Time it takes to add second tray... Worm Factory

15 years ago

Hi all --

More of a tip for users of worm factory's / COWs then a question.

I added my second tray today to my worm factory. I added 1 lbs worms on Aug 30 so it has been roughly 60 days. The first tray is 75-85% casting, with a little food left over from last week. I added the second tray because I was starting to get worms climbing to the top. I didn't think the Factory was ready for a second tray but when I added the second tray I noticed it did not lay flat. As a mattor of fact their was a large quarter to half inch gap.

I took out casting, worms, and bedding from top of the first tray and added it to the second. I also went out to my natural area and added an 1" layer of leaves, a few scoops of finished screened compost and a few scoops of unfinished compost. Finally, I pour 16 oz of rain water on the second try to moisten it.

I had hesitated to add a second tray because I read there needed to be good contact for the worms to travel north. Well, there is no need to worry about the second bin contacting the first. If anything I think the second is pushing down too hard on the first.

At this point, I am going to wait at least a week before I add more food to see if the first bin settles more and to see if my little pets climb up on their own.

Just thought I would share .... John

Featured Answer

hummersteve

9 years ago

For those of us trying to use the worm factory type or even a similar homemade tier type setup we worry about when it is correct time to add a tray. Its trial and error on how much veggie and fruit scrap to add but the worms will tell us by how fast it is getting used . Also if we get too many worms roaming or leaving the bin its either getting too crowded or they are looking for a space to lay eggs, then that might be a good tip its time to add a tray.

Once again my bin or bins are inside bins but I did make some adjustments on my homemade plastic bins which are 24x17x7 ea. At first I wondered if those were big enough but by making them triple stacked its ok even with a growing herd. Even though I made a lot of holes for aeration I wasnt satisfied with that. so I cut out the bottoms leaving a 2"lip. Then I got some 1/4" hardware cloth screening for the bottom of each allowing more aeration and worm movement and Im not sorry I did this. Then I covered up the windows I had made originally with duct tape. I now use a burlap sack as a lid or cover and some worms are starting to make use of that and it allows for better air flow since plastic tends to sweat.

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Comments (7)

dwalt
15 years ago
Why the rush to add a second tray? To my line of thinking if you add a second tray and worms migrate up to it then it will only slow down the processing of the first tray if it isn't finished.
fosteem1
15 years ago
I only had stacking rubbermaid bins. But, I found it helps the upward migration to wait until the lower bin is too full then skim off the top of the bottom tray to just below the shredded paper level, putting it all into the bottom of the new tray. You get some microbes and worms in the bedding to inoculate the new tray and worms find it more appealing. So they start moving into it a lot quicker.
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Hi Gina, adding to organic louie's reply, if your tray is full and you still see lots of bedding and food scraps, that means the worms haven't processed it yet. You still have several months to go to get that 1 tray finished. I also have a WF that I started on Dec.9/08 with 1.5 lb of worms. I didn't check if there are really as many worms as 1.5lb I am still on my first tray and it is still full of bedding and scraps. It is starting to get established though. I suspect that the original worms (many of them) have died in the process of getting established. I find that the WF does not let enough air through because in the beginning I have leachete(?spelling)in the bottom tray and a good working bin should not have it. Also because I found worms (not many, just about 5/day for almost a month)in that catch tray. That problem stopped since I do not drop the working tray completely into the catch tray. I shift and let the bottom of the working tray rest on the side of the catch tray so air can get into the catch tray. I also do not use the lid. I upended an extra tray and use it as a lid and covered it with weed cloth to prevent fruit flies and others getting in. The worms get fed scraps that have been frozen before so I won't be bringing unwanted eggs from outside. I also use TP-cores as chimneys burried at least halfway into the bedding. It seems to be working much better now and the worms seem to be much alert. However, I am still feeding only once a week and maybe only 1/2lb of scraps. I don't know how many worms I now have in the tray munching (too slow for my taste). Maybe that is due to my continuous checking and prodding. Now I am down to ONLY 2x/day of peeking. I suspect the ones working in my tray are the 2. generation. The freezer has more wormfood than people food. Otis
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Thank you for the ideas! I didn't have the spigot open but went ahead and opened it. Will be more mindful of air flow. Like I said, they seem to be doing their job and there is no bad smell otherwise. when i checked just now when i went to open the spigot there were no worms down below. You are right, a little more info would have been helpful :) I opted for the $79 version of the worm factory rather than the "new and improved" worm factory 360 that costs around 120 - seems like the biggest difference is the "worm ladder" on the WF360 which supposedly is to help the worms who get stuck down below (selling point?), as well as a different lid that allows you to stack trays on, and a tool kit. well i had the tools laying around, and a shallow plastic tub from the dollar store works just fine to set the trays on :) so far i am really enjoying my worm bin... it really is very cool... has anyone else had this problem?
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If a person only has 1 or 2 trays going there is really no problem. In my situation I have 5 trays going so when the bottom tray is ready to be harvested obviously the 3 or 4 trays above it will have some unprocessed material in it and it will continue in this manner although the only tray I will put any food in will be the top tray. In the meantime there is still worms at work in the middle trays. Once the bottom tray has been harvested back to the top it goes with all new bedding along with some old newspaper from the previous top tray, therefore the name of the bin "factory 360" as a rotation has just been done. So therefore the middle trays will always have worms in them working on the yet to be processed material. Hope this makes some sense to some as Im totally confused by now :-).
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fosteem1
15 years ago
Dwalt,
When you add the second tray all the worms don't migrate in mass. In fact you are lucky if they move at all for a while. And then it only seems to be the adventurous ones or some of the big ones. All the little worms stay behind. The baby's seem to stay put not crawling more than a inch or so from their hatching place until they are around an inch long.

When i was harvesting my stacking bins the bottom bin seemed to have just as many worms by volume as the top bin. Only the worms were all under an inch and a half long. Most of them were under an inch, all hatchlings from egg cases left behind by the older worms.

Picking all those baby's out is what finally convinced me to go with a flow through. I sound like a flow through expert. I am not I'm a newbie at it. Only just having set it up.

I was harvesting early because stacking Rubbermaid type bins put a lot of weight on the bottom bin squishing the compost out the bottom holes. Not a problem with the worm factory or cows. They have little stops that keep it from happening.

After i started the flow through up i came accost a blog that told of a wormer that drilled holes large enough to insert corks into the bottom of the bins that is supposed to work like the stops on the WF and COWS. Ah well.
computergardener
Original Author
15 years ago
An update on my original post...

I think I underestimated how 'done' my first tray was. As I mentioned I added no food scraps to the top layer just an 1" layer of leaves, a few scoops of finished screened compost and a few scoops of unfinished compost.

Well, I just checked today and WOW. I was shocked at the number of worms which had already moved to the second tray. As stated above they were large worms in comparison to the other worms in my tray. Even more surprising is when I lifted the second tray up, I saw dozens of worm bottoms sticking out of the tray as they made their move on up.

For now though I am going to just add food to the second tray and let anyone in the bottom tray continue to process.

Good luck to everyone else...
hummersteve
9 years ago
Ok this is an old thread but it needs reviving as more and more people are getting into worm farming , vermicomposting or whatever you wish to call it. Presently I have a couple different types of worm bins the worm factory 360 and a homemade plastic triple tier setup. On the 360 Im currently using 3 trays plus another tray on top with just shredded paper to help deter gnats. Im also considering adding a fourth tray though havent mad that move as yet. But I am finding that the bottom tray/harvest tray no matter when I take it always has a few worms in it. Another reason Im thinking of adding a 4th tray is it seems the worms are going thru the food faster and faster. In the beginning I starting with about 1000-1500 red wigglers but now it is quite obvious those numbers have multiplied substantially and I could take a harvest about every month, but the idea is to leave it longer so the worms can and will produce more dark humus but if the bottom harvest tray contains very few worms I would better off to just take it , just my thoughts.
11otis
9 years ago
My thoughts are along with yours. By storing the vermicompost in a separate/holding container (not a worm bin), my VC did get darker and crumbly. I suspect that the clumps that were "pasty" contained more unfinished organic material and by "aging" it, MO continued doing their composting job. Hence I call it vermicompost and not vermicasting.
Had you left the worms in there, hoping for them to "finish" the process, they would be hard pressed finding food w/o directions.

Time it takes to add second tray... Worm Factory

hummersteve

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Time it takes to add second tray... Worm Factory

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