Thought I might boost this forum a little with my current observations of my own setup.

For those who I don't know, I run a family sized setup of 10 x 10 gal. totes, no aeration or drainage holes, just feeding kitchen scraps and tea bags, shredded paper and torn up cardboard, oh, and one worm factory (ie worm cafe).

About once every two months, I notice my totes get very, VERY wet. Expected, since there are no drainage holes in them, but all the same, it's a bit like a swamp in them. Just starting to smell a little more like septic tank than good clean compost, lol.

I feed raw kitchen scraps (given up on the blending on established totes), dry paper shredded, and dry cardboard.

A couple of my totes have holes drilled an inch below the rim, 1" apart to aid aeration, but this doesn't seem to keep up with the rising level of moisture.

My simple solution is to observe at feeding time, the wettest two totes (every two weeks), move the mass to one end, then elevate the "loaded" end up for a few hours then soak up the free liquid in a sponge to feed the plants. Once dryer, I then start to feed the empty end of the tote with new dry bedding and food.

The worms seem to survive and thrive in these very, VERY wet conditions, and not mind being disturbed by the piling up at one end at all.

Seems to me it's all about obsevations and simple solutions to what seems to be a bad condition.

What's too wet?

If it starts to smell like sewrage, then you have reached too wet. Move the bedding to one end, and elevate this end to make the moisture run to the other, then scoop (soak, mop, tip, pour, exterminate.....) the other, thus drying out the tote a bit. This works and lasts for a couple of months at least.

Too dry? Not going to happen in a plastic tote setup, even with bottom drainage.

Worming is simple. Please dont complicate it to a point of giving up on the whole deal. I dispose of more than 10 lbs of waste (kitchen and junk mail) per week with no effort at all, other that feeding an shredding for a half hour every two weeks.Probably more like 20 lbs. Worms are very VERY tolerant sevants, so enjoy and let nature take it's place.

Narf said.... lol.

Jay