African Night Crawler Farm Makes $50k+ Raising Worms in a Garage

John from www.growingyourgreens.com/ visits Poppy's Vermiculture Farm grows African night crawler worms in a garage in 3-gallon plastic buckets and makes $50k+ a year selling worm castings & worms, Soil and Related Products
In this KZbin video, John Kohler from growingyourgreens.com visits a unique worm farm in Missouri where the owner has turned his garage into a profitable worm-casting business. The owner, who initially knew little about gardening, decided to invest in African nightcrawlers to make money through worm castings. African nightcrawlers are different from standard red wigglers commonly used in composting.
These worms reproduce quickly, and their castings are rich in beneficial microorganisms, making them valuable for gardening. The video explores how the farm raises African nightcrawlers in three-gallon buckets, maintaining optimal conditions for their growth. The process involves creating a special mixture, top-dressing with a proprietary mix, and ensuring the right moisture content.
The owner uses a screening method to separate worms, castings, and cocoons efficiently. They emphasize the importance of proper moisture levels and advise against feeding raw food scraps directly to the worms.
You will learn that the farm has been successful in producing high-quality worm castings, the owner faces challenges in educating the local community about the benefits of worm castings and the specific needs of African nightcrawlers. Despite challenges, the farm has grown and is expanding to meet the increasing demand for its products.
Jump to the following parts of this episode:
00:00 Episode Starts
00:24 Growing African Nightcrawlers in a Garage
01:16 African Nightcrawler Worm Castings Have a larger poop
02:17 How to Multiply the Benefits of Worm Castings
03:10 Don't Feed Food Scraps to Your Worms!!
03:55 Optimal Temperature to Keep African Nightcrawlers
04:26 Three Pallets of Buckets of Worms
05:32 3 Gallon Buckets Full of the Best Castings
06:29 Large African NightCrawlers
07:00 Harvesting Castings Every 2 Weeks
08:00 Making Special Worm Food for African Nightcrawlers
09:25 Feed Superfoods to Your Worms to have Supercharged Castings
10:06 2.5 gallons of Worm Food Prepared for New Worms
11:45 The Challenge of Growing African Nightcrawlers
12:25 African Nightcrawlers in Black Bucket System?
13:15 How to Sift out Your African Nightcrawlers, Cocoons and Castings
14:45 Automatic Compost Sifter to Sift larger volume of Worms, Cocoons and Castings
15:20 He does not ship his African Night Crawler Castings
16:10 Have the proper moisture content when feeding your worms
16:50 Grow Your Own Worms and Make Your Castings
After watching this episode, you will learn how you can start a worm farm in your garage growing African night crawlers in 3-gallon buckets and producing amazing worm castings to sell to local gardeners.
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Referenced Links:
Poppy's Vermiculture Farm, Inc
theculturednightcrawler.com/

[@growingyourgreens]

Jump to the following parts of this episode: 00:24 Growing African Nightcrawlers in a Garage 01:16 African Nightcrawler Worm Castings Have a larger poop 02:17 How to Multiply the Benefits of Worm Castings 03:10 Don't Feed Food Scraps to Your Worms!! 03:55 Optimal Temperature to Keep African Nightcrawlers 04:26 Three Pallets of Buckets of Worms 05:32 3 Gallon Buckets Full of the Best Castings 06:29 Large African NightCrawlers 07:00 Harvesting Castings Every 2 Weeks 08:00 Making Special Worm Food for African Nightcrawlers 09:25 Feed Superfoods to Your Worms to have Supercharged Castings 10:06 2.5 gallons of Worm Food Prepared for New Worms 11:45 The Challenge of Growing African Nightcrawlers 12:25 African Nightcrawlers in Black Bucket System? 13:15 How to Sift out Your African Nightcrawlers, Cocoons and Castings 14:45 Automatic Compost Sifter to Sift larger volume of Worms, Cocoons and Castings 15:20 He does not ship his African Night Crawler Castings 16:10 Have the proper moisture content when feeding your worms 16:50 Grow Your Own Worms and Make Your Castings Learn more about this farm at Poppy's Vermiculture Farm, Inc theculturednightcrawler.com/

[@hatz11]

Man those worms live a good life lol, non-stop buffets

[@weirdacreshomestead3489]

Night Crawlers can survive in Missouri. They are in a lot of them in southeast. They are hard to find because they tend to tunnel deeper into the ground than the red wigglers that tend to stay near the surface.

[@Mrjboomseedco]

Pro worm bin tip go to local mushroom farm use spent blocks in bin aswell as kelp meal basalt neem and Karanja cake and the secret weapon malted barley use these and you will have castings better then 98% on the market not many people use this stuff I use it and this way I don’t need to do any amendments and stuff the castings have it all in them black leaf mold is a huge component of a good vermicompost but it takes a few years to get finished product the castings i mentioned also takes 2 years minimum but you can’t buy better castings if you make them this way

[@cityguyinthecountry]

He is very creative, I like his style

[@lumumba6865]

Good info

[@SunnyLife24]

The legend hits again

[@stevegorkowski3246]

John , I have a local worm casting seller and buy a 50 lb bag each year. The hemp farmers buy from him. This is one of the best investments in my garden! The crazy thing is since using the castings I grow less of one variety of plant, but the amount harvested stays the same ! This opens up space for things like celery!

[@thedudeman6679]

I live in Alaska and I can say because of the dryness of the climate and seasons it’s easy to harvest most types of worms up here. We have Alaska bull worms and I promise on my dead mom that these worms will get up to 12 inches long and about half inch in diameter thick.

[@jeffngarden]

I’ve been watching for years OG another 💎!

[@Debbie-Keller]

I Love my worms!!

[@o311LouDogUSMC]

Good post John. I’m in Henderson Nevada so not far from you. I had really great success with nightcrawlers that I picked up at Bass Pro shop. Threw them in my raised beds and the following year, they were still thriving even after the winter.

[@laurajones2032]

Thanx john

[@SmugSlug_138]

Your channel is awesome definitely one of my favorite

[@miningking70]

Well done! John.

[@ohio_gardener]

We used to have a really nice worm farm about 20 miles from us where we could get good quality castings at a fair price. He got truckloads of horse manure with bedding from the fairground, composted it, and then fed it to the worms. Unfortunately, he retired this spring, and sold his entire operation to another worm farm in another state. I stocked up on worm castings at his "going out of business" sale, but there won't be any more. 😒

[@ashforbes6152]

awesome info once again ,thanyou much appreciated🕉👍🤙

[@GrapeApe66]

Great info on food scraps composted first👍

[@rosaarias7128]

i love it. an essential creature in a garden. thank you! 🤍🕊

[@Real.deal.skrill]

John 🙌🏿🙌🏿😎👑💯

[@AJsGreenTopics]

That is a nice size worm. 😎

[@RubberDuckStyle]

If the worms are happy they will not leave your bin. Worms tring to leave the bin means you have a problem to dry, to many worms for the bin, to wet, ect....

[@GeorgiaGrowGuy]

makes 50k or bills 50k, there is an enormous difference.

[@johngreen8922]

Hey John

[@kindradeleon9053]

The power of the worm

[@TraumaChaplain]

So I guess the next video is efficient composting just for worms. I guess the type of compost depends on the type of room you want to breed

[@jacobbrizammito7187]

Could worm cocoons in the castings pass into my garden soil and hatch and populate my land with exotic worms. This may compete with naturalized worms here already and Speeding decomposition of leaf litter in the forrest. Leading to faster bare spots?.. i am in zone 7 and worms survive the winter in the ground. Also and i like my worms and castings to be peat free if possible.

[@constant_evolution_genetic478]

Worms do not eat the food, the slime breakdown the food and they exude the smile off there skinn that breakdown the material into sludge which then they consume

[@ricvanwinkle1665]

Yeap and that’s why I put my scraps in a dedicated blender prior and the worms 🐛 love it

[@Gcanno]

The worms feed on the bacteria and fungi that decompose the food .

[@nancyfargo4209]

how many worms per bucket?

[@GrapeApe66]

Any recommendations for Los Angeles area good quality worm castings? Thx in advance👍

[@The...0_0...]

Chickens like worms

[@Roxtakdup]

John I'm thinking one less cup of joe.

[@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777]

@12:00 importing animals makes no sense when one can use native Worms suited to the soil in your area. It's not difficult to raise worms. I'm glad people are using castings in general - but it's rather absurd to mail order something that exists everywhere under your feet. Good for them though. we have a successful worm farm near by but they just serve the area of the province.

[@IronRangeGreens]

Pretty stingy on the info poppy

[@eeor]

John, buy a new camera man. Buy 3 new cameras... You have a million subscribers on this channel alone, and it looks like we're watching you through a foggy window. It's a tax write off. Jesus...