I've never used the Can O' Worms, but this sounds like a great alternative! Let me know how it works out. I might decide to make one too.

Do you have any idea where to get the spigot? I've been wanting one for my bins, but can't seem to find them for sale anywhere.

I don't think adding layers early is any good. It's surface area that counts.

Your bin idea sounds similar to the OSCR Jr.
Easy to make, cost about $17 all total.
I've modified mine such that a hole is on the side so the liquid drips out into a reused yogurt cup. I've tilted the whole setup with a piece of the 2x1 wood in the plans (see link below).
I've also used window screen and created a basket that outlines the shape of the bin. I place this on the first worm bin. This is too stop the worms from going into the catch basin. I believe the worms like to explore and if they touch bottom, they continue. I also add paper on the bottom between the screen basket and the worm bin, so they can climb back up. Eventually this neting will contain castings. Also stops the castings from getting into the leachant.
If the leachant smells okay (usually no smell), everything is okay. We use it for rosmary and houseplants, and extra on the lawn (no news on the lawn).
One warning, if in a dry climate, the bin seems to dry out, because of all the holes.

When drilling, put two bins together and 50% of the time you'll have two holes for the price of one. At the very least a guide for the holes in the second bin (which really doesn't need to be made right away).

Maybe 1/8" for the holes would be a better design and would require no netting. Who knows. Hope this helps.

Try Lowe's for these bins. If you can't find the 10gallon try the next size up, but it will be deeper.

Here is a link that might be useful: Oscr Jr. Continous flow through

What if I don't use screening between the next-to-last bin and the bottom/catch bin? Will castings fall in and mix with the tea? Will worms go into the catch bin and starve since there won't be anything but tea and castings there? If I will get castings in the tea, why is that a bad thing?

If I do use screening between the last bin and the catch bin, won't the screening get clogged and prevent the tea from percolating? And lastly, why do I need to layer bedding material and food waste? Why can't I just put my veggie waste in with the worms and leave them to it?

Thanks,
ktool

You can get a spigot at a brew shop. If not a good plumbing comapny should have one for you.

Yes > Will castings fall in and mix with the tea? Will worms go into the catch bin and starve since there won't be anything but tea and castings there?
No, but may clog a screen or spigot >If I will get castings in the tea, why is that a bad thing?
Nope, water will go on down just like it will have to through the castings of the bin eventually >If I do use screening between the last bin and the catch bin, won't the screening get clogged and prevent the tea from percolating?

It's up to you. I tried the layer approach. Risk to me is too much food and not enough worms. I use the sectioning technique now. My bin is seperated into 6 areas and I rotate around. I dig a small hole, place the food and cover.

In dry climites like mine, I spray the new area so the food stuff gets nice and wet.

But you do need to cover the food or smell and flies will rule your bin(s).

>And lastly, why do I need to layer bedding material and food waste? Why can't I just put my veggie waste in with the worms and leave them to it?

One 14 gal. bin can be very heavy to move when full of vermicompost.

True, but with them nested, only the bottom 4 inches or so will have food/compost. That's how I had planned to duplicate the Can-O-Worms design. I guess I'll give it a try. The materials are less than $20 to build it.

If you want a spigot thats super cheap and readily accessible, cut the top off of a 16oz plastic soda bottle. Leave enough of the neck intact so you can push it from the inside of the bin through a hole drilled the size of the smallest part of the neck of the bottle.....push until it stops against the sides of the bin and will go no further. Silicone in place, unscrew the lid when you want to turn it "on". Screw lid on when you want it "off".

Copper

Oh Yeah, I like that.
I may do that.
I tried a PVC piping but the neck was too long.
And if the bottle is clear, one can tell if there is much liquid.

I've been doing a similar thing, but with the 10 gal bins. I, too, looked at the COW design and figured I could duplicate that for MUCH less $$. I currently have three of these set up to get enough surface area to deal with the amount of fresh waste we have. I would not move to the larger bins because I have found that the 10 gal ones get plenty heavy enough. :)

I don't have a spigot on the bottom bin. I just lift the other bins off and set them on one of the extra (unperforated) lids. That keeps any little gunk or moisture from getting on my floor and acts as a custom-made tray. I do not have any mesh or screen in the botton of my bottom bin, and have not had problems with compost or worms getting into the tea. The worms are mostly smart enough not to go down there. Unless the bedding they are in is SO wet that the tea looks better to them, they shouldn't go down there.

Also, although the bins stack very nicely at the four inch level, I have been filling them much higher before putting the next level on. As long as the new layer isn't REALLY heavy, they worms happily move up at their own speed. The compression has not been a problem for them, although sometimes when the top bin is too heavy I get a little anaerobic smell. I just fluff the bottom level and that takes care of it. If I were in a hurry, I would put the new layer on at the four inch level.

I am a relative newbie myself, and have not gotten more than two levels on each setup. So I can't tell you what happens with more stacked on top if they're all that full. Probably I'll have to move to stacking them at the 4 inch level.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that so far, everything is working fine.

Let me know how yours works out. I'm always looking for fine-tuning :)

Happy worming,

Feegle

Thanks, Feegle, for the great feedback.

So how many holes did you end up drilling in the bottoms of your bins? And what size? The largest bit I have is 3/8. Do you think this will make big enough holes?

Also, how do you ventilate? Did you drill additional holes in the upper sides of the bins? Or in the tops?

Finally, do you use bedding of some sort? Or do you just put your food waste in the bin by itself? If you do use bedding what do you use?

Thanks,
ktool

Ktool,

I read a bunch of info sheets about it, but the one that I followed most closely was on digitalseed.com. (See link below.)

The people I bought my worms from recommend 1/8" holes in the bottom and swear the worms can get through. I think I ended up drilling some 1/8" holes and a lot more 1/4" or 3/8" holes in the bottom. As long as the holes are big enough for the worms to get through, and small enough the chunks of stuff don't fall through, they'll be fine. As for how many? ...being an enthusiastic newbie, I put in enough holes that no worm would have to search for one and made them big enough so the fattest worm I had could saunter through. :)

Later bins have 1/4" holes about every three inches on the bottom and along the top of the sides, and about 15 holes in the lid. If I have fruit fly problems in the summer I'll cover the ventilation holes with noseeum netting or use one of the extra lids and redrill. The main thing for ventilation is to put the holes in the top inch of the sides or they get covered up when you nest the bins.

The only place I really veered from the digitalseed recommendations was in placing the lowest worm bin in an undrilled bin to catch the "tea". Any other arrangement would be too likely to get spilled by me or one of my many pets. *smile*

I use shredded newspaper as my primary bedding. However, it mats if it's on the bottom of the bin. More recent bins have a little soil on the bottom, and then the food and bedding on top. The worms mix it all up anyway eventually. A lot of people use cardboard as a top layer. This helps maintain the moisture level. How you do it depends on which feeding method you are using. I have been using the "zone" method. I move bedding aside, put a bunch of food in, and cover it back up, occasionally adding extra bedding. I have one bin that I just started in which I'm trying the layering method, but I don't have any feedback yet on that.

There is lots of good info in the FAQ section, and other people can tell you more about the layering method. I'm begining to suspect that it might be a better way for use with the stacking bins.

Okay, I've blathered on quite long enough. I hope some of this (very disjointed) spew was helpful.

Happy Worming,

Feegle

Here is a link that might be useful: Rubbermaid bin instructions

Awesome. Exactly the info I was looking for. Thanks.

I have lots of these 10 gallon bins going and they work great. I also have some CanOWorms and there is not much difference, although I like the COW's being on legs.
One thing I feel a need to bring up. The draining liquid from the bins is NOT "tea". It is a leachate and not the same thing. From what I understand (and do) tea must be aerated and "brewed" for some time to grow the good micro-herd, before adding to your garden or plants.

Great idea using the soda bottle lid as a spigot. I wonder if one of those "pop-up" tops one pulls up with their teeth to drink would be even better? Of course, I would not use my mouth/teeth to open it!
Happy Gardening...................Tom

So how do you "brew" tea? Is the leachate not a good fertilizer?

My rule on leachat, if it stinks, don't use it.
Usually I get no smell from it.
I may water my bin too much, but with all the holes and the dry climate, it maybe necessary.
I get about 1/2 of a yogurt cup per day on average (~100mL)

Thanks

I add about a quart of vermicompost to a 5 gallon bucket. I then put in some blackstrap mollasses (to feed and grow the microherd) and put an aquarium bubbler (air tube taped to the bottom of bucket) and let it bubble (steep) for 3 days. Because I have always read you must use this concoction within about 12 hours from the time you stop "brewing", I usually start a batch on Wednesday to use on the weekend. This stuff is fabulous as a root drench or foliar feeder.

Great question, I loved the CoW design but it was out of my price range. I am making a bin using instructions I found on the web (sadly, I lost all my bookmarks) that is a bin inside a bin, the outer bin catching the liquid from the inner bin, which has lots of screened holes.

I ended up doing a google search for "replacement spigot" and found lots of sources with Igloo or Rubbermaid cooler spigots. I bought one from AceHardware.com:

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1287467&cp=&keywords=spigot&searchId=10407493066&parentPage=search

because they were doing a sale last week where shipping was free if it's shipped to a local store. I havent actually received it and I'm hoping it will be okay if I just use epoxy or silicone or something to install it.

I like the plastic soda bottle idea, too.

Spigots:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20685&item=4373822287&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20685&item=4373823053&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20685&item=4373824427&rd=1

I use 30 gallon plastic tubs stacked on top of each other.
5 Gallon plastic paint/soap cans work great. I use a hole in the side at the bottom and secure a piece of landscaping fabric over the hole with bathroom tile cement/calk. I fill the bottom (the whole tub) with dry leaves. The next on (the top) I drill 1/4 inch holes in the bottom, about 20 or more.. The worms that escape will go into the bottom. They can always go up into the top can if they find the bottom undiserable. I have many bins and beds. This stacking concept works great for me. Worms will stay at first in the top container because the bottom of a new bin is harsh and dry. After finishing the top container they will migrate down into the bottom or Start at the bottom and add new containers to the top like a conventional stacking design.

Thanks for all the great feedback. I actually built mine a couple of weeks ago using 14 gallon Rubbermaid bins -- three with holes drilled in their bottoms and one solid for the bottom of the stack. The only ventilation holes I drilled are in the lid for the top of the stack. I started with a pound of worms about 10 days ago, and so far I really can't tell how it's working.

I put coconut fiber and organic soil in the bottom, then added the worms, then some food waste I had been saving in the fridge -- mainly carrot pulp from juicing, but also some greens, coffee grounds, rice, tomatoes, egg shells, etc.

How long should it take for the worms to process this and reproduce? So far I can't see a measurable decrease in the amount of waste I put in the bin. The worms seem active but not overly so, and some of the food is beginning to mold. Also, several of the worms always seem to want to climb the walls and escape the bins.

Is this normal? Or do I need to adjust my bins in some way?

TIA,
ktool

Your worms may need more air, or they may just be taking a little while to get used to their new home. Since the food you were saving was in the fridge, it's probably not broken down much and will need a little time to become biologically active. They won't be interested in it until it's rotting. New bins take extra time to get started. You'll notice a huge increase in activity after about 3 months.

Good luck,
Mariann