Easy Worm Composting with the Bathtub Worm Bin
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- You can totally manage backyard worm composting.
COMPOST EVERYTHING: amzn.to/3WCHT3F
More Worm Composting Resources:
Worms Eat My Garbage: amzn.to/3XS5M8e
Geoff Lawton's Bathtub Worm Composting System: • Compost Worm Farming
My original "how to build" video on the Bathtub Worm Bin: • Anyone Can Build a Bat...
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Compost Your Enemies t-shirts: www.aardvarkte...
David's gardening blog: www.thesurvival...
Worm castings are one of the best garden amendments. However, worm castings are expensive! Today I share how to start worm composting on the cheap. There are lots of articles on buying worm bins, but you can make a worm bin with any number of things, one of the best being an old bath tub. Just by setting up a worm bin in the back yard, we can compost kitchen scraps, make our own worm compost, plus we get "worm tea" to feed our gardens. These little red wiggler worms work night and day turning waste into one of the richest garden amendments possible. Worm castings are great for starting transplants, inoculating the soil with fungi and bacteria, feeding plants, and keeping plant immune systems healthy. We borrowed this DIY worm bin idea from Geoff Lawton and absolutely love it. Vermicomposting redneck (I mean, permaculture) style!
You can totally manage backyard worm composting.
COMPOST EVERYTHING: amzn.to/3WCHT3F
More Worm Composting Resources:
Worms Eat My Garbage: amzn.to/3XS5M8e
Geoff Lawton's Bathtub Worm Composting System: ua-cam.com/video/Z5ozNM-Hb0w/v-deo.html
My original "how to build" video on the Bathtub Worm Bin: ua-cam.com/video/zNKM_T7cPDc/v-deo.html
Thank you all for watching.
I have a ton of IBC totes I am going to cut in half and try this. Also endless fruit cuttings from Publix
@@sweatt4237 That's awesome.
How tough is this to do in Central Florida? Just concerned about the heat.
@@dalemulert
I have my worm tower under my work bench in my detached garage in southern California.
It's best to keep them out of direct sunlight... But if you can't, have moist bedding (shredded cardboard or paper or just dead leaves) thick enough for them to go down and hide from the heat.
I just watch your video from a year ago chicken/deer food fields ... where's the follow up? I'd like to see the fields now?
This winter I've been trying free range worm ranching. Just like a cattle rancher does with hay I take the kitchen scraps, coffee grinds, etc out to their free range area, aka back yard, and toss it out. There has been a bit of a predator problem with the mini feathered velociraptors eating not only some of the worm food but even the free range worms! I've implemented a predator control program by eating the unborn young of mini feathered velociraptors and tossing the unused portions back onto the worm pastures for them to see.
Lmfao!!!
Metal
Beautiful! Lol
Awesome!
This is great news for me! It turns out that I have a whole bin of PVC fittings. I could put a hole maze of T’s in there for them to continually multiply through!
PhotoVoltaicComposting duh! When I first learned about worm “tea” I was obviously confused and over exaggerated the “t” less is best. Plumbers rule!
😂😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Why do they multiple and divide in a pvc pipe?
@@lynnegoss3277 Yes, I am confused.
The PVC worm duplicator- genius! 🤯
😂😂
I'm in zone 3 and what I've done outside is dig a large hole. Large enough for a grown man to fit inside. Fill that hole with hot compost then start adding worms and food on top of that. Come winter the hot compost will have cooled enough for the worms to start to move in. On top of the hole you need to build another pile again large enough for a man to fit inside. I've done this for about ten years and it works. I can get several feet of snow and ice on top of the pile in the winter but it will stay warm enough the worms don't freeze. I find worms in the spring right under the ice sheet so evidently they can enter some sort of hibernation or semi hibernation as long as they don't freeze solid. Although wigglers work the top few inches of substrate I have found they can burrow to greater depths to escape the winter. My plan eventually is to have pits around the property where they can retreat in the winter and come out and work the land in the summer, entering garden spaces,etc. This makes me a literal worm rancher.
That is really cool.
Totally amazing... you should publish a book on this concept!!
Did you compost a body in that?
When I was a kid, I bought worms to go fishing from a man who had a setup in his greenhouse. I was always fascinated by it. That was almost 60 years ago and I’ve never forgotten about it.
That is really cool. I would have loved seeing that as a kid.
I would have been fascinated too. Completely grossed out and refuse to touch it but fully fascinated. 😄
I lay in bed at night thinking of crazy things I’m going to do in the garden. Definitely. Thank you David for feeding your passion.
OMGGGG same LOL
😆 🤣 😂 me to.
Zone 5 here, my reds live outside in three plastic trash cans and in winter they get buried in the compost pile ! Great brother.
That's a really good way to do it.
Once again we are able to drink deeply from your vast pool of knowledge and experience. Running out right now to get the PVC to aid in worm reproduction! What an excellent visual aid for us homeschooling homesteaders.
Perfect timing! I was just gifted an old bathtub. Woohoo! Thank you David! Have a blessed day!
I was wonderin' what happen'ed to dat thar worm tub. Lookin' good brother Dave!
Headed to the hardware store to get some pvc tees. Thanks for the tip on that dupe glitch!
I’ve had the same thing for a couple years. Free. Took 45 minutes to start. Love it. I get a tubful of castings every few months.
9/10 on the 'sowf' English accent, speaking as an southern Brit :) I have a bath tub dumped outside waiting for spring to come, we're about zone 4/5 here.
While I don’t have a bathtub, I do have a big garbage can with a lid. Happily, the worms have made it through several multi day freezes here in SE Texas. Harvested castings last fall that I am using in starting seeds. The seedlings are happy enough. No sterile environment here. 😊
Thank you for the follow up on this topic! I would love to see a video about your castings harvest from the bathtub worm bin.
I'm thinking I could keep something like that in my greenhouse to keep it warm in the winter.
Good to see you, David ! I just harvested casting today ~ A bathtub is too big for me but my single BIG tub from Walmart for them has been awesome- and simple. And cheap ! (important for this 71 yr old)....AND my bin is in my kitchen, as the outdoor weather here in Central FL is too erratic. God Bless, friend🥰
We live in the tropics, and I did a double bucket method (inspired after watching you I believe) originally just hoping it would produce compost tea and help put a use to kitchen scraps. It ended up getting some sort of grub worms in it, that turned into what seemed like hundreds, and every day they'd take our kitchen scraps. I was suprised, because no matter how heaped up the pile was, by the next day it would be pretty much leveled off. And the system was producing more concentrated fertilizer than I could handle. PS, use cloves, and thoroughly wash your hands!
I had a 1’ by 1’ bin that I accidentally left outside (fruit flies were too much) during a drop into the low 20’s last month. I woke up, started drinking coffee, and then remembered and ran outside real quick, opened it up, and saw my bin full of frozen solid worm-sickles. I did some reading and quickly decided they were lost, but the eggs would likely hatch in a few weeks and restore my populations slowly. I was bummed. The next day, a miracle…. Everyone was back moving around, doing their worm work. I don’t understand what happened, but I’m very thankful! California reds just fyi. Anyone with similar experiences? Or frozen worms that never resurrected?
Never thought I'd hear the term "frozen worms that never resurrected". . . XD Then again now that I think about it that sounds like it could be a lyric to an old hymn, actually. :p
Wow! I never knew worms needed the plastic pipe thingies to make baby worms! I'll go out tomorrow and buy some😂😂😂
I have one of those plastic utility sinks that I found. A bucket on the bottom and a lid on top and I’m in business!
My grampa has two bathrooms and he made a bathtub worm bin. Smart that you have yours outside! 😆
Great video, David! I have two refrigerators I converted to worm bins several years ago. Works GREAT. I left the doors on them and it helps to keep the 4 legged critters out. I have it wedged so the doors don't close completely so air can get in, especially in our heat in the summer. I used the freezer section to store my hand rakes & other tools in that I use with tending my worms. I also keep extra newspaper, cardboard, old bags of flour/cornmeal I sprinkle in the beds to feed them (in zip lock baggies).
One thing newbie worm growers need to remember when composting garden harvest waste, especially corn husks (speaking from experience!) is NOT put too many of them in at one time. My husband loaded both my worm bins with them yr before last and literally cooked the worms. (He didn't know to not put them all in there and I didn't think to tell him...he is a newbie at homesteading being a former city slicker! LOL! Anything that composts creates heat, it was summertime, too so I had to start all over. If you have a lot garden harvest waste, have a separate bin or old garbage can sitting nearby to put some of the extras in to make a compost tea or throw the extra in your regular compost pile.
I was just having a conversation with my husband about putting worms in the compost that we have on the old family farmed that we have been living on.
It's so funny because there are all these old-school appliances that I've just been outside all these years I have no idea what to do with them other than try and take them to the dump and the ones that I did take they refused that's how old this stuff is.
So we were talking about how can we utilize these old-school appliances and all I can say is Grace I've God has blessed our lives again!
Thank you so much to you and your family for making these videos because seriously that never would have occurred to me to use those old appliances as compost bins lol 😆 THANK Y'ALL!!!
That is so cool.
@@davidthegood seriously thank you so much! Your videos are so helpful for a new gardener! Great ideas!
Wouldn’t the pvc joints work better if they were distributed throughout the medium? Then the worms could go in them on their own instead of you having to manually drop them in. 😏 Like my grandpa said, work smarter, not harder!
I have multiple worm bins near the house doing quite well. I think I’m going to start an outdoor open worm pile with manure in a shady spot near my barn and garden to chew up all of my manure. I use a lot of the worm compost from my bins for tomato and pepper transplants but it’s a distance from the garden so I don’t use it in the garden as much as I should.
The worms have finally found my compost bin , I’m jazzed about it , I started composting about 9 months ago ,
Use wetted card board as a top cover. I use a old sheet of plywood to keep the rain out. Leave the plywood off once in a while when it rains for a bit as they do not like too dry
Thanks for the great information on worm castings and “tea”. (I’ve GOT to get me some of those PVC parts! Who knew?! 🤓 )
I just love my wormies. I bring my bins inside for winter and out they go in spring!
Thanks David. I have a worm bin I made from a washing machine when it broke…I pulled the tumbler out and put into the ground. It works great too!
Love, love, love your intros David!
I'm happily reading through your Florida Gardening book and can't wait to read Compost Everything next. I like the idea of building a worm bin out of wood but the bathtub sounds simpler.
All these years I’ve been using my milk crate of pvc fittings wrong..😂 they’re not for plumbing they magically multiply worms!
But for real though I’ve wanted to do a worm bin again.. it’s been about 7-8 years since I had one and I think this video might have pushed me into doing it. Love the videos!
My dad raised worms in old freezers and sold them when he was much younger. We are in WI and the freezer worked perfect to keep them from freezing in the winter.
I want that tea cup.
It's this set: www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=spring+blossom+corelle&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_odkw=spring+blossom+corning&_osacat=0
Oh--- snap! I must put some PVC “T’s” on top of my worms!🙋♀️
Oh! The tea cup reminds me of my grandma!
My Grandma also had the Corelle "Blue Snowflake" cups, very much like these.
Same my Grandma used the blue one too.
Definitely going to start dropping worms into T and watch them divide 🤪
Thank you David. I have been having a lot of fun filling my compost up. We went to a store and they call me when they have compost for me. I has taking the boxes out on Friday for the trash. But we stop that. We been cutting they up an putting it in the compost. I am loving it. Thank you so much David.
😁 my dishwasher is broken! Still trying to drag it outside 😅 after seeing an earlier video where you mentioned this. 👍
What is the video you think that made you gain so much more subscribers ofter the 100,000!? Im happy to come to this channel and see it grow so much.Congrats.
I dunno. I think it was largely a function of exponents.
Thank you for sharing this information with us 😊
Nice beat at the end there. Feeling the DJ Shadow vibe. Was half way hoping you were going to bust out the turn tables and do some scratchin.
I love DJ Shadow
Great video
I just made my first attempt at making a worm bin out of a dishwasher. I hope it works. I also plan to make one out of an old tote.
I needed this man I need to get some worms thanks for all the wisdom you share in all your videos
After I wash my car I gather up the worms and put them in the garden. They don’t like soapy water. Thanks for posting another enjoyable episode !
Nice to have you back & everyone is doing better. 🛁 great idea for a worm 🪱 bin 🌟. 👵🏻👩🌾❣️
Oh, David, it is so good to have you back and we get to say hi to your worms again..Hope all is going well. Am so glad to find that I am not the only person that doesn't get freaked out easily 🙃. Of course, that usually freaks daughter out anyway .. but that's OK. Greetings to all ..the older Nana.
Nice! I love to see you and your family continue to get settled on your new homestead. I started my worm bin in a salvaged laundry tub about two years ago. Then last year we salvaged a PINK bathtub and transferred and expanded our worm bin there. I also watched Geoff Lawton's video a few years ago and was inspired. My worms, three varieties that I bought from a local farm, are doing well. You are supposed to "reset" the bin about every 3 months, but I have overshot that by a lot. (Life). I have to keep mine covered so the wildlife doesn't get into it, and so I have to hand water it with a hose periodically. I have found two other videos outlining four different methods of using worms for making living soil that I'll detail for you in the "Community" section of your wonderful and informative (and fun) channel.
Thanks, Kimberly.
I've been looking for a bathtub for a few months to do just this. I've got to get my own worm castings in bulk.
I am now wishing I had held onto the garden sized tub that I had to replace after Hurrican Harvey!
David, I really enjoyed this video a lot of great information here. Believe it or not I got back in the worm business Back in the 60s and recently got into red Wiggler's I have utilized restaurant bus Ben's to Raise my worms. I'm glad to be a part of your community, and I subscribed to channel. Good work my friend, I'm all about worms.
Awesome - thank you.
I’ve been thinking about making a worm bin, probably gonna do it
Just shared this on about a dozen Facebook groups. It's a good video.
Good to see you again man I’ve been missing the lives and miss hanging out with the whole good posey
PVC joint… 🤣🤣 you’re the best!
Cheers. My cat and I just started DE. 🤞
bathtub composting is the greatest. i had mine for a few years. of course i find my own worms to add to the bathtub.. works great.. thanks for all your good information on gardening especially the grocery row garden. i am all ears lol
That’s one thing on my list as well as many more…thank you for the inspiration and the natural way to care for those you love stay blessed
I love your awkward intros. 😂😂😂
Another great video. Glad they survived. My Dad used to keep night crawlers in a box in our garage. We lived in Buffalo at the time. He used them for fishing. I wonder if he ever used the casting. 🤔
Will get out of rehab Friday. Glad to read your posts!
I hope you feel great afterwards!
I watched the video again where you set up your tub. How did the worms do with the collards you added in the beginning? What's the fine line between enough but not too much food? Always get excited when I see a DTG notification from UA-cam.
They ate the collards - no problem. If there's too much food, you end up with a stinky, sloppy mess, but the worms are usually fine unless you don't have good drainage and they drown in the slop.
thanks! I watch another gardening channel and instead of those plumbing parts for the worms to breed, she uses paper towel or toilet paper rolls (the cardboard left over) she puts some leaves inside and buries it. she calls it a worm taco.
I have two old bathtubs and two leaking water tanks this is a great idea
No need for a bottom of a worm bin, just open it up to the ground. They aren't going to escape if you are feeding them regularly. And if you did not feed them for a while and they left just start feeding them again and they come back and so do any worms already in the ground. I started integrating my worm bins directly into gardens. Before I moved out of the homestead every square inch that wasn't driveway or house foundation was my worm bin. and you could just pick up a hand full of top soil and get a hand full of worms.
Oh yes, you can do that. I've seen some great in-ground systems. But I do like having the drainage available for the worm tea.
Very fun shows. Thank you.
Hi David, I love you guys. I've been trying to figure out how to just send you some money.
I guess you have to be live for me to buy you coffee or what ever? Breaks my heart you guys are cold and not well. You are in my prayers, God bless you and your lovely family. Pam
Thank you - we are feeling much better.
Good to have you back brother
Thank you.
We are in NH, I had beautiful garden soil, that I had built up over several years through composting. In 2020 I notice my soil was changing. It was dry despite lots of rain and my watering, it was crumbling and things were not growing big and lush like it had been. But I had a LOT of worms more than I had ever had …ever. Like dozens and dozens of worms. My gut said something was wrong but I couldn’t put my finger in it. I was happy to have the worms but the bothered me at the same time. They were super active and my daughter who had no problems digging up worms to feed to her pet chicken wouldn’t touch these. Then I came across a post on our local garden group that Jumping worms from the south had been seen in NH. So I started reading and sure enough I didn’t have earthworms or red wrigglers I had jumping worms they move like snakes. They are not good for the solid, they blow through leaf litter, compost, all my good black soil that I had made through composting turned to coffee ground, doesn’t hold water and things don’t grow well. I feel defeated. I latterly sat in my garden and cried. They say chicken won’t eat them and at first mine didn’t… never seen anything like it. We have gotten our younger chickens to eat them and since I have a closed flock I’m going to try and breed the ones that will eat the worms so I have some sort of defense. I keep a bucket of water next to me when I garden and I hand pick them. Mustard water will bring them to they surface. The Lord spoke to my heart that He is bigger than some worms. Trusting Him but hoping you master gardeners have some hopeful advice because everything I read online about these worms is bad news.
Yes, I've read about them too - they do sounds terrible. May you find a solution!
Another superb video! Thank you for the Good vibes, both of you🥰
Lets wait for a "worm" day to harvest castings 😅
Vermisterra worm castings is the best one I’ve used and if you search In CaliKim’s videos for the one that the founder is in you can see she explains why she makes it all organic but ya it’s very expensive! I’ve been trying to make it myself also! Now I wish I would have grabbed that bathtub on the side of the road 🤦🏻♀️
Good stuff, and yes I've got your book...lol. it's also good stuff from David the Good of course.
Thank you for the GOOD INFO- we are in middle TN--
Opening made me LAUGH!!!
🤣🤣🤣
Now there's something interesting and important to do, your own DIY Worm Farm! Looking forward to Worm casting harvest this Spring David, thanks for sharing, Liked and wishing ya a great rest of the week. :)
Yes David they are costly about ten dollars a bag…only invested in one bag a while back and have not used it as of yet wondering JUST WHAT IS REALLY IN IT….scary to think of…so this year the oldclaw foot tub missing a leg will be utilized as a worm bin…kids think I’ve gone off the deep end lol but as always nature knows best…thank you for sharing and stay blessed
Hmm, need something smaller that I can put in the greenhouse for the winter to keep the worms safe...maybe an old utility sink or something.
Wow I've got to get some of those magical PVC tees!!!🤣
Earthworms are cool.
I built a worm bin out of old totes I put one inside the other. The worms are in the top bin and when it rains it fills the bottom bin with compost tea. Last Summer we had very little rain and one day it rained 4 inches and filled my totes with water. I thought I would drown my poor worms!! I drained 8 gallons of water into buckets and watered my Brillo pad yellow lawn. It has never been thicker or greener!!!
GREAT TO SEE U AGAIN 👍💯!
I would sure like to understand how the PVC pipe T fittings help increase the worms.
Thanks
Ha! My barn when I lived in zone 6 would freeze solid despite 6 horses and closed shut in the coldest part of winter. I had to have heated water buckets or I’d never get them watered! When I lived in zone 5 the dirt in my barn would freeze down quite a ways. I’ve had horse and barns my whole life and only here in zone 8 have I not had it freeze in the barn.
Looking forward to the casting harvest.
How are y'all handling the weather today? Not to much damage I hope.
No - it was gusty and wet last night. Beautiful this morning.
@@davidthegood Glad to hear so. We're in the worst of it now with heavy rain coming down but it's less than I prepared for... For a change.
Always such great information! 👍🏻
Zone 5b... it's been frozen along time...I just dumped a Rubbermaid tote of soil out recently( moving) and TONS of worms were still very much alive...and the soil was frozen solid...I was soooo shocked
That is amazing.
That is so fascinating!!
Good stuff! 😊
A great reminder about that PVC trick, David! My grandpa originally taught me that and now I am doubling my worm population every 30 days. One in, two out! Kinda like a reverse Thunderdome. But one question: what about the extreme heat in central Florida during the summer? Can the worms handle that in their tub outside?
I keep them in the shade - I wouldn't leave them in full sun for sure.
My worms survived the frozen week but I did use some old blankets for insulation.
An old chest freezer could be a great insulated worm bin! I tried the 5 gallon pail stack worm bin. It was great until the Temps got up consistantly into the 80's. They died while trying to escape... so sad.
Gotta get some PVC joints!!!
Landrace worms?
I got a bathtub last fall but didn't get it set up before the snow fell. Have to time to think about where to put it. Perhaps mine should be in the greenhouse or could it be insulated enough to be a stand alone? In zone 4 Mountains Columbia Valley BC
Thank you for the up date ... good to see another example like Geoff Lawton
Fun fact worms have glycerol which is basically natural antifreeze for their bodies. Snails have it too. This is why they can survive freezing temps. Glycerol protects their cells from being damaged by frost. Another fact to note, if the worms are fed too much glucose it will begin to inhibit their production of glycerol. Just thought I would throw that one out there. ☺️
That's awesome.
Interesting fun fact! So perhaps limit fruit peels, spoiled fruit prior to winter... so as not to accidentally kill them off?
@@Katydidit I think that would probably ensure better survival rates coming to frost season. Lots of dead leaves, paper and hair. Oddly enough... Worms eat hair. 😳
David , David ,David ! I've been looking for a old bathtub for ever to use and collect worm tea. But I just realized I have a old Kenmore medium size upright freezer that we don't use anymore because the wife doesn't like defrosting it. I might just have to sacrifice it and put a drain in it.
Perfect!
Lol. Those pvc pipes! Wonder how worms manage to reproduce in the wild without pvc....have to fall back on freaky hermaphroditic thing, I guess.
So happy I could see the tea bag tag in the cup in your opening. No squeamish thoughts about cup's contents while you were talking about how good that worm tea is, and how nothing freaks you out. So, yeah.
Now I am hoping someone would "lose" an old tub or some large washer or dishwasher in the conservation behind my house, well out of sight of nosy HOA spies....one can hope.
Missed you while you were off. But hope it was good family time.