18 gallons is about 2.5 cu ft. Ground up forest products (trees) is considerably different than conifer bark of the same size, and 'rich/dark' more often than not offers problems, rather than benefits when it comes to container media. While I'd stop short of saying it probably won't work well, I'll say that the odds are probably not good, but then you never know until you try. I would suggest getting some of this mulch and trying it in a soil you think might be appropriate for containers (soon) so you have an idea if it will work next year. If it doesn't appear as though it's going to work, you could leisurely inquire about other soil ingredients over the winter. What would you be using the granite sand/decomposed granite for? - for nutrients or as part of a soil's structure? Al

in this setting.. they are NOT talking about bagged compost.. aka manure ... this composted product is useless for this job .... they are talking about what is freshly scooped out of the barn which is high in urea [which is the old fashioned basis of high nitro fert . the NATURAL version... rather then the chem version] .... it comes out of a different part of the animal ... lol ... it is the raw product ... and by the time you get it delivered ... cost might be prohibitive ... in the alternative.... a high N fert would be 49-0-0 .... sold in places like tractor supply.. or any high end nursery ... but even that.. the key to rotting wood.. is water ... the nitro is barely relevant ... if you cant keep the wood wet ... in my sand.... it can take a decade... for a stump to rot naturally ... on 5 acres... i have no hurry on removal ... but have added the nitro to huge wood chips piles.. to speed decomposition ... the problem with my sand.. is that it is bone dry for about half of the year.. when it isnt frozen solid in MI ... in other words.. my rotting season is short ... i kill ALL my stumps with generic RU ... but you dont want to hear about that ... i think it is speculative to try to kill a tree with the nitro .. not saying it cant be done... but i dont know how it can be accomplished ... many suggest a trees root system is twice as large as what you see above ... and if thats the case ... one might ask ... where is the best place to apply such ... and what you will end up doing to the soil if in fact you do kill the tree ... it MIGHT end up.. a scorched earth ... think romans and carthage ... [boy thats obscure.. lol] all that said.. we also dont know what tree ... if its a suckering tree ... juicing it with fert.. might only result in you ending up with hundreds of them... all over the place ... your base problem.. is not that you want to save money ... in my reading.. the issue is you want it done FAST .. and wood simply.. does NOT ... rot fast ... no matter what you do ... to speed wood rotting.. you chip it into the smallest possible format... thereby increasing surface area ... and you dont want to do that ... many answers here are extremely optimistic .... IMHO .... again.. in my sand.. i would say... 7 to 15 years ... at least ... and the harder the wood.. the longer it takes ... i have no idea.. why you posted this in a design forum .... you might want to try other forums .... good luck

hey mike.. i could never get away with that in my sandy soil ... in MI the rotting wood leaches all available moisture from the near sand... and they become so dry by about this time of year ... they arent even rotting ... unless they are dry rotting ... most of the rotting in my MI ... is spring and fall when there is ambient moisture ... i could never grow anything.. IN the stump ... unless i was willing to water it every single day ... [again ... big garden vs small garden dilemma] trees i cut when i moved here 14 years ago ... are just to the point of rotting to the point where i can kick off the exposed part ..... with 5 months of ground freeze .. and the dryness of july/august ... thats not a lot of rot months per year ... comparing to mike in the PNW ... i am often amazed at how different it all is ... heck.. up the UP of MI ... there are still stumps from the clear cut at the turn of the 20th century ... 1900s ... and they are colder than i am ... but they have the same sand that i have 350 miles south .... thank you mr glacier .... [ever wonder about the global warming.. that made the glaciers recede 10,000 years ago ... one thing for sure.. it wasnt my fault] but i digress ken

"Umm... Other then taking offense at another's viewpoint, Chuck, are you saying that..." Well, no offense was taken at anyone's viewpoint.....just providing observations I've learned while not suffocating one single worm in an extremely educational couple of decades of study of this tool for a better way of doing things. Umm, your questions' responses: 1. what restrictive airflow? 2. the diff's in airflow quantities is immeasurable in worm bins with relation to vermicastings quality. 3. No, I am a guy WHO is appreciative of the qualities composting worms present to those of us WHO wanna do these things without chemicals. I can spray worm tea, or spread VC all over my property every day of the year without having to lock up the pets and children for a period of time, or make certain that chemical residues don't run off into the sewer systems and into the water supplies of the people in my neighborhood who probably neglect those warnings on all those insecticides and pesticides and fertilizers and chemical products that are, of course designed to cause the user of them to buy another of their chemical products to rectify the damage the previous chemo treatment wreaked upon their weed infestation or lawngrass shortcomings. You're "baited breath" tease lured me right into the "taking offense trap", huh? I had kinda forgotten the often tempestuous undercurrent of forum activity, which was my main reason for getting away from it before, so I'll return to my inactive status now. Keep worming! Chuckiebtoo