when I was little I had a hard time getting worms for fishing, so I started drilling an 8x20 inch hole (hard clay). Filled it almost full with grass, leaves, food scraps. The last 4 inches I filled with clay. There were 15-20 holes that summer. the following summer there were lots of worms there, and soil that was easy to dig in.

Hi Steve, The worm towers work great in raised beds that were built using Hügelkultur. This provides the worms with plenty of organic material to eat once they leave the tower. Since there are holes in the PVC close to the surface it doesn’t take much effort for the worms to be able to move in and out of the tower through the potting mix in the top layer. I have checked my tower several times after neglecting it for weeks only to find it completely empty, then I put a few food scraps in and checked it a couple days later and the worms returned to chomp on the fresh veggies and fruit. You’re right, it doesn’t provide for a lot of composting, but they do aerate the top layer of soil and leave their castings in the raised bed. The reason the 4 inch PVC pipe works so well is because it doesn’t take up nearly as much space as a subpod or a 5 gallon bucket would. Maybe you and Troy could do a wiggle Wednesday episode on the proper way to use worm towers/buckets in raised beds… 😀

I have four buried 5 gallon food grade buckets. We fill and feed like any worm bin. We lifted them at the end of the season and got a bucketful of castings, refilled with new bedding and put them back in our raised beds. ~ Sandra

Thank you so much. Yesterday I was actually looking at the exact video you showed excerpts from and thinking about making some towers. Apart from saving me money you've saved me an enormous amount of effort - l'm disabled so everything is more difficult! I don't have much of a garden just some raised beds but, apart from the cost savings, it's such a joy to head outside and pick something l've grown and l've been looking at ways l can replenish the soil. I'll head off and look at some of your suggestions instead. 😊

My yards have been covered with mulch and woodchips for over a year. I tried vermicomposting, but never could tell if my red wigglers were really happy, and that is important to me. 'All my flocks and herds, no matter how small or slimy, are objects of care and concern. So, I released them on what I call Citrus Hill (One day I'll have a citrus tree growing there) early in the summer, and they dove right down under the covering. After summer, fall, and winter passed, I went to plant something near that hill, pushed aside the mulch, and saw motion! It was red! And slimy! It was our Red Wigglers, or their descendants. They survived, and were still here! Maybe two feet from where they were released, and in the direction of greater amounts of shade from the house. But, they were there! I was so excited. My plan is to set up a home depot bucket to feed and draw them to multiply in a place easily found, and then transfer them around the garden. I know they do not do a lot, but they do something. Oh, and the organic material is making its way down into my Arizona Desert soil. I'm lovin' it!

I purchased a worm bucket that was supposed to be buried but of course 2 years on it was full of roots and was almost impossible to dig out. I still wanted to use this system so I got a plastic nursery pot that was larger than the worm bucket and placed the worm bucket inside the larger pot. I filled the space between the worm bucket and the larger pot with soil and just sat it on the surface of the garden. The worms use the holes in the large pot to access the soil dividing the two and then into the holes in the side of the worm bucket to access food scraps. They can then return to the soil and come and go as they please. It works brilliantly.

Thank you SO much for explaining why worm towers don't work. I saw a gardening video. The lady showed her worm tower and how happy she was with the way it worked. I set one up in my raised bed, very similar to what she showed, but I used a tall plastic jug w/ holes drilled in it. At the end of my growing season the jug was still full of partially decomposed food scraps with potato plants (from sprouted peels) growing in it. Until seeing your explanation I was wondering why the tower hadn't worked for me.

I just bury any scraps in random places in my garden. Making the worms search for these holes is ridiculous

We get plenty of questions about this Steve. We recommend the Subpod or 10 Litre buckets with 3 rows of 2cm diameter holes drilled into the sides, and the bottom cut off to form ing ground worms farms. The surrounding soil has organic matter dug through it to provide a food source for the worms. Our customers have had success with this.

When I've said before that I do in-ground vermicomposting, I'm using composting mulches to replicate the O Horizon that Epigeic Worms live under. Epigeic worms seem to be quite lazy, so they'll stay where the food is, unless there is a reason not to. I don't think they do travel through the beds from these pipes, at least in any great distance. However, what I do know is, regardless of where they are, all my 42+ltr tubs, that I treat as no-dig (as far as it is possible to do so) end up with worms in them. These are not Epigeic Worms, but still there to feed on the organic amendments added to the buckets each year, and the breaking down roots that are left in from plants twisted out before new ones added. If these worms are willing to travel to a bucket, from somewhere else in the garden, perhaps using the above method can work on a 'build it, and they will come' basis. However, I'm still of the opinion that if you're going to do it, bigger is better. Why use a 4" pipe, for such little return, when you can use a large bucket.

My raised garden bed is free-standing and not in contact with the native soil. Technically it's filled with soil-less "potting mix" that I made, which is comprised of 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 pumice. It's nice and fluffy with plenty of compost for the worms to eat. So, they do well in my garden bed. The 4" worm tower is probably the least efficient way to get food scraps to the worms. When used in conjuntion with our other worm and compost bins it does provide one more location for us to compost on our tiny city lot.

It really depends on the level of organic matter in your existing soil. If there is already worms that can process it like they would in an outdoor compost pile then it should work. If your soil is under 4 % of organic matter i would strongly not use this, fix the levels and make sure worms have a safe environment to thrive in your garden.

Thank you for informations and clarifications. Cause we have to be detailled its science.

I agree with much said in this video, Thanks Steve :)

In ground and even big bins gets grubs, snails, doodlebugs, etc plus RATS chewing holes into the regular storage bins. I moved my heavier duty thicker bins to the porch away from the yard crawlies and if the rats are still able to chew holes I'll move them inside. I cover the plant based scraps under the dirt and put layers of cut boxes on top but they still smell the greens and apple sauce etc. I was using chicken wire to surround the bins top and sides and that worked but a total pain to feed the worms. I would never put food in a garden in any sort of bucket or pipe. Fishing out grubs and all kinds of bugs is impossible and nasty and the rats eat the worms as well as the scraps. Costco has the super thick black bins with yellow thick lids so fingers crossed too thick for rats to chew, but anyone reading know that these bins LEAK when it rains from the lid connectors. UGH! Need to cover with tarp or plastic if rain can reach.

I'm giving a worm towel a trial run that is 12" in dia and 18" deep buried 8" deep at the center of a 4X8 bed. I plan to feed around the outside perimeter as well as in the tower itself. I don't expect my wigglers to travel the whole bed but I do think worms will do well in the winter season and maybe 20 lbs of castings come spring.

Coming in late, but as a side note, you can get 6 inch pvc. Lowe’s has a 2 foot section for about $15. PVC Basin Extension.

Im in NZ and use earth worms. These aren't your top-feeders like red and blue wrigglers or tiger worms. I bury garlic, citrus and onion scraps outside the tower so that when it breaks down they go to it then return to the tower.

Makes sense

I’m trying it with cylinders on hardware cloth. Maybe 10 inches in diameter and 10 deep. I fashioned them with wire cutters etc. Buried ground level with wood cover. Then mulch. All around. When I find a ground worm, I put it along side. Feed once/month. Looks good to me. Who knows.

Layers of mulch instead of towers?

I was able to get a 2’ long 6inch pvc in lowes fyi

Ok so I just bought a tumbleweed worm compost bin. I thought it was a great idea and was about to go get those composting worms before stumbling on this video. I gather the best way for me to salvage the situation, would be to simply add organic matter and leave it rather than add any further worms?

What about in herb spirals?

Im like g white i just bury it or choo and drop leaves etc or hide it behind bushes.

The first thing I did when I discovered the worm tower concept I looked for an expert to debunk it. This video provided important information and context educating the basics and logic behind the process. Thanks!

Outdoor "on-ground" vermicomposting (as opposed to the 'in-ground" systems discussed here) is actually relatively easy and can be very productive. It is simply a way to have an outdoor vermicompost system that overwinters in colder climates. Being that it is outdoors, it is similar to in-ground systems but is not for putting worms into your garden soil which, as Steve points out, probably will not improve your garden's soil. You can use a mesh hardware cloth to create a smallish round bin (mine are about 2 ft high and 2 ft wide), set it on the ground and mostly use it for composting garden waste. Once the bottom has some decomposed material in it, lift up the fresh, undecomposed material put your worms on the decomposed stuff (I use red wigglers here in the northeast US). Give them a few days to get accustomed to their new home then feed small pockets of food scraps to them every once in a while. They will feed on the food scraps and on the garden waste that you put on top of the pile as it decomposes, as well as the composted material that you started with in the bottom of the bin. After a growing season or so, depending on your input amounts, the compost at the bottom of the bin will have lots of vermicast. If you let the vermicast fill up a foot or more you can tip the bin over and scrape out the bottom for some great vermicompost, then put the bin upright again and continue using through the next year. The worms will reappear after the winter without you having to insulate the bin, even if the contents freeze for a while (I am not sure how they do it but have a theory). I have done this for 6 successive years with multiple bins in different locations and my red wriggles continue to be very productive and seem happy as clams.

I think of it as a better way to trench compost. I use a 5 gallon bucket for mine. I don't use it for vermi compost I just use it to bring fertility to the soil in that bed I am using it in . The earth worms in my garden work fine did not need to buy anything special.

Why do I need to give you my email address to download the pdf of the vermicompost guide? You didn't even direct me to make an account or something, you just took my email address and that was it.

If you want to improve your garden or beds it's a good idea to promote raising your local earthworms through adding soaken woodchips, soaken paper & cardboard, clean manure, soaken leafs, kitchen wastes, to the soil. Red California worms are excelent to raise because you can use them to make Humus and to feed birds, fish, cattle, reptiles, I don't know how efficient diggers they can be.

A huge No from me! I tried this...I should point out I live in Florida and we have fire ants..LOTS of fire ants..and that's what the scraps attracted. Worse, the few worms it DID attract were being attacked by the fire ants (I DID wash the worms off and relocate them) I'll stick with my worm bag, safe in the house, with happy worms eating and reproducing while I pile up buckets of castings :)

I mean youve got a product to sell, so theres your bias. If youre skeptical about it, it makes sense to be skeptical about your review

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Do u sell vermi/worm compost? I text u on Instagram

Great discussion Steve! Once people find out about the 3 different kind of earthworms it all makes sense!!🪱🪱🪱