The PSL Method of Vermiculture - a vermi-composting bin to produce lots of tea, and worms

Do You Really Need To Build A Specialized Worm Bin?  https://tildeworms.com/worm-bin
Too Long Didn't Read: Yes, you do, but not the traditional worm bin they show in YouTube. No. It does not make sense to build a temporary house for worms. Worms just need an open top for air exchange, a dark space to prevent light, a small bottom hole for over water discharge and a nice bedding and food. Prevent it from going hot over 80°F, keep the pH level as neutral but not any lower than 5, and a very moist bedding so they can move around easily. Estimated Cost – $30 plus $40 for a pound of worms BUT you get to have endless worms and vermicompost tea!
For novus vermifidelis (articulate vermicomposters), starting an earthworm bin is not difficult. I’ll share how I do it. Grab a breathable grocery bag. Add very wet coconut coir in it (or ripped cardboard and fine dirt/soil), place the bag in a sturdy box for support, add moldy food in a small plastic box with holes, then wait for a long time for the worms to eat all your food. Then give more food once it is almost out. Rest assured, the bedding will all be composted (without aggravating or “mixing the bedding”) because that is what worms and bacteria do – decompose organic materials. Know that is how the natural decomposition in the soil works. How it is shown in YouTube, which is the traditional method is all wrong, in my perspective. My method called “the PSL method of Growing Worms” (named after the founders of tildeWorms) is the natural method of growing worms. It has all the benefits of your intended goal as to why you want to grow worms – to give your plants good growth).

Why soil? Because soil has inert minerals in it which is needed by the bacteria in the worm bin to produce bacterial exudates perfect for your garden. Soil is a natural habitat for worms (and bacteria) so add it. It also adds stability to the bedding, and moisture retention.

[In another article, I will present to you all the scientific reasons as to why the PSL method makes sense. Keep coming back for new information.

The box
It is any sturdy plastic box that is just a bit larger than the size of a grocery bag to keep your bag standing upright. It has to be plastic so that it will not decompose, and should not be brittle when exposed to the sun. For further advantages, choose a plastic box that you can stack on top of each other for vertical growth. Choose a box that is molded with big holes for air exchange, the worms and bacteria will need air. Choose a size about 12 inches deep because earthworms are epigeic (they do not burrow down far). Also, the deeper and bigger the box the more anaerobic it becomes and will be bad for the worms’ living space (and bacterias too– you should know that you are not just taking care of worms in a worm bin).
The breathable bag
Breathable bag is a requirement. If you fill the bag with water, will it seep out? However, all that worms need is an opening on the top and a few holes on the side, but if the bag is breathable, then it is the optimum air exchange that the bin can have without having to make hole where worms can incidentally escape. A grocery bag fits this requirement. In my experience a polypropylene type grocery bag works. It does not easily tear apart and can handle 5 gallons of wet bedding – the maximum worm habitat you should be growing the earthworms with. If you need more space, then it is time to build another box.

The bedding
The easiest bedding is coconut coir. Its pH is perfect. Granularity is best for worms to dig around. But it is an added expense. Otherwise, to keep it free, you can use ripped long cardboard (not to inch pieces), cardboard ripped to small pieces, soil, or wood chips or leaf litter. All these materials need to be rotten first to prevent going hot (decomposing) because you cannot control the temperature. The long cardboard is used as pillars for the smaller bedding pieces – so that the bedding does not cave in as the worms dig their burrows. Imagine the worms building their hallways to travel in and out around of their living space.

The food
Contrary to popular belief, worms do not eat fresh produce or fresh food even if the food are leftovers, they eat the mold from the food. All food (except some) becomes acidic first prior to becoming moldy. Acis is bad for the worms. The strategy is to make a decomposing box for fresh food waste mixed with compost (for quick food decomposition) then give the moldy food to the worms instead. This is where I would recommend the bottom-top approach where you gather moldy food from the bottom and throw new food at the top of the bin. You can easily build something like this with using a bin that has a bottom-side door opening. Apply the food in a box with side hole, not bottom holes to prevent seeping of the food juice onto the bedding. Cover the sides and top holes of the food box with the bedding to prevent fruit flies or other insects.

Acidity, climate and a “wet bar”
The acidity of the bedding should be at 6 (for normal performance, 7 is better if you can get there) but it is hard to achieve this with a new bedding. I have a 4 month grow bin and it has been at about 5.6 now starting from about 4. As the bedding decomposes the pH level rises. The food that is given to the worms will lower the pH down if given in huge quantities, upon which you can have worm death. Keep the food quantity where the feed will be consumed in a week.

The temperature of the worm bin should be kept to 70° and should be prevented from reaching 80°F. If it does it will cause sudden death to your worms. Place reflective (or white rag) on top and around of the bin. Dry cardboard has good insulation properties (that’s what homeless people use in the streets) if you can’t afford a reflective insulator. Do not allow the cardboard to get wet, however. Try to get the regular delta temperature of your insulation, if it is 80­°F temp at the outside ambient air, what is the temperature of your worm bin? This gives you an idea of what would your worm bin DELTA temp. would be given a hot weather forecast. But don’t rely too much with it, because the worm bin acts like a heat battery and each day of continuous hot temperature will gradually reduce your delta temp and will soon equalize with the ambient temperature. If the measured internal temp is getting too high, then sprinkle water in your bin – wet but not dripping. There are other ways to lower the temp of a worm bin. Keep coming back to this website for future articles.

The moisture (humidity) of the bedding must be wet but not dripping, or at least not near drying. The moisture of the bedding is needed by the worms to breath for while they are burrowed in, presumably, by some osmotic process happening in the worms' skin. They’ve developed this process many thousands of years ago, so they are good at it, but you have to provide it to them, artificially. That is, by wetting the bin periodically, especially when the weather is hot. Additionally, the moisture gives the bacteria a medium to travel around from bedding piece to another – bacteria move much easier on wet matter.

At all means do not allow the bin to be kept with lighting. Worms are very sensitive to light, they dig down for cover, but they still need to reach the top for food. Cover the top of the bin with the excess of the grocery bag top lip.

A discovery I have is that worms like to mingle under wet not-so-heavy materials. You will find lots of worms under a brick square paver. In my opinion, this is an opportunity for worms to have fun and reproduce. To replicate this phenomenon, place a wet square cardboard then place your feed box on top of it. The more the worms see each other, the better your worm bin can reproduce more worms.

As you can see, we are trying to replicate the natural life and habitat of earthworms. As a vermifidelis, if you want to domesticate worms and expect them to not escape out of your worm bin, give them the habitat they need.

“The days of the YouTube video showing the old (and bad) way of growing worms is over. Use the PSL method – natural, effective and proven."

There is a reason for this PSL method.

1. Easy Liquid Tea Extraction> Water seeps through the bag.

2. The sturdy box can be stacked to a reachable height. Grow worms in a 2 sq. ft. space.

3. Air exchange for aerobic environment. The bedding holder is a breathable bag with small, tiny holes everywhere, and the box has pre-moulded holes in it.

4. Food acidity cannot seep in. Feed is centrally located and contained in a plastic box.

5. Reproduction is faster. Mingling in a wet bar gives all worms a chance to know each other.

6. No worm aggravation (UGGH!). This worm bin is not designed to shake and mix the bedding and worms. Worms hate that. Imagine if an ogre does that to you.

7. No filtering, no tumbling. All we need is the tea, not the compost. (I have an article about “Tea or Compost”, read why.)

8. Extracting the worms is easy. The wet bar cardboard and feed box is actually a “bait space. When the worm bin is fully populated, you are "required" to under populate the worms to induce reproduction habits – it is a natural step in population. Then you can build a new box using the extracted worms.

9. On the spot application. Place your worm bin in the portion of your garden that you want to revive. Just add water on the worm bin – wet but not flooding – but make it seep thru. ! No – worm bin leachate is not bad! Whoever said that need to have evidence, unless your worm bin pH is very bad.

10. The PSL method has room for automation. tildeWorms is developing an electronic system for monitoring (and possibly) actuating the habitat requirements of a PSL bin. Check tildeWorms.com for availability.

tildeWorms has a pledge program for the “PSL worm bin with Red Wiggler worms” selling now. Take action to get a $50 discount if you pledge before the sale time. Act Now. Click “Buy Now” on the top menu. Look for “Live Worms in a Premade Grow Bin”

Ma tilde wrote:Do You Really Need To Build A Specialized Worm Bin?  https://tildeworms.com/worm-bin
Too Long Didn't Read: Yes, you do, but not the traditional worm bin they show in YouTube…..

tildeWorms has a pledge program for the “PSL worm bin with Red Wiggler worms” selling now. Take action to get a $50 discount if you pledge before the sale time. Act Now. Click “Buy Now” on the top menu. Look for “Live Worms in a Premade Grow Bin”

I loved reading a fellow red wiggler enthusiast post! You said worms in the garden, and then earth worms the. Red wigglers, those are 3 different kinds of worms that each have their own food source. For example if you make red wiggler castings ie poop. And put it in your garden bed it will DRAW in earth worms which actually do aerate The soil deep. Darwin wrote a book on worms and I feel like some of his stuff was way off, but he did know one thing that you mentioned. If you place a brick or rock worms will naturally try and bring it deeper into the soil making mazes and tunnels beneath. Your worm farm has lots of plastic ins. Not hating but they’re very sensitive creatures to have a petroleum product the place where they’re grown I don’t know.

https://permies.com/t/224084/composting/DIY-Worm-Farm-WormTea-collector

Here’s a build I did for free for my red wigglers. I’m going to build a second bathtub worm bin for another variety I haven’t yet picked out maybe African variety they’re bigger and eat more.

Harvesting castings out of the tub is super easy. I put a thick cardboard divider in the middle and only put the compost on one side so they flock over there. I also put a few cinder blocks 🧱 on top of the mesh top I made to catch and create moisture pockets on the top that are sheltered from the birds.

So glad someone else is into worms! Worms are so amazing. For millions of years they have aerated the soil and broke down organic material into new soil. If we didn’t have worms we would be equally as screwed as if we didn’t have bees so thank you 🙏 for taking an interest in them! More people need worm farms.

Also I plant all my seedlings in strictly worm castings and they love it.

Worms the homestead pets that work hard and love you back!

All (earth)worms with-respect-to nature will have similar characteristics regardless of a worm from Washington or California or Europe - worms are nature's decomposers and tillers.

Plastic - at this modern age, you can't get away with plastic anymore. I agree that breathable grocery bags is made of plastic but the only solution I can think of that fits the purpose - small but air-exchange friendly. An alternative is to line up the sturdy plastic box (another polymer but less toxic) with cutout cardboards to make a wall and flooring but puncture holes for better air exchange. Or not as it is not so much required, air exchange can happen on the top of the box. But if the cardboard gets wet and it will, it becomes soggy and deteriorate leaving the bin with just the box; eventually the worms will become incidental fugitive or if the bin is left unmanaged will become escapees.

What the world should do, in parallel to the renewable energy effort, is a "degradable bio-products effort" Scientists should divert their prowess in building chemical polymers to using natural polymers like chitin in bugs and crustaceans.

An issue I have with re-using freebie items like a bathtub, is that it is a scarce privilege to get one, at most, for free. And bathtubs have epoxy liner on them which is also a polymer. And then again, a stainless steel tub exudes salts which is bad for the worm.

Most worm farmers buy an HD plastic tub and they're good for it, only that they made the bin size so huge and deep that worms cannot be domesticated in that design. Red Wigglers are epigeic such that they only live on the (near-top) surface. As they start decomposing and leaves the their casting, they migrate to the top for more food. How can you harvest the compost from the bottom half of (or extract liquid) in a solid box ? They have to aggravate the worms when they remove all these bedding. The bottomless large rows of worm bin would have worked but it is not suitable for the home gardener nor transportable, like in my PSL design.

I'd say make an exclusion for the plastic until when scientists invent the next "wonder material". The plastic components in the PSL method would still work. The grassroots goal is to re-grow the soil.

Ma Tilde
tildeWorms.com

I support you guys. Literally everyone should have a worm farm in whatever the heck they have available worms are not picky. The bathtub is old so it’s actually cast iron, around here if you have a plumbing buddy he’ll drop it off at your house. The bathtub is a large scale tea collection method that works for me… but I have more space and plants than say someone in your area a city person with less space. I think the ease of your design will get people into worming around. And that’s half the battle! Sending love to your project! Super cool y’all.

Just for you guys y’all should get one of those huge stock tanks (since we have declared who cares about plastic until there is an alternative) they come in 1’ and 2’ high 8 to 10’ around… to get your population huge. I bet I could scale my bathtub population right now to a huge like 1000 gallon tub and load it up with organic matter and have worms for a very long time… 8 months I bet. That’s 6-7x the population just by allowing that much more space and adding material. also those stock tanks have a drain so you can collect tea and have a huge population to pull from for your sales! Seriously this is cool, I might do this more locally in my area like a co op bring compost get worm castings 50% off the homie discount lol
Consider what I said it’s going to be easier for you guys as you scale up to have 6-10 of the stock tanks you pull from. I see this taking a lot of worms! Worm the world!

For household use with a large garden a 10 gallon composting bin maybe more than enough. Because it is really not the worms you want from a worm bin - it is the bacteria that is within it, plus the enzymes that the worm produces. Hence, you want to make the tea out of a worm bin and not disturb the worms in their bin, ever. In the PSL design - shower the worm bin and down comes out the tea. Simple. There is actually a second stage, if you wanted to get more bacteria out of the tea, and add the other needed factor for vegetative or plant growth - the fungus. The worm bin has primarily a bacterial dominant compost. Make a brewer, place the liquid tea in it. Then add composted wood chips or ramials, or leaves. These are the sources of the fungus. Add nutrients beneficial for the bacteria - molasses, and beneficial for fungus - hydrolysate. Then just add water. And then aerate for 24 hours. You just multiplied your tea in larger proportions then you can use 5 gallons of this concoction for a 1 acre prepared land soil. Yes, only that much. With the use of a sprayer system (pressurized fertilizer sprayer) replacing the nozzle with a larger hole (not an atomizer output - you will kill the bacteria and inhibit the release of fungi if you use an atomizing nozzle), apply the liquid "amendment" to the prepared soil. It has to be prepared because the bacteria/fungi has to be given a chance to propagate into the soil before it can take effect. Preparing soil means to have wetted it already and mulched on top. The mulch prevents the liquid from drying out, but in the end the application of the amendment will reduce the need for watering. All these are done blindly - without measuring the quantity and quality, but only to know if it works if your plants or trees are performing better, or much worst dying because of the application. Hence bacterial microscopy is required. tildeWorms is developing a cheap quick alternative to do this without having to purchase an expensive microscope, easy to test, and easy to decide if what you see are beneficial bacteria and fungus. Visit the tildeWorms.com website periodically to get the information once we get it published.

Ma Tilde
https://tildeWorms.com