In the past, I've tried the Can O' Worms (forgot about the worms and they dried out) and then had DH build bigger worm bins. They worked well last summer. However, they are sort of unsightly and heavy for me. I also forgot to free the worms before winter and I don't want to imagine what happened to these poor guys. I have trapped and killed my last red wiggler (I hope). I'm convinced I can be successful with a tumbler. THANKS for the info Mary!! I bought one of these today - 5/28/10- $99 at Costco. I'm hoping I can assemble it myself (a chick) and have hubby do the 15 minutes of helping. I can imagine the eye rolls I'll receive for buying something that could take him three hours to assemble. We have two young kids, so three hours could easily become six. Happy Gardening -

Sunslight, "Checking the actual, inside, dimensions of the shelves, I came up with approximately 46x16." Actually, I have one of those shelves right here beside my computer, in use to hold my computer, scanner, video camera, CD drawers, and a bunch of books. I bought three of those shelf units, and I have one of them in use as a fluorescent plant stand right now. The distance between the posts is actually a bit less than 16 inches. I measure about 15¾" between the chrome posts. The distance between the heavy wire structure at the bottom ends of the shelves is about 46¾ inches, maybe a hair more. However, that should be not problem, because you hang the fixtures from the wire shelf above the shelf, and the fixtures can extend well beyond the end of the shelf, if need be. I use 1" S-hooks to hook over the wires of the overhead shelves, and the lightweight chains that came with my Home Depot shoplights. The chains let you adjust the height of the lights to keep them reasonably close to your plants for the best results. That leaves the problem of how you fit three fixtures in the relatively narrow space of 15¾ inches. There are several possible solutions. For your 50" x 6" fixtures, you hang them in a "staggered" configuration. Hang two of your fixtures snug against the poles, down a few inches lower than the minimum hanging distance, and hang the third fixture higher up and centered so that its light can come down between the other two fixtures. A variation on that would be to hand the outside fixtures at enough of an angle to allow the third fixture to fit between them. That would put your three fixtures in sort of a "hip roof" configuration, fitting between the poles and protruding a bit beyond the end of the shelves. A third possibility would be to hang all three of your fixtures at an angle, in a sort of "venetian blind" configuration. A fourth possibility is to buy some narrower fluorescent shoplights. Home Depot has $8 48-inch T8/T12 shoplights that are only 5 inches wide, and three of them fit neatly between the chrome wire posts. Since Home Depot sells a box of 10 Philips Cool White T8 bulbs for $19.95, they cost only $2 each. They draw only 32 watts each, contain less mercury, and are more efficient than T12 bulbs, so they put out as much or more light. And their lifetime is rated for 20,000 hours, which is a long time. Another advantage of the Home Depot Commercial Electric shoplights is that they can be converted to "overdrive" your tubes for at least 50% more light output per tube. That would give you the light equivalent of 9 tubes per shelf. MM

I haven't looked at Costco prices for probably 5 or 6 years so I won't comment on their current pricing. But when I was there the last couple times I did some random price checks on some common things I purchased. Examples: Dawn Dish Liquid, huge jug, must be cheaper right? Nope. Cheaper (per ounce) at Walgreens! Plus Walgreens would accept a coupon for it which made it substantially cheaper, plus I wouldn't have to buy a gallon at a time. Another plus, the bottle is much more manageable. Tide laundry detergent. Cheaper at Target and K-mart, plus they had more varieties if that's important to you. Shampoo? At the time I was buying the bonus size White Rain for $1. ) Not even close. Coffee? Limited brands, larger size came to about the same price per ounce or slightly more. These were just some staple item examples that I did to get a feel for their "great prices" that so many people raved about. For me, I didn't see it as a viable option. Others disagree of course so they're doing quite well! I will also say that prices can be deceiving there. With the huge quantities it's hard for many people to really compare prices. Many items aren't conducive to unit pricing comparisons. Number of sheets of paper towels might be a different size or weight. And nobody has really mentioned spoilage and your potential losses there on the bulk purchases. Nor do people factor in the cost of the extra refrigerator or freezer to buy the bulk. It's part of the cost. And of course, instead of buying one or two candy bars, you buy a box of them! There's almost a cult-like following for certain stores, this one included and when you're almost brainwashed into thinking "everything is a bargain!!!" some can't wipe the rose tint off their glasses. So, while there can be some savings, the fact is it can easily be offset by overpurchasing. I was at the other warehouse store and needed some paper plates so I bought a pack, WAAAAAAY more than I needed at not a great price either. But I've had paper plates for about 5 years without buying more. Aldi would have been a better choice but I happened to be there. I hear the "I'm saving SO much money" but they don't know what they're actually paying so how would they know? LOL Gas usually is cheaper. (Occasionally it's not.) It's true you'll probably spend a lot more than you expect. But when you look at what's happening, you'll understand why. You buy way bigger sizes than you generally need and usually want. So the price of paper plates is $15 instead of $2! (And yes I know you're probably going to have more plates so you don't buy them for a while but the point is, $100 doesn't go too far at these places!) I'm not criticizing Costco or the people who like it, but if your goal is to save money, be prepared. Have a price book and/or know your unit prices. Compare it rationally. If you normally buy store brands, and/or use coupons factor that in when you compare. And don't go there hungry! :) If you don't care what you spend, then enjoy your shopping. The warehouse stores have become almost a "fashionable" place to some people and I think that's why some shop there. One question for the Costco members with their cashback card: Out of curiosity, is Costco like Sam's in that the cashback earned on the card is in the form of a check made out to the store? Once I saw that you had to spend it there, I threw out the card application.

Yes, the link above are the ones I bought, except at our Costco, they went from 39.99 to 24.99. I happened to find myself at a Costco further out on LI this past weekend, but they still had them listed at 39.99. I had been eyeballing them since last year but they were more $$ than I wanted to spend . I am cautiously optimistic that not only will these work for me, but are inexpensive to run. I'm going back to Costco this weekend to get 2 more to hopefully cover the reSt of my collection. I only want to prevent etiolation until the weather here in NY is favorable again. Just the 2ish weeks of sitting in low light, waiting for me to get my butt in gear, weak, floppy and well spaced out growth was evident on several of my plants. That has since resolved with tight, compact growth on the terminal ends, but a few are changed forever :/ I'm planning on updating with pics this weekend, right now it's kind of a mess in there & I'm actively avoiding doing anything new there but watering the puckered. Trying to make it to Friday, so I can get everything in order =) It's important to note that there are differing opinions on whether this is a good set enough set up to recommend. I needed something that didn't require hard wiring, was not flush mounted, inexpensive and as user friendly as the old fixtures, less expensive to run & would prevent etiolation. So far, this seems to be a good fit for me, but time will tell. One thing is for sure, my bluer plants are loving this lighting. The purple ones are also flourishing in a way they hadn't efore, even when outside.