® Plus US Made 5 – Tray Worm Composter -Forest Green,Sustainable Design for Both Indoor & Outdoor, Worm Compost Bin for Vermicomposting Starter, Recycling Food Wastes

Wanted to try my hand at this and took a chance on this item. Upon arrival, the bottom liquid catching part had a massive crack due to shipping and was unusable. I contacted Vermitek directly and they responded within 24 hours that a new part will be shipped and arrive within the week. It was and now we have everything setup.It was an easy set up for the most part. The instructions were a little confusing due to diagram and all items included were not labeled on instructions. There were bonus items I'm still not sure of their purpose. However, it was genuinely nice they included these hidden surprises. The one design opportunity I think is the bottom tray and guard board do not have a more secure lock in to each other and the bottom feeding tray. I think some sort of tray guard rail would help instead of being flush.While there are cheaper variants out there, I decided to buy this one as it appears to be a legitimate business attempt at a product and not a knockoff trying to cash in.The value has been great overall and the customer support was fantastic. The size is suitable for a small operation with opportunity to grow. I would definitely recommend.

My first worm-bin traveled through several moves but died a tragic death in the late 1990s when mice chewed their way in and feasted on my hard-working worms, so I'd been leery of keeping one in the cellar ever since. We started this one at room-temperature in a seldom-used space with mixed worm species from a local professional supplier (worm castings are big with the marijuana trade) and they'd multiplied happily, but they needed to move to our cellar and I was fearful that the mice or the cold would put an end to them. There's probably a little heat from normal composting processes, however, and it turns out that mice can't crawl upside down so I moved a stack of four trays onto a 40" square of 3/4" plywood on top of sturdy former router table table (and out of jumping distance from nearby climbables) and everyone is doing great. There must be 3 or 4 pounds of worms now and even when it's under 50°F they go through a couple pounds a week of well-vetted scrapings, rinds, too-spotty veggies and fruit.The worms can only process so much shredded corrugated, b&w newspaper, and other "browns", however, and this design produces more liquid than models with more aeration, so another advantage of the 40"x40" plywood square is that I can position a container under the tap and tip the square with the bins on top of it to empty the bottom reservoir weekly (which is a nice bonus for the houseplant forest, too!). Moisture is also an issue when the bottom bin of castings is ready to "harvest", so you'll need to do some air- and/or sun-drying, but that's all part of the worm-husbandry fun, right?The bins are sturdy and fit together well. The coconut-fibre top pad won't last long but the worms don't seem to need it. They'll thrive as long as the human factor is consistent and considerate! No onions, no potatoes, and nothing too watery... and the worms are happy and remarkably odorless.

The picture gives the impression that each tray sits equidistant from the bottom of the one beneath it, as if they lock in place. This is not the case.Each tray sits pressed directly against the compost in the tray below it. No trays lock in place. The tower could easily be knocked over and fall apart by a person or big animal. I keep a broken cinder block piece on the lid to discourage this possibilityWorms do escape at night (I find them dead in the ant traps around the feet, and sometimes I see them noodling out in the day before trying to squeeze back in). They aren't escaping en masse but a few every day is going to add up.This is also problematic because I had planned to take them indoors when it gets super hot in summer. If I do that, I'll have to worry about worms exploring my house. 😔All that said, the price is pretty good compared to some other models, it came with a couple unlisted extras including a little hand rake and a nice coir mat for the bottom tray (the instructions suggested using cardboard but the coir mat is perfect), and the overall design makes sense (though perhaps not optimal for my summer needs).

My daughters and I have really enjoyed growing worms haha