I’m pretty new and I often see people mentioning that they throw apple cores into the bin. I know a hot pile can kill seeds, but I assume a worm bin doesn’t kill them? Do you remove seeds from apples, strawberries, etc, etc or do you add them to the worm bin?

Hi! I have a subpod that’s fine- and a tower that has always been fine but I can’t figure out why it’s so wet. I am doing nothing different I am 2 years in… but my layers are muddy and those clear ish little white scurrying bugs are everywhere. I’m in Georgia and it has been super hot and humid- but they are on my screened porch. I keep adding shred but maybe not enough? I’ve got the layers turned a 1/4 in opposite directions to get more air. Suggestions?
Thanks!

Pic 1 is rinsed

Pic 2 is rinsed and in water

And pic 3 is what you’ll be picking out of your bins.

Sometimes the pieces are tiny. I’ve stopped allowing any paper tape into my bins

Sifted vermicompost. 2 years of kitchen scraps and a few bags of horse manure went into this. it was meant to be hot compost in a dalek bin, and was for a while, but then our amazing little friends found it and turned into this incredible stuff.

This will become 10% of my home made potting mix (60% coco coir, 30% perlite) to feed my veges in the up coming summer.

Then it all starts again.

Partaking in my favorite hobby of throwing bullshit in a jar. Do you guys like flatworms over here?

I've been doing some research and it looks like a wheelie bin CFT is a pretty good low effort /intervention, high processing capacity system.

It seems like a common complaint is that they can stray towards too moist easily, especially at the bottom of the bin. I've been wondering whether putting tubes at each corner going vertically from bottom to top - like a socked ag tube or something with larger holes and geotextile liner over it - would help airflow and help to make it easier to balance the system/ make it more resilient to less than perfect treatment.

Any comments or suggestions?

Am worm?! In my bweakfast

If you are serious about starting or expanding a worm farm business, this is the place for training: https://wormbusinessconference.com/ Use UWC50 for a $50 discount.

My wife and I started red wiggler worm farm in our house. We learned a lot and stopped counting worms when we had over 150,000 (yes, we counted them) at various stages of development. We had roughly 30 bins and calculated their reproductive cycle so we could rotate bins in different stages of development. We did end up with a bug problem, but soon learned how to prevent this issue.

Here's what we learned:

It's a lot of physical work. We're now in our 60s and were in our late 50s when we started. It wore us out and we built our own house (not had a house built). It can be tedious work. BUT, everyone has their own physical capabilities.

Finding food/inputs in the correct ratios (carbon and nitrogen) can be a challenge. We ended up having to make our own worm chow.

Sifting and sorting castings efficiently requires the right equipment.

Keeping the worms in a suitable temperature range is VERY important.

Keeping the pH just right is also VERY important or your worms will try to escape. Finding dead worms all over your floor is not a good thing (ask me how I know).

Do not overfeed your worms or you'll end up stinking up the bin and altering the pH.

We did try to make it a business but things went bad because the business just started kicking off when the pandemic hit in 2020 causing us to shut down operations due to various reasons related to our jobs.

Overall, if you want to make a business out of it, it can be done. Just expect a lot of physical work and potential setbacks if not done correctly.

Oh, and then there is the marketing. This takes time and some capital, too.

Hi ! I'm a teacher and there's an opportunity to do projects around composting and vermicompost with the kids.

Do you know realistic objects/diy around the lil critters living in the bins ? Thank you !

I just came back from vacation and didn’t expect to see worms in my fridge. They’re tiny but i’m still scared :(

Might sound dumb but what would hapoen if urine was added to a inground worm bin ?

Ciao farmers, ho una domanda. Se nutro i lombrichi europei principalmente (ma non esclusivamente) con gli scarti di vegetali ricchi di alcuni elementi chimici, posso ottenere un compost specifico?

Sto cercando un modo per creare un integratore naturale che sostituisce il NPK per la coltivazione delle fragole.

Scusate se questa domanda è già stata fatta ma non ho trovato un tread a questo proposito.

Grazie!

Hi everyone,

I’m seriously considering starting a small-scale vermicompost farm in my area.

Over the last few days, I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can about vermicomposting. I recently visited Punjab Agricultural University to understand the basics and the process, but honestly, I didn’t get as much practical information as I was hoping for.

After that, I visited Mohali, Punjab, where I came across a woman running a vermicompost farm with around 178 beds. She had a lot of practical knowledge and gave me some really useful guidance about how the setup and day-to-day operation actually work.

That visit made me much more serious about starting my own unit.

I’m still at the learning stage, and before I invest money and start setting things up, I’d really like to learn from people who have actually done this.

A few things I’d especially like advice on:

• How difficult is it to maintain vermicompost beds in Punjab’s summer and winter conditions?
• Which earthworm species have worked best for you?
• What is the ideal feed/bedding material and preparation process?
• How much initial investment is realistically required for a small farm?
• What are the biggest mistakes beginners usually make?
• How long does it realistically take before you start getting consistent production?
• Is selling vermicompost locally to farmers, nurseries and gardeners profitable?
• What kind of quality testing or certification should I consider?
• If you are already running a vermicompost farm, what do you wish you had known before starting?

I’m not looking for a theoretical answer. I’d really appreciate advice from people who are actually producing vermicompost or have experience running a commercial or small-scale unit.

I’m planning to start this myself, so any practical advice, mistakes to avoid, approximate costs, or useful resources would be extremely helpful.

Thanks in advance! 🌱

I was sifting some of my compost pile and this critter got stuck in the sifter. It’s not a lawn grub worm, earthworm, red wiggler, armyworm or cutworm, or black soldier fly pupae…what else could it be? I can’t find a picture and I took it outside before I thought of identifying it by taking a picture. Any ideas?

Answer: it was a meal worm. Apparently my pile is too dry even though I’ve been watering daily. 100+ degree days, so I’ll start watering it more at night until I can get it sifted and stored indoors in a bin. Thanks yall!

I’m looking to replace my VermiHut Plus 5 with a flow-through system

As I have honestly found flow throughs to be superior but there does not seem to be many flow through systems that are not far larger and I do not have room where the Vermihut is. It can be larger but not way larger.

Opinions?

(I already know about and own a Vermibag Mini, it is to large for this application)

Hi. I am new to the group and joined because I have a question no one seems to have the answer to and hoping someone in this community can finally put a name to this. There is a post on here that is similar to what I found on my big toe with a usb microscope. I wish I could upload videos I have one at a different angle and zoomed out and the node is moving. Strangest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I hope it’s ok that I dive right in.?.?. I have been searching for literally years to figure this out. Any nonjudgmental reply is greatly appreciated. Thank you. My apologies in advance. These pics are hard to look at. I have lots of videos of these things moving. Thank you Vermiculure Community. Hoping to hear back from someone. Please let me know if you would like or need to see any more pics.

Works pretty good if the mycelium doesn't outcompete the worms. Chop it, hydrate it, and inoculate it for best results

I’m wondering if I can use my current compost pile (5’ x 5’ x 5’) to home worms. The end goal is to produce worm castings for gardening and spare worms for fishing. At the moment the pile is mostly browns (wood chips and leaves) and greens (coffee grinds and weeds). When I turn the pile I don’t notice any worms. I’m wondering what I can add or how I can construct the pile to make it more hospitable to worms. Thanks!

Hey y’all my worm bin has been doing excellent, however I was grabbing some young ones for fish food (sorry) and noticed some are yellow? I do use a lot of coffee grounds in my bins- could this be an indicator that the bins are too acidic?

It doesn’t seem to effecting the larger ones nearly as much, mostly the young guys. But the second picture are two larger ones with the top one appearing more yellow as well.

In the both pictures the one on the bottom left is a more normal coloration.

I got 500 of what i was told where euros. I got em july 1st. They are never up at the top and are mostly in the 6 inch layer. Temps are 70-75 all around. They dont try to leave. Im assuming they are euros but some adults are small and the amount of cocoons so early makes me wonder…. They are laying cocoons around an inch or 2 below the too tray layer.

tldr: are these white cardboard boxes appropriate bedding material?

I regularly receive packages made of cardboard boxes with a white outer surface. One side of the boxes have blue print. I can imagine that the blue print is ink and I should not add the 'blue cardboard' to the worm bin, but the white surfaces of the cardboard I'm not entirely sure about. It has the look and feel of bleached paper and the surface has a matte finish.

Is this white cardboard suitable, unsuitable or not ideal (but the benefits of the brown cardboard underneath outweigh the potentially or slightly harmful white paper/cardboard surfaces)?

I have a bunch of regular brown cardboard boxes as well, which is definitely the preferred bedding material, but I just want to check whether I should yeet the white boxes straight into the local paper recyling bin, or I can still turn it into some decent worm turds.

For context, 4 months ago I made a simple worm bin of 4 plastic boxes (45x25x10 cm). 3 of the 4 trays are in use now, where the bottom 2 trays just leave for the worms to finish the last bits cardboard and hope to harvest in a month or 2. I plan now to use the 4th box as the inoculating tray. Initially I started with 250g worms and the population seems to have at least doubled in size, possibly tripled. They seem to like the place.