Do Worm Bins Need Drainage Holes? Here's What Happens Without Them #vermicompost #wormfarm

Today we're going to be talking about one of my favorite ways to run a worm farm, which is a single bin system. You can do this with any size bin, like this is a shoebox bin, I also have some of these little Trofast bins from Ikea, this is a mortar bin. and these bins do not have any drainage holes at the bottom. You're just supposed to manage the moisture, and so today we're going to go in here, and I have an example of a bin that has too much moisture, and I'm going to show you how I'm going to fix that. So this is one of my European Nightcrawler bins. I have two mortar bins of this, and I was just digging through here. I wasn't even planning on making a video, but I thought this was a really good example Here's an example to show how this is getting really... Muddy and dense. You see how this is just holding together? And it's just a big block of mud. This is a lot of electric compost. That's a lot of eggshells in there. But you can see how it's just a big blob and you can kind of maybe hear it even. And with electric compost, I love electric compost, but it does get really muddy and dense like this. And so the way you fix it is adding in more cardboard to help fluff it back up. So even if you did have drainage holes, you can see this bin, it doesn't have drainage holes, so there's nowhere for this moisture to go. But even if it did have drainage holes and it was like this, it's important to make sure your bedding is balanced. If it's like this for too long, the oxygen will be depleted. It'll go anaerobic. In fact, this is actually starting to smell a little bit sour. It's not too bad. Obviously, you can see some worms in here. They're active and they're doing fine, but if I left it like this and left the conditions like this, that's when things could go south and your worms could die from it. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to throw in a ton of cardboard, mix it all throughout, gently work it in, check this in a few days, and see how it's doing. You don't want it to be a big soggy mess like this. This is so much moisture in here. And you're also wanting it to smell earthy. You're wanting it to be fluffy and light. This is starting to smell swampy instead of earthy. So the smell and the texture. Those two things alone are very telling, so I'm going to work in some cardboard. You'll see what it looks like after. Also, I don't do this so rough. I just kind of gently work it in like this, gently on my thumbs. I think it's better to make sure the conditions are right. I don't do this constantly all day every day. I probably do this probably once every week or two, and just basically add in more cardboard if needed, or add in more water if needed, whatever is needed. You're supposed to just check and make sure the bedding is balanced. All right, I just added this in. I don't have my tripod. Sorry, this is an unplanned video. so This is just cardboard, shred, and also junk mail. And what I'm going to do is literally just work this in like that. I'm kind of just gently working this with my fingers. And you're wanting the cardboard, this completely dry shred, to soak up this excess moisture. So I'm going to go ahead and do that and work this in here real good. This is also providing, you know, bedding. Their bedding is food, so providing more food for them technically. So like I said, it kind of smells a little swampy, and right now it's still kind of clumpy. You know, it's not going to fix it immediately. That's why I'm going to give this a day or two to soak this in, and if it's still really swampy, then I would add more of the cardboard. But pieces like this, you're wanting to break this apart. You're wanting to let the cardboard soak up the moisture. You're wanting to allow airflow back into this system. You want your worm composting system to be aerobic. There are a few anaerobic ways, which means no oxygen. There are a few anaerobic ways, like Bokashi, that, you know, they compost with fermentation, and most composting, including vermicomposting or worm farming, is aerobic. You want it to smell very earthy, let it have a lot of airflow, and you allow these conditions to be aerobic, earthy. Everything's looking right. Things break down beautifully and turn into worm castings. So this is what this looks like for now. I'm gonna leave this alone. This newspaper is actually getting pretty eaten down, so I'll probably add another piece. I actually haven't checked this other side, so let's go ahead and check this. I'll add more newspaper in a second. So we'll go over here. You can see how they've eaten through. You know, this is covered with newspaper. Here's an avocado skin. Break those down as it does. And you can see how a lot of this is worm castings. So this is what worm castings look like up close, especially these European Nightcrawlers. I feel like the castings are bigger, at least that's what I've noticed, just because they're bigger worms. These are eggshells. There's still a few pieces that haven't broken down, but all this little fluffy stuff right here is worm castings. I did feed a potato a couple weeks ago. You can see that's what the skin is, the gravy. They ate all the whole potato, not the skin. And we're just going to reintroduce oxygen back in over here. You can see how most of this is worm casting, so I'm wanting them to migrate this way. Then I'll be able to sift this, great. A lot of these are babies and a lot of cocoons in here that have been hatching and they're growing up. I've noticed with European night crawlers, it's kind of hard to tell them apart from red wigglers when they're small. So as they get bigger, they do get bigger and chunkier. So these worms are looking great. I noticed that these European night crawlers, they took a second to adjust, but now that they've been here, I've had them for a few months now, Um, it's been since the summer, so it's been, I think I got them in June, July, August, September, October, so about four months, and they do so much better now that their bin is established. It took them a second, because I felt like I was finding one or two worms dying, one or two worms escaping, and they just weren't happy, and I didn't know why, but. As you can tell they look a lot happier. This is also dry-ish and I bet I could sift some of this but when I fluff it like this and there's more moisture down here and I'm also going to put food down here in a few days these worms are going to start migrating that way and then I can sift this and after I sift it I'll put fresh bedding here and they just keep going back and forth. So when you're running these single bin systems with no drainage you're looking for a few things. You're looking to make sure it smells earthy, you want to make sure the worms are happy and active Some people say, well, what does that mean? You've got to make sure they have good color. If they're gray and sluggish and look like they're breaking apart, then they're not healthy and something's probably off in the bin. But you can see that these are babies, but even though they're babies, they're plump, they have good color, and they've been moving around in here. Everything smells earthy, they're processing everything, tons of worm castings. So I know that this bin is doing great. I'm going to go ahead and cover this. I'm not going to sift this quite yet, but when I'm ready to sift it, I'll leave it uncovered, I'll fluff this up, and they'll migrate. But for now, I'm going to put some newspaper on top. I'm not quite ready for that. I do newspaper like that, and then... Come back over here, and normally I would want to feed, because there's no more food. You saw that potato skin, but I'm going to start feeding this, and so all these worms can start migrating down this way, but I don't want to feed quite yet, just because this was really muddy. It was starting to smell sour. I want to fix these conditions first, wait a day or two, and once this is smelling earthy, it's fluffy. Then I'll start adding more food and let the worms start migrating and go from there. So this is a real basic way to run a worm farm. It's my favorite. I feel like it's just really simple. I do like stackable systems and they're fun. They're fun to go through different stages, but this one's just very basic and straightforward. And a lot of people are like, oh, if you don't have drainage, then it's going to go anaerobic, which they are right. But that's exactly why this is a really good example. It can go anaerobic, but if you monitor the moisture just like this, then it won't go anaerobic. If it's starting to, you just add in more cardboard, just like I did, and here in a few days, if I remember, I can take a video update, but, I mean, I've done other videos on this too, but this is going to start soaking up and being, like, fluffy, the worms are going to love it, and then they'll also turn this, it'll start looking a lot more like this. I'll show you side-by-side comparison. Believe it or not, this used to look just like this. All this cardboard, electric compost, I did food scraps like this potato, and they process it. They process their bedding. They're living in it, but they're also processing it. The microbes break it down and the worms eat the microbes. So as long as you help keep the worms happy, help them be in a happy environment where it's very aerobic, they will do great work. And then these worm castings are the best thing you can add to your soil in your garden and in your indoor plants. And then obviously if you don't even have those or don't want those, you can give it to a neighbor, put it on your trees, put it in your bushes. Anything that grows, this will help. If you have questions, go ahead and comment below. If you want to like and subscribe, that would be awesome. I also have an active school community where it's been awesome. Everyone in there has been so kind and nice. And you can... Learn worm farming alongside us. I'll have that linked in the description. Thank you guys so much for watching and we'll catch you guys in the next video.