I am very impressed with your worm TH-cam Videos very professional. I am still learning and with the high temperatures of 2023 I have started two different worm bins with two different genetic sources for my Red Wigglers and one genetic source for my earth worms. So far I am impressed with how fast the earth worms grow I started working with the weekend the hurricane hit Southern California. Because of the high summer temps of 2023 I was not able to purchase the worms from the company I had originally planed on so I had to get creative and resourceful and so far my worm farm project is slowly moving forward!
Awesome!!! I kept red wrigglers in Southern California for years. Happy to assist you if you have any questions! I used to put ice packs in the bins twice a day when we had heat waves. That helped a lot!
Beautiful video! We make bone broth out of organically raised poultry. We then strain the bones from the finished bone broth and bake them in the oven. After that, I grind a few bones with my food scraps and freeze it prior to feeding to my worms. It's an incredible bonemeal with no odours whatsoever.
What a great system!! One of my concerns with bone is the quality of life animals receive in commercial farming. I really like how you are closing the loop!! Question, why bone broth? Is there a particular benefit? I make lots of veggie broth but have not tried bone.
@@GardensofNewEngland Bone broth is an incredible source of easily digestible protein in the form of amino acids, so it's good for your gut. These amino acids are essential to build connective tissue in the body, so bone broth can help if you have joint or bone issues or connective tissue problems.
That is a good point! I do not have issues with it clumping, pretty much stays suspended in the vermicompost. The potential risk is it accumulating in the bottom of the bin if folk add too much. Thanks for sharing the tips!
I use sand as my main source of grit. I separate it out of my native soil through a wet screening process so it is clean by the time the worms get it. I have never had any of the problems you said people have with sand. If one harvests regularly it does not give the sand time to compact. I used to use ground charcoal but stopped after I learned it is VERY alkaline. I might try again but in smaller amounts.
I use sand too but in combination with biochar and eggshells. Biochar or charcoal is pretty ph neutral. Ash is what you really don’t want to use because it’s very alkaline.
@@GardensofNewEngland I once commented on another worm channel that I was using charcoal to regulate moisture and he cautioned me against it because of the high pH. But further research does show the charcoal is relatively neutral. Thanks.
@@ckmbyrnes oh so glad we got that sorted out!! Charcoal is one of the best additions to your bin, but you do have to make sure it is clean from ash. You can even wash if you are making it yourself.
Awww! Thank you!!! I have one on how I harvest. I do not use a sifter. th-cam.com/video/wVfrEK_qY24/w-d-xo.html Here is good playlist on the basics: th-cam.com/play/PLJQ7A3Z50v5H67itC8VmY6YnQ-X9jpg7R.html
Worth trying!! I have used crab shells before but discontinued because it still had a bit of a seafood smell. Animals will break into your system if they smell something they would want to eat. So, if your system is outside, be careful.
Hi from Cyprus, just stumbled on your videos EXCELLENT INFO 😊 im new to worm farming, please tell me your recomended oven temperature for cooking eggshells. Thanks
Hi there, thanks for saying hello! 200 degrees for 10-15 min would do it. I usually just dry mine for several months before use. The key is to eliminate moisture.
Fish Bone Meal is the preferred source of phosphorus and also has calcium with a small amount of nitrogen & also preferred because it doesn't come from animals treated with antibiotics, hormones etc. I get my fish bone meal from buildasoil website
I was reading about that. How is the smell? Are there any concerns about mercury content? I have an indoor system so I wonder if it would smell too much. I will check it out for my orchard.
@@t3dwards13 Thank you! I have been thinking about doing something similar. There is a great fish market close to where I live. I have hesitated because I have bears around and I know fish has a strong smell.
Thanks for all the information! :D Do you still use bokashi compost prior to feed your worms? And, do you add all those ingredients in the bokashi or give them directly to the worms?
Jorge, I recently found a new source of food--a juice bar is making their pulp available to me. It gets digested in a matter of days. I still do bokashi but I am adding that to my regular composting pile. I might move and no longer have access to the pulp, in which case I will go back to bokashi. Yes, these materials, all three, I add to the food scraps weather it be bokashi or pulp.
@@GardensofNewEngland Sounds great! And what is your recommendation from your experience. To give food scraps directly to worms with those three ingredients from your video. Or to put the food scraps + 3 ingredients in bokashi and once the bokashi is ready, to give it to worms. What is best from your experience? thanks by the way! :)
Jorge, it really depends on your preference. I started to do bokashi because I was doing indoors composting in the middle of winter in Massachusetts. So, I needed something to make the process easier, less excess fluids, less issues with bugs, and potential smells. Bokashi helps eliminate lots of fluids before the food gets to the worms, and it kills fly eggs. No more fruit flies or black soldier flies after I started doing bokashi. I would add the grit materials when I am going to add either the bokashi or the fresh food scraps to the bin. I would not add that to the bokashi because it is going to soak lots of acid from the fermentation. You want to add it after the stuff is fermented to neutralize the acidity. If you have an outdoors system, you could try to do a regular composting pile and then feed that to the worms--but make sure invasive worms do not get into it. In sum, I would do bokashi if I was doing indoors composting. Once the food is fermented, I would add the grit as I add it to the bin--make sure you are adding it to a section of the bin and not all of it because it is VERY acidic. You want the worms to come to it and not to be forced to live in it. You can kill them if you make them live in fresh bokashi. So, give them lots of areas without food for them to be. They will move in on their own. I hope that helps! Ask anything else if you have further questions.
Hello everyone. It's not related to particular this topic BUT it's related to wormery and food waste. I know that fresh food scraps green waste BUT what if I dry it enough till it's turn brown. Would it make a brown CO2 reach material? It's just my theory so please correct me if I'm wrong. The reason for this theory is that I have way too much green material BUT very little brown. Thanks
Interesting question! I am not an expert on the chemistry of composting. But, as we dry food, nitrogen content decreases and some of it is transformed. If you dry vegetables to their bare bones, you get a carbon structure. Carbon is the foundation of most living tissue, including our own bodies. At that point, the food scraps become more carbon. However, you want quality carbon material to help your bin with key functions like air flow and structure. Dry food scraps wont likely do the same job as dry leaves. You have a couple of options, you can ferment the excess food scraps via bokashi fermentation or you can bury them if you do not have a regular compost pile. Bokashi fermentation has a lot of positive attributes and it enriches the soil. I feed bokashi to my worms, but you can just bury it directly into your garden beds. Where do you live? Cardboard, leaves, and even saw dust can help you with the brown/carbon ratio.
@@GardensofNewEngland Thanks for getting back to me. This is exactly what my thoughts are - dry food is a carbon rich structure. I will have a look at bokashi composting. In the meantime, I bury excess scraps in the front of the garden.
Denise, you are most welcome! Bokashi is a great way to enrich the food scraps before you bury them into the soil. I use two basic homedepot buckets. You do not have to buy a bokashi bucket. There is a myriad of benefits associated with bokashi so definitively check that out. I have video where I explain how to use it in my worm bin, but you just need to ferment and add to you garden since you are trying to reduce kitchen waste. Here is my diy bokashi bucket: th-cam.com/video/TOgkSO7GA8U/w-d-xo.html
These are probably good sources of grit, but for the most part harder to get in quantities sufficient to use in a worm farm. The items he outlined are readily available and can be made/collected at home without buying anything.
Don't be fooled by marketing, titles and names. Purina worm Chow is nothing but dog food with higher percentage of cornmeal, grains, alfalfa meal, chalk/ calcium carbonate and maybe a few other things🤷♂️, but they are very similar dog food has added greens mealed into a powder ( they are very much interchangeable ). You can take dog food mix it with Cornmeal Wheat molasses or brown sugar and oatmeal blend into powder/ a meal and you could have damn near a lifetime supply of worm chow if you buy a big bag of dried dog food🤷♂️... Search the ingredients on both, Dont listen to the bull Do your homework ( its the same ingredients maybe a little off but nothing that will hurt the worms, only stuff good for them in reality🤷♂️) . PS higher-quality the dog food the higher-quality to chow.🖖
Worms need moisture and lots or organic material. You would not find them in sand alone. But, most soils have a certain level of sand particles which worms use as grit in the wild.
I think we are talking about a minute amount of sand, like the crushed eggshells. We aren't talking about raising worms in a bin full of eggshells or sand. Just like chickens, you don't feed them sand, butvyou do have to provide some sand/Grit so they can "chew" their food in their gizzards... just like worms.
I am very impressed with your worm TH-cam Videos very professional. I am still learning and with the high temperatures of 2023 I have started two different worm bins with two different genetic sources for my Red Wigglers and one genetic source for my earth worms. So far I am impressed with how fast the earth worms grow I started working with the weekend the hurricane hit Southern California. Because of the high summer temps of 2023 I was not able to purchase the worms from the company I had originally planed on so I had to get creative and resourceful and so far my worm farm project is slowly moving forward!
Awesome!!! I kept red wrigglers in Southern California for years. Happy to assist you if you have any questions! I used to put ice packs in the bins twice a day when we had heat waves. That helped a lot!
Beautiful video! We make bone broth out of organically raised poultry. We then strain the bones from the finished bone broth and bake them in the oven. After that, I grind a few bones with my food scraps and freeze it prior to feeding to my worms. It's an incredible bonemeal with no odours whatsoever.
What a great system!! One of my concerns with bone is the quality of life animals receive in commercial farming. I really like how you are closing the loop!! Question, why bone broth? Is there a particular benefit? I make lots of veggie broth but have not tried bone.
@@GardensofNewEngland Bone broth is an incredible source of easily digestible protein in the form of amino acids, so it's good for your gut. These amino acids are essential to build connective tissue in the body, so bone broth can help if you have joint or bone issues or connective tissue problems.
@@NanasWorms Thank you!! This is great information!!!
@@GardensofNewEngland I always thought bone broth was the base broth for many common soups like chicken noodle :)
@@carpentryfirst3048 it is!!
You're doing great job. Content full of knowledge.
Thank you Rodoslaw! I appreciate the feedback!
As for the sand, what you need is a sharp sand, it doesn't clump and allows water to flow so you won't run into that issue.
That is a good point! I do not have issues with it clumping, pretty much stays suspended in the vermicompost. The potential risk is it accumulating in the bottom of the bin if folk add too much. Thanks for sharing the tips!
I use sand as my main source of grit. I separate it out of my native soil through a wet screening process so it is clean by the time the worms get it. I have never had any of the problems you said people have with sand. If one harvests regularly it does not give the sand time to compact. I used to use ground charcoal but stopped after I learned it is VERY alkaline. I might try again but in smaller amounts.
I use sand too but in combination with biochar and eggshells. Biochar or charcoal is pretty ph neutral. Ash is what you really don’t want to use because it’s very alkaline.
@@GardensofNewEngland I once commented on another worm channel that I was using charcoal to regulate moisture and he cautioned me against it because of the high pH. But further research does show the charcoal is relatively neutral. Thanks.
@@ckmbyrnes oh so glad we got that sorted out!! Charcoal is one of the best additions to your bin, but you do have to make sure it is clean from ash. You can even wash if you are making it yourself.
Do u use red wiggles?
Do u have a video on starting & harvesting a bin?
Love your professional & informative videos.
Awww! Thank you!!!
I have one on how I harvest. I do not use a sifter.
th-cam.com/video/wVfrEK_qY24/w-d-xo.html
Here is good playlist on the basics:
th-cam.com/play/PLJQ7A3Z50v5H67itC8VmY6YnQ-X9jpg7R.html
maybe it's unrelated, maybe not: but did you try adding vermiculite and/or perlite?
I have not tried neither one.
Perlite is like sand without the disadvantage - it drains and aerates well.
oh interesting! I never thought about perlite as an option. Thanks for sharing!
Great information
Thank you!!
How du u do the big harvest?
I use lateral flow or migration method. It works relatively well and it is non intrusive.
th-cam.com/video/wVfrEK_qY24/w-d-xo.html
Has anyone tried using mealworm frass as grit?
Worth trying!! I have used crab shells before but discontinued because it still had a bit of a seafood smell. Animals will break into your system if they smell something they would want to eat. So, if your system is outside, be careful.
Hi from Cyprus, just stumbled on your videos EXCELLENT INFO 😊 im new to worm farming, please tell me your recomended oven temperature for cooking eggshells. Thanks
Hi there, thanks for saying hello! 200 degrees for 10-15 min would do it. I usually just dry mine for several months before use. The key is to eliminate moisture.
@@GardensofNewEngland ok thanks again. 🤗
I use micro wave..1 minute intervals about 2 times a day for couple days...haven't had problems in the 30 + years I have had a wormery.
Fish Bone Meal is the preferred source of phosphorus and also has calcium with a small amount of nitrogen & also preferred because it doesn't come from animals treated with antibiotics, hormones etc.
I get my fish bone meal from buildasoil website
I was reading about that. How is the smell? Are there any concerns about mercury content? I have an indoor system so I wonder if it would smell too much. I will check it out for my orchard.
I just bury the fish heads under my trees.
@@t3dwards13 Thank you! I have been thinking about doing something similar. There is a great fish market close to where I live. I have hesitated because I have bears around and I know fish has a strong smell.
Is it okay to use powder oyster shell?
Yeah! That works too!
Thanks for all the information! :D
Do you still use bokashi compost prior to feed your worms?
And, do you add all those ingredients in the bokashi or give them directly to the worms?
Jorge, I recently found a new source of food--a juice bar is making their pulp available to me. It gets digested in a matter of days. I still do bokashi but I am adding that to my regular composting pile. I might move and no longer have access to the pulp, in which case I will go back to bokashi. Yes, these materials, all three, I add to the food scraps weather it be bokashi or pulp.
@@GardensofNewEngland Sounds great! And what is your recommendation from your experience. To give food scraps directly to worms with those three ingredients from your video. Or to put the food scraps + 3 ingredients in bokashi and once the bokashi is ready, to give it to worms. What is best from your experience? thanks by the way! :)
Jorge, it really depends on your preference. I started to do bokashi because I was doing indoors composting in the middle of winter in Massachusetts. So, I needed something to make the process easier, less excess fluids, less issues with bugs, and potential smells. Bokashi helps eliminate lots of fluids before the food gets to the worms, and it kills fly eggs. No more fruit flies or black soldier flies after I started doing bokashi. I would add the grit materials when I am going to add either the bokashi or the fresh food scraps to the bin. I would not add that to the bokashi because it is going to soak lots of acid from the fermentation. You want to add it after the stuff is fermented to neutralize the acidity. If you have an outdoors system, you could try to do a regular composting pile and then feed that to the worms--but make sure invasive worms do not get into it. In sum, I would do bokashi if I was doing indoors composting. Once the food is fermented, I would add the grit as I add it to the bin--make sure you are adding it to a section of the bin and not all of it because it is VERY acidic. You want the worms to come to it and not to be forced to live in it. You can kill them if you make them live in fresh bokashi. So, give them lots of areas without food for them to be. They will move in on their own. I hope that helps! Ask anything else if you have further questions.
@@GardensofNewEngland Incredible! I appreciate so much all your insights. It's SO helpful! :)
Jorge, you are most welcome!!
Nice information👍
Thank YOU!
Hello everyone. It's not related to particular this topic BUT it's related to wormery and food waste. I know that fresh food scraps green waste BUT what if I dry it enough till it's turn brown. Would it make a brown CO2 reach material? It's just my theory so please correct me if I'm wrong. The reason for this theory is that I have way too much green material BUT very little brown. Thanks
Interesting question! I am not an expert on the chemistry of composting. But, as we dry food, nitrogen content decreases and some of it is transformed. If you dry vegetables to their bare bones, you get a carbon structure. Carbon is the foundation of most living tissue, including our own bodies. At that point, the food scraps become more carbon. However, you want quality carbon material to help your bin with key functions like air flow and structure. Dry food scraps wont likely do the same job as dry leaves. You have a couple of options, you can ferment the excess food scraps via bokashi fermentation or you can bury them if you do not have a regular compost pile. Bokashi fermentation has a lot of positive attributes and it enriches the soil. I feed bokashi to my worms, but you can just bury it directly into your garden beds. Where do you live? Cardboard, leaves, and even saw dust can help you with the brown/carbon ratio.
@@GardensofNewEngland Thanks for getting back to me. This is exactly what my thoughts are - dry food is a carbon rich structure. I will have a look at bokashi composting. In the meantime, I bury excess scraps in the front of the garden.
Denise, you are most welcome! Bokashi is a great way to enrich the food scraps before you bury them into the soil. I use two basic homedepot buckets. You do not have to buy a bokashi bucket. There is a myriad of benefits associated with bokashi so definitively check that out. I have video where I explain how to use it in my worm bin, but you just need to ferment and add to you garden since you are trying to reduce kitchen waste.
Here is my diy bokashi bucket: th-cam.com/video/TOgkSO7GA8U/w-d-xo.html
@@GardensofNewEngland Thanks 🙏
@@denislukasov4813 you are most welcome!
What about:
1. Greensand
2. Azomite
3. Crushed Oyster/Clam Shells
4. Crushed Lobster/Crab Shells
Thank you!!!! I am going to look into some of these. I have been thinking about greensand.
These are probably good sources of grit, but for the most part harder to get in quantities sufficient to use in a worm farm. The items he outlined are readily available and can be made/collected at home without buying anything.
I use quail egg shells
Awesome!!!! have you noticed any difference? probably a cleaner source of calcium than commercial eggs.
I throw my bone scraps in the fire when I'm making biochar.
Awesome!!! you get the bone and the biochar at the same time.
How to Maximize Worm Population: th-cam.com/video/rZKG1V75iVI/w-d-xo.html
Don't be fooled by marketing, titles and names.
Purina worm Chow is nothing but dog food with higher percentage of cornmeal, grains, alfalfa meal, chalk/ calcium carbonate and maybe a few other things🤷♂️, but they are very similar dog food has added greens mealed into a powder ( they are very much interchangeable ).
You can take dog food mix it with Cornmeal Wheat molasses or brown sugar and oatmeal blend into powder/ a meal and you could have damn near a lifetime supply of worm chow if you buy a big bag of dried dog food🤷♂️...
Search the ingredients on both,
Dont listen to the bull
Do your homework ( its the same ingredients maybe a little off but nothing that will hurt the worms, only stuff good for them in reality🤷♂️) .
PS higher-quality the dog food the higher-quality to chow.🖖
Wow!! Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Just started a vermihut
Awesome!!! Congratulations and welcome to Vermicomposting!
Dirt, not sand, I'm 73 years old, and I've never found a live worm in a sandbed. Sorry but that's just me.
Worms need moisture and lots or organic material. You would not find them in sand alone. But, most soils have a certain level of sand particles which worms use as grit in the wild.
I think we are talking about a minute amount of sand, like the crushed eggshells. We aren't talking about raising worms in a bin full of eggshells or sand. Just like chickens, you don't feed them sand, butvyou do have to provide some sand/Grit so they can "chew" their food in their gizzards... just like worms.