5-Tray Worm Compost Bin, Dark Green with Free Worm-Saver Tray

I do my vermicomposting a little differently than most, and it's helped me have a lot of success with this thing. I was harvesting the bottom tray every month, now it's become every two weeks.First off, what you need to consider about stacking-bin systems is that by the time you fill up the top tray, there is a LOT of weight on the bottom tray. That's no good for the bottom tray or anything except the top tray, because the compaction wrecks any chance you have of oxygenation in any tray but the top one, maybe the one underneath. The quick and easy solution to that is a spacer in all four corners, maybe two or three inches long. I use PVC because I don't care about plastics leaching out, I've got enough to worry about in my life. If you're worried, you can use wood blocks and replace them when they rot, that's fine with me. The important thing is that no tray gets compacted by the trays on top of them.Second thing I do for success; the bottom tray contains about two inches of dry peat. So does the top tray. These never get used for worms (and worms won't even try to enter the top tray, because it would kill them.) The bottom tray is to soak up any drippage that comes from the above trays. Sure, worm leachate is great, but you know what else is great? Not having to deal with stinky, anaerobic drippage. i've got a full time job and a worm bin in my kitchen. I only have so much time for worm-farm drama. Oh, and that top tray of dry peat? That's why I have zero fruit flies. Hey fruit flies, want to get at the old bananas and the watermelon rinds in my working tray? Well have fun burrowing through the two inches of dry peat on top. Oh, you can't, because you're fruit flies and you can't use tools? Sucks to be you. Be born with thumbs next life, you'll have an easier time.Final thing that works really well for me: I don't play with burying my scraps. I see youtube video after youtube video of people burying their scraps in a clockwise or counterclockwise method, digging through the half-rotten food and trying not to murder or freak out their worms while they're doing it. That's cool if that's what they like doing, but that just seems...difficult. And dirty. What I like to do is hydrate a little bucket of peat or coir, whatever I'm using for bedding, the week before I feed. All the vegetable scraps, tea leaves, and coffee grounds get tossed in a bucket throughout the week, and when I feed, I dump a little pile in one spot in the bin. Then I grab a couple handful of peat that's about the consistency of potting soil, and use it to cover the pile I just dumped. Repeat weekly. It means I don't have to dig through anything, ever. When three bins are full, I harvest the bottom one (not the peat one, that never moves--the one above it.).Also, when it comes to harvest, I don't like to murder worms who were too dumb to leave the poo-bin, but I'm also not gonna cook them a steak and give them a backrub while I meticulously hand-sort them from the poo. So the way I harvest is to take the peat-bin off with the lid, put it aside. Then put the harvest bin up on top, fluff it up so it's easy for stragglers to run down, and start harvesting handfuls from the top. Since the worms hate light, they run for the bottom, and by the time I get it all out of the bin, they've disappeared into the bin below it, and I don't have to play around with them.That's about all I have to offer, tip-wise. Anyway, point is, this bin makes me so happy. It never stinks and it produces a lot. I bought it in April and I've had a good time with it.

I started worm farming using a DIY 5 gallon bucket with instructions from youtube videos. Using the Vermitek worm farm brings my hobby to another level. I had the Vermitek worm farm for about a month. I am completely satisfied with the quality of the product. My sister has a competitor product and the Veritek bins are much sturdier. The instruction manual is well written with lots of good tips. IMHO this is simply the best value worm farm on Amazon. There's a lot to love using the Vermitek product vs. a 5 gallon bucket: 1) There is so much more surface space using the bins 2) With not much more vertical space I can have 5x more worms vs. a single 5 gallon bucket. 3) The Vermitek worm farm looks so much better than a bucket with random drilled holes! 4) It is so much more convenient and much cleaner to work with the worm bins. 5) Harvesting worm castings is so much easier with minimal amount of work with the Vermitek. See suggestions below.My order came with missing instruction manual. I found the vermitek web site and email the seller. I got a phone call from the seller the next day and got the instructions needed. Customer service was excellent! Talking to the seller I took the opportunity to purchase additional accessories from the seller's website. I guess the prices are so low for the accessories that the seller don't list them on Amazon. For example the coco coir mats are less than a dollar. Other accessories I found useful and I wish the seller would sell as a bundled extra: the plastic claw for moving worms castings around, extra coco coir brick, moisture and temperature meters. If you order extra worms from the seller you can easily get to having free shipping with their order minimum.Some suggestions using the Vermitek worm farm:1. As others noted Fruit flies may be an issue with the unscreened holes in the top cover. However I had no issues with fruit flies by using a few layers of damp paper on top of the worms in the top bin.2. I use a spray bottle to keep the worm farm damp but not wet. I only spray water on top of the layers of newspaper I use. The farm is never wet enough to have much "worm tea" drop to the bottom spigot bin.3. For the worm food when adding "greens" (vegetable scrapes etc.) also add "browns" (damp newspaper, coco coir etc.). Your worms eats both plus a good ratio and greens and brown will keep your worm farm smelling fresh.3. What I did to migrate worms to a new bin: instead of adding new bin with new bedding + food on top of the existing bin I added a new bin below the existing worm bin by using a coco coir mat. b) I moved some casting and worms (about a third to a half) from the existing bin and pushed them to one side of the new bin so that the top of the casting/worms from the new bin touches the bottom of the existing bin c) I had cut out a few pieces of scrap wood and use them as spacers to prop up the bin so that it sits evenly when the old bin is put on top of the new bin d) on this side of the new bin add worm food, more coco coir + damp newspaper and, move a few wigglers over to the side e) For the old bin, I pushed the worm casting + worms to the side touching the bottom bin side with casting. With this the worms will migrate (drop) down to the new bin leaving the old bin with just the worm casting. f) Continue to add new worm food just in the new bin only. I think this is easier way to move the worms to a new bin and harvest the casting especially if you are using a coco coir mat as a base for the new bin. I will take some photos next time I do this and will post them.

This is an amazing "tool" for your garden.1. Setup (5-star) :A. It is super easy to assemble. Just put the legged tray up on a level surface, cover with white strainer; layer over a cloth worm spearator; add a worm tray. DONE!B. Get some shreeded paper, wet it and layer it over the bottom of the worm tray. Get some worms and add them to the tray. (Weigh your worms first!). Add about the same weight of food scraps as you got worms. Cover with the top.C. Check periodically for the food layer to stay wet. Add food (Peferabbly milled down to smaller bits) weekly to one corner of the tray at a time. Check for "tea" collected in the bottom bin periodically. Collect the tea to dillute for your plants watering needs.D. Once tray is about 2/3rds full add your second tray on top and repeat step B, mind that worms will migrate into upper tray themselves, but you are welcome to relocate some by hand too!E. Once you are on your tray 3 or 4. check your bottom tray - it should be by now all black and more or less uniform or crumbly to be used as soild additive. Check to see if you have any worms left and throw them in the top tray if you do. Toss the new compost-soil to the garden/pots where it is needed.Sturdiness (4-star): As your compost bin fills up it becomes top heavy and the legs may spread out. So, just keep an eye out for water collection bin to be emptied regularily and for the soil (bottom worm bin to be emptied at least annually as well.3. Easy to use (5-Star) Setup is super easy; use is super easy; maintenance - super easy; best of all - you got worms once and they will overwinter and re-appear in the spring!Happy Wormposting Everyone!