Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

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.