Although I love the design of the VermBin’s the items I use in my worm bins are too bulky to be able to produce the quality of casting I want to sell. If I had the space and the room I would have all Urban Worm Bags (UWB) and the wooden boxes.

In the picture you can see I have 3 UWB and one VermBin24. The VermBin24 is actually 4 inches higher than the plans stated as I goofed on measurements on building it, the 4 inch extra height makes running this one easier and the casting are the same quality from the UWB.

It has taken me 3 years of running the various VermBins to see that the very bulky materials I use don’t work too well in these. I traded 2 VermBin48’s and the 3rd one I dismantled. I still like the design and if you can have these inside they will work well.

I will be able to design a “insulation box” to fit around these for the upcoming winter using materials from the dismantled VermBin48.

Restaurant type bus pans are the perfect size for me to use as breeder bins.  The premise of breeder bins is to place a specified number of worms in each tray in a specific bedding mix and run those bins for a specific time.

Yeah, yeah I know very non-informative info.   I can’t share how many worms because I don’t know exactly. My hand is small and I like to put 2 handfuls of red wigglers in each pan. So, going out on a limb here I would say roughly 3/4 a pound of adults.

If I run the trays for 3 weeks I can average 80 to 100 cocoons every 3 weeks IF (and only IF I run it wetter than a normal bin) that’s PER pan.  I don’t like dealing with the stinky mess so I run them a little drier and average 150 cocoons in 3 pans combined.

NOW…for what I use in those pans:

1 scoop of mulched leaves and wood chips

1 scoop of soaked rabbit manure (2 hrs minimum)

1 scoop of wet shredded cardboard

1.5 scoops of the sifted 1/4 inch remains from previous bin minus the cocoons (just starting out? then use a couple of handfuls from n established bin)

Layer in that order, then add a 2 inch layer of dry leaves on top.  Using a 1 gallon sprayer mist the top UNDER the dry leaves once per week or as needed….don’t be shy stick a finger down inside every 2 days UNTIL you know exactly when the pans need to be watered.  If you run them wetter you just have a mucky mess (with extra cocoons) at the end of the 3 weeks.

**Note: your results will vary based on your inputs in your breeder bins.**

No pictures…..But this bag is exceeding all of my expectations.  The population is thriving and growing !!  Remember I only started this with 1/4 lb of bed run worms, around 100 cocoons and 3 lbs of current bedding material.

I feed all of my bins every 2 weeks and this is the only bin I DO NOT have to water.

When I unzip the lid the top is so nicely moist (fingers/hand testing along with visual…and it isn’t too wet down below either!!)  I add veggie/fruit scraps (about 1.5 cups ) then top with wet shredded cardboard completely covering the top.  I then add my precomposted rabbit manure with hay, used coffee grounds and aged grass clippings and gently spread it over the cardboard.  For the top layer I add the mixture of dry mulched leaves and wood chips completely covering the other layer.

Because it is staying so moist on the inside and with the addition of the precomposted matter which may contain a few BSFL (black soldier fly larvae) I am now leaving the zipper undone on the top closing corner about 5 inches with a small gap so if some of the BSFL hatches they can escape to go find the precomposting area.

I was so discouraged when these guys showed up in my CFT’s this past year but basically because they out competed my red wigglers for the food, they generated too much heat while feeding and caused 2 of my CFT’s to virtually collapse in various sections.

I use a lot of rabbit manure in my bins, my rabbits provide close to 10 gallons of manure weekly.  Earlier this year I was able to make a great contact and to start getting close to 5 gallons of coffee grounds every other week…but this lead to too much heat being generated in the CFT’s with the addition of all the coffee grounds, rabbit anure with hay mixed in…… so I was forced to start pre-composting.

This led to a even better feeding system for me actually….so instead of carting numerous 5 gallon buckets of feedstock I now only have 2- five gallon buckets and my handy wheeled cart full of wet shredded cardboard !!

My process begins on a Sunday….. I will layer used coffee grounds, rabbit manure with hay and aged grass clippings and water each layer.  I was adding a mulched leaf/wood chip mixture but I stopped that and just add that directly to the bin. I let that sit covered for about 5 days, then go and flip it around and water if needed.  The next Sunday the mixture is ready to be pulled and harvested down.

I shovel the entire mixture evenly into concrete mixing trays and sit them in the sun… the BSFL will dive down so all you have to do is scrape the mixture off (wear gloves!) until you are left with mostly the BSFL which you then transfer into the new material.  I do spend a few hours doing this as I have 6 CFT’s to feed.

 Here is what you end up with to feed the worms.  A wet mucky mess that they love that is mostly BSFL free.  This is a lot of BSFL frass mixed with partially broken down rabbit manure.  I don’t worry too much about a few getting into the bins but definitely don’t want as many as seen here This was just one tub, the one beside it had a lot more, but they were happy to be placed back into a new section of food.

Hi everyone…. I feed all my CFT’s every 2 weeks so it was time to add more material to this Urban Worm Bag (UWB) so far I have to say I am loving these bags a lot !!  They are maintaining the perfect moisture especially considering where I have it located on my front porch and it get the morning sun on part of it it until about 11 am.

This is what it looked like when I first unzipped the bag.  The top was a little dry.

  I reached in and flipped to see what the moisture was and WOW this bag maintains great moisture.  I settled the material back down.  I also checked to see if I had more worms and it appeared that  a lot of the cocoons had hatched.

I gave the top a good misting of water and then started adding my feed stock and bedding.

Feed stock this week was:

1 cup of coffee grounds

1/2 cup veggie/fruit scraps

2 cups of dry rabbit manure with hay mixed in

about half a gallon wet shredded cardboard

Topped off with half a gallon of wood chips and mulched leaves with another misting of water.

** NOTE:  no leachate has dripped from this bag from starting it, moisture levels are maintaining perfect each week with the combo of dry and wet/damp materials being added.  Minimal water is added every week. **

It has been a week since I started up the Urban Worm Bag with one of my worm starter mixes so here are my observations:

When I unzipped the bag you could tell the top had dried out…that tells me it has really great air flow coming in from the zippered top.

I then reached in about 2 inches down on the side with my bare hand to test the moistness… ohhhh it was Perfect !!

As you can see above I gently flipped it so you could see the moistness and then gently flipped it back.  I gave the top a light watering and closed it back up.

Next week I will flip more over looking to see if any of the cocoons have hatched and check the health of the worms…till next week then 🙂

Step by step picture tutorial in setting up my Urban Worm Bag (UWB) with one of my  Worm Starter Mixes (WSM).  I will add new pictures and status updates as it progresses.  UWB started on 5/6/2018

I first found a place to put the UWB on the front porch beside 2 of the VermBin48’s.  There is a base that will be attached to it with wheels so I can bring it inside during the winter.

Top opened showing inside bag

Shredded cardboard in a bucket soaking in water.  I used 2 gallons of shredded cardboard.  I let that sit while I gathered up the rest of my materials.  Then I drained the water off… I did not wring the extra water as I was using some dry materials and I wanted the extra moisture.

I then added some of the cardboard in the bottom of the bag, just a good handful tossed in there. 

Next I added some of the bedding material from the WSM (worm starter mix).  Just sprinkled it on.  I did 3 layers of cardboard and WSM bedding.

Remember the cardboard is wet and the WSM bedding is damp so I next topped that off with a good handful of dry aged grass.

Next I had about a cup and a half of apple peels, apple core, a small tangerine peel and a small banana that I wanted to add

I sprinkled that around on top of the dry grass layer

The I added another layer of dry grass on top of that

I finished that off with the rest of the WSM bedding 

I next added the worms and cocoons that were in the WSM to the top… I just sprinkled it out on top… You can dump the bag right on top if you prefer.

** WSM only has 1/4 lb of worms and over 100 cocoons,  I was told to start with 5 lbs of worms IF you are an experienced vermicomposter OR 2 lbs of worms if you are a beginner… As much as I love the UWB I feel the cost of the bag and also the cost of the worms will deter people from starting to vermicompost….. THIS is why I am starting mine with one of my Worm Starter Mixes as I want to see how productive it can be by doing it this way ***

My final steps were to add a layer of mulched leaves with some wood chips to the top (my preference) and then to give the top a spray of water  (not a lot, just a good misting) as this was very dry material.

Here is a list of items I used:

• 2 gallons of wet shredded cardboard
• 1/2 gallon of dry aged grass clippings (substitutes dry cardboard, dry newspaper, dry leaves…the key is some dry material here)
• 1.5 cups of food scraps (tip..use apple core and peels along with banana peels to tempt the cocoons to hatch)
• 1/2 gallon of mulched leaves and wood chips (my preference, you can substitute with any of the above items or not add at all)
• My worm starter mix (1/4 lb of worms, 100+ cocoons and 3 lbs of current 1/4 inch screened bedding from a current active bin)

The picture isn’t too clear and the big pile amount will vary based on the type of bin you are sitting up when you tell me……However, the big pile is 1/4 inch screened material from a already thriving and existing bin and I always pull from the oldest bin so you are getting a great set of vermicompost.  That means you can definitely use some of the bulk material in your garden, flower beds or even your house plants.

If you are buying this and I am shipping this to you, I will fill the bag as full as I can get in the shipping box and I keep the worms and cocoons separate so you can see exactly what you are getting.  There will also  be (as I can’t get them all out) some worms and cocoons in the existing bedding material.  Which is a plus for you..

Typed instructions are included to help guide you.

You get 1/4 lb of bed run worms from the bin I pull the worms from, over 100 cocoons in varying hatch stages and up to 4 pounds of 1/4 inch screened bedding material.

The bins these are pulled from are given the following items…shredded cardboard, mulched leaves, wood chips and a small amount of rabbit manure (that disappears fast).  So, from my experience in doing this the 1/4 inch screened material is small particles of leaves, wood chips and the magic ingredient of worm castings.  The rabbit manure goes away in less than a week once I set up these bins to sell from.  You will not be getting any rabbit manure as the worms have already processed it and turned it into castings (their poop).

*Disclaimer…. I usually weigh the worms out at 5 oz for local sales and 6 oz for mailing.

I posted about starting a wedge in my cinder block beds and I have to report that as a castings producer it was a total fail as there were too many root tendrils infiltrated into the castings…HOWEVER… it was great for producing more worms to sell.

The remnants that was left behind was used to fill up low spots and/or holes in my yard.  And all those cinder blocks will be utilized to create raised garden beds for me to grow more stuff in…lol

Wedges are a great way to produce castings but as I was able to see having them in contact with the ground and not on a concrete slab or hard pan is not a viable option.

I do have another way to do a wedge system (no pictures, sorry).

I took a open top 55 gallon drum, split it lengthwise, cut the open end off and overlapped the two ends and bolted them together, which created a long trough type bin.  Drilled a lot of 1/8 holes for added airflow and used a piece of PVC to hold the middle open.  I did this with 2 barrels that someone was going to throw away.. (FREE and with a little imagination new worm bins)

I usually start both of these up around the first of November and let them run until the sometime in March.  I have these under my house and the heat pump is under there so it stays moderately warm under there through the winter… Both bins are harvested in March and usually produce up to 80 gallons of castings.

Worm starter kits are a great way to jump start your vermicomposting adventure.

Instead of getting a pound of worms shipped in coco coir or peat moss you are getting worms  encased in material from an already well established and thriving bin.   Also you are getting a bed run of worms which is a mixture of adults, juveniles and babies with an abundance of cocoons.  The cocoons are one of the most important part of this starter mix as there is the potential of 3 babies emerging from each cocoon, therefore they are hatching out in YOUR bin environment which allows for an even greater success.

The bin that the worms and cocoons are coming from will be from an environment the worms have been thriving in for months.  Each bin that I start up will run for approximately 4 months.  I then harvest that bin for the castings, take the 1/4 inch material from screening and the worms and place back into another bin to start the process over again.