What 10 Months Of Worm Farming Has Taught Us
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
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I am in commercial worm and casting farming, we all learn from our set backs and by sharing practical knowledge with each other. Thank you for sharing your experiences precisely and without wasting time in stories. Very helpful, good work and good luck, keep it up.
Thank you Tahir 😊
bRotheR Ur Country name ?
Looking forward to harvesting the castings accumulated from the bin, through ceasing feeding the wiglers in the present place, and starting to feed them upon a new bedding beside the previous one (horizontally) - I just wonder, how long does it take all worms, cocoons and yet unhetched eggs, to evecuate the previous bedding and populate the new one?
Thanks for a kind informative answer
Respect
Yeah I just started farm worming a few months ago still trying to find the right bins to use
Very interesting and thanks for sharing.
Only thing I found odd is your experience with protein poisoning, aka "string of pearls" disease. I did a bit of an Internet search to see what people are saying about this because in my over 15 years of vermicomposting, I've never experienced the problem.
This is my personal conclusion based on my experiences and practice...
1. Possibly a main reason why I don't ever experience "protein poisoning" is because I don't feed my worms anything with protein... At least intentionally. Because I use my vermicompost for crops intended for human consumption or sell/give my compost to others, I don't put any meat, meat by-products or green manure in my bins to ensure 0% chance of e.coli or salmonella. I don't give my worms anything with vegetable protein in great amounts, either. You could say my worms are 99% vegetarians.
2. Sometimes I do feed my worms enormous quantities of food at a time. When I feed them kelp hand-picked from the ocean, I'll give them an entire month's worth of food at a time. Maybe others have seen worms over eat but I haven't... I don't know that worms are like goldfish and burst because they don't know when to stop eating.
3. Judging from the pictures posted of worms that are dying supposedly from protein poisoning, I wonder how many of them are actually dying from asphyxiation instead of poisoning. I see all the time in UA-cam videos people feeding their worms in ways that can kill them. When any food is given to worms that will decompose rapidly by aerobic bacteria, the bacteria will consume all the oxygen in that area if the bacterial population is high enough and granulated, powdered and blended foods have a very high surface area to mass ratio which will create an enormous bacterial population explosion. Well, guess what... worms need oxygen, too so if all the air is consumed by bacteria, the worms will die... and in mass numbers. This is why all food should never be sprinkled across the surface of the worm bin or mixed into the bedding. Food should be buried in a hole dug in a bin corner or edge (or carefully in the middle) to allow the worms to approach the food you're giving them or retreat to the safety of uncontaminated bedding to avoid anything toxic.
4. Unless and until someone actually does a necropsy on a worm and determines it actually died from indigestion(of protein), I suspect the whole thing is a myth. I instead highly suspect they died from respiration or more exactly suffocation because of the toxic chemicals in that part of the bin. Such things as the smells of ammonia and alcohol are typical of anaerobic conditions that would occur when there is lack of oxygen... When the aerobic bacteria die because of lack of oxygen, then anaerobic bacteria can take over for as long as suitable conditions exist. I find it a bit incredible that as hardy worms have proven to be ingesting and even mitigating toxic chemicals as well as every malignant virus or bacterium known so far that worms might somehow die from protein causing toxic gasses in their digestive tract faster than those gases can be excreted.
There is only one major rule to always observe to be a successful worm farmer...
Give your worms choice.
That's all it takes. Give your worms choice to move towards what you offer and away if they don't want it.
Warm half your bin and keep the other side cool.
Make one side of your bin wet and the other drier.
Use your imagination to envision how to give your worms choices for everything and your worms can decide for themselves what makes them happiest.
Great info and tips thank you , from a fledgling worm farmer .
Protein poisoning (sour crop) is not a myth, it’s a known, and it’s caused by fermentation within the worm as Sara pointed out. Thank you for the “choices” concept, it is very sound.
I love the idea of giving them choice! 😍
My first thought was that you have to mimic nature, not give them powders, I’ve always seen how worms pull leaves into the soil, so mu instinct would be to use leaf litter and other green/brown plant material. Thank you for this information 🙏
What’s the best type of wormery to get if your just starting?
I did many experiments when I had my warm business almost 20 years ago and the results were amazing your veggies are bigger and sweeter your flowers are larger and more colorful. I also started all my seeds in straight warm compost it retains moisture much better and gives the plant more aggressive root growth. It's really amazing stuff.
Yes👍
Well done lass, nice setup. Quick tip. One of the biggest improvements I've had (I've been keeping worms since 2016) was when I started grinding up a small amount of oyster shell into their feed, it's cheap and lasts ages. The fine grit helps the food pass through their gizzard, they eat more and grow faster.
How do you grind up the oyster shells? They're so hard. It would destroy my blender so I'm looking for alternate ideas
@@christinaoliveryoung6019 on a small scale a file works well. They even make a file that attaches to a sawsall/reciprocating saw. On a bigger scale grind it against itself, plastic 55gal drum and a little macgyverism and you have Mega Mac Tumbler!!
Search around people have crazy ideas that do wonders.
Bake low heat oven,egg shells, grind in coffee grinder. Every neighborhood has egg shells.
@@christinaoliveryoung6019 coffee grinder or a grain mill with a ceramic burr.
This video is a game changer. We are huge fans of eco gardening here... worms is our next step. Thanks for sharing.
This is an extremely good synthesis of what way more than 10 months of “passive” learning have taught me. A must watch for anybody into vermiculture and great inspiration to get hands on again!
10 months.!!!! That is some operation you have there. I bet people will want to buy the castings too.
Alpaca poo too…
Thank you for this video. Your presentation is great; just enough of being human, without all kinds of time-wasting chatter. I am preparing to start a commercial worm, casting, and casting tea operation, and your video has provided much inspiration.
I plant a fairly large garden every year. Aside from tomatoes and peppers, everything goes from seed. I raised European night crawlers for a while, and had quite a bit of pure castings. For two years, I covered every seed with a handful of castings, at planting, and the production literally doubled, both times, in comparison to adding nothing to the soil. Just sharing an experience.
Thank you for such a clear and thorough update on your worm farming side of your business. We’ve all learned from our early mistakes, so I really appreciate you sharing what works and what doesn’t. Wishing you all the best from Vancouver Island, Canada!
~ Sandra
I love learning from mistakes, it makes us better at what we do!!
Hey Sarah, just discovered your channel and I love it! Your open mindedness, experimental nature, honesty, plain speaking and delightful little talks are a pleasure And your orientation to regenerative farming is exciting for without that changed focus, we're all doomed as a species, yet with it, the future is very bright indeed! I'm more focused on fruits & vegetables but what's good for the goose is good for the gander, eh? Heh. Good luck with your channel. It's going to be a rousing success and looks to be getting there already!
Anyway, I wanted to share an amazing little thing I recently discovered relating to vermicomposting. I've been keeping a worm bin for a couple of years now but still consider myself a beginner because I haven't brought a huge focus to it... yet. So many new things to learn and master!
My wife and I started juicing a few months ago which is an excellent way to get all of those bulky, fresh, organic veggies into one without having to eat the whole cornucopia. (just got a new Nama J2 too and it's a game changer and very exciting!!!) I juice in bulk to last a week and so produce a lot of pulp. I usually just compost it because the chickens don't really like it so much but I decided to try it on the worms. Most of the pulp they liked ok and ate. (no citrus!) But when I fed the carrot pulp to the little Wiggles, I thought my worm bin was going to EXPLODE! I didn't really know that I had THAT many worms! They all ERUPTED up to the surface like a mountain or volcano and simply devoured the carrot pulp!
So, that's really useful for a few reasons: If you want to gather ALL your worms to the surface, feed 'em carrot pulp! Then just scoop 'em all up off the top. Of course that won't bring up the eggs but it is one less step. Then of course it is great nutrition and makes for very healthy worms and it makes them extremely HAPPY! You do get emotionally attached to the little squirmers too, doncha? So it makes YOU happy also. It's really hard to over feed carrot pulp too. They just eat it too fast for it to spoil! And if you have a juicing store nearby maybe you can make a deal with them to get their pulp. That would be an incredible and free source of excellent worm food! Turn free juice pulp into great big healthy flowers! Cheers Sarah & Hubby!
My worms absolutely love teabags😂
I never used to give the teabags to them because I read that the bags had micro plastics, but pj tips now has compostable bags and the worms cannot get enough of them. I find that I don’t need to water them since adding teabags in
Haha I would have never thought of this!! I will have to check whether my Yorkshire tea bags are compostable 🤔
Thank you for sharing. The ‘positive & perfect’ stories are great…
But we learn a lot from our mistakes too.
Happy worm farming!
Great information and glad to see your worm farm and system. We had a very successful indoor worm farm, but had to move our worms outdoors when the pandemic hit and we lost all of our worms due to neglect and other homestead priorities. We had 150,000 + worms at one time. We are starting over and have learned a great deal from out past experience and your video. Thank you for sharing!
It's a learning process, every day!
A really confident, comprehensive and knowledgeable report. I learnt more from your one video than I have from watching dozens from other people.
I lived in Yorkshire for 16 years so it was great to hear the Yorkshire accent once again. I look forward to your future videos.
Yes I have been raising worms a home for my garden as for my fishing. I love your channel
& subscribed. You are doing a great job of explaining your process.
I love your concern about "warm's happiness"! Well done in showing appreciation and care for even small creatures.
Congratulations on your successes I’m sure you’ve had much more since releasing this video. I’m about 1 month in on my first system and found this very helpful, thank you!
This is great. I’ve never seen string of pearls in my worms or was aware of it before. Very informative
I am happy with the time I spent on the video .... From heart to heart talk... Keep going ma'am
Brilliant video. Very interesting and well spoken by you Sarah. I'm just starting to make little worm bins so Thank you as I learned alot. Keep up the fantastic work
EXCELLENT VIDEO! Very informative and to the point! And edited nicely to keep our attention! 🙏🏻 ❤. Hello from Morgan Hill California
I learned so much from this video! Many thanks. Cheers from Tulua, Colombia 🇨🇴
When we lived in Southern California we had a worm farm course fishing is pretty much year around out there this was probably 1968 to 1972 my dad was in the Navy at that time and then we moved to Alabama I don't know why we didn't start another worm farm but we didn't and like I said we used tires for packing for fishing but we didn't do any sifting or anything like that we packed out of a bed and usually we would take 50% of what was in that bed and put it in a new bed we use peat moss as a fiddler in there for the worms but the other thing that we did cuz my dad was in the Navy no shortage of coffee grounds he had metal cans all over the base like 5 gallon buckets and he would bring that home in my brother and I that's what we would put in the worm beds they love coffee grounds I guess we had some kind of meal that we fed him I don't remember what that was but the other thing we had was my dad would have and I'm pretty sure I'm right about this ground up walnut shells and he would get those from a feed store there and Otay outside of Chula Vista California I don't know about the watering thing with chlorine cuz I'm sure our water was terrible out there where we lived but we watered them just with a regular hose pipe so there was no kind of doing anything with the water our beds were probably I guess I'd say 6 foot by 8 foot and we had plywood on top like an A-frame with with the light inside we kept burning all the time and we just raised the piece of plywood up when we packed out of the beds we also had another place in San Ysidro but we packed out of both places what was in our backyard and what was down there interesting what you're doing
The best food for worms is damp leaves and coffee grounds, not much else is needed to feed them. Every once in a while you can throw kitchen scraps in too, Maybe once a month, of course the cardboard is great for Moisture control. Also they shouldn't be WET, worms breathe through their skin. So when you see them coming out of the ground after it rains, it's because they're drowning. So only keep them damp. Not wet. A spray bottle works great for this. Good luck hopefully my tips helps you. Remember no chickens Feed in a forest, so don't feed them that, all natural food, they like things that are dying. Leaves and wood. Good luck.
And she's already got so many other resources to feed them.
Yes leaves have lots of vitamins and minerals. And wheat grass
Whilst this will feed the worms, it’ll make for some pretty terrible castings due to how bland and variety lacking their diet is.
I really enjoyed hearing about the things that are going well and the bad things that have happened.
Thank you for sharing your experiences concisely. Very informative and very helpful. You've gained a new follower.
Great update. I’m following what you’re doing with interest. I’ve got 5 bins in my garage (the same Wham Bam boxes as you guys), but stacked vertically, and running independently of each other.
It’s been a learning curve, but lots of fun, and so much rich fertilizer for my plants!
Keep up the great work👍🏻
Where could I buy these foam boxes? having difficulties finding them online, at that size anyways?
I bought my first worms when uncle Jim's was a 3 line add in organic gardener. I bought them for koi food and a 40' × 100' garden on sandy meridian soil..very sandy and needed compost etc. I faithfully followed instructions and continued that for almost 10 years. Then I decided it was a pain...after that I started testing out different ways to handle them. I soon landed on a system that was much less mess and work. The channel on you tube that is most like what I settled on is A V wormery. Good luck to all newbies.
Really love your video, Sarah - on'e of the most informative about vermicomposting; thanks for doing it.
Exactly... The young baby worms will do better around the adults because the adults are talking to them in worm language...
Hi Sarah, very good video. I have found if I mix the chicken feed with warm water the worms love it and it makes it easier for them to eat
I'm new to all of this. The advise given will be priceless. Thank you. Stay safe everyone.
You are a great teacher with simple and direct honesty. Kudos from 🇰🇪 as I subscribe to your channel too to promote you👏🙌
Very good presentation, thank you.
Where and how did you source your polystyrene bins? Why did you choose them versus any other type of bin? Is it because you're using that to help regulate the temperature or just because they were the cheapest option?
I've had my red wigglers for 6 years now.
I blend egg shells for their grit in a little coffee blender . And I bought crushed oyster shells from Amazon . My little coffee blender was taking a beating. Lol
Then a few months ago while going to order more oyster shells I found Powdered oyster shells. Made from the same company 100% oyster shells.
Made my life easier, my blender life longer .. 😊 Cheers from Toronto 🇨🇦
Mine do well in tubs about 14in deep 8-10 in of soil, I feed them banana oatmeal mix most often and not much, I burry it a few inches, also throw some used tea and coffee grinds on top of soil, keep tops open so they can breath and don't try climbing out been doing it as a garden and fishing hobby three yrs now plus the fish are great for the garden, the worms do much better with old leafs in the soil and they love melons n mangos also sand helps them reproduce if soil is to much clay or muck
Very nice thank you for sharing your challenging experience
Great video! Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Thank You for sharing so much of your time.
Many thanks for sharing your fruitful information. How do you keep worms in winter and protect them from the frost
Very nice set up
Very cool - I'm excited to see what you'll be doing/learning with the microscope! This is super interesting. I have a bunch of worms in my garden and compost - wondering if I should start a small vermi-compost system in the garage for a more controlled use of worm castings (e.g. for seed starting mix as you mentioned). A friend of mine had a small thing going with a couple of 5 gallon buckets which might be a good size for me to start with.
If you were to do this I would recommend buying composting worms so that they are doing the job you intend them to do. Garden worms are a little different. Your garden will definitely thank you for those worm castings though!
@@bloomandgray Great to know, thank you!!
I had a few bins on the go and asked someone for rotted horse manure, I hadn't realised that this would contain brandlings, eggs, and baby worms. So my Dendros were mixed up, and I wasn't sure if different worms would interbreed. The larger worms always seems to be the banded native worms. I lost a bit of interest after that. Your video might have convinced me to have another go. I noticed when you were sieving it, the compost seemed quiet dry. Do you reduce wetting prior to this process.
How long does it take for a Derdro to reach maturity, and does it then stop growing.
That's a great setup. Well thought out. Kudos.
I have considered going commercial with my own colony of worms, but I'm not so sure there's any profit to be made. I noticed worm-castings being sold in bags for almost the same price as regular compost, and the only way to make that profitable is when you produce it in bulk, by the truckload.
I also don't think there's enough people buying the worms to keep that going in a steady pace. I suspect that all customers will be one-time customers. There are no follow-up sales in this business, and frankly most people who are into organic gardening realize that these worms can be found anywhere if you just know where to look.
I hope your experience will be different though, but these reasons always kept me from starting my own business. I strongly suspect it will be a huge struggle for very little result. - Whenever I see people mention their worm business, they always talk about the techniques, the mistakes, the learning process, but they never seem to mention that they're succesfull.
The differerence I've noticed between dendrobaena and eisenia Foetida in my 2 bins, one of each, is that the dendrobaena bury themselves a bit deeper in the bin. Dendrobaena are more prone to protein poisoning as you've seen than the eisenia so I give them a higher ratio of card. I pocket feed them, putting the food and a bit of casting into small cardboard boxes or toilet rolls with one end stuffed with newspaper. I use scissors to poke holes in them but the worms often congregate under the boxes. That way, if food starts to ferment I can easily pull it out. I found that just using the indirect lighting of my undercupboard LED lights that was enough to keep the worms inside. After only 3 nights the dendrobaena no longer tried to escape even with the light off. The eiseniae took 7 days but they are still prone to climb up the sides when I fluff the bin
And another difference. Dendrobaena cocoons are easier to spot, they are a brighter yellow and slightly larger than the Eisenia cocoons which are more olive than yellow. On that subject, how do cocoons remain gleaming and relatively clean in the middle of even moist castings? Any ideas?
Greetings from San Jose California GREAT! information on worm farming we were looking into starting a farm next year I'll keep watching your videos for the up-to-date info and We will post comments after we begin ours to hopefully get schooled from this page of well-informed wormers :) Cheers
I could listen to you talk about anything almost as much as Morgan Freeman. Thanks for the info! You definitely seem incredibly knowledgeable about these little guys!
What a lovely accent 😊
Awesome. We have been experimenting with worms for our duck manure on a large scale. Duck bedding is generally quite wet, so we've found the worms love it. Plus we are giving the ducks layers pellets, grits and oyster shell which the works apparently also love
That sounds like a great way to recycle your duck manure! Where are you keeping your worms?
@@bloomandgray We're using large outdoor windrows that we cover with silage tarp. And then we have piles / wedges in our brooder house where we raise our ducklings. Because of our scale I'm trying to keep things quite simple. The worms do seem to be loving it though!
That’s great! Really interesting. I’ll be interested to see your journey with it!
@@bloomandgray Thanks, the farm is having a bit of a tough time at the moment with feed prices rising so quickly. It's one day at a time right now!
Very informative. Thanks very much, woman.
really good tutorial and well explained
You sure did heavily invest is shelving for your bins. You could have built your own racks (see Meme's Worms) and saved a ton of money. Nice operation on the whole. Great job, good video.
I have been feeding my worms Bokashi compost with ground up eggshells to balance the Ph.Bokashi is acidic.The worms seem to love it and break it down quickly quickly
❤i was wondering how the worms were doing! Fantastic!
Hi Sarah just found your posts like you i have been vermi composting for just over a year now but not on the scale you are doing, i have a compost bin in my back garden i purchased worms from yorkshire worms and feeding them my kitchen /garden waste along with crushed/powdered egg shells that i steralize and dry they are doing well this next year will be the first time i use my castings in my veg beds no chemicals or plastics going to soil block using wool seed compost and coir with some casting in the mix going to back track now on your posts stay safe ATB 👍
Thank you Sarah I learned so much in this video. Had never heard of the protein imbalance and string of pearls until 2 days ago when I watched a worm video by Bare Mtn Farm. Now, with your video also; it must be a common problem. I'm so glad you could save your worm farm. Can't wait for the compost tea video. thx again.
In a way I’m glad these mistakes have happened as a learning experience!!
They LOVE coffee grinds and watermelon! I know it makes them have some relations and make more eggs which are yellow. Yes, their bedding will come to need changing at every 3 weeks for me, is that the same for you? I do have rabbit poo that they are good with along with egg shells, watermelon, carrot peelings, banana peel, and strawberry tops.
Fascinating stuff! ❤
If you want to try Red Wiggler worms they are the ones that live in the dung pile on farms they are great at eating food scraps and reproduce quickly. I am just starting my worm farming adventure. I live in Canada and most of the worms we use hear are the Red Wigglers. Best of luck with your plan.
Will worms neutralize any medications from the horses and alpacas?
Ascorbic acid works for chlorine as well
A great explanation as to your swift progress with your worn farm, Sarah. I had a period of worm 'explosion' in August just around the same time as that super-hot spell and I lost 2 bins in my shed that were on a high self but my third bin was on a table at least 1.2m below my shed roof and that one was perfect - no deaths at all. All 3 bins were being fed quite rich diet at the time and at first I put the upsetting deaths to the diet, but then it didn't explain the third, larger, bin I had low down, and I guess cooler.
I am in York, (UK) so not too far from you and so we get the same sort of climate. I read that worms really cannot survive above 35 deg C and that hot spell took outside temps well over 40 C. In the same article, I learned that at those temperatures the bacteria and fungi go into overdrive and handle the rotting process less efficiently, giving off more methane which in turn then caused the worms to explode. So the issue might well have been temperature related as opposed the richness of the food?
Now of course, in October I am worried that ambient temperatures could very well be falling below the recommended minimum for your (and my) worm species of 16 C and I am worried that I could end up having deaths due to cold ! I imagine the worms and micro-organisms will slow down and go into a sort of hibernation.
Currently, I have combined all my worms into one bin so any heat generated in the bin will stay within it and placed it into another shed which has a fridge freezer turned on, so it might add a little background heat to the environment and I have been thinking of having 2 new small worm bins in my kitchen over the winter to be sure that I do not lose any 'inmates' during the cold months. being retired, money is tight, so I cannot afford to heat the shed sadly.
I was wondering, since you started out in about January 2022 with your worm farm, how you managed over January - March please since I cannot imagine you heat the barn in which you house your worm bins or DO you provide some background heating?
Hello! The room that my worms are in is a building within a barn and is pretty well insulated, cool in summer, didn’t really get above mid 20 degrees. But in winter doesn’t get below about 10 degrees. When we first started out we wanted them to be active all year round so we put some foam insulation down onto the shelving, routered out some channels in the foam and laid a soil warming cable within it, and sat the boxes on top. I think we are thinking of going down the same road as you and combining all the boxes into one or two big continuous flow beds, giving us a greater volume for heat retention and buffering for other parameters that are a little more likely to go wrong within smaller beds. I think worms are fine left unheated over winter, they just won’t be as active, I’ve heard a few people saying they breed them in spring in smaller boxes to up the numbers a little bit. I think I’m going to skip trying to keep them warm this winter and just leave them to it. We will see! Good luck with yours 😊
You should get a thermometer and stick it in the worm bedding to know how warm or cold it actually is for the worms.
Bins kept high in a structure might suffer because of the trapped heat for longer periods of time while bins at ground level can easily support worms when the temperature spikes well over 100 degrees F during the day even if worms are known to die at 90 degrees F.
Worm farmers have to know the termperature of their bins isn't the same as the ambient temperature of the air and that should be a concern as we approach winter just the same as it's a concern during summer.
65f to 75f ideal temperature. If thicker composting ,leaves,in center they will go there to try to stay cool or warmer.
Had to bring ours into dining room when summer 105f heat, humidity unbearable. AC set to 75f
Great video. Can you expand on what temperature environment they like? Would an outdoor screen porch where the temps fluctuate with natural weather patterns work?
How long can you save the worm casting before you have to use it and how do you store it
When I had my business in California starting in 2010 I found that you just have to keep the moisture about 12% and we kept ours in big garbage cans with the lid on and it stays just fine. Periodically you have to add a spritz of water just enough because there are going to be eggs that will be hatching in that but because we sold it it was never in there longer than probably 3 to 4 months and it's still fine as long as you keep it moist, cool..
Interesting ! Microbe do go dormant for a while but i wonder if fresh is not even better. The microscope experiments should be great to compare fresh and stores castings, right ?! :)
Every time the worms hear her talking by them they’re like “buckle up boys here she comes!!”
Great video... that sifting process is way too much work...I would like to know if that passive system you came up with would work well...time is precious
great video
Your information is amazing 🎉
Looks like a lot of work. I was under the 8mpression Worm bins are practically “ set it and forget it” kind of setups except for feeding them once a week with food scraps and ensuring they don’t dry up. This way seems too time consuming. I do like the styrofoam boxes. Where do you get those?
if the worms are feeding on the bacteria and not the material per se, why does it matter what the protein content is in the food material?
They feed on both, but I’m not sure it does really matter!
Save a lot of work and make your soil worm friendly by no dig and adding compost on top and chop and drop..
I’ve perused around the channel and she is doing No Dig and compost mulch.
Great info, thankyou so much....from another worm nerd!!
Very good teacher thanks ❤
I'm wondering if feeding them a more diverse diet would lead to a better quality end product? Would adding food scraps increase different nutrients etc?
Yes it definitely would, it just takes longer for the worms to break it down. Adding forest floor leaves/ carbon materials might also increase fungi which is beneficial
we also feed the with lots of fruit & veggies scraps - what do you do about the myriads of fruit flies?
Интересное видео! Я изучаю разведение червей. И пока остановился на том что кормить их надо так - с левой (или правой без разницы- где то с четверть коробки) стороны контейнера надо убрать полностью весь грунт затем расстелить кусочки картона на них листья с деревьев, на них остатки еды (кожура от моркови свеклы или другие овощи) свежие рубленые листья, затем измельченная яичная скорлупа, можно песок, потом сухие листья и сверху бумагой газетой и конечно картоном. Вот как то так. Спасибо за опыт!
Thank you for a great video. I tried to find your video you mention on the worm tea. Did you end up making that video?
I wonder if feeding the egg beds would help with hatching? Maybe the microbes or the PH level breaks down the egg sack to hatch them? I wonder if manually breaking them after a month or two would work?
Thanks for sharing
I thought using poo was a no no? Please correct me of im wrong. Your the first ppl I've seen that uses it. ❤
Very enlightening - those problems sounded very worrying (and I'm sure I'm gonna have a string of pearls nightmare) - and I bet you were upset - Are there experts in Vermiculture who give advice or did you just work it out. Now I need to find alpaca poo or my worms in my little wormery are gonna get mardy!😂
Good vlog - subscribed - keep up the good work. Thank you.
I was dealing with grubs in my soil and i used a grub killer. I haven't seen any worms in the soil since the grubs died which is a bummer.
great practical information
I wonder why you don't put kitchen scraps in your bins? Are there just too many worms there??? My worms love all the fresh fruits and veg. They love cantaloupe! When I look in theres a ball of worms on one favorite food like the melon. And they always make every bit of the scraps disappear! It never smells, I dont need to add water. It seems if your feeding worms commercial chicken food, you would get a poorer quality of compost from them? Here in USA the chicken feed manufacturers have messed with the food so the chickens won't lay! So there might be something awful in that chicken scratch? but I'm just asking because I started 2 large black bins 9 months ago, and its looking very good, however haven't harvested the compost yet....just learning.
Hello! Excellent video. Are you able to share where you purchased your polystyrene containers from?
I got mine from the super market - the fish department has them. Check with your store to see when they get their fish order. If I need some my store will save them if I tell them that I'll pick them up on delivery day. A little "Thank you" helps - I usually drop off a loaf of home made bread.
Is this room one where you will have to monitor the temperature in the winter and possibly supplement with a heat source? Is there an optimal temperature to keep the room at and how do you achieve that?
Hi Christina, in winter I was keeping the beds warmer with a heat cable that we set into some insulation board. I don’t think it was necessary but I wanted to get the worms breeding more quickly
The best way to warm your worm boxes is use an electric blanket that you yourself would have on your own bed, you get alot more surface area and you also have multiple temperature settings on the switch ,furthermore they are very easy sourced and it is alot cheaper than buying small heat mats!
I use this method and on the 2nd lowest setting I get a constant temperature of 68° Fahrenheit during the coolest months, I put a soft carpet underlay on benchtops then electric blanket then another carpet underlay with boxes on top👍
I'm generally curious, because I often see the work done to keep the worms and use the compost (worm castings). WOuld it be good or bad to throw in some of the worms into the gardening beds?
I notice yoy have on a coat. What tempature do you keep your worm house?
If you don’t mind me asking where did you get them sifters from??
My worms like duckweed on the surface of the bed - a natural food product, not sure how much they are eating it, or whether they just like the feel
Where did you source your sieves? Thanks!
How are your worms going 😊💕🪱👍🏽🇦🇺
Can we have an update please 😊
Love your video, thank you !
I love your sifters, where can I order them?
Do you ever have problems with ants eating your worms? I had a home setup with 10 worm bins, and it was going great until the ants found them. Where I am in California, Argentine ants are a problematic invasive species. The Argentine ants were extremely aggressive about colonizing the bins and attacking and eating the worms. I eventually gave up and set the worms free because I couldn't stand to witness the poor things being attacked constantly. (I had collected the worms from my soil to begin with.)
Oh no, this doesn’t sound good! I’ve never had an any problems but it could happen!
Ants can’t cross water so if you make a “moat” around your bins they can’t get to them and will leave :) Depends on your setup but if you set your worm bin in a shallow tray of water, like a cookie sheet, I bet you could raise them ?? If your trays are on shelves, put each leg of the shelving unit in a bowl or pan of water, make sure the unit is not against the wall or any other path for the ants. Just an idea 🤷🏼♀️
Good luck
@@rnupnorthbrrrsm6123 Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, water works to prevent many ants. Argentine ants are the most persistent and aggressive ants I've ever witnessed. If they really want something Argentine ants will get across still water. When enough ants try and fail, the other ants use their bodies as a bridge. I've had better luck with a diatomaceous earth barrier. But even that doesn't last long.
I control the Argentina ant population overall by using Greenway boron bait, which reduces the colony size by making their eggs infertile (and doesn't harm other insects or life). It doesn't keep them out entirely but it minimizes damage they do.
I know other worm farmers use tiny amounts of pesticides around their setups to keep away Argentine ants. I was just wondering if anyone knew about good biological or organic barriers.
Argentine ants will cross water. I lived in Argentina and Brazil for quite some time and the only thing that works against any ant species including fire ants and soldier ants are ashes. Sprinkle ashes around any part where ants can get up or in. Obviously its absolutely non permanent and requires you to resprinkle ashes after every bit of rain that falls and after every month or so. But its defo the most effectice. They really hate fire/ash. It worka against lots of other insects and animals too
Check out green greg worm
1:50 Correction
The European nightcrawler = Dendrobaena hortensis.
You had "eisena hortensis" which does not exist.
Where do you buy your sieve
Seedlings do not need nutrient, just moist environment light and moderate temperature. Don’t waste worm castings on starters.
✌️😎👍
I don’t add worm castings for nutrients, I add them for growth hormones and biological stimulants
Hi
hi Sarah, love your videos...do you mix your worm compost with ordinaruy compost when potting on your seedlings. Dont want to 'burn' the young plants