Worm Tube for the SFG

Josh wrote:

petunia52 wrote:@Josh,
I am almost finished with my cold frame and after I prove out the temps for the month of December I want to use it. I so want to put worms in it but am very concerned about the possibility of them overwhelming the space. Seems like quite a task to remove them when that happens. How did it work out with your worm tube and what did you do when the cold set in, or did it? (don't know where you live)

It does get pretty cold here where I live, once it gets cold I stop putting food in the worm tube. I don't know where the worms go, but come early spring even when it's still cold, I have found worms in my SFG. I then start adding food to the tube. I have never had any problems with the worms overtaking the garden, or dying out either.

Hi Josh,
Am getting ready to start my worm tubes and wnet back to reread the whole thread. The links to your pics does not work. Could you please post the new link? thanks!

The links have been removed.

Okay... I reread this entire thread - whew!!!

I have a pound of wrigglers coming and will do the tubes. I have 3, 4x4 table tops and 1 raised 5 x 10 with soil about 10-12" deep on the ground. Does anyone have any idea how I should divide my pound of worms up? Will it be enough for all 4 beds or should I just use it for the large bed?

I'm pretty certain now after reading Josh's experience, that my temps will be okay with them, so I'm just going to dive in and give it a go.

Is Josh still around here? If so, I'd love to hear how life is treating you. I feel like I "know" you now from reading your journey

I've been overwhelmed thinking about the worms, so I just decided to do something and see what happens. I have my worm tube in the corner of a raised SFG. I was in Wal-Mart and bought 18 night crawlers, just because I was there and needed to try *something*. I put them in the tube yesterday afternoon. A few hours later, they were still just laying there curled up, I thought they were dead but I saw them wiggle a little.

I just checked now (24 hours later), and they are gone. I'm assuming they moved out into the garden, right? The tube was covered last night, but it blew off at some point. I don't think the birds could have gotten down the tube and back out.

Also, when we 'feed' them with compost, is it already-composted stuff from my pile? Or do I literally toss in the fresh kitchen scraps, like the green bean ends I just snipped off for dinner? I tossed some small egg shell pieces in there yesterday, but they all appear to be there still.

I need to go back and re-read all 21 pages of posts again.....

LZ, I think that if you read this thread from the beginning you will find the answers to your questions........

In my rambling across the website, I thought I saw a post about putting weed tops in worm tubes in your square foot garden.... that alone would be reason enough to build worm tubes.

Has anyone used weed tops in worm tubes? Do you get weed seeds in your SFG?

Young weeds without seeds forming yet, should work fine. I wouldn't put anything that's invasive like bermuda grass etc.

I just installed my worm tubes today. I've had my worms for over a month now and simply put them into my SFG boxes and piled a small amount of table scraps in a corner and covered it with wood chips (since I didn't have the tubes in yet).

The food has been disappearing and I'm seeing the worms when I dig through the beds.

For those that are interested. My beds are mulched with wood chips 2-4 inches deep and I've been keeping an eye on the soil temps. In 95 degree temps this week the soil has been very cool and moist and my worms seem happy. I also have the beds covered with sheers to give filtered sunshine and cooler conditions.

Great news! We've got Josh's excellent photo's back in the OP!!! WOOT

Thanks again Josh. They've been missed! This is still one of the most viewed threads on the forum

Yay! It wasn't the same without being able to see what was being talked about, thanks Josh.

As to my outdoor worm experiment, I planted quite a few seedlings last week and everywhere I dug, there were worms. It's been quite hot for a few weeks and the soil temps are keeping nicely cool.

Fingers crossed, my worms are loving their new homes.

Lavender Debs wrote:I wouldn't have thought to feed them that way. My gardens are full of worms (doesn't that sound gross? maybe I should call them red wigglers) Worm "castings" (me, I like to call it poop but am ever warned that I spend too much time with 5th grade boys), ARE great for the garden but even better is what they do to keep the soil soft.

I started putting red wigglers into pots of herbs in my kitchen window. I think one of my boys brought one in and asked if he could keep it as a pet (??? I KNOW). We dropped him (him??) into a pot of oregano in the window. A funny thing happened, the soil in that pot got soft instead of the usual house plant hard. I never added any fertilizer (not that I would have added chemicals, but there were “teas”). We only sprinkled cornmeal on top of the soil of the pot to feed him, because my dad used to toss it on the bin of fishing worms he kept in the basement. Two years later the soil was fresh and bouncy while other soil from the same mix in other house plants was like brick.

Most of what we learned was by accident.

Make a happy worm habitat instead of striving for good root anchors.

Do not drown nor parch wormy.....mr oregano was much happier with a happy wormy (so was miss african violet)

Instead of feeding the plant, feed the worm. House plant worms were only fed cornmeal because we didn't know any better. No matter what we fed other house plants, no plant did as well as the plant with the worm, not just because of the "castings" but because of the condition of the soil as he tunneled about.

Deborah ....who is sure that worm had a name but I'll be jiggered if I can remember it.

What a great story! Thanks for sharing!

And thanks Josh, for the worm tube info.

So what would you feed a worm in a house plant pot and how long did your worm live?

I have a 64 cubic foot productive worm composting bin that I maintain rather than using worm tubes. I am not averse to the concept of the worm tube, but (from my experience) I just don't see worms feasting on scraps and lumbering off with a chunk of newspaper to take a dump somewhere else in my SFG beds. My worm bin occupants will hang out like park bums until the handouts disappear, then split for better territory. This leads me to wonder; when using a worm tube system would a "feast-and-famine" cycle would be a more effective way of using worms in the beds for fertilization?
----
Dave

Josh and all, I made a worm tube today after buying a bag of worm castings on eBay. $$$!! Not as pretty as others posted but I needed to get something going while hubby had some time to help me. He did the drilling and digging. Had to dig 3 holes until one passed the percolation test. Back note: Hubby trenched 3' into the flower beds when we first moved in back in 1995. We had 3 feet of hard pan and there was no way we could landscape with any success. The few existing plants drowned over the winter. Trenching 3-foot deep trenches and rototilling 11 1/2 cu. yd. of black compost at that time allowed us to plant bushes, flowers and trees. Fast forward and here I am doing SFGing!

The Tube


Failed Test hole


Making a quick 2-part lid that will keep out the white flies


Assembled lid with tulle


Finished worm hotel


I put moist peat moss and Kellogg mix at the bottom. Next the worms along with their packing bedding. Then loose wet newspaper, cornmeal, kitchen veggie scraps, another spoon of cornmeal. Did I do anything harmful? I feel like I have 100 new pets. Should I feed every 3 days, or wait a week before adding anything else? Thanks

PS I will wait until they are settled, and are going in and out of the tube before carefully spray painting.

I thought was a very ingenious invention - I have a question about doing this outside in my garden when the temperatures get up to minus 40 celcius in the winter. Will my reg wigglers be able to withstand that temperature outside or am I better off doing this inside perhaps in a bucket?

That all looks good to me sanderson. This is what I do about feeding them, I wait a little bit before I add food. I notice some people panic or think the worms never leave the tube because they are always in the tube, but if you put food in the tube, then you can figure that is where they are going to be, and I'm sure they are not all in the tube with the food, but it may seem like it. So I add food, then watch for it to disappear, sometimes I take the garden hose and run some water in the tube, it seems like it washes out the worm castings that gather in the tube, then I add more food. It seems to me, that gives the worms more of a chance to move out into the garden. I always just put food in the tube in spring and the worms come to the food, I don't fuss over them and try to find them in the garden, and when I plant, I often will see them, and there is food in the garden for them that you don't see, some compost or dead leaves, dead roots from old plants. The worms may not come to the tube the next day after you put food in the tube either, they don't eat the food, they eat the mold as the food decays.

I hope this helps, and I wish the best with your worms!

Josh ,
Do you move the tubes aroujnd th ebeds so that different square get the maximum benefits from the decaying /worm eaten matter or do you always site the tube in the same square?

Hello fellow worm and garden peeps,

I'm new to the whole worm concept but I'm learned so much on this site, Josh and everyone else too. I ordered 2lbs of worms a couple of months ago for a plastic bin system I made out of totes. I decided after these two months that the harvesting process for me was a little more than I have time for. Plus, I was concerned that my garage would heat up more in the summer months in TN than they would be able to tolerate. So, I read up on the worm tubes, made them night before last and put them in our raised beds last night. I moved the worms and felt as though they would be happier too. I'm excited to see how they move around in the garden and in and out of the tube. Beings that I've had them I've learned what they eat best. They absolutely love strawberries. We have a local fruit market which has a constant supply of "mushy" fruit so I get what I need, freeze the extra and feed them like kings and queens. All for free mind ya. The fruit stand lady appreciates that I take it off her hands. I have some for a two compost piles too.
Thanks for all the info everyone and happy gardening!!

GiGiTN wrote:Hello fellow worm and garden peeps,

I'm new to the whole worm concept but I'm learned so much on this site, Josh and everyone else too. I ordered 2lbs of worms a couple of months ago for a plastic bin system I made out of totes. I decided after these two months that the harvesting process for me was a little more than I have time for. Plus, I was concerned that my garage would heat up more in the summer months in TN than they would be able to tolerate. So, I read up on the worm tubes, made them night before last and put them in our raised beds last night. I moved the worms and felt as though they would be happier too. I'm excited to see how they move around in the garden and in and out of the tube. Beings that I've had them I've learned what they eat best. They absolutely love strawberries. We have a local fruit market which has a constant supply of "mushy" fruit so I get what I need, freeze the extra and feed them like kings and queens. All for free mind ya. The fruit stand lady appreciates that I take it off her hands. I have some for a two compost piles too.
Thanks for all the info everyone and happy gardening!!

 and congrats on the great FREE worm food score!  The only thing better than cheap is FREE!

GG

Josh,
If the garden is 13" deep, should the worm tube go all the way down; or bottom of the tube be filled with dirt and the holes be up higher? Or, should the holes go all the way up the 13" and use the same way you described?
How would you approach it?
I've loved reading this thread. Great idea. 
06.16.2013

Welcome GiGiTN and Inkspirations!

Inkspirations wrote:Josh,
If the garden is 13" deep, should the worm tube go all the way down; or bottom of the tube be filled with dirt and the holes be up higher? Or, should the holes go all the way up the 13" and use the same way you described?
How would you approach it?
I've loved reading this thread. Great idea. 
06.16.2013

Hi Inkspirtions!
If your garden is 13 inches deep then that is how far down I would put the tube and make the holes in the 13 inches thats under the soil, and use it just like I use it for the 6 inch deep garden.
I'm sure it will work the same!

Josh wrote:

Inkspirations wrote:Josh,
If the garden is 13" deep, should the worm tube go all the way down; or bottom of the tube be filled with dirt and the holes be up higher? Or, should the holes go all the way up the 13" and use the same way you described?
How would you approach it?
I've loved reading this thread. Great idea. 
06.16.2013

Hi Inkspirtions!  
If your garden is 13 inches deep then that is how far down I would put the tube and make the holes in the 13 inches thats under the soil, and use it just like I use it for the 6 inch deep garden.
I'm sure it will work the same!

Thanks so much, Josh. Spent some time on your website last night and really enjoyed "getting to know you". I can see that you don't do anything half-way.

Great Job Josh

Here's my short make of it:

Red Wigglers stay topside longer.

Feeding via the tube offers them a convenient constant food supply keeping them in the intended area where;

They will both poop and multiply.

Repeat.

This system is a guaranteed ever renewing supply of manure that does not need to age with lots of your very own little irrigators that spread the manure for you.

I have read that Red Wigglers will borough way under when the weather turns cold and if fed in this same manner, will stay in the area, wintering over and resurface in the spring.  Don't hold me to it, just something I remember reading. (For this purpose, you may want to bury the tube deeper, adding a few inches of straw for warmth and moving it aside for the ground to warm in spring.) If you should do this, please let us know if it works out.

I had my own bin for awhile and really can't say I cared for managing it.  This however, sounds like an excellent idea!

Thanks Josh!

My first harvest from the worm tube:



Any suggestion for screening material or tool? I used a plastic colander and there was a lot of clumps left over. Maybe the colander is a good screener?

Clumps of dirt keep falling into the tube through the 1" holes. Can I use 1/2" holes on my next tubes? Also, the Argentine (non-biters) have found the food in the tube. Will they hurt the little worms? Thank you