once and see if it grinds them better. I also shake it up and swirl it around as it is grinding. I think I grinded for a total of 6 minutes on this time around. So glad it was helpful!! Thanks for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
The "present" is a scary place, there's no awesome comments to read yet, No Sandra, Rick, Ann, AV, Nick, Steve.... 🤔😉
Lol, they sure do like pressure, but I think they like the millions of bacteria,fungi, and other microorganisms building up under the food more🤔🤣. Decomposition might create a perfect moisture level aswell!!
Btw it's Lania, not porch 🤣🤣🤣
Awesome observations, insights, and resulting adjustments you've made to make that even better than what the manufacturer's vision, wicked smart !!
Awesomeness Brother, back to the past, I go 🤣🤣🤣
Cheers J&C 🪱🌱🪱🤞🤜🤛
😂 I knew the pressure had something to do with it besides all that other stuff! When I was editing I almost wrote in lanai with an asterisk!! There may be an even better way of running it but I haven’t found it yet!! Dry on the bottom becomes inoculated and ready to go on the top is the way!! Thanks so much for dropping by early to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost 🤣🤜🤛🤣
I love the two fist, fist bump emoji!! It looks like pilot wings to me!! let's go!!
@Vermicompost Learn by Doing
RESPECT 🤜🤛, dude it totally does !!
you want your mind blown 🙏 is also High Five !! type it into your "search"
@@clivesconundrumgarden 🤯
Another great, instructional video! Thank you!
I use a coffee grinder to grind up my egg shells, as I don’t have a magic bullet - lol!
BTW since I got the paper shredder through your link, my cardboard has been decomposing and simultaneously airing my bin sooo much better than when I was ripping up cardboard boxes by hand. A real game changer. Thank you so much for the link and for sharing all your knowledge.
Big smiles from a newbie in South Spain 🙂
Thank you!! I'm so glad your are reaping the benefits of the new shredder!! Total game changer!! That is too funny you use your coffee grinder for the egg shells because I use my magic bullet blender to grind my coffee beans!!! They both get the job done...for both jobs!! Thanks so much for taking the time to watch from South Spain!!!🪱🪱🪱
Great video and so close to 5K❤️
I love your way of putting a fresh tray with shred on the bottom. I'm trying it with the 3 tray, Can-O-Worms.
Happy Valentine's Day to you and Autumn 💕
Thank you Peggy!! That bottom tray full of dry bedding works so well in this VermiHut!! Hopefully it will save you some time in your Can O' Worms!! Happy Valentine's Day to you and Rick and your 50 years of marriage!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
I made tiramisu today for my valentine Julia and I ground up some coffee for the first time!🤯 my worms will get coffee for the first time.🪱☕️👍🏻🤠💗🙏 didn’t even know I had coffee beans! Espress too.👍🏻☕️🤯
That's fantastic!! Your worms are gonna be addicted to coffee in no time!! That tiramisu sounds delicious for you two!!! Thanks so much for dropping in Nick!!🪱🪱🪱
by the looks of the new tray, you will come close to maxing out the systems output. 5-6k worms does fly through your feedings. Excellent explanation on how you run this system.
Thank you!! How many trays did your Worm factory 360 come with? I have 5 for my VermiHut but I can't seem to get a 5th tray on it...they turn it into castings too fast for me to fill up the 5th tray!! Thanks so much for dropping by to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost I bought 4 trays. All together right now. 3 trays filled with leaves, one on the bottom with cardboard like you. And the top one gets food and more cardboard.
4 seems to be the number!!! Thanks for getting back with me!!
I started my Vermihut 4 months ago. I use your system as a model. Started with an innoculating bottom tray, a filled tray and castings from my nieces Vermihut, and my top feeding tray that I started with coconut coir that came with the kit. I fed once a week. The worms would come up to eat in the feeding tray, but seemed to want to stay in the castings on the donated tray. After 3 months I added a new top feeding tray, but left the uneaten food in the coir tray. The new tray was started with shredded cardboard, shredded leaves, coffee grounds and rainwater. The worms moved into the new tray up through the coir tray and are even producing cocoons. The coir tray is has a few worms, and doesn't seem to be turning to castings. The donated tray still has a decent population, and the innoculating tray has castings and a few worms. What is up with the coir tray?
That is so cool that you and your niece have VermiHuts going!! That is a little odd that the worms seem to pass through the coco coir tray for the others. I used the coco coir that came with mine and then switched to shredded cardboard, which my worms seem to love!! They may just like the other stuff in the other trays better so they are staying there possibly because they have more microbial life, but after 3-4 months that should have equalled out?!? I would just harvest the coco coir tray and use what you can from it, then the next tray to harvest after a couple months will be the one your niece gave you (all while adding inoculating trays down below each time you take a tray off). I think as your population grows and the system gets into a routine your will see that the worms are mostly populating the top feeding tray, with the one below it (the pre-harvest tray) with about 1/3rd to 1/4th as many worms, then the bottom two inoculating tray with about 1/10 the amount of worms or lower especially for a new one just put on. I think you are doing everything right and the worms are just liking one substrate over the other because they are all so different now. Once all the trays are started in similar ways the worms will start to form a flow for you!! I'm not sure how many worms you have, but be sure not to overfeed...I have about 6000 worms in mine so I give enormous feedings compared to a system with 1000 worms in it. Thanks so much for letting us know about you and your niece's VermiHuts!! I hope this helps!! Thanks for watching!!!🪱🪱🪱
@Vermicompost I am very careful not to overfeed. My niece feeds all her levels of her Vermihut. We don't know how many worms were in the donated tray. I have a tote that I started with 1000 a month prior. After about 2 months its population exploded. I just added some of its worms to the new tray I added 2 weeks ago. So far they are doing well. Between the 2 systems I still cannot use all my coffee grounds, which is only 1/2 pot per day. I would guess I add about 1 1/2 cups of food total between the 2 systems a week. The tote getting most of it. Keep up the great videos. I like all of your systems.
Excellent!! Your systems are doing very well!! I love to see the population explode after a couple of months!! I can't get rid of all the coffee grounds my wife and I use either...When the container I collect them in starts to get too high I end up putting them in my regular compost pile....I'm hoping my new Urban Worm Bag will be able to make a bigger dent in my coffee ground stash once it grows its population more!! Thanks for all the kind words!!!
Happy Valentine's Day Patrick and Autumn! Once again, you are showing your worms some 💕, Worms may not have big brains, but they definitely know to come back to check that trench of food, so it's no wonder they find their way into it so quickly. I've wondered that about rotating feeding areas - are we slowing down the bin because the worms have to find the goodies? You must tell me how you speed up your hands but keep talking 😉
~ Sandra
Happy Valentines Day to you and Landon!! Nature...and worms are smarter than all us smart people combined 😂🤣😂 I think we are actually speeding things up!! The worms don't have to travel far to their next meal!! The speedy hands are all magic...well the magic of editing, and me not liking dead air in my videos!! And unfortunately, with my caveman speaking skills, there is a lot or dead air!! Thanks so much for taking the time to watch Sandra!!🪱🪱🪱
Big fat worm in mango seed, they like fruit .. might avocado needs more time to digest ?
Bo!!!! So wonderful to see you here!! They really do like to get inside those mango seeds!! And they really love avocado, but it does take them a while to eat it all!! Thanks so much for stopping by to watch!! I really appreciate your support!!🪱🪱🪱
I don't recall seeing in the past, do you ever aerate the bottom/inoculating tray before you move it?
Great question. About every 60 days when I rotate the trays, I'll aerate each inoculating tray. So each tray gets aerated twice before it goes on top as the top feeding tray. Here is a video of my last rotation showing me aerate them: th-cam.com/video/5zqKfUi2R4U/w-d-xo.html It also shows what happens in the bottom basin if I don't harvest and rotate every 60 days! Thanks so much for watching and for the great question I'm sure other folks have as well!!🪱🪱🪱
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Where to buy worms: www.TheGardenAndWormLady.com
Do you ever throw your coffee filters in there also or do you have one of the coffee makers that just grinds beans and no filters required?
I use a Keurig coffee maker and reusable coffee filters made of metal mesh and plastic so I don't usually have coffee filters...but if I did I would throw them in as bedding!! Great question!! Thanks again for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
What do you think about these NIGHT CRAWLER worms, should I buy Mix of Red Wiggler and European Night Crawler Composting Worms?
I have Red Wigglers and Blue worms, but I don't have any experience with European Night Crawlers. I would try to go with just the red wigglers for now so that all the worms you get, can breed with each other and reproduce faster. Maybe after you get the hang of things branch out and get a mix or some European Night Crawlers...but honestly I would go with what ever type of those two you can get cheaper. Mixes of worms are fine too if that is all you can get. I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for the questions & for continuing to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
Could one use bone meal for grit? Calcium + phosphorus. I ask as I am not an egg eater. Thanks!
That is a great question and I have often thought about using it for grit in my worm bins but I'll be honest, I haven't heard of it being used for grit. I make my own bone meal with chicken bones and I know they are bendy and pliable when I cook them enough...which leads me to believe that they would not make a good grit...I think the best grit doesn't change it's physical nature when soaked, so things like sand (in very small quantities, otherwise you'll have sandy soil) crushed oyster or shrimp shells, and some folks buy azomite but I prefer not to buy things specifically to give my worms. Now putting bone meal in your worm bin for food or because you know it will eventually make its way in the garden is just fine, in fact I add it to my worm casting teas, but for grit, I'm just not sure they would use it as such. I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Fabulous shares new friend ❤️✨💫🤍❤️✨🤍
Thank you so much!! I appreciate you stopping by to watch!!🪱🪱🪱
Who would you tell me to buy earthworms from?
If I needed to buy worms I would use www.TheGardenAndWormLady.com or www.northeastworms.com I haven't purchased worms from them but from what I have seen on their TH-cam Channels and their very satisfied customers, they are who I would use. The only problem is I don't think they are shipping worms right now due to the cold weather. If you can find a local seller of worms where you live, you could probably get started sooner. I hope this helps!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍👍
Thank you my friend!! I'm so glad you enjoyed the video!! Thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
Serious question here. Where in the world are you getting all that food for the worms? I don't eat pumpkin every week or even every month. Same with the watermelon. I grow vegetables or try too lol. I'm worried I won't be able to feed them right
😀 Great question!! This past Halloween I gathered up several Jack O' Lanterns from the neighborhood and cut them up and froze them...so I have a pretty good supply of pumpkin. I have one boy in High School one in College and one graduated from College, but they all like to come back home to eat, so we have lots of food scraps!! My mom also occasionally gives us her food scraps, but I think you'll be surprised how much food scraps you produce and what they will eat!! I have more than 10,000 worms total and I have no problem feeding them. I have a little container I keep in the freezer and just put food scraps into it throughout the week. You can start saving now and see how much you collect in a week as a little test. You will be surprised how it all adds up!! Thanks so much for watching and asking a great question!!🪱🪱🪱
Thank you. I've approximately 500 and counting worms. I see several people including you feed some items like tomato, onion, and pineapple to the worms. So many sites say don't do it that too much could cause the bin to become too acidic. Do they just mean don't go overboard in those food items? I have a ton of cherry tomatoes and green onion tops. I'll be hitting my vegetable eating friends for scraps now. They will just love you for that lol.... me pestering them for their goodies. I appreciate your time and your knowledge.
That's a great colony so far...it will rapidly increase over the next few months!! I think you are right, they fear worm bins becoming too acidic or become smelly (onions). Most issues in a worm bin come from overfeeding so putting too much of any food can become a problem. But too much onions can allow them to decompose faster than the worms can eat them so they can get smelly...over feeding pineapple or citrus can cause things to ferment or become acidic for a short period of time...so the best rule (as in life) is everything in moderation😂 Worms will eat just about anything that was once alive so just test things out in very small quantities to see what they like!! I'm sure your friends will love to help feed your worms!! I find people oddly fascinated by my little hobby😂🤣😂
On their next feed I'll add a little bit of bunching onion tops from the garden. I can barely wait til I'm not so nervous and new at this. 😁🤪
😀
I am about to set up my Vermi Hut for the 1st time. I bought 500 worms. How much food do you recommend I start with? I’ve been freezing the food scraps in 4 cup portions. Is that to much?
That is fantastic news!! It is so exciting to start a new bin and especially a VermiHut!! Here is a video showing how I start a new VermiHut and how much I feed it: th-cam.com/video/g5Sag75OAXY/w-d-xo.html Believe it or not the first few feedings need to be very small. For 500 worms I would use 4 strawberry tops (or a small piece of lettuce) that has been frozen. The worms will not starve, because they eat the bedding as well. A new worm bin can go anaerobic or produce ammonia which is deadly to worms if it is overfed. At your second or third feeding you can put in about a half of a cup of frozen food per week and see if there is any left after 7-10 days. If there is some food left, fed less, if there is no food left, feed just a little bit more each time...It is slow going but after a few months when your population really starts to bloom you will be able to put much bigger portions in. Here is a bin I just started a month ago with 500 worms so you can see what the 1st feeding looked like before and after they ate it: th-cam.com/video/1IRP-Nu6_90/w-d-xo.html and here is the bin after 21 days receiving it's third feeding th-cam.com/video/8qYPJaz6aMQ/w-d-xo.html I think these videos will be able to help you get an idea of how my worms start off small and build their way up. Frozen food is the way to go so you are off to a good start!! Just maybe break up those 4 cup portions into 1/2 cup portions for now. I hope this helps!! I'm so excited for you and your new VermiHut!!!🪱🪱🪱
Wow thank you for such a prompt and detailed reply! Your content is by far the most details and helpful on TH-cam I can’t wait to watch the videos you recommended. Would you recommend that I set up two trays? One that the worms will be placed in and one dry inoculating tray, underneath the worms, just above the M board? Thanks again for your time.
Thank you!! I appreciate your kind words!! Yes, I would start with two trays just as you described! Then, after 60 days, no matter how far along your top feeding tray is, I would rotate that inoculating tray on top and put another dry bedding inoculating tray on bottom...Your old top feeding tray will be the new pre harvest tray for a three tray system. Now you can choose to run it as a three tray system or just put another dry bedding inoculating tray on the bottom for a 4 tray system and just rotate & harvest every 60 days!! Easy Peasy!!
Inoculating what? I can’t reconcile how that word relates to raising worms…
Great questions! Worms work hand in hand with microbes (including bacteria, protozoa, fungi, etc.) to decompose food scraps and bedding. In fact without microbes, the worms would not be able to do their job of making castings at all! An older worm bin will typically have a large biota of microbes, and other "bin critters" such as mites, springtails and pot worms all helping to break down and shred the bedding and food scraps. Worms get most of their nutrients and nourishment from the microbes within the food that they eat (not unlike humans and our gut micro biome). Their castings (worm poop) are full of microbes that help plants uptake nutrients as well, which is why vermicompost or worm castings are such great soil amendments. When we put fresh bedding, such as shredded cardboard and paper, into our bins it is more or less sterile as far as good microbes for worms and plants. So what I like to do is get my bedding filled with these good microbes by putting trays full of dry bedding underneath my top two trays of worms and let any moisture full of these microbes drip down into the dry bedding, inoculating it with all these beneficial bacteria, protozoa and fungi. So I'm using the Micro Biology use of the term "inoculate" to describe "introducing microorganisms into surroundings suited to their growth, as a culture or medium" and not the clinical one dealing with stimulating disease resistance by implanting an antigen into an animal or person. I hope this helps! Sorry if I over explained things. Thanks for asking a great question I'm sure lots of other folks have as well, and thanks so much for watching!!🪱🪱🪱
@@Vermicompost thank you!!!
First, I appreciate the through explanation. Thank you. Second I just had that “ah-ha” moment of everything coming together with the worm condo towers! I’m moving from my underground outdoor to a multi-tiered system
..
I felt so dumb not being able to reconcile the layers and why we put them where…
What is funny? I know what “to inoculate” means and I know that worms eat the microbes and Fungi but I kept going back to inoculating spores for mycelium growth, yeast into dairy, bacteria in a petri dish, viral pathogen into a test tube with a medium.,, 🤦🏻♀️
the little buddies love them some mycotoxins/ mycelium. Have you experimented with a mycelium colony / substrate as bedding and food?
I have caught 100% my worms from my garden during a landscape remodel (I didn’t want to kill them and saved all of them in a 5 gallon bucket) and I had always found them living/eating in huge concentrations in and around mycelium. (Now that I added composted organic steer Manuer /plant blen - that brings the giant earthworms to the yard. I never know these critters existed at this length..
Thanks again for the help and all your great vid!
I definitely over explained things there😂 I majored in Biology in college so I go down the rabbit hole a little when I get a good question! Yes, my worms love a little fungi/mycelium when I can find it or grow it accidentally! My upcoming Urban Worm Bag video has a bunch of it since we just got back from a trip and didn't disturb the bin for about 3 weeks! That is fantastic you were able to source all your worms from your yard!! Free worms are the best worms!!
@@Vermicompost The Bio major makes sense and why your video’s are so great! I bet all of us here are down to “nerd out” on the science of vermicompost and worms. Myself, I am finding it is the worms that are fascinating. It is so funny how I never paid any mind to them until I went down the rabbit hole … and now I am obsessed. The rabbit hole is nuts.
I am a floral designer and want to grow a lush garden with create designs from my own garden (I live in a townhouse so I had to learn how to maximize space and as I started to understand that my soul was crap, I researched soil science. To upgrade my soil, castings were necessary and worms would aerate the clay soil. Okay, fine.
As I mentioned I started a landscape project in my four growing areas and that is where I started saving each and every worm. To save the worms, I painstakingly sifted through dirt and rocks from an 8 x 4 x 3 and would walk them over to the temp home. (Because of this, digging took a long time I’m sure my neighbors thought I was trying to bury someone)
In stead of putting my little buddies back, I built an underground worm station that they could come and go as they please. Poor things, I can’t leave them alone.
At this point, literally a month ago, I did not know that a worm would ever grow past three or four inches and the width of a spaghetti. My husband tells me that works can get huge and in Texas they would commonly find worms 12 inches… I didn’t believe him. Literally the next week I found three in the top soil after a rain. These ones were about 8-9 inches maybe and as thick as a sharpie? (The composted steer manure probably enticed them).
Now when I walk my dog in the evening (he is old and goes out about 5-6 times overnight), I bring a headlamp with an infrared light and holy moly I have found the coolest biggest night crawlers. One was larger than three of my hands and still partially in his hole as he was sussing out his mate. Six hours later, the two were mating, another hour later still mating. When they are mating, light from a camera doesn’t bother them.. weird! Now I am obsessed with going out and just counting how many my community has and watching their activity.
Started with floral designing and now am spending all of my time learning about these critters.
😁That is wonderful! I find myself obsessing about them as well!! Your poor doggie having to go 5-6 times a night...and poor you having to walk him!! Something fun to research if you haven't already is the three types of earthworms: Epigeic or compost worms (above the soil or in the duff layer), endogeic top layer of soil and finally enecic deep burrowers. Fascinating!!