Can-O-Worms Quick And Easy Start-Up Guidelines

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Can-O-Worms Quick And Easy Start-Up Guidelines

Remove the binding straps and open up the plastic bags inside.
Place the coconut fiber “Bedding Block” brick in a bucket with about 5 quarts of water. Lukewarm water will work faster and feel better when you are ready to handle the fiber.
Put the five legs into the holes in the collector/base tray. A gentle tap will lock the legs in place. Next, hold the nut in place on the inside of the hole and screw the spigot from the outside in, until it is snug and pointing downward.
Place one of the three feeding trays on the collector/base tray. Lay 2 or 3 sheets of newspaper in the tray to cover the holes. (The instruction book suggests using the cardboard lid for this purpose, but we find that it traps too much moisture.) Now scoop the coconut fiber out of the bucket in handfuls, squeezing out excess moisture, so that the fiber is about as moist as a wrung-out sponge. You want the fiber to be damp, not wet.
Place your worms onto the surface of the coir fiber. They will quickly disappear under the surface of the bedding.
The bedding may reach the top of the inner ribs of the tray. Don’t be tempted to put on the next tray for a couple of months. The bedding in the 1st tray will settle and become more compacted over time. If you put the next tray on now the bedding in the 1st tray will settle to create a gap between the top of the bedding in the 1st tray and the bottom of the 2nd tray. (Worms are lousy jumpers!) The bedding in the lower tray MUST come in contact with the bottom of the next tray up to allow the worms to migrate up to the food in that tray.
Prepare some shredded newspaper. Place a small handful of kitchen waste in the tray and cover with the shredded newspaper and dampen. When you see the worms actively involved in the waste that you previously fed them then you can feed them more. DO NOT OVER FEED!!! Be sure to cover the exposed food in the uppermost tray with damp shredded newspaper. The worms will eventually consume the newspaper and turn it into castings. Simply replace the shredded paper as needed.
Open the spigot in the bottom collector/base tray and keep a small bucket under it. By keeping the spigot open at all times you can collect the valuable liquid “worm tea” that will leach through the compost while promoting the oxygen flow through the system.
When the upper tray is converted to a mixture of vermicompost and castings and it comes up to an inch above the inner ribs of the tray then it is time to add the next tray. Scrape up the inch of compost that is above the ribs and place that into the next tray making sure that the top of the bedding in the lower tray comes in complete contact with the bottom of the tray you are adding. Feed and cover with dampened shredded newspaper.
When the 3rd tray is full, remove and empty the bottom tray. This will become the new upper tray.
Periodically (every 3 months or so) inspect the bottom collector/base tray for worms and for clogging of the vent holes located at the top of the legs. Unclog by wiping castings off and rinsing with a hose over outdoor plants.
Do not pour water over your bedding. The design of the Can-O-Worms is such that the condensation from the decomposition process provides enough moisture for your system. If you want more “worm tea” simply take a cupful of castings from a lower tray and steep in a gallon of water overnight and use to water plants.