Urban Worm Bag Worm Composting Bin Version 2 for 2021 with Fully Removable Bottom - No Zippers on Bottom and No Need to Manually Sort Worms from Compost

I had seen this on a lot of American YouTubers videos and wasn't sure if it was sold in the UK but very much wanted one. I should have known that good old Amazon would have them. I was drawn to the idea of the simplicity of continuous flow worm farming and the compact design of the bag. I've been using a worm tower for about 18 months but found it a bit of a faff. Rotating the trays and the weight of the individual trays had become difficult due to health issues and took what seemed like forever to do to get castings plus the population of worms was increasing to the point that I had needed to use plastic storage boxes to house the overflow. After watching several worm farmers successfully use the worm bag and get good castings after a couple of months while never having to lift or move anything seemed like the perfect solution. I was surprised at how compact the box was when it arrived the day after ordering and on opening I was impressed at the quality of all the pieces. It comes with a helpful instruction booklet and there are many YouTube videos you can watch also on how to put together and use. It took me about 15 minutes to build on my own and although it's much bigger than a worm tower (about 4 times) it's still a compact design for a continuous flow system. I have mine in my conservatory as they are not suitable for outdoor UK weather but if you have a small house it would take up a lot of floor space and you might do better with a tower system. The worm bag has been running for a couple of weeks now and I'm really impressed with how easy it is to add bedding and scraps to. The worms seem to love it in there and make short work of whatever I add. I'm not expecting to get a usable harvest until next year and I have seen that a lot of people's first harvest can be full of unfinished stuff and worms but they just put most of it back in the top and the next harvest is proper castings because it is then running in top conditions with both microbial and worm activity in full swing. I'll finish off my waffling by saying that I would definitely recommend buying this wonderful piece of kit. It is well made and well thought out and I much more enjoy the process of creating goodness to add to my garden and allotment in this way. Top product!

I have kept worms for years and have had a bunch of different home made plastic bins. They worked well, but it kept coming to the one same problem. Collecting the castings and getting them free from worms or eggs. Plus keeping the castings 'alive' until I needed them. I tried various different things, but just got fed up with the problem of casting collection and holding, then I bought an Urban Worm Bag. Now, I don't need to collect castings until I'm ready for them, they stay moist and full of microbial activity, and the worms move away from the old casting as the bag fills. Yes, it takes some time before the bag fills enough to start extracting your vermicompost, but when you do, it's ready to use without effort or hassle. And do give it time, even if it takes you a year to get enough in the bag, it's better to wait, as that is how it is supposed to work. The first or second time you extract there will be the remains of the bulk bedding etc that you put in at the very start, this is normal, just feed it bact into the top of the bin again. Then you get to the bit you want - the ability to extract a microbial rich vermicompost, without worms (mostly), but still fresh and ready to use. There are some videos on YouTube from the Urban Worm Company on using the bag, it's worth watching them and learning all the details on how to assemble and use it, directly from the person who designed it. Certainly more expensive than a plastic box, but it solves the biggest issues that I had for years of keeping worms for making castings for my own garden.

Great product make your own vermicompost!!!!

-Facil de armar -Buena calidad en los materiales

Update 2021: I still love this thing. My worm population has grown substantially. The seam of my second bag split when I went to zip it up and while contemplating what to do next, the Facebook fan group said it was still under warranty. Amazing! I contacted Steve and he’s sending me the third version of the bag. In the meanwhile, I emptied my second bin (with much less worms as it takes that bin three or four times longer to process the same amount of food) into my first bin and now my first bin is full to the top. I’m thinking of leaving them there for maybe six months before splitting the bins again. When I emptied the bin, I put the contents into my first bin from the top, until I got to the layer that was more castings than bedding. I harvested two gallons of castings in this way. I normally harvest half a gallon from my first bin every three to six months (I started with only enough worms for a four gallon system). Worms are so expensive here in Hawai’i, there is no other item in my house that pays for itself like the Urban Worm Bag. While you can get away with not spending money on a worm bin, the time you save sifting castings is substantial and absolutely worth the time spent and strain on your body you mitigate. The volume of it considering is amazing, especially when you factor in the amount of space it uses. Let’s talk about Steve for a moment. Between his presence in the fan group, his blogs and YouTube channel, his quick response and excellent customer service, I can’t think of another owner that is so approachable, responsive and stands by his product. Considering that worm bins mitigate trash that could have ended up in a landfill and recycles valuable resources, I admire the guy quite a bit. On to practical advice. My little worm bins and my larger tote were all in plastic containers. The UWB is breathable cloth, so a new system (or a slow system, like my second bin that started with just 50 worms or so) is going to take some effort to maintain proper moisture. New bedding dried out faster than castings. I found my second bin would have dried spots of bedding in the corners, so I had to dig around and mix those spots frequently. My first bin got over the moisture issues much faster. This is the main reason I’m going to let my combined worms sit for several months before splitting. Feed in pockets and make sure to check the previous feeding sites (I feed using the clock to remember. 12, 3, 6 and 9). Feed when the previous site has a worm ball and the site before that is gone. Being cautious when feeding is important in a new bin, once the bin has been established (6-12 months), you can get more experimental. The bin should never smell anything but earthy. Any scents otherwise means you should cut back feeding. My worms were slaying their feedings, so I put a whole mini watermelon in there. Smelled awful in about a week. Only time that’s happened to me. I broke it apart and put some into my second bin and by the time I checked the following week, no smell. The first few harvests will contain worms. After that, it won’t. Just setting expectations. Why is this? You put bedding into the bin at first and it’s all at the same level of being processed. Worms wander around and leave cocoons. Those worms hatch and if the spot they’re at is moist enough, they’ll hang out. As the bedding is processed, you add another layer of fresh bedding with your food. Worms move up to follow the food. The higher layers are also larger and as they go down, they get compressed into a smaller area. So the layer you feed a few inches from the top will take a VERY long time to work it’s way to the bottom, unlike the first few harvests that started at the bottom. There just isn’t as much time for the worms to travel at first, but once the process starts, you’ll have worm free harvests. Especially if you open the bottom before you harvest and make sure it is running a little drier than the rest of the bin. I will absolutely buy a third one, at full price, once my other two are full. By that point, I’d be processing a LOT of produce and I’d probably be able to stop at three for my fruit loving household of four. Original 2019 review: I got my first worms two years ago. They are expensive here in Hawaii and illegal to import from out-of-state, so I got a handful from friends. I had visions of composting everything eventually, but my homemade tote was too big for the amount I had and other critters moved in. I scrapped that project and went down to a 1-gallon bucket. Easier to manage and I expanded to 3 buckets but harvesting was always a pain. I knew about CFTs and thought to make one myself. $30 for a sturdy enough garbage can, hopefully repurpose some pipes, but there's the time it takes, figuring out where to put it, when will I have time with two little kids.... Wheelie bins would have been ideal but ..... Anyway, as you can see, I've over thought the process for quite a while. And kicked myself for not jumping on the UWB2 when it was on sale for $89 on Prime day. Which is funny because there was an insane moment when I thought of getting the hungry bin two years ago. I think that's why I had it in my head to make my own. If I had known about the UWB, I would have thousands of worms already. So anyway, I ask Steve if he'll have another sale in a few weeks so I could be ready and he sent me a coupon. What a great guy. I bought it and it was so much bigger than I expected! So pleased! It was ridiculously easy to put together. In fact, turning it and pressing the joints in more over and over until they couldn't be pushed in anymore took longer than putting the pieces together. Also, I shred all the packaging to put in the worm bin, so no plastic waste. It's been going well. I live in a temperate area and I'm composting with blue worms. They're in the shade on my lanai. I followed the instructions for letting the moisture equalize for a couple of days before adding the worms, I Spritz the top every couple of days because the top bedding dries out in my location (did the same with the buckets, I don't get it since it's so humid here). I have no idea how hard or heavy it will be once there's castings to harvest, so I'll have to come back and edit once I've done that. But I'm looking forward to picking out as many worms as I do to harvest my little buckets. Oh, and this Prime Day (2019), it went down to $89 again PLUS an instant coupon. So, now I have two.

The big surprise is the size. It doesn’t look too big and then you put in 1000 worms and some bedding and it barely covers the bottom. It seems to breathe well so the whole thing doesn’t get manky.

Very well made and well worth thw money! I recommend the Urban Worm Bag to everyoneI know. It's a much better system Then the compartment bins. You add to the top and harvest from the bottom you never have to take it apart!

This is an outstanding system. I am so excited, the system exceeded my expectations. As a woman who is not very handy, I love the fact that the stand to hang the bag came with it. Similar systems require you to get materials and build your own base. I could probably figure it out, but I honestly think I would have needed to use a relative to cut PVC pipe for me at the very least. The UWB has a sturdy steel frame which looks like it will definitely be able to handle the weight which will inevitably be 100 pounds plus when full. Oh, and set-up took me less than 15 minutes. Super-simple and the instruction pamphlet had a great breakdown. The capacity on this bin is by far the largest I have at the moment. I have used the Worm Factory with 8 trays working and it was still much smaller than what this is going to be able to handle. Height-wise, it is taller and I don’t need to bend over nearly as much to feed. The moisture control seems bar-none the best I have had with any of my systems (Rubbermaid totes, or the Worm Factory 360). It shocked me that a bag which almost felt plasticy on the inside could breathe so well. I was definitely wary of the zippered bottom, in theory it sounded great but I felt that inevitably this zipper would break and fall off. I now feel like this is certainly not the case. I intentionally put some castings into the zipper and it still worked. I think maybe an old toothbrush would solve any problem if you get castings in the zipper. The zippered top is sleek (as far as worm bins go) and the logo is really cute. This could easily be slid behind a chair in a living room or a corner of the kitchen or bedroom and no one would know what it was. I fed a TON of fruit scraps the first 2 weeks I had the UWB. If I do this with my regular bins I usually end up with fruit flies. I didn’t bury the scraps deep at all and I felt certain when I unzipped the bag I was going to be swarmed. Nope. Not a single fruit fly. The zipper slides snugly into the canvas seam making the ability for worms to get out or bugs to get in nearly impossible. The customer service with this company is bar-none. I have reached out for advice on multiple questions and they respond very quickly and stand behind the product. If I ever have a problem I feel confident they would remedy it. I highly recommend this to anyone, it would make a great starter bin or even a bin to just “add to the collection”. I can’t wait to continue tracking this bin until harvest! This was my 2nd purchase of the bin. I might have a new obsession. Emily