this may be blasphemous on this forum, but i don't bother separating my worms from castings. i just use my little garden shovel (i guess i do try to avoid the worms a bit - esp if they are densely packed in), scoop out castings, and toss into my garden beds or lawn. i notice that there are always some worms and eggs lost, but the population always seems to recover.

and the robins get a nice feast from it.

Instead of coaxing them up (impossible to get all of them to co-operate) try to coax them down. This is a good summer harvesting method. It works best with your worm tower on a sunny patio but will work indoors but not as enjoyable.

Step 1, take the tray you want to harvest compost from and put it on top with the lid off.

Step 2, scrape a layer of compost off the top (3 prong garden trowel works well if you don't want to get your hands dirty). The worms will go down to escape the light.

Step 3, go away and mix yourself a drink (margaritas work well but any mixed drink will likely give you enough time) and then come back to scrape another layer off the top.

Step 4, repeat the process from step 2 much as necessary until you have all your worms migrated down into the tier below. You have now successfully separated worms from compost.

Cautions. First, this method does not separate out any cocoons from the compost, that will need to be done manually if you want to but if you have a 5 tiered bin going full speed it may not matter much. Second, depending on how many times you need to repeat from step 2 you may care less and less about what you wanted to harvest the compost for in the first place.

Have fun.

I think Ron's got the right idea, esp if your VC is really wet. 2 points. There has to be a lot of light on the top tray, and the babies take a lot longer to move than the adults. If you've got LOTS of babies, you may only be able to scrape off a thin layer of compost each time you take some. Fluff it up every once in a while to encourage drying and allow the noxious sunlight to get a little lower down in to the tray and hurry the worms along.

One woman did this and put her 'finished' tray on top of a working tray. The next morning, she had more worms than ever in her 'finished' tray. The worms had moved up.

To avoid that, have the tray just below the finished tray have only bedding and food, no (or few) worms. It needs to be a place the worms are willing to go to, but not have lots of worms that will also want to come back up. As the amount of VC on the top gets thinner and thinner, the worms won't have much choice but to go down.

You'll never get all of the babies out. The only way I know of to get most of them out is let the finished, 'worm free' VC to sit for a month or three. This allows the cocoons to hatch (is that the right word?) and the babies to grow to a size that's more reasonable to pick out without having any adults laying more cocoons in the mean time. Then you can either try the light method again or put a slice of melon rind on the top of the VC, wait until they congregate there, and scoop of that portion of VC with the worms. They need to be big enough to be able to move effectively. Just don't wait so long that they become sexually mature and start depositing more cocoons.

According to the experts, it can take 30-75 days for the babies to emerge from the cocoons and 53-76 days for the worms to become sexually mature after they emerge. Many of your cocoons will take a lot less than the 30 days to hatch as they were deposited a while ago.

It sounds like you are ready for the vermicompost, but is it ready for you? If the worms really love it there, it makes me wonder why. Is there still good food for them down there? When was the last time that tray was fed? Was it at least a couple months ago?

You mentioned that you tried feeding only in the trays above. With a stacking tray system, shouldn't you only be feeding in the topmost tray all the time?

From my understanding the worms will likely continue to work all the tiers for a long time. Finished compost should contain a lot of the microbes that they like to eat so they can last down there longer than most people have patience for.

Don't think that there is any harm in using that lower tray now but the longer you let them work it the more uniform finished compost you'll have.

If you're looking at having a large volume of compost available each growing season maybe the Gusitano is too small for your needs. I use a Worm Factory (I think it's about the same size) and the trays are pretty small. Sounds like you have a farm ... do you have space for a larger scale worm bin? Maybe set up a large outdoor bin and use your Gusitano for populating it.

Thanks for all the input, everyone. I'll try reversing the direction tomorrow. Yeah, I do wish there was room for a bigger operation but at the moment we are renters, and the front and back yards are cement slabs as it is. We rent a community garden plot on an old organic farm. Anyone know someone giving away land in Oregon? ; )

Moonlocks, it has been about 2 months since the bottom tray was fed. And I have seen others feed only the top tray, and have been jealous. For some reason I got instructed to feed whatever bins the worms are in, or the trays just above. It is a pain to figure out where/how to stack the topmost bins while I get to the lower ones... I used to prop them on a big plastic bin, but the edges began to crack with the weight. So can someone demystify this for me? Is it the topmost tray that most people feed?

I have 3 can'o'worms, and only feed the topmost tray of each, adding another tray on top only as the castings reach a certain point marked on the inside of the tray. My worms are very happy like this. I think you're giving yourself a lot of extra work moving trays around, and you are prolonging the time until the trays are ready, by adding fresh food. Once you've added another on top, I'd leave all the lower ones alone until they are ready to harvest.

Moonlocks, thank you! I am in the midst of doing exactly that, in part by intuition once everything else is underway. I have a "bedding only" tray with weedcloth at the bottom, directly under the one I want to retrieve the compost from. Then I am putting the rest of my partially-finished trays in the middle and will just feed the topmost bin from here on out. I always wondered why directions never specified for multi-tiered bins, now I know. Thanks for your help and I hope the worms will forgive me!!

If you're up to the challenge of a little maintenance, the middle tiers where you have partially composted material will eventually be reduced in volume as the worms process it and as the moisture leaves. Depending on how much it reduces you may be able to consolidate some of these tiers in a month or two.

I'd keep an eye on it anyway, as the volume of material in these tiers starts to reduce, you may loose contact between the tiers and the worms may not be able to migrate upward.

auntverm, what's the purpose of the bedding only tray at the bottom? It seems like a waste of a tray to me, but I don't have a system like that. I have a home made stacking system. I do put some bedding in the bottom bin (the one that catches any leachate) so worms going down won't dessicate, but I pull them out every so often and put them back in a working bin. I haven't had anyone exploring the very bottom in a long time. Basically, they went down only in the very beginning and when I overheated the bin.

Auntverm,

You should only be feeding in your top tray. Force the worms to come to the food. Leaving the bottom tray for a few months will allow time for all the eggs to hatch and the baby worms to move up also. If you are in a big rush to get the compost I think i saw someone suggest putting the "most composted" try on top and use the light harvesting method to push the remaining worms down.

I think moonlocks is correct in saying the worms are there cause the compost isn't quite finished yet. You should leave that tray at the bottom and give them time. They know how to find more food.

Did you ever get the moisture issues under control? Have you tried pulling all your trays out and turning the tower as I suggested earlier? I am not sure if it is because I live in a fairly humid area but I noticed a huge difference in the quality of my castings since I made that slight change to my worm factory.