Compost Worm Tower

Learn more about Permaculture with my free 4-part Masterclass series, here:
www.discoverpermaculture.com/...
For those that would like an overview of worm farms, head here: • Compost Worm Farming
For those who want to grow food in a small space, without spending a lot of time worrying with it, a worm farm bucket provides continuous fertility using minimal time and effort. The idea is to put it right in the garden.
To make one, cut the bottom out of a five-gallon bucket, drill holes half way up it, and bury it to that depth. Fill the installed bucket halfway up with manure, adding food scraps and weeds to top it off. Finally, put in some compost worms (not earthworms) and fill the bucket all the way with water. The nutrients will drain into the garden.
It’s important to put the lid on the bucket to protect the worms from sunlight and birds. Though the lid isn’t airtight, it will also prevent the contents from drying out. Plus, the top can be used as a birdbath or a sprinkler stand.
The same setup can be helpful between two fruit trees or in the middle of a circle of them.
Key Takeaways:
• A worm farm bucket in the garden is a simple, low-maintenance way to fertilize a small space.
Buckets are easy to make, and they send nutrients directly to the garden.
• The bucket lids are important for protecting the worms from sunlight and birds, as well as preventing the contents from drying out.
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#permaculture #organicgardening #fertilizer

[@crossing3790]

The simplest things the world will not teach you. Instructional videos as yours should be mandatory in all schools starting from the lowest grades/ages. Kids will love it and take their importance/values into adulthood. Very inspirational your teachings. Just dont let Monsanto buy the land sourrounding you :-) Blessings to all

[@ElizarTringov]

If you make something mandatory, almost nobody will want anything to do with it. That's why in school children are "rewarded" with trinkets like gold stars and good grades, just to try to keep them interested. It's exactly because this video is not mandatory that I and many others have come here to watch it.

[@bluememehehe9314]

#@crossings too right m8 2ryte ...love yu thinking x

[@islandnug9885]

Elizar Tringov Preposterous. Teaching children this at school is a much more efficient way of spreading the information throughout society than them finding it by chance.

[@TheLazyGuyWay]

Very good idea !

[@oldstudbuck3583]

Teaching kids conservation is a great idea. Indoctrinating them with bullshit leftist ideology is what happens in the public school system. Thank God for Trump.

[@DaKineGardenStuff]

Have used a worm tower in our California home garden with huge success. Now that we moved to desert area, we have indoor worm bins. It’s important to make adaptations.

[@beckylydford5290]

is this not possible in a desert area? I am in Arizona and would love to do in ground like this. Maybe if there is some tree cover for a part of the day?

[@DaKineGardenStuff]

@@beckylydford5290 it depends on your soil. Here in Las Vegas the soil is rock solid and almost impossible to dig; however, I can put a worm tower in my raised garden and it'll do fine if kept in the shade especially during the hotter time of the day.

[@KawakebAstra]

Thank U Geoff King of Permaculture Honor AppreciateU .. I put table scraps in a few places under berry bushes & pulled weeds to cover ..whaa laah .. worms appear on there own .. soil gets richer & richer .. how wonderful Nature’s way 🌱💛😎🍃&U🙏

[@hoggarththewisesmeagol8362]

The most simple ideas are sometimes the least obvious and most brilliant! I’m defo going to try this!

[@eozen81]

This is amazing idea, loved it so much. Mankind should produce more ideas like this, you are a hero Geoff.

[@victorybeginsinthegarden]

He did not come up with this idea but I use this in my garden it works great

[@pershop4950]

mankind did produce more ideas like this! even keyhole gardening is a similar concept but on a bigger scale. it helps areas where the soil was really bad and the people can grow in a kind of raised garden situation, with a built-in worm tower.

[@connecticutwormsgardens]

I love your personality behind the videos. You explain things so thoroughly and really emphasize all the benefits of everything you do. There are so many monotone videos that just go through explaining things often far too scientific and they might put me to sleep lol but you really inspire and motivate. I appreciate that. Cheers from the United States

[@MickyELee]

There is another similar idea I saw on youtube some time ago. Rather than a bucket, I used a 4" plastic pipe with holes drilled around the bottom half (I used a rasp to remove the plastic remnants so they wouldn't wound the worms). I glued a female end thing so I could have a top that screwed on. It's basically a feed tube for the worms in my garden. It's called a "free range worm farm" :) I feed it with chopped up fruit rinds from my kitchen. My worm population has grown. Your version contains the worms etc. But then you have to collect and spread. I'm sure my neighbors at the community garden gain from my worms. That's okay.

[@TruckTaxiMoveIt]

Great idea I'm going to try it out I think I'm also going to add some rocks and some cans at the bottom of the bucket ( I'll have a bunch of holes at the bottom of my bucket as well it won't be wide open to try to deter snakes from getting in under the bucket) to Leach out minerals

[@Vee-zx6eh]

I was always a fan of Bill Mollison since the late 80's. Now I have found you on KZbin. I am enthralled. Thank you for showing us/teaching your way of farming worms.

[@islandnug9885]

Excellent tutorial, as ever Geoff.

[@Mari-hh6it]

So simple yet so smart! Thank you for the info

[@PetalsonthePavingSlabs]

Looks very achievable to do, thank you for the inspiration.

[@raminsatyahadi4642]

Wow this is an amazing concept & so simple. Thank you🙏

[@theresadailey5809]

Thank you for the useful information, very easy to follow.

[@jend4128]

Super cool! Thanks for sharing!

[@roxiquir]

Thank you so much Geoff!!

[@AJsGreenTopics]

Great information. Thanks for sharing.

[@HFTL666]

I'm going to try this!!!

[@alishaborstel4654]

Brilliant idea Geoff. Could you do such in a closed system such as a wicking bed / wicking barrel or would the water holding capacity of the wicking bed be detrimental to the worms?

[@B30pt87]

Beautiful! Thank you so much.

[@freeq1829]

I already did this in my yard :) it's so easy and it's low maintenance way to compost and feed trees nearby at the same time

[@freeq1829]

@@veim2406 the leachate goes out into the surrounding soil and the soil life really does most of the work.

[@surajssubramanian7327]

For how long should the bucket remain this way?

[@freeq1829]

@@surajssubramanian7327 I'd say until everything broken down. You could re use whats in the bucket in your compost or bury In the ground

[@Sm0k4dee]

@@freeq1829 how do you replace the materials inside of the bucket? do you get out the hole bucket?

[@freeq1829]

@@Sm0k4dee yes you pull it out with the handle carefully you might have to dig out a little bit around it to loosen it up I found that my bucket gets brittle in the sun I had to replace it twice.

[@alisonbender8611]

Very practical!

[@nygeltotman6510]

Great video ❤

[@karimalameddine5092]

Thank you very much, wow! Would be nice to get some ideas about indoor gardening like in apartments, in Canada its cold many months of the year, Thank you very much again,

[@Lu-ys9cw]

😮 love it!

[@ptah23]

Do you have to maintain it like a worm bin? Like in the worm bath tub video?

[@Ryin88]

Ive been looking into worm towers like this but ive hit a few questions. 1. What happens when it fills up, does it sit there for months until the worm eat the food, and then what you empty it and start over again? 2. Why not save a week or 2's worth of food scraps in the freezer and dig a hole and bury it with some brown material. Plastic buckets get damaged with UV, and break apart.

[@coreyholt8522]

Does the bucket ever fill up with fully composted material?

[@alejandrosanchez9258]

Where can I buy your fertilizer at?

[@Familiarhazephotography]

Could you use mushroom compost (bi product of mushroom farming) instead of manure? Was trying to improvise with what we had, as someone else mentioned using the wider PVC piping - I have installed 1 each into our garden tubs. Keen to see the benefits. Hopefully didn't stuff up by swapping out the manure 🤪

[@Familiarhazephotography]

Update : worms are everywhere, huge success & my garden tubs are wild and growing alot of veg.

[@carriewhelpley2542]

As usual, great video and super informative. I've made my first in-ground bin around the drip-line of our avocado tree and am anxious to see it occupied. Should I wait for earthworms or pick up some red wigglers? In Florida and I'm concerned that it will become a fire ant farm before the earthworms are able to establish... thoughts?

[@pershop4950]

the video said some important things. for sure, even earth worms and the microbes in your soil will eventually break things down. but they move in and out of the bucket and may not reside there. but these compost worms (or maybe red wiggler worms) stay in and around the food scraps, so that you get a more constant and eventually faster decomposition of the food scraps you put in, as the population grows, so that you can put in more and more food scraps. nature works and things will eventually break down, but if you depend only on the earth worms, just know that the process will be slower than with composting worms.

[@alyncook7315]

Had not thought of using it as a sprinkler stand. Mine just act as bird/bee trough and a stand for my gnome.

[@KyAl2]

Is there any maintenance required, or even optional, over time, such as adding more material on top? I mean it sort of seems like a very simple way of keeping a compost bin in the garden? And how does this work in 4 season climates?

[@delphzouzou4520]

Of course you can, or you need, to add more material as it composts. It works very well all the year. When it's too cold or too hot, the worms slow down the work, but it's ok. It"s more an in situ worm bin than a compost bin.

[@UncleFester84]

What about maintenance? How often do you have to fill the tower and empty the worm castings, how do you dig them out without eradicating most of the worms, and so on?

[@Zazadance]

I’m wondering as well do you just keep throwing scraps in?? Doesn’t it start to overfill a maintenance video would be great.

[@Sm0k4dee]

how often do i have to replace the manure? like in the bathtub every 3 months?

[@joannehuggins9716]

We use old recycled plants pots, and we don't worry about cutting out the bottom. We use the upside down saucer as a lid and put a rock on top. Ours are full of soldier flies larvae instead of worms, and then the garden around the pots are full of earthworms. Google soldier flies.....amazing little things! And we dont ever empty the pots, we just keep topping them up. guess it all just leaches back into the soil?

[@kan-zee]

I love my worm towers in my raised gardens...ever since I put a bucket worm farm in each garden...My soil is awesome and my plants are much bigger than before. My attempts at having a bin worm farm...failed miserably...lol

[@mezleona]

Kanzee Im having the same issue, to many bugs going into my bin, gets to wet, it stinks etc i think im going to try this method, but will have to wait until winter her in TX is scorching

[@geoffmassey6626]

Kind of a weird question, but can you use Humanure instead of cow or horse manure for something like this if you don't have a cow or horse and are looking to get started?

[@SoretaSoreta]

can i throw in vegetable oil too?

[@muhammadjawad1285]

Where to get this worms, can we produce them 1st tym. What's the procedure

[@PartTimePermies]

Do you have suggestions of ways to vermicompost outside in a climate that gets down to -15F in the winter? I love that idea for the summer, but I don't think the worms would survive our winter.

[@filamgamingdrama]

While the worms would die in the severe cold most of the eggs would hatch in spring and begin all over. Alternatively or in addition, you could mound leaves over the area to insulate and depending on the depth of the bucket and how high you mound the pile of leaves etc you could increase the number of worm eggs surviving the cold and possibly keep some alive year-round. Similar to how you would protect fruit trees and roses.

[@Kalpapada]

Hi. I have similar worm Farm in cold climate outside, but my is in a bathtub. Bathtub is insulated under and around. Before each winter I mix a lot of food scraps with the wood chips to start hot composting process to give worms a bit of temperature at the beginning. It shortens that frost period which lasts for about 3 months. After mixing food scraps with wood chips I cover bath tub with a lot of leaves, straw and blanket at the top. Really really thick insulation. They survived two winters so far when I had -25*C for about 3 weeks 😁 It works! 😀

[@brid12452]

Do the worms survive the winter?

[@Ilikecats_youtube]

How do I protect it from the heat of the sun?

[@rickyd1126]

Like a key whole garden

[@jdearr1]

1. what is the range of how many worms you'd put in each bucket? i see them for sale by 500's and 2000's. how many 5-gal buckets could i seed with 2000 compost worms? 2. i purchased a couple dozen yards of hot compost in march, and i've found smaller, redder worms in the compost closer to the ground over the past two months. could i assume these are compost worms, should i be trying to set them aside now till i get my horse manure (soon, which i will also be using to begin experiments to make my own hot compost), and if they're not compost worms and i drop them into a worm farm am i sending the poor little creatures to their untimely deaths? so timely, so helpful, so important, thanks permaculture online

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

1. They breed fast eating their own weight every day doubling their population in 40 days and their population is controlled by their feed supply.

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

2. Yes they are probably compost worms.

[@jdearr1]

@@DiscoverPermaculture Thanks!

[@sibiya2000]

@@DiscoverPermaculture if you say compost worms, you mean red wigglers?

[@garethevans2109]

How would you go about harvesting the worm castings and seperating the worms out to go back into the bucket?

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

Only feed them at one end and only cover that end and 2 days latter 95% of your worms are right there.

[@garethevans2109]

@@DiscoverPermaculture Just like one would for the bathtub worm farm but on a smaller scale? I had assumed the 12" diametre wouldn't have allowed enough room to do that. Would we even need to harvest the castings in this set up? I presume the soil microbiology will be feasting on the castings from below as the bottom of the bucket has been removed?

[@DavidPanofsky]

I want to minimize my part in plastic production. If I don't already have one of these buckets to use for this purpose, what other suggestions do you have?

[@pershop4950]

wood panels, which may need to be replaced eventually but it still takes many years. you can choose hardwood or cedar to help it last longer.

[@danieledemarzo1873]

Hi, what does happen in winter in mild temperate climate when temperatures can drop down up to minus 8 minus 10 °C? Should I remove the 5 gallon bucket in order to not to be killed by frost?

[@TruckTaxiMoveIt]

Things usually only freeze to the ground not Underground the worms know that they can go down deeper where the Frost won't bother them

[@Beartriple7]

Yes if it gets that cold then youmshould remove them to indoor worm bin setup, different worms survive/thrive in different enviornments, for instance one of the most common compost worm the red wiggler lives in the top few inches of the compost so they'd freeze, next another common compost one called the african nightcrawler does go deeper down, but they live in warmer climates, however the regular earthworm does go 12 plus feet into the ground in winter as neccessary to avoid the frosty cold, but they're not the worms that will be doing all the vast majority of breaking down the scraps even though the odd one might find itself in there, there are other nightcrawler worms that thrive in a climate slightly cooler, but no worms are going to be thriving on food scraps exposed at minus 10 Celsius...besides indoors, I believe there are some worm farms outdoors that are part of the outside of a hot compost in mild winter areas, you could research if that would work for your area, or just transport to inside worm bin

[@CALIFORNIA650.]

Excellent 😏

[@alejandrosanchez9258]

Is your product for sale?

[@trizanzor]

Would this work without incorporating manure?

[@pershop4950]

yes, just use other bedding material or compostable stuff that the worms can feed from.

Great knowledge as usual. whats the function of the manure and how do obtain the compost worms? Thanks!

[@RefugeeOfReality]

Manure is the Starter Food and Habitat for the worms and it provides great bacteria.

@@RefugeeOfReality And what if there is no manure? only food scraps

[@shachar2]

@ poop into the bucket, it's all organic matter what comes out of the other end...!

@@shachar2 i like the idea!!

[@shachar2]

@I think I've heard they do it in India or Africa, there was some country who went into financial troubles and people started using that as a manure to save money. whatever you do DO NOT let other people see you or get a hint on what you're doing. it's NOT socially acceptable period.

[@lea-annemoss8327]

AWESOME 🐝🐝🐝

[@digs1223]

I have a few questions if anyone's done this, does it need to be topped up with manure regularly? How can I empty out some of the castings without taking all the worms away?

[@pershop4950]

the castings and leachate get moved in and around the worm bin. you can top up with the typical greens and browns though you may need less browns since the worms are helping to break down the food more than the heat and microbe action that a compost bin depends on.

[@davidwood62]

Why use a bucket? Why not put the worms in a hole in the soil. Protect top with cardboard. Please explain.

[@bigunone]

Interesting idea, but I have a problem with gophers how do you keep them out of the bucket?

[@wes4192]

ceramic pot

[@bigunone]

@@wes4192 Gophers are rodent that burrow underground with an open bottom bucket I was wondering if they could be a problem? Does the bucket bottom need to be open could it just be full of holes like the sides?

[@TruckTaxiMoveIt]

@@bigunone yes holes at the bottom just closer together not too close or else the Gopher will just chew right through it

[@cleo8773]

We have Many mice in our Garden. They get through teeny tiny holes.. Do you think it Would be a problem? I think they also dig themselves through the earth

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

You will need to seal them out. Put up bird perches for predators or get agoodfarm cat.

[@TruckTaxiMoveIt]

Instead of cutting the bottom completely open just continue with the small holes at the bottom like you have on the sides just with closer spacing. Eventually they will chew through but hopefully you're working on a solution to get rid of them in general

[@meerespflanzen]

Does the worm tower really work?

[@pershop4950]

it does work but some worms are a bit snobby and only want to live in worm condos.

[@justgivemethetruth]

Where can I get compost worms? I checked my nurseries and I found one carton of 100 worms for about $20 US ... but when I opned the top and looked around there were very few worms in the carton left. If I buy a box, and make a mistake and they die ... how many times can I afford to do that? How easily will they die, and can they lay eggs or go dormant or something? These worms are a racket for local nurseries.

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

The worms eggs will stay viable for years and hatch as soon as they are in rotting fruit and vegetable scraps. They double their population every 40 days, so you will have almost 100,000 worms in a year if you can feed them. They moderate their population to their food supply and eat their own weight every day.

[@justgivemethetruth]

@@DiscoverPermaculture Thank you for the information.

[@multi-transportationsystem11]

Would like to become a student of compose

[@wendysurbanhomestead5011]

I learned how to do this from the KZbinr...Robbie and Gary.

[@shawndebbad1473]

Where is the tower?

[@pershop4950]

the bucket is the tower.

[@marsharbour]

How do you keep the moles out?

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

Moles are not interested

[@krisbaker9427]

Did you see the size of the holes? You think a mole can get in there?

[@apalah6180]

✨Genius✨

[@petalisidore4843]

What if i have no compost worms ?

[@pershop4950]

earthworms and microbes and nature will help do the job, just a little bit slower.

[@serendipity5314]

Does it attract snakes??plz reply

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

No, not any more than usual in Australia. Regards Bonnie (GLO team member)

[@MhUser]

can you put meat and bones in?

[@mikebrewton59]

No

[@surajssubramanian7327]

For how long should the bucket remain this way? Also can we use cow urine in place of water? Please reply 🙏

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

It is a permanent way of keeping your garden soil fertile, you could use diluted caw urine.

[@surajssubramanian7327]

@@DiscoverPermaculture Great👍. So the bucket can remain this way for years? Also how about the spacing?👈 1 bucket in the middle of 2 plants,would it be OK? By 'in between plants', I mean plants with reasonable spacing (8*8 feet)

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

@@surajssubramanian7327 It will depend on your soil type but 1 to 2m between buckets.

[@surajssubramanian7327]

@@DiscoverPermaculture Great 🙏. Will watch all your videos, will try and use these techniques to my soil. Thank you

[@WATCHINGTHEWATCHERS]

Good Job but be careful to check water drains out as you don't want the worms in water for to long as they drown.

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

Correct

[@pershop4950]

I think with the bottomless bucket, the water will drain out.

[@mezleona]

Can chicken manure be used. anyone knows?

[@samkinpommers4558]

You can use it but it’s very high in nitrogen so you need to cut it with some carbon material like straw

[@Xcerptshow]

watch his other vid kzbin.info/www/bejne/kGbSq4GDYq2VZtk he mentions most types of manure and how to prep them.

[@krzysztofflis1847]

❤

[@mariateresagonzalezhernand203]

Ola por favor traduzcalo al español

[@philomenamills3272]

I made one but I've never seen any worms in it and it doesn't seem to rot down😕

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

You have to add compost worms

[@johnndamascene]

Hahahahaha

[@TruckTaxiMoveIt]

Eventually regular worms will come and get it but if you want it to work as designed and shown in the video you have to add the compost worms as mentioned in the vid.

[@rabahtaguelmint9197]

What's the first product in the bucket, manuere ???? If someone can spell it correctly ans say what's it , thanx in advance

[@kabruzoeldanto8671]

It was manure

[@rabahtaguelmint9197]

@@kabruzoeldanto8671 chokran

[@bentonperet6973]

Cow shit most likely

[@Nuttyirishman85]

Hope the hummingbirds are coming down for a sip. Mine eat the blueberry flowers and screw us both. I’ve tried to reason with him.

[@enddylai7730]

I simply throw my peels at the bottom of my dragon fruits and it works really well

[@pershop4950]

But what if we don't have dragon fruit? We can't get it work like yours did.

[@lindabethel3272]

That’s 😎

[@shachar2]

why not simply bury all of the organics?

[@delphzouzou4520]

Here it is not buried, it's on ground level, there is a need for air, since it has to be aerobic. Burying would also require working the soil, disturbing it. And it could attract animals, dogs, rats or whatever.

[@islandnug9885]

Shachar Petrushka That would result in a standard composting process and probably much slower due to anaerobic activity. Here the worms do most of the work and give a different end product in the form of worm compost👍

[@KebunLangit67]

👍👍👍😊🙏🔔

[@raminsatyahadi4642]

I have 5 questions: 1. I practice plant-based only organic gardening. Does it still work without animal products? 2. Compost worms are not available in my area, so I can’t buy them. Will they come by themselves once the bucket & foods are in the ground? 3. Will the compost in the bucket rob nitrogen from the soil, just as burying food scraps straight in the soil would? 4. What’s the purpose of the side holes? Is it for air circulation or for worm access? 5. Why are the side hole only on the bottom half?

[@pershop4950]

1. yes you can compost without animal products, and many people do just that. 2. other worms and insects will come. your decomposition rate will be slower. 3. there will probably be some degree of nitrogen-robbing but the worm castings and leachate will help make up for it. 4. oxygen and worm access 5. that half is the part under the ground for the worm access. if you have holes in the upper half of the tower, then you will get flies and other critters as well, which you don't want.

[@raminsatyahadi4642]

@@pershop4950 Wow what a comprehensive reply. Thank you very much🙏

[@dr.riswanknf1817]

Saya hadir kembali di sini terimakasih

[@bradley6386]

He looks like Robert PLANT . Get it ?

[@Aennima]

isnt there a risk that the worms will escape the bin and start eating the plants roots?

[@hoggarththewisesmeagol8362]

Are you serious?

[@mikebrewton59]

Lol

[@chewee2k]

Seems like you put an awful lot of water in there.

[@caitojones3140]

I did something similar but a raccoon or possum wrecked it.

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

You will have to wire them out of the system.

[@TruckTaxiMoveIt]

Not if you hed that top on tight

[@PartTimePermies]

@@TruckTaxiMoveIt I've had raccoons get into big garbage bins with bungees holding the lid closed and heavy weights on top. Even putting old tires on top, they found a way to get in. They are strong, smart, and have opposable thumbs, they can easily pull a lid off of a bucket. I agree with Geoff, you'd have to wire them out of the system.

[@mustaqimalfarabi8082]

I have a problem, red ant(fire ants?) come yo kill my worm and it's very frustating

[@reijerlincoln]

I think insufficient moisture content is the cause of that. Add water to the tower.

[@mustaqimalfarabi8082]

@@reijerlincoln when i put water on it, the ants still crawling there. By the way, i have some plant nearby that has alot of aphids

[@TungNguyen-gq2hk]

I'm here for my EMG homework in Vietnamese grade 8th

[@nguyendiem6793]

Mee too

[@kahkashasyed7868]

Red Ants could enter through the holes and finish off all the worms🤕

[@riley6309]

The worms are not contained

[@gregbell2117]

Do not flood your worm farm as shown. They do not like it "wet and slushy", they like it damp, like a wrung-out sponge. The worms are oxygen breathers, for one. And, wet means anaerobic bacteria, which are smelly. Source: Over 30 years worm composting.

[@plasmasimple1838]

That's what I read also, but would those holes drain the liquid dry though, or moist?I'm just curious.

[@gregbell2117]

@@plasmasimple1838 Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the surrounding soil. Either way, there's no reason to flood the container, and at least two ways it can ruin the setup.

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

Set it up to drain fast and get the juice for liquid fertilizer.

[@gregbell2117]

@@DiscoverPermaculture Sure, for an above-ground, established one. That's not what you demo'd.

[@tomasschn9858]

don't put citrus fruit in there. the worms cannot process it.

[@richarddebono7092]

I did this. Sounds very brilliant in theory but has a major draw back. I'd like to warn against the use of food scraps in the garden. I actually did 4 of them all with sealed lids & the invasion of insects has been extreme. Specifically fruit flies, fungas gnats & billions of soil mites. I can't touch the mulch surface anywhere on my garden beds without these little brown soil mites crawling up my arm. I've used benificial insects & Diatomacious earth as pest control with limited success. In my case they may need to be removed all together so, be warned. Cheers

[@laurenhedges6380]

Richard De Bono did you buy compost worms and put enough of them into each tower? Sounds to me like other insects came to take care of the food scraps because the worms weren’t doing it. Bugs and fungi are nature’s decomposers, and something has to do it. The goal is to get the worms to do it. They should eat the scraps quickly, given that they live directly in/ right underneath them, and prevent any invasion from other bugs.

[@pershop4950]

I can't speak for the soil mites but if you had fruit flies, then it means your tower was not closed tightly or the holes on the side were not buried under the soil. Also, that there may not have been enough worms to process what you put in.

[@jakob497]

Aren't compost worms an invasive species? I know, that in permaculture, there exists a somewhat relaxed attitude towards invasive in general, but I believe maybe in the animal kingdom its more difficult to ensure that the introduced species doesn't suppress all the others (like for examples immigrants in the US with native Americans)

[@bentonperet6973]

Earth worms in general could be considered invasive. Such as in certain old forests where they eat the matter that the trees need. But I think compost worms stay contained for the most part, so they aren't going to exit your little system.

[@lynnsinclair5923]

It was hard to watch what you unknowingly did to those poor worms. They will all likely suffocate from the amount of slow draining water you poured on top of them. Standing water reduces the amount of oxygen available to them. Although worms live in soil, they need and receive in the soil a low level of oxygen to survive. Yours is the only worm tower video I’ve seen (I’ve watched many) that says to add water. I’ve read in many places that compost worms don’t even like to be kept wet. Please investigate and remove the video so it will not misinform others. I love your kind energy and intention, but misinformation can cause harm. Thank you for reading.

[@DiscoverPermaculture]

These are compost worms they do not live in soil they only live in organic matter and they are perfectly fine with the water draining through like rain. We have had no problem doing this for 30 years.

[@SoulPathShoes]

just because others on youtube don't do it doesn't mean it's wrong. I have unknowingly created a compost worm farm at my greywater mulch basin, which is mostly wood shavings that are constantly drenched with greasy kitchen sink greywater.... I didn't add worms, they came by themselves and multiply and stay there because they love it! As long as they have earth/soil around to escape to, there is no cruelty here.

[@lynnsinclair5923]

Soul Path Shoes Thank you for taking your time to explain that to me; I didn’t know that you did not add the worms first. I continue to wonder if given a choice would they prefer such a deluge of water, but I appreciate being reminded that they can get away if they want. It’s really neat how you’ve created unknowingly a worm compost at the end of your grey water pipe. Best wishes! 🙏

[@SoulPathShoes]

@@lynnsinclair5923 Yes, it was a great discovery! I also don't know about the deluge... have to ask the worms themselves :)

[@pershop4950]

the water will drain out of the bottomless bucket and the holes in the side. that was just a few seconds of video. we don't know what what happens in 10 or 30 or even 60 seconds later. there was nothing in the bucket itself that blocks water flow. the rate it will flow away is probably more impacted by how fast the surrounding soil can take in the water.