Haul-out #1 of worms from 99-day bin to launch a new bin - vermicomposting

[@A-V]

Please consider using the affiliate links below - they provide me with a small commission, at no additional cost to you, which helps to support this channel. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Donations to support this channel can also be made using PayPal here: www.paypal.me/AVworms THANK YOU! Some useful supplies, materials and equipment for easier worm composting.: PLASTIC "bus box" / "bus bin" UTILITY TUBS : Rubbermaid 7 gallon - amzn.to/2QnT40J Artisan 2-pack -- amzn.to/2x3Fg4N Gabin 3-pack -- amzn.to/2TVy3N8 Eagrye 4-pack -- amzn.to/2IVjaE4 COCO COIR: Hydro Crunch 5 kg / 11 lb block -- amzn.to/2QQu8yZ VERMIBAGS: Online store: www.vermibag.com/?wpam_id=42 DISPOSABLE GLOVES: Safeguard 100-pack -- amzn.to/3a1fSLt DIATOMACEOUS EARTH: 5 lb bag food grade with duster -- amzn.to/3hyJTFU 4 lb bag -- amzn.to/2CJ98GU SMALL PERSONAL BLENDERS: Magic Bullet -- amzn.to/3b7jlbF Ninja -- amzn.to/2TVWN7W NutriBullet -- amzn.to/2Wn5HwI SPRAY BOTTLES: Rayson 8 oz -- amzn.to/33nYfTG SEE-THROUGH COMPOST CONTAINERS: 3 chamber acrylic; includes 3 thermometers - amzn.to/2JBU9yj Rubbermaid file organizer - amzn.to/30wQYl1 All online orders made using the links above are very much appreciated.

[@lloydedmonds8775]

Nice Job!

[@emilytheriver8722]

Whoooaaaaa! The time-lapse at the end showing the worms digging into the new bedding was really cool!

[@doraw7766]

Hi. Day 3 starting my first worm bin. I have 30 red wigglers and hope to see them increase in number. It is good to see how wet the soil was in your video so I added a bit more blender food and did not strain out the liquid part. I hope to see a big increase in worms over the next 70-100 days. Temperature is a constant 77-78 degrees. I am anxious to use the finished worm compost asap in my garden and don't mind if a few worms are in there. I might buy 30 more worms just to speed up the process. Thank you.

[@A-V]

Great - congrats... Best of luck! And thank you for watching!

[@puschmannn]

your wigglers look quite pale oO

[@A-V]

Albino "white wigglers"! ;)

[@CloudslnMyCoffee]

Mine also tend to be pale

[@josephcaranna504]

How do you seperate the worms from the finished compost?

[@A-V]

I have used a variety of methods, but my main go-to approach is migration - which is where you basically set up one edge of the bin with fresh bedding & food then let the worms exit the material on their own. Another common approach is to use bright light to drive the worms down into the material & gradually the castings can be skimmed off the top. Thanks for watching!

[@josephcaranna504]

@@A-V Thank you!

[@Rapisotron]

Noodles everywhere

[@josephnelson1291]

Your game plan with the migration is working perfectly as usual. Great job!👍

[@Dee.C]

WOW , that is a lot of worms. I bet you got close to 2000 worms.

[@A-V]

Each estimate is 500 more than the last.. I can hardly wait to hear what the next person thinks! :)

[@theelpydimension]

That is an impressive number of worms wow. I'd say a very successful harvest and re-population! So now you'll store those castings in a breathable (so to speak) container until spring is that right? Letting one side dry more than the other is a good idea

[@A-V]

I usually store my finished castings in non-breathable 5-gallon buckets. At the moment I've got quite a bit stock-piled up & I'll likely use up all of it in the next couple weeks. Now that all the plants in my garden were knocked out by freezing temperatures last week, I will first cut everything down and then I will spread the vermicompost throughout the garden. I will then have a number of empty buckets into which I can place all the newer castings that I'll be harvesting during the winter. Thanks for watching!

[@theelpydimension]

@@A-V Ah ok. I've heard some recommend waiting until spring to use when the plants can take up the nutrients. I've done a little harvesting at random, picking through little containers to add to holes when planting bulbs but no serious harvesting yet.

[@A-V]

I'm often spurred on to do things because of storage space constraints - so that is probably the main reason I plan to dump out the compost sooner rather than later. :)

[@djchancla2451]

Can you post pictures of your garden

[@A-V]

Last year I did regular updates - posting videos on my garden's status every week, but this year I made pretty much no mention of it. At this point its a done deal. There were below-freezing temperatures last week and everything is now dead. Most things grew very nicely, and if I thought there would've been any interest in it then I would have shot some videos - but I never got the impression that anyone was curious about it. Oh well - what's done is done. It's too bad you didn't ask sooner. Thanks for watching!

[@lbox88]

I have a bin that's been running for mooonths that is very hungry, I need to be better and harvest it but I need to do something like yours and try to get them down to one end first. Or at least just sift out a couple scoops of castings at a time and replace it from one end to the other with coco qoir+leaves as I go as I only have the one bin running right now.

[@A-V]

I have found that these horizontal migrations work well when the bin has been left without food for a few weeks before initiating the migration. If the bin is left, during this foraging/starving stage, to also dry off a bit, then that also helps motivate the worms to seek out some better place to be. Once the migration feeding areas gets set up & the plastic is positioned to make the area recirculate all of its moisture, the worms that make their way over there & tend to stay there until you come in and remove them. Best of luck with your bin - and thank you for watching!

[@theunskoch4256]

If i could take a guess it would be in the area of a 1000 + worms

[@A-V]

Oh yeah - I typically poll the viewers to let me know how many they thing the worm count was. Here I forgot to ask. Thanks! :)

[@gigthat]

AV, would you be willing to share your tracking spreadsheet?

[@A-V]

Sure - I placed a copy of it on Google Drive in the beginning of the year. It can be downloaded at the following link: drive.google.com/file/d/1dlMqnJJREOhUuHaxovsrC6JVAXXXZtO4/view?usp=sharing As I have told others, it is full of funky Excel formulas - it isn't as user friendly as one might think from simply looking at it. With that said, enjoy & good luck with it. And thank you for watching!

[@gigthat]

@@A-V Thank you very much for sharing. It is truly appreciated.

[@mayshomesteadchronicles]

Awesome, AV! Love seeing new content from your channel. If you don't mind me asking, how long do you generally find that you wait between feedings? Like once you feed them the appropriate amount per amount of worms or whatever you find works, how long do you go until feeding them again. I've been doing 1 to 1 and 1/2 weeks, but sometimes I feel that they could go longer. And I've been thinking that I'd like to encourage quicker population of my bin and I've heard that skipping a feeding can be good for that. Your thoughts? Thanks in advance for your time!

[@A-V]

I have heard similar things about how withholding feedings puts the worms into a sort of survival mode - triggering reproduction for fear of a die off. It is interesting how its not about self-preservation but rather increased reproduction. Whether it is true or not I do not know - it might be worth trying. As far as feeding frequencies are concerned, there are many variables - not least of which is the desire to make space in my freezer when I begin to accumulate lots of kitchen scraps. At the start of the video - when I show my tracking spreadsheet - the column that averages the feeding interval for each bin might provide you with some of the insights you are after. It is simply the age of the bin divided by the number of feedings... but it is still an interesting stat that, as you can see, varies. The number swings from bins that got fed an average of every 7 or so days to other bins that got fed on average only every 11 or 12 days :)

[@mayshomesteadchronicles]

@@A-V Okay, thank you so much for taking time to respond! Very helpful 👍

[@munimmiah786]

Why don’t you empty the edge feeding and then re fill it new food putting the worms somewhere else. That’s how you did the horizontal feeding before until all the worms emptied.

[@A-V]

In this video I supplement the food in the feeding zone in bin #1, and in bin #2 - where the migration had been going for a longer time - I do extract the worms. I have found that adding to the migration feeding zone - rather than hauling its contents out each time - seemed to work well... so I'm trying it that way in these bins. Thanks!

[@kkrollingskkrollings3173]

Looking good i am going to start 2 migrations in 2 European night crawler bins tomorrow both bins have been going since around mid July the martial looks good and ready similar to yours.

[@AshleyWragg]

How do you time these horizontal migrations so that there are no worm cocoons in the finished castings? I'm only 2mo into my first worm bin, but it's absolutely stacked with cocoons.

[@A-V]

I used to evacuate all the worms out of the castings... then I would wait & wait & wait to allow time for cocoons that might be in the material to hatch - and then give even more time to let the baby worms all come to a central baiting station. In the end it felt like I was collecting a really small number of baby worms in exchange for a huge amount of time. For this reason I have abandoned the practice. Unless I can figure out a more sensible way to take advantage of any cocoons in the material I plan to simply ignore them. Thanks for watching!

[@jennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn]

I've sifted the castings with an 1/8 inch wire basket and that is small enough to catch the cocoons. Material has to be dry enough to sift to make it effective.

[@scooterg166]

I’m wondering if your expansion of worm bins, bags, etc, does that mean you’ll be expanding your garden? It seems like you’ll have some left over if not.

[@A-V]

Yes - you are correct. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, there is a good likelihood that I will increase the size of my garden next season :)

[@relaxie1239]

I really like that feeding divide! Are there holes in that cardboard divider? My bins are a huge incorporated mess, so it's always hard to separate worms from finished compost and bedding. This looks like a much better system.