Steve, I have never used a tier system or attempted indoor wormin'. I have good worm weather and space outside. Indoor wormin' is quite different than what I do.

I think you have got your tier system down to an art. You are maximizing your available space and it works well for you. You can expand easily until you get all the castings you need.. After that, you can give away worms or just let the system work for you. Hat's off to you!

Good luck and happy wormin'

Pete

I use a 3 tier system and each month harvest a tray. This new empty tray becomes the top tray and is filled with bedding and fed for the entire month. When a new month starts I harvest the bottom tray which is now 3 months old and has finished compost. The now empty tray then goes to the top to be fed for the month, and so on.

I have a worm factory 360, but in the next couple years I want to upgrade to some kind of huge outdoor bin. I seem to have a knack for keeping the little ones happy so why not expand it?

Keep in mind your 360 can accommodate a total of 8 trays, so you can expand your operation.

I have a 5 tray 360 and it works great for me. I don't track the time of month that I pull off trays but I would say that I get about a tray per month.
The only issue that I think you might have with using a bunch of trays is that it can get really heavy if you over load them. My 5 tray system is enough for me and if I wanted more I would go with another system instead of more trays.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Site

Hummer- Can you load pictures of your homemade tier bins? I am getting ready to build one. I am trying to build one economically and am searching for economical alternatives to using 18 gallon storage bins. I would like to find 10 gallon bins at a good price. My tiered system will be 4 tiers since I want to harvest a bin every 3 weeks.

MisterBackyard, I like your site. Lots of great info. Thanks for putting it together and sharing!

Good luck and happy wormin'

Misterbackyard - Great site! I am going to build one in my garden. I have a 10X20 garden plot separated into 5X10 sections with paving stones between, so 4 - 5X10 plots. I also have a 4X18 feet kidney shaped raised garden (picture attached). My question is, how much garden is properly serviced by a 6-inch pipe worm tower? Should I put in one for each 5X10 section and maybe two for the raised garden?

Misterbackyard - Does the soaking of the soil bother the worm tower? Why is the tower 1.5 feet above ground as opposed to maybe .5 feet?

This post was edited by CharlieBoring on Tue, Dec 2, 14 at 7:25

I do not use a tier system but would if Santa brought it. For a long time there was just me and my bucket o vermi. The best vermi youtube is of the guy taking apart his tier system and showing how the worms love to dangle out of the bottom of each tier. I have not been able to find it for a while. It is short.

CharlieBoring, How do you find the 5X10 garden size as far as standing at the edge and reaching in to plant, weed or harvest that middle area? I have some 4XvariousX10" garden squares and wonder if "When I'm 64" I will wish my gardens were 3XvariousX3'? I am also curious about the width of the path between gardens. In my youth I gazelle like leaped around my 4X4X0s with 16" wide paver paths and even jumped over the corner areas I removed two pavers from to squeeze in an extra 16"X16" square to plant in. Not much room to drive my wheel barrel down those avenues. Plus the tomato and summer squash always wanted to party in the pathways. I'm thinking I'm going to want to drive my way cool with pin stripes motorized scooter down a bit wider isles and have easy pickings at easy arm reach level. I'm also thinking I want a red scooter so it will be faster and sportier looking. I'm also thinking of loosing a foot at the corners of the bed for faster cornering in my scooter, possibly on two wheels. Now I'm thinking about longer straight a ways to really rack up the speeds and banked corners to harvest greens even faster for my squirm. I would feel less full going to 3' width garden beds would be practical for me in a few years. And I feel wasteful making pathways wider when I could have used the space for growing. Yet wider pathways may be what is needed. I am trying to balance the gardening spacing of my youth with what my needs may be to enjoy working in the garden in my later years. Bigger and better is the American way... until one can not lift the hive or the worm tray anymore. Then Chukie's Library of Vermi Bins starts to make a lot more sense. Also how do you edge all of that edge? I'm never sure. Should I have grass paths and mow them or wood chips or ? I see you have the decorative element of those pretty blocks edging a garden. Some materials I have choose were based on cost and not as nice looking. I would use logs as edging but then I would have to reach 6 more inches to get to the middle of my garden. Or have a garden 12 less inches wide. So I want a garden edge that is really thin. I also want one that I do not have to edge trim grass paths. And one that tilts out so I get more garden in less space and more path for chickens to patrol for tasty bits. And I do not want to have to reach all that way to the ground to plant, weed and harvest. Anything above ground level is an improvement. And I do not want sharp edges in the garden in case I fall. And I want the edge of the garden to hold supports for netting, etc. I might need a different forum. But I noticed in the picture you used a variety of methods to deal with garden edge issues. I'm not really relating to worm towers but the plant pot that covers the tower (unique, cool, first time I have seen this closure system) please put a plant into the pot. For some reason I am imagining a spider plant.

This post was edited by equinoxequinox on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 22:52

I would have to ask 'Will you still need me, will you still feed me' if I reduced the widths of my garden beds. Being tall wide beds are fine plus it is easy enough to plant things in the middle that dont require as much attention. I too love wide isles, helps to have a place for long legs when kneeling and as you noted room to zoom. Fortunately we have plenty of space so thats not an issue, for weed control in the betweens my preference is for wood chips. They do a great job of keeping unwanteds down and over time contribute to the whole.

equinoxequinox - Actually the 5 feet wide beds are not ideal for reaching the middle row. I usually plant 3 rows of such plants as garlic, swiss chards, other greens, bush beens and onions. Typically, I put a couple of small pavers between rows to allow me to get to the middle row with ease. My "walk ways" are 1 foot wide and I don't need a wheel barrow, the space is too small. When I plant tomatoes or zucchini I plant two rows and stake them to grow verticle. I am considering placing a worm tower in the middle of each 5X10 section. I may start with one to see the effect.