Compost Worm Farming
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- Опубліковано 17 чер 2019
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Compost worm farms transform household waste into a resource, a very valuable resource, a nutrient-rich fertilizer (liquid and solid) while also closing the loop on food waste cycles in households.
Compost worms are a great way to make your own fertilizer for organic gardening, and they are equally as good for recycling food waste at home. The system will continuously create both liquid and solid fertilizer and close the food-waste loop.
Compost worms-red wrigglers, tiger, Indian night crawlers, African night crawlers, etc.-are not earthworms. They eat their own weight every day, and the only thing they don’t like to eat are citrus peels and stuff from the onion family.
Every day, the system can produce a few liters of fermented worm juice. This can be used as is or watered down. Additionally, the solid results inside the bucket are worm castings, something that, in many ways, is better than compost. It’s got loads of beneficial bacteria.
You can use an ordinary bathtub, set up to drain as normal. Get a piece of wire and wrap it in screen to cover up the bath plug to act as filter. Fill the tub halfway with cow or horse manure (anything else would have to be aged) and add some worms. Then, top it off with food scraps each day, and the worms will come up for it.
Fill it up with water. The liquid draining out, picking up nutrient from the worm castings, and it makes excellent fertilizer. This is better than manure tea because it doesn’t go anaerobic and it has a neutral pH level.
The final touch is adding a dense shade cloth over the top, protecting the worms from the sun and predators.
Key Takeaways:
• Composting worms are a great way to close the cycle of food-waste in your household and create daily liquid fertilizer, as well as incremental solid fertilizer (worm castings).
• A worm farm is easy to make out of an old bathtub: The liquid should drain out of the tub as normal, caught in a container, and the castings can be harvested about every three months.
• It’s important to cover the tub with dense shade cloth because the worms do not like the sun.
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#permaculture #organicgardening #fertilizer
You sir , are the Bob Ross of gardening,
Big fan of yours
He's the fucking messiah.
His voice relaxes me like Bob Ross voice does
How can you say that ????...... where is the Happy little Squirrel 🐿
@@solfeinberg437 *geoff sobbing*- will you listen to me , im not a messiah.
*his fans*- he is the fukin messiah.
If you like that, watch Charles Dowding channel. He's a great vegetable grower and sounds like a British Bob Ross
I used to share a tiny garden with neighbours. The soil was quite poor. It took so long yo get my neighbours' approval for the compost bins given gor free bu the council. So I simply started burying my kitchen waste. A couple of weeks later the soil was packed with worms. I even put up an ad and gave them away for free
I've been trying this but my wife's extremely upset about dirt & worms in the bathroom and not being able to take a bath.
😂
Ha! Love it!
internet comment of the day
LOL
All kidding aside, I ended up making one yesterday with an old bath tube we had used as a horse feeder in the past - I added braced legs so the tub is counter height, 2 hinged lids on top with dark fabric framed into them (so I can leave one open when I want the worms to move over), and tight mesh held down with strong magnets over the drain hole. - It came out awesome!
....now I just need to find me some worms.
Imagine if every person of age took control of their own waste. That would build a better world! Thanks for the inspiration.
I do no plumbing use Forrest dirt and leaves
Very good demo mate - and a great repurposing of a bathtub too! Well done 👍🙂
your really into this i see u playing with the worm shit lol but on the real very good video and how about once u get shit loads of worms start throwing them in the garden can that work? and thank u
@@keithwilson9378 the compost worms can survive in humus but not longterm in soil like earthworms.
I have red wigglers. Got them from the bait shop down the road. The only thing I have to remember about the worms is if I want to keep them around I have to water during drought. Otherwise they will go elsewhere. During drought I don't water my plants. I water the soil. The rest takes care of itself.
@@nancyfahey7518 so much to learn.. where do humus worms go if it gets cold ? Or are they warm climate worms.
Mark Valencia is that you?
Geoff just improved the quality of a gardens all over the world with that lecture and demonstration.
I started with just two tiger worms 6 weeks ago - now there's hundreds and growing exponentially.Instead of manure you can use shredded paper/newspaper with a handful of compost.Hold off on adding too many foodscraps until you have a large population.Worm farming is the perfect use for a spot thats too shady, cold and wet for cropping.
Yeah, I didn't want to buy any worms and everywhere tends to suggest buying them. I just found at least 4-6 definite tiger worms. I did the same set up at Geoff's. Cow manure on hand on my property. I'm just trusting they'll proliferate, so I'm glad I stumbled across your comment!
Slow population growth at first, but then exponential growth over time.Be careful of overfeeding or adding too much nitrogen at once which can generate heat (worms will gather on the lid, trying to escape).
@@blarknee7672 Cheers!
I calculated with the exponential growth and how fast worms can multiply... With perfect conditions, unlimited space and no predators, 2 worms would have the potential in one year to reach a population of 19.4 billion!!!
If you can raise BSF, their frass can be fed to the worms in addition to paper. Give the BSF the majority of organic matter, as they process organic waste much more rapidly, and feed the worms what they love (frass + a little foodscraps + paper products). BSF have multiple outputs, and enhance the worms outputs by further composting frass and creating soil faster. Then, throw in some innoculated biochar, and brewing two types of AACT (Actively Aerated Compost Tea)(Fungi-Dominant + Beneficial Bacteria Dominant Teas). The AACT should speed up the breakdown of this entire composting stage, and you can apply the fungi-dominant compost to tree guilds, and bacteria-dominant compost to native grass and other beneficial topsoils.
:)
Just what I was looking for: Compost worm farming simple. I am an old man now, but I am eager to renew myself all the time. With hindsight I may say that I may have had too much land to manage, but boy was I deeply moved. My lifelong learning tells me that small is beautiful and now that I am back in town, I shall have to show myself all over again that there is no limit to smallness. My nickname is Peasantfred. I believe in peasants, they are the salt of the earth. Thank you Geoff
Also peasants are the closest humans come to zero-net impact. An established peasantry is not very different from forest dwellers; you wouldn't know they were here in 50 years if modernity did not get to them. Keep on winning Peasantfred!
Well peasantFred, too much land sounds like a glorious problem to me! I'd love to come settle on your back 40 (or 4) and be your free labor...
There’s shedloads of home gardening/self sufficiency vids on UA-cam, but Geoff has to be one of the best. Cheers, mate. Very helpful. 🙏
Simple, practical and highly effective, once again you are a living legend.
I usually watch a fair few videos from a channel over a few days before deciding to subscribe, but there have been 2 channels I've subscribed to instantly, this one after this video, and Self Sufficient Me. Fantastic video!
This is exactly the video i havee been looking for about worm composting/farm!!! Now i can see how it is set up etc!!!! Thankyou Mr Lawton
I can’t believe I haven’t seen your videos before today. Great info and production quality. Subscribed!
One of the best fertilizers ever. Thank you, Geoff.
Nice straightforward demonstration especially for a slightly larger scale. There were SO MANY worms, that's awesome. I'll keep an eye out for any videos you might have done on a small scale worm farm. Thank you for sharing!
I am sure this has nothing to do with your video but I go to WalMart every couple of years and buy fishing worms (from Canada). I then dump them out in my front yard - set them free! My reward is a beautiful green yard that requires little or no attention. Those worms can travel from the front yard to the back and some have moved to the next door neighbors. Whenever everyone else has a sad looking lawn mine looks fantastic and no chemicals, ever.
Ruth Lewis Great idea!
Fantastic!
So grateful I found your channel. I've been so intimidated when it comes to backyard composting. Thank You so very much for explaining it in a simple to understand, common sense fashion. 🤘
Thank you for sharing Geoff! Love love love your videos!!!
Working on permaculture since 2/3 years but u r the most talented and experienced food forest man got lot of help from you
This is by far the best bathtub worm farm video I have ever watched. Thank you Geoff. And now I know how I can harvest my casting without casting off them worms to my garden beds and essentially sacrificing them to earth worms or other predators. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for your great video. I’ve been dreaming of having my own worm garden for a while now and with your advice and the simplicity of it, I am finally going to try it.
Did you do it?
Love the video, sir! We started worm farming a few years ago, and it has been very successful. However, we learned a lot from your video. Primarily, the simplicity in the use of the bathtub. We've been considering building a new worm bin for our worms, but after watching your video, we may try and hunt down an old bathtub that has been thrown to the curb. Thanks for the great video.
Джеф, желаю Вам здоровья и долголетия!! Спасибо, за Ваш труд!
Love the simple solution of using shade cloth! Excited to add it into my vermicomposting system this summer. Thank you for the wonderful video.
I have an indoor worm farm in the desert and use bedding made from aged shredded newspaper , cardboard, and office paper mixed with a bit of peat moss, alfalfa, compost, (or older homemade worm bedding), pulverized eggshells - the worms love it!
This spells it out so simply and understandably. Thank you so much!!
Agreed. I went out and made one for myself. It went well.
Straight to the process with no messing and straightforward advice. I found this video far better to watch right through, after scrolling through various other videos.
So many just waffle on for ages, making it about themselves 😴 instead of getting to the process, so I flick off after 5 mins.
So glad I found this video, thanks.
I can now start cultivating 😊
Good stuff, Mr. Lawton. I've thought about worm composting but your video puts it all together in one easy bathtub full. Thanks!
A brilliant way to get healthy organic foods through this type of fertilising. Thanks buddy.
The way he was holding that worm juice, i was anticipating him taking a gulp of it
It's worm piss 😂
Austin powers style.
@@garethbaus5471 it's a bit nutty
me too :)
He did say you can use it "neat"... like a nice whiskey.
Awesome video, Geoff. Lots of good tips. I like the use of the old tub with the drain already built in.
I tried creating a bed for ground cover spinach using 3 different soils and tumbling them together in a concrete mixer. The soil was good and is now even better and rich brown since I have worms that have invaded the space! I am in Thailand and made the bed in part shade, but the ground cover spinach also provides good shade, so I think that is what attracted the worms. We get leaves fall in naturally and since the worms arrived I distribute our kitchen waste across the soil too in little pockets across the whole base, so the worms get plenty of food and have continued to multiply for about a year now! I can tell they are happy and seem to be permanent residents in my spinach bed! The bed gets watered often. Fantastic spinach by the way! Now I want to find an old bath and make a separate compost, perhaps one with many leaves, since we have loads! Great Video, thank you!
Super helpful, I love the idea of turning waste into something valuable
Thanks... Simple & Straight to the point. Clear directions... Subscribed !!
That video was just brilliant Geoff. Just brilliant.
This is a the best how to worm casting video I've ever watched. I've watched feels like a dam near hundred hours worth. Thank you 🙏
When I lived in Denmark for six years I was a keen fisherman of trout and eels in season. We also lived within a few hundred meters of Gudenaa so access to eel fishing especially meant I was down at the river more nights than not. I used to get the majority of them smoked by a guy a few Kms away. The best bait for eels and trout if you're using live bait, is worms!
We had an apartment and a cellar to match before moving to our summer house by the river full time. At that time I used to keep some galvanised tubs of earth in the cellar which I also used as compost, dumping all kitchen scraps and newspapers etc according to the usual rules of compost into them. Between the 3 tubs I had a virtual volcano of wriggling fireworms. Small, red, slimey and wriggly little beasts. Also earthworms, pink and as fat as your pinky finger.
I've been an organic/permaculture gardener for 30 years and value earthworms as allies and natural barometers of environmental health and believe anything which makes another worm live is good.
Was the cellar heated?
What was it lowest temp & avg temp over winter?
Thanks
Excellent. Very well presented. Greetings from Ottawa, Canada.
Love your videos! You are what got me into permaculture! Love your work and how much you love permaculture! Keep it up and thank you sooooo much!
I have a worm city 4 tear system and I do this , go for walk fill containers with cow dung, go in woodland fill bag with non acidic tree leaf mulch and a bit of soil, drop the cow Mick in then on top the mulch and mix it a bit then any available kitchen food waste goes in .You should see the size of my tiger worms , massive . This works a treat.
I was always interested in this practical practice, I'll apply this in my future.
I LOVE the bamboo jungle effect
Thanks for posting this vid, Geoff! For sure, try putting some clean biochar into the worm food mix. They LOVE it.
This spells it out so simply and understandably. Thank you so much ...
Geoff ... if you place your worm bin on a teeter-totter and plumb a faucet into each end you can simplify your operation. To harvest worm tea and castings simply lower one end and pour lots of water into the lowered ends.Not wanting to drown, the worms will quickly migrate to the higher and drier end. After a bit, open the faucet at the lower end and drain off your worm tea. You can then shovel out the worm castings from the lower 2/5ths of the bin and recharge with your favorites mix. Tip the other end down and add water and the worms will scramble upward into the fresh food leaving the other end's tea and castings to your collection and usage. This back and forth process tipping, watering, draining and collection process is very fast and efficient. Cuts down on needless worm deaths, too.
Oh you are a smart one! Love this idea!
Are you sure they will not drown?
Clever idea. Have you got a video of your one working for you, please?
This is the coolest thing I've ever seen!
Love it. I've been finding these red wigglers as I've been digging around in my yard, placing them in a bucket of good soil with leaf mold & FSW - but my fsw has garlic and onions in it, so I shall remedy that immediately today!
Yes citrus never goes in my compost - I keep it a few days to fragrance the house with and then throw it away 👍 So glad to find your channel, subscribed!
So simple and a continuous supply. Amazing technique. Thank you!
Amazing! So much information and such a simple system, thank you very much for this video! =)
You are the real man. Thank you for sharing.
Set up an exact duplicate of this using 120lbs of rinsed rabbit manure topped with 3”of shredded leaves three weeks ago with about 2.5 lbs of red worms . Works perfectly. No rocks or deck in the bottom of the tub, no barrier cloth to deal with like some others recommend , just a simple mesh strainer and loaded it up. Fast, simple and effective. Tub drains fine and harvesting will be a breeze. Heck, the worms love the manure bedding so much they don’t even try to escape. The only thing I’ve noticed is with manure being a favored food of composting worms the food scraps aren’t being touched. I even had to get my hand cultivator to make sure the worms were still there because they weren’t in the leaf layer either. Not only are they there but they are fatter now than they have ever been. Thanks Geoff!!! 👍👍👍
Wonderful, thank you so much for this information. I appreciate how you keep your information simple and not intimidating. Love you channel.
I was looking for this. I will use a portion of my backyard
Excellent information. Thank you
love how you have reused an old bathtub :) great video . thank you!
Its magical stuff! I love that you reloved the bathtub too!
You are my master!! lol :) Greetings from Brazil!!
I love how simple this is. If you can't find an old bathtub, I'm guessing a plastic barrel cut lengthwise would work as well, wouldn't it? (creating a drain like you did in the bottom)
Yes, it works, also you can do it in elevated beds made with sand, gravel and dirt, and protection from sun and rain
its so important to live in a house with a garden and regular practice being involved with the actual cycle of nature itself. not only do you learn the key things about existence but your kids will become smarter too. Living in flats is such a dull life. no garden. Giving all your waste to the council so they can make compost and .........sell it back to you. LOL. hows that for getting your pants pulled down. Ive just been givin a wormery here in UK. Newnham gloucesterhsire by my landlords neighbour so im beginning to learn. Its been 10 years since ive had a garden to grow and maintain and in the last 3 months ive learnt so much more about compost. This wormery will be such a nice additonal to the brain library.
Love this way to get rich product to use in the garden! Started this several years ago.
I have a dog poop worm farm. (Started with a 10 Cm layer of coir and horse manure. Open to the ground. With wire mesh to avoid a bush mouse explosion). It does 4 dogs (mine and neighbours poop) no smell at all . (Would work perfectly well with composting toilets). It gives a plume of underground fertility and abundance of microbial life to the surrounding trees. I give it ground up egg shells, water, leaves, urine, every few days. Every month I give it fruit and veggies.
I also have 6 other worm farms running on aged horse manure, coir and fruit and veges.
wow genius, i was wondering hat to do with dogpoop once i move to my dreamfarm :D
Will there not be harmful pathogens in the dog excrement ?
What a great video Geoff . I have news for people who have a composting toilet . Composted human waste mixed with organic materials such as grass clippings , weeds , straw , vegetable waste and composted livestock manure will indeed break down and particularly during a winter with snow .
Thanks for this video .
merci merci merci c'est mon cœur qui parle simple et génial et sa coûte rien..... je galère à faire un engrais liquide bio et voilà la solution magnifique bravo monsieur
Fantastic video and explanations!! Thank you very much. Much love to you.
We are using this type of vermicomposting bath tube since 2015 :D
It is a great solution for us... especially when we dumpster diving in a skip behind supermarket :D
I've been wanting to do this for ages. To supplement my chicken feed. But I'm too chicken. And pineapple tops. I would love to get free pineapple tops and plant them. Does anyone come out and yell at you? Do you have to sneak at the dead of night?
Does this work in every climate? Or only more stable ones?
@@nancyfahey7518 No. We can pop in any time of the day and we can take any amount we want. Somtimes there are shop workers outside but rarely they try to get ride of me.
@@WhosJellies Any climate will work but you need to make sure worms will have a high humidity and temperature beetween 0-35*C. Best is 12-28*C.
@@Kalpapada thanks mate!
I've being doing that for a few years now, inside my appartment.
No odors, no insects, so much less garbage :)
Me too. Got 60L box full of worms under the coffee table.. :)
Wow. Really? Can u please share some pictures for us?
@faR o fatin check out my channel. I uploaded a small video showing my worm bin. It has custom worm stickers on.. :)
@@derekfrost8991 does it smelly?
@FaR O Fatin no it just smells earthy but you must keep any decaying matter buried or it will smell & get magotts.. :)
Finnally ! I was looking for this video for some time now ! Great guide!
Perfectamente explicado y muy valioso para mí.
Un abrazo fuerte desde España aprendo mucho contigo, gracias.
Welcome to YoubityTube sir I endearingly say, it's about time.
Thanks for the info from cold june in Ireland
Very good!!! Everything clear and useful. Thanks. Greetings from the south of Chile
This is awesome stuff, thanks for sharing Geoff!
Awesome, I built a massive worm bin out of an ibc tote, I can collect massive amounts of worm juice as well as vermi compost.
Damn, that’s a good idea! I have access to lots of those, but they have all had petroleum products in them. Any way to clean them good enough to then use for worms?
So did I, I cut 1 Ibc tote in half put them up on bricks, bucket under the drainage, lid on top and full of cow manure massive amount of castings out of it.
Luckily my wife allows me to do what the neighbors will undoubtedly think is crazy. Time for me to source a used tub. LOL. Sub'd.
Luckily my wife doesn’t own me so I don’t need to be ‘allowed’ to do things.
Just do good stuff and enjoy [in joy] life. There is no need to postpone the happy times 👍☺
Great video... and a good way to re-use an old bath tub.... Thanks from a freezing cold part of Canada
Ooohhhh.Im so happy I found you! Great advice! Thankyou!!🙂🙂
Bamboo!! Love it
Thanks for sharing, that was a great lesson again :). I have 1 question please. If we want to start from the beginning. We need 1rst layer manure, some worms and food scraps?
I don't think it really matters. The worms will get through it just the same.
Love how you keep it simple and recycle the bathtub. However I live on a small tropical island and will be looking around for other possibilities for a container--and tips for the tropics
Very educational video. Thank you so much for teaching us valuable things.
9:00 it's like spaghetti scraps - oh, wait, no that's the worms. Writhing with worms (long i not long e - must be Australian). Geoff, thank you so much - you're making a self sustaining / Earth repairing system super accessible to everyone. Can't decide if I want to feed compost worms or chickens - I need more food scraps. Suppose I can do a sink instead of a bathtub and just have less.
Make friends with the produce manager at your local supermarket. You’ll have more food scraps than you know what to do with!
I tried that. They said they are not allowed. But I should try other stores too.
May take a little effort, try a few stores, maybe talk to the store manager? And also, if you could find out when that stuff goes out to the dumpster... may be able to divert it into your vehicle? If you are open to being slightly dishonest, tell them this is for a school/scout/4H research project. Often people are more willing to help a good cause (and it’s honestly still a good cause).
Last resort would be dumpster diving, which may be illegal in some places, plus many stores prohibit that due to liability (you could get hurt and sue them). I know a pig farmer who brings (and leaves) an enclosed trailer and the store puts all the food waste in his trailer, which he empties daily if needed so never a mess or problem for the store.
He also rewards the produce guy with a ham or bacon from time to time. Think creatively! Good luck.
Great idea. If I had more food sources I'd have more chickens and I can barter with eggs, maybe. Thanks, worth a try.
This is THE BEST video in regards to beginning and maintaining a worm farm that I have ever seen. Thank You so much for this video. 🙏.°.•●☆
Yeah, Thanks for giving us the idea about burning the citrus peels. Ashes are great for covering leaves to help them break down into soil.
😲
Yes, I concur. Straight-forward and informative.
Thank you so much Geoff for this video.
Thanks for the video. Very informative and straight to point.
I repurposed a children’s turtle sandbox into a worm farm and harvested twice in its first year here on Vancouver Island. I think the worms thrive living in such large system. It’s much harder to make a mistake with a big worm farm than when dealing with small totes.
Awesome idea! Can you leave it outside in the winter, or does it need to be brought in from the snow?
It stays outside year round. I live on Southern Vancouver Island, so our climate is very mild. We are Zone 9b, but in recent years we've had a few temperature extremes (both hot and cold). I put a thermostatically controlled seed heating mat under the sandbox to make sure the worms not only live, but they stay active through our cooler months. The mat is set to maintain a minimum temperature of about 60°F (16°C).
~ Sandra
I love this idea & have everything ready to start my own compost worm farm. However, I live in Minnesota (zone 4) & wonder if the worms will survive sub-zero temps. I know they survive in my horse manure pile, but that's very large.
After watching this video, i had the same question!
Make a smaller pile just for them but big enough that it stays warm, they will multiply quickly If they are in the right conditions, also if you do it in a plastic tote bin you can easily do this in your basement or even under your sink with little to no smell, add bokashi grain or biochar if it starts to smell but also take notice because it shouldnt smell that bad, might be feeding them more than they can handle if it starts to rot
Just started this exact system this week..I can't wait for it to start working!
Thank you for the very informative video. Greetings from USA.
The best fertilizer on the planet in my eyes, that's why I am currently putting together a full course for beginners with coaching.
Working towards sustainable change,,,and growing awesome plants in an organic manner.
Hope you all start worm farming soon
Marty Ware (Agri Horticulturist)
Shit coach. Pretty standard for coaches these days :p
Hey man, i'd be interested!
@@pedriuskii That' cool Pedro get in touch with me over at my facebook page The Martys Garden Show and if it's suitable for you, I will hook you up. Cheers Marty
Add scraps to one end. Worms move to that end, so you can easily harvest the other end. Moving back and forth
Wow I didn't think about what goes in my worms will be the end result of the casting. Now I need a receipt on what to feed them so I will have the best castings for my garden.
Wiw !!... this is one of the most interesting videos about worms i have ever see.
Simple and easy explanations.
Congrats !... i am learning.
There was just a moment there when I really thought you were gonna take a sip of worm juice
xD me too
Hello, great video! I have implemented this system to create my own garden fertilizer! I have a question: What is the shelf life for the liquid fertilizer? In other words... How long can I store the drained juice in a 5 gallon bucket before it becomes inert and ineffective?
I would also like to know the answer to this question!
X3
I don't know the answer exactly, but light will degrade it, as will heat. The sooner it is used, the better. Remember, it is not a fertiliser as such. Rather, it is a soil conditioner, so it won't hurt to put it on the garden outside the growing season. To make more, just add water to your farm!
Wow that was really amazing! Thanks for sharing. Such a cool idea.
I removed a cast iron bath tub last fall and wish I'd seen this first before giving it away.
Thanks for the teaching Sir
Use it neat, huh? Well, cheers to you mate! :))
They love corn cobs. Always try to leave some kernels on that corn cov. Even if there are no kernels, the worms always mass under the corn cobs.
They seem to congregate in avocado skins as well.
Ive made a Worm Farm from Large discarded household Plastic Rubbish bins(picked up in hard rubbish collection) layered inside each other. Works a treat, worms are happy & healthy & produce so much Black Gold, its amazing : )
Thank you Geoff. Great inspiration.