Worm Farm Science- Finding Answers to Common Questions - Experimental Worm Bins
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.พ. 2025
- / @plantobsessed New project to chart weight of bin inputs to final output weight of castings aka worm poop in a year what will we get? 1000 to 10lbs?
No Grit bin version #3 100 cocoons in a 10 gallon tub grow up without grit.
Experiment play list here- • Worm Castings Weight t...
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That was a huge cocoon!! Big muddy thumbs up for whatever worm birthed that one!! I agree that waxy/plastic-y thing that comes off melons is weird!! Nice moldy tropical feeding!! Super fun video Ann!!🪱🪱🪱
Thank you. I am surprised that such young worms made that. 😊
Good morning, Ann, from Windermere Florida zone 9b 😎🌄😎
I love the "looking frayed" after cocoons delivery 🤣
It's certainly warming up for you and the worms 🪱 Hot here, but we are supposed to get some rain later on today🤞
We just melted the rest of our snow. I have crocus and snow drops blooming. Spring is springing!! 🌷☘️🌻🪱
That cocoon looked like a softball. 🤣
I think the low population is causing some inter side effects. Thank you for watching 😃
@02:39 - I bet that worm egg has two yolks! :) @05:40 - I like the way you pronounced _"Ga-nats"_ - haha!
I was waiting for a ga nat person. I'm not sure why I do that. Maybe because i'm a non speller. lol
This is a reference to an 80s kid's show - so many might not recognize it... but the other thing you reminded me of when I heard it was from a show called the Great Space Coaster: _"No gnews is good gnews with Gary.... Gnu"_ Haha!
Great video, and I watched it while I was working with my worm’s. I love your thumbnail.😂!!!
Thank you. Had to steal one of my stickers to cover the company name. lol
Fantastic video, love the hands on👊🏿
Glad you enjoyed it!
I have been keeping my bin on the wet side and they seem to be happy and thriving.
Yes I agree they are happy in wet bins. They breed more too.
Also love the thumbnail! That cocoon was huge! Maybe 4-5 of the 20 or so eggs in there will hatch vs the usual 2-3…? That would be awesome🎉
It was pretty new. It is hard to tell. Sometimes when they are farther along I will peek under the microscope to look. I have not seen more than 4 or 5 come out of a cocoon.
@@PlantObsessed if you happen to run across that cocoon again, or a similar huge one, I would love to see if there’s more developing babies in bigger cocoons than smaller ones, if you have time to microscope one.
Ann, I think the vinegar traps work only on fruit flies. The guy from World Composting use BTI mosquito dunks solution poured over the bedding to keep fungus gnats down.
I have had success with the vinegar traps working even on regular flies. I avoid the BTI because it disrupts the molting of insects. I consider the bin and ecosystem and I don't want to take the chance of it hurting the isopod population. Because of the amount of bedding and food I put on at one time the worms need all the help they can get.
Ann, you are welcome as a guest in my home any time as long as you don't bring your scale and weigh me before and after you feed me!
~ Sandra
Lol, no worries I am not a fan of the scale either.
Great photo!! who is your photographer? Are they expensive? 😂😂😂
He is cheap and easy. 😎
I love this experiment. I would love to do this also, but just got my first 100 worms. So maybe next year I'll try this. And I need to get a weight scale
It will be a while before the little guys are ready for the test. Keep expectations low for the first 6 months. The ecosystem needs to develop.
Thank you so much. Love all your vedios
Do you know why some cocoons have that little tail at the end of the tear drop and some don't?
If you go back and see my microscope videos it seems to be on all of them but just very small. Up close it looks like a scalloped edge. It might also be a breed specific trait. I'll look more closely next time and see if it is different per breed or maybe worm size
That is a good question: my original theory was that the tail on the cocoon meant the cocoon was closer to hatch.
The I noticed the tails on fresh laid green cocoons even have the tail on the cocoon. (Fresh cocoons are laid green RW and ENCs turn yellow within 24 hours and ANCs can take up to 72 hours to turn yellow) Microscopely all cocoons have them.
Since the hatchlings emerge from the cocoon through the tail of the cocoon as an exit point.
My new theory is that it is the last formed part of the cocoon as it slides out of the clitellum which also makes it the thinnest walled part of the cocoon creating a birth canal or weak point for the hatchling to exit.
I suppose with a chicken egg they're does not need to be a weak point or birth canal because the hatchling chick has a beak.
All I have is theories because I have never read a book or documentation about oligochaetology that explains this subject. Again, that is a great question and worthy of discussion.
Enjoy worms and have an excellent Day!
Pineapple is definitely a slow food, I still have the top of one I feed back in November (it's almost gone). I would not of thought an avocado would last 4 months in a worm bin. Was that the avocado that never ripened? Still like the no grit bin the best. 😁
The avocado was never ripe. I don't usually put the flesh in there. I think the fat content is slowing them down.
G nat 😂❤ I love that I am not the only one who says it like that.
Lol that comes from when I was learning to spell..my mom would always pronounce the g. Also ka nife 👍🏼🪱😀
Does the lemongrass need to be dried out or can it still be green?
Mine was dry. I imagine it would go faster if it was green.
QUESTION.
I'm trying the outside trash can worm and more towards compose. Should I put in sunny or shady locations outside?
I'm not yet ready to raise worms inside
Thanks 👍
Shade. The sun will drive the worms out or kill them in short order. I keep good size holes in the bottom of mine so they can seek shelter in hot weather.
Yes I believe 7 holes are 3 inches and it's going bury in ground 6 inches air holes
I'm copying a TH-cam build. I have a shady spot at my shed and water off the roof.
Thanks so much I believe it's a little off topic but I do compose on ground and I've lots of night crawlers in my compose and I'm learning
Special thanks
Thumbnail is awesome. ❤
Thank you! That was some work. I may have appropriated my lab coat from work. Don't Tell :)
As I newbie, I was surprised by the CN ratio of the bin. Don't get my wrong, you know what you're doing. I couldn't imagine putting that much food into our bin, which is the same size. The big difference, I think, is that we have a much smaller population.
Cheers 🪱🌱
I know what you mean! I am always amazed both by the amount of food Ann is able to put in, and by the worm density of her bins. I'm sure she had to build up to it very gradually, and she has been doing this a whole lot longer than I have. (I'm only at a little over a year and a half, my current bin only a couple of months.) If you overfeed, you can lose the worms you already have, but they need a fair bit of food to increase their population. I think she must have ratcheted both up gradually over a period of years.
@Trish O'Connor totally agree !! It takes time to build up the experience required to do this. I'm less than a year in, so for my situation, the more bedding the better lol.
Cheers
Several things make it possible. The age of the bin, number of worms and the combination of fast and slow food. If I dumped in all melon it would ferment and I would have drunk (possible dead ) worms.
@Plant Obsessed thanks Ann!!
@@PlantObsessed Do you think that part of your success could be because of harvesting a relatively small amount of castings at a time but on a fairly frequent, regular basis? Your bins, especially the blue ones, often look to me like they stay continuously at the level I would normally have thought of as "almost but not quite ready" for a complete harvest, followed by an almost complete replacement of bedding. I am only now (partly inspired by videos on your and other channels) transitioning to a smallish horizontal migration method, and I'm currently picturing that once it is well-established, I will be consistently removing about an eighth of the contents from one end, scooting everything into the empty space, and adding food and bedding to the other end. But I'm still picturing that I would harvest all the way to the bottom of that small harvest area, where it seems like you just take a tiny bit off the top, but over a larger percentage of the surface area. I think it would take me a long time for a bin to reach a point where I could do that.
No flavor bananas or dragon fruit from a big box store…once you taste them from the country they are grown in will you really enjoy the flavors!!
Yes super sad. Of course dragon fruit comes from California.