Harvesting a WEDGE Worm Bin- European Nightcrawlers

/ @plantobsessed
In this video I show the harvest and care of the ENC bin.
Playlist for the European Night Crawlers Here
• European Night Crawlers
See description below-I purchased 500 Cocoons in 2019 from ETCWL and was given 1 pound of adult ENC from NE worms The bins were started in July 2021 I am an Amazon affiliate. The items below are the Amazon affiliate links for the items I use in my wormery. The cost is the same to you.
MICROSCOPE
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Tetra 16172 Aqua Safe Fish Tank Water Conditioner
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Water Nozzle caps
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pH meter TDS meter compo pack
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Aurora 18 sheet shredder
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[@A-V]

How could you keep an entire large system like that from us for so long? Glad I was here for their debut :)

[@PlantObsessed]

Lol it is a pain to get under there. I didn't want to set a president.

[@A-V]

Haha - well, the cat's out of the bag now :)

[@lindap9079]

My backyard has several raised beds (so I don't have to crawl around on my knees to garden) and some fruit trees & berry bushes. I produce enough, for fresh eating and to can tomato products, pickle relish, beans, jams, jellies and juices. I share fresh produce with friends and the local foodbank. The worms LOVE canning season as much as I do.

[@PlantObsessed]

Oh yes the worms get fat off canning trimmings for sure 😄🪱👍🏼

[@peggyhelblingsgardenwhatyo7920]

Hi Ann, I love the twin bin ❤ aka, the bin below 😅 You must create a couple thousand pounds of Castings a year❤

[@PlantObsessed]

Yep, it is right at 2,000 pounds per year. I use every bit of it. I could have a good business if I didn't garden so much lol 👍🏼🪱😃

[@lrrerh8090]

Do you use your castings for your own purposes only, or do you also sell some? I’ve recently started my bins and have been binging your content. Awesome info! Thanks for all the great tutorials

[@PlantObsessed]

I use it all on my own property. Raised beds for vegetables, bonsai, and ornamentals. 😁🪱👍🏼

[@Vermicompost]

Good point, you don't video tape you doing nothing!!😂🤣😂The worms are hardly bothered in worm bins compared to what they experience in the wild!! Whatttttttttttt!!!....A secret bunk bed bin!!! Mind Blown!! I need another bin, I'm gonna tell Autumn to watch this😂Awesome video Ann!!🪱🪱🪱

[@cherylhowker1792]

You need to do a wedge system bin and see how you would run it. As we know you run your hit differently and that’s helped many including me. And I only have 2 trays and was only using one. Now I have a feeding/ active tray and a tray of dry underneath

[@PlantObsessed]

The shelf was only 50$ at home Depot. It holds 1,000 pounds. Basically free 👍🏼🪱😁

[@PlantObsessed]

Agreed 👍🏼

[@wallysworms]

I really love your blue bins, I think I'll steal your idea and do the same in my basement. Thanks so much for sharing. Keep them video's coming.

[@PlantObsessed]

The blue barrels are the best for sure. Steal away! ,👍🏼👍🏼🪱

[@wormweirdo340]

I’m currently recovering from a knee replacement and hubby is working overtime not only assuming my duties in the garden such as watering and harvesting the veggies, but he’s overwhelmed with canning all the tomatoes as well as turning 450 lbs of apples into hard cider. We’re eating so many veggies, giving them away and canning… he did draw the line on worm bin maintenance though.

[@PlantObsessed]

Yeah, I'm the only one that does the worm bins too. 👍🏼🪱😁

[@NanasWorms]

I hope you are on the mend from your surgery and can get back into the swing of things soon. It's always tough when you feel like the summer slips through your fingers. Same thing happened to me - I fell the third week of June and hubby had to take over EVERYTHING! My worms were very patient waiting for me to feed them and give them some TLC. Take care! ~ Sandra

[@wormweirdo340]

@@NanasWorms thanks, I’m actually able to get down the steps now and carefully lug bins around again. Some have been waiting almost a month to be fed but they’re all doing fine, I gave them lots of extra bedding and dry chow before I went under the knife.

[@NanasWorms]

Just think - they will be so many more worms happy to see you because they will have been busy breeding while you were gone! Stay safe while you recover! ~ Sandra

[@NanasWorms]

I watched this on my big screen, Ann, and I could see loads of cocoons in that harvested material. Given that it's at the "oldest" end of the wedge, do you think these are cocoons that are taking a very long time to mature or do you think the worms circulate back into that old area from time to time and happen to deposit a cocoon there? ~ Sandra p.s. I give a lot of my seedlings and harvest away. I don't do any canning, but I do pre-make casseroles with the harvested food and freeze them for quick dinners.

[@PlantObsessed]

I do think the worms roam around. Given how wet the harvest was I bet they will still hatch outside in the garden.🪱😁👍🏼

[@TV-us3xs]

🌷🍅your video is amazing very good I want to be with you 😂😂

[@PlantObsessed]

Thank you for watching 😃

[@TV-us3xs]

Thank you for coming my friend 💜💜💜💜💜

[@annsalty5615]

Oh yes, we can things up from our garden. Mostly the fruits which are plums, apples, and pears. Also store away shallots and garlic and onions. The extra greens go to the chickens. Just started trying out dehydrating to try saving away more.

[@PlantObsessed]

I started dehydrating the extra cherry tomatoes this year. They are great in sauces.😁🪱👍🏼

[@RockinWorms]

Hi Ann! How do you handle it when you’ve harvested a good amount of castings and then when you go to move the wedge there’s still a good amount of food in the feed zone? With lots of worms working it? I’m not sure what’s the best way to handle this situation. If I leave the vast majority of worms with the food and add new bedding in it would have to go toward the non working end if the bin. And there’s not many worms there to process that new bedding. If I take most of the worms off the food and place them at the end of the non working end they have to work their way thru the new bedding to get back to the food zone. Which sounds great until it means that the food in the feed zone is sitting there not being eaten for days. That can be a problem for many reasons! I’ve been basically doing halfsies 😂. I pull off a lot of worms off the food and place them at the non working end so they can move toward the working end, processing the new bedding along the way. That leaves still a good number of worms in the feed zone working on the food so that doesn’t become an issue. Obviously the best answer is to better time castings harvesting with need to do a new feeding but that doesn’t always line up for me 😢. Any words of wisdom? Thanks!

[@PlantObsessed]

For me I would leave the worms alone and add the new food and bedding. I bet you would have to extend the time between feedings if that happened very often. The whole thing could go thermophilic if there gets to be a large build up of food. 👍🏼🪱😊

[@RockinWorms]

@@PlantObsessed thanks for the reply. Where would you add the new bedding? In between the food zone and the old bedding that moved down into the open area from doing the wedge? In this scenario I’m actually not adding any new food - they’ve still got plenty. Best case I’d sprinkle on some worm chow 😊. You know, this is being very helpful as I’m starting to get an idea of how I can better manage this situation 👍

[@normshives275]

How you keep your worms in the bin when it rains and srom

[@PlantObsessed]

Since all my bins are inside I don't have many issues. The African Night Crawlers have a zipper toped bag that keeps them in. 👍🏼🪱😁

[@mikkosgarden]

We usually try to make sauerkraut and tomatoe sauce with local products. Out of my garden I like to make hot sauce and dried peppers, hopefully the weather cooperates and I get a decent harvest.

[@PlantObsessed]

We are getting cool nights here it is killing my pepper ripening. Good luck you still get a good crop.🪱😃👍🏼

[@flintstone19713]

Your advice is helping me with a lot of things, like how not to over feeling, and I've got a 1000 red wigler's and I started them in mostly coco. But I've got shred now and after that coco is gone I'll start the shred. Their 1st feed was with a lot of veggies. 2 feed is going now with fruit. I got me some worm chow and they love it. I need to fluff up my medium and when I do that I'll be giving them some whole banana 🍌 and some bread and avocado. My bin is a 50gal tote. I I'm going to get me a pumpkin too and that will be my next feed.....

[@PlantObsessed]

Make sure you get the bread very wet. It helps it break down. I have put dry bread in and it turned into a moldy rock. If that happens you can always get it wet later. Sounds like your worms are doing great.👍🏼🪱😃

[@andrewventer3013]

Hi Anna I dry my tea bags and then break them open and only use the tea leaves and discard the bags as I read on KZbin that the bags are made of plastic and I don't want to feed the worms plastic, have you or any of your subscribers read anything about the make of tea bags

[@lindaspellman2108]

Depends on the brand for sure. I've only ever seen plastic mesh for the pyramid bags. My flat bags are usually Tazo or Stash and I believe they are paper. I also have to watch for those teeny tiny staples 🙄

[@PlantObsessed]

Yep my Lipton or generic tea bags are paper. The fancy types are polyester. I had one in my bin for years hoping it was silk or some other natural product.

[@cherylhowker1792]

I’ve been doing this as tried them in the bag in the worm farm and they leave them tbh

[@pegsinthewormdirt]

Now I'm wondering how many bins you have that we don't know about 🤔

[@PlantObsessed]

There is the outside one but I have done videos on that before. Lol. 👍🏼🪱😁

[@pegsinthewormdirt]

Yep, I know about that one!

[@pegsinthewormdirt]

A bin in every cupboard and closet 🪱🪱🪱

[@jhangfk]

I should wear gloves before airing the casting. Composting may have germs which can be harmful to human skins.

[@PlantObsessed]

Whenever I have an injury to my skin I wear gloves too. Thank you for watching 👍🏼🪱😀

[@thomasbazin1529]

Hi! What kind of shredded paper do you use? Is it just standard, white printing paper? I could get loads of shredded paper from my office, but I'm concerned it might be 'bleached', ie. too many chemicals in it. Would it be ok if soak and left to 'breathe'for a few days? I just set up my worm system (a small, indoor one I've been given), and cutting brown cardboard by hand is so tedious. And to that, it doesn't mix too well with the food scraps. Thanks for your advice! ;)

[@PlantObsessed]

I have the link for the shredder in the description. It is an 18 sheet paper shredder. I don't worry about office paper except that it sticks together with the coco coir. Good luck with your worm farm. 👍🏼🪱😁

[@cathyplantlover2862]

The critters ate and destroyed my garden I'm lucky that I have a few cherry tomatoes left after planting cucumbers and green beans and cherry tomatoes plants....

[@PlantObsessed]

opossums? i thought they ate bugs.

[@derekzoeller2758]

Thanks for all the info you put out. I agree with your fluffing and wedge technique! Thanks Ann!

[@PlantObsessed]

Thank you for watching 😃🪱👍🏼

[@lindaspellman2108]

Have you heard if there is a nutritional or microbe difference between castings of different worm species? Or is it more based on the food inputs

[@PlantObsessed]

I think it is the food inputs. The books I have read have never investigated the worms. They mostly look at the food. The difference between ANC and RW is an entire genius apart. They might be going something different. 👍🏼🪱🤔

[@sandyjoao4489]

Noce to c the ENC blue bin. Its been very long since we last heard of them. No wonder yr castings look quite dry looks like they got better food on the other side😅

[@PlantObsessed]

That was the easiest harvest I have had in a while. 🪱👍🏼😄

[@cheryltaft8005]

Can you please tell me what worm groups that you're in? I'd love to know.

[@PlantObsessed]

I am in Facebook worm groups. Experimental worm fun, ultimate worm farm.... lots of the. Lol

[@angelavincent9293]

you are the only video I watch you stay on topic

[@PlantObsessed]

I have to write a script outline or I would get off track too lol. Thank you for watching 😃🪱👍🏼

[@laurelpickens3364]

Thank you! Sure enjoy your channel.

[@PlantObsessed]

Thank you for watching 😃🪱👍🏼

[@the_green_anna]

Lovely as always! 😁💚

[@PlantObsessed]

Thank you 👍🏼😁🪱

[@darrinvance8990]

Great as always

[@PlantObsessed]

Now if I could work up the nerve to add goat 💩 to the inside systems....👍🏼🪱😃

[@NanasWorms]

Cool to see the bin below! ~ Sandra

[@PlantObsessed]

Looking at it in the edit I think it may have more worms than the top.👍🏼😁🪱

[@NanasWorms]

They do tend to get busy breeding when we leave them undisturbed (kind of like teenagers!)…

[@ClickinChicken]

I admire you work. Truly.

[@PlantObsessed]

Thank you Brian. :)

[@Oldfart9]

Grow weed

[@PlantObsessed]

Too cold here. 🪱😃👍🏼

[@Plot-NG6]

Fantastic I only have a small worm 🪱 farm 🪱🪱🪱

[@PlantObsessed]

Worms are addictive next year you may have 3 👍🏼🪱😁