Sorry for the confusion and thanks everyone for the advice. To clear it up, I was just trying to figure out how much soil to buy and a recommendation. I am new but learning more everyday especially from this forum. For example I wanted to know how much soil to purchase for aprox (10) plants using 5 gallons as an (example measure.) 5 plants will be in ground and I am planting the other 5 in containers or container bags.... I think I will go the container bag route (Any recommendation on Container bag brand and size for tomatoes and peppers?)..... I am aware that 5 gallon gallon containers are pushing it for tomatoes/peppers so I may get a 7 gallon bag or 10 gallon if that is not to big for tomatoes. My initial confusion was when I saw some soil advertised by cubic ft and some by the pound, but I do know now from the above responses. I also did not know that the weight of the soil played a factor on the soil moisture content as said above. Last year I was told to dig a whole and pour soil in it to help with the plant and top it with mulch. So I dug 4 holes about 12x14 and poured soil in it. The 4 plants only produced about 35 "early goliath" tomatoes about tennis ball size so I new something was wrong, I did not use anything else. For my soil, I think it could be good, I just never tested it the location is based between Philadelphia and Princeton and there tons of tomato farms in the area so I guess it couldn't be bad. So now I know not to grow organic in containers with organic soil but rather soil-less mixture? and with that said any organic soil-less mixture should fair well in containers. I hope this clears it up and I thanks everyone again for their help. And for my last question which I am still confused about has to do with..... what fertilizer to add to the soil for the plants that I just put in the ground with it's existing soil? ......and what type of fertilizer to use for the plants I grow in the containers with a soil-less potting mix? Sorry if I confused you again. And I really appreciate everyones advice and patience in answering. -Mr Beno

cathd66, I didn't forget to factor in the hatching time or the growing time when I did my originial calculations. I even figured these times at the high end of the average times. lkittle, I understand what you are saying about the coating being counted as part of the weight. But, since these cocoons are sold by the 1000 count, I don't see that coating (or no coating) would factor in; unless the coating would hinder the hatch or increase the time needed for hatch. Worms or cocoons to start with... they each seem to have their pros and their cons. And, checking the pros against the cons has yet to help me make up my mind which way I want to start. I would like to have some worms to fish with around the last of April or first of May. But, my life won't end if I don't have them! After careful cogitation about the subject, I am seriously considering buying a pound of EN worms and 1000 EN cocoons! That way, I can kind of have my cake and eat it too!! If I go this route, would you suggest putting them all in the same bin? Or, would you suggest putting worms in one bin and cocoons in another? I guess that I could put each in their own bin... kind of as an experiment. That way, I could see which way works out best, huh?? Thanks again for all of your input! Robert

I paid $40 for 2 pounds from gardenworms.com. They came from Uncle Jim's. It appears this farm has a good reputation, so maybe my experience was isolated. Anyway, here it is: I bought the worms online and was told they had shipped. Oddly enough, I didn't get the worms for 2 weeks after I was told they had shipped in an automated e-mail (or at least I think it was automated). That is a total of 3 weeks. I don't count the first week because I know that it is a standard to ship only at the beginning of the week due to postal concerns of leaving a package on a truck on the weekend. But, for this reason, I also actually expected a longer time before shipping because Thanksgiving was a week after I placed the order. Surely if they were concerned about Sunday they would be concerned about a non-delivery Thursday, too. Either the post office screwed up or they screwed up and told me the worms shipped when they didn't. Don't know. My problem wasn't delivery time, though. My problem was that I e-mailed them twice and got no response. Then after the beginning of the second week I called and spoke to one of them. Maybe he was having an off day, but he had a bad attitude. He said, "Well, you did order them right before a holiday." So am I to assume they prefer not to get orders before holidays? Fine. Blame the customer. Anyway, the worms arrived weighing in at 1 pound with the bedding, which was nearly completely dry peat. I realize that worms lose weight in transit, but come on. Uncle Jim's does have guarantees, however I didn't take advantage of it because the incredibly skinny worms were alive and I couldn't be sure if it was the worm farm's fault as the post office is developing a bad reputation that is sending everyone to private delivery services daily. I just vowed to take my business elsewhere in the future. I plan to buy a couple pounds of Euros from Redwormcomposting.com for a different system for bait. If anyone has a good or bad review on him, please share. Here is a link that might be useful: Redwormcomposting.com

Ok, Patti, pour yourself a nice, tall glass of iced tea, take a deep breath and relax! Your questions are certainly not stupid, you have done nothing wrong with your bin, and it sounds as though you have some excellent resources for use in the system. All is well! First, you need to know that while straw may not be the first most favorite bedding of many vermicomposters, it is by no means a poor bedding choice. That you used straw mixed with paper means that, regardless of what any of us think of straw, it is most likely that the environment you've created in the bin will be wonderful from the worm perspective, and it is their opinion that matters most. It was not a mistake to use the straw, regardless of whether or not it was chopped. Some folks prefer materials other than straw simply because straw takes longer to break down than many of the other bedding options, thus, you may find bits of it in your "finished" material. This is the biggest challenge associated with the stuff, however, and if this is the worst thing you ever have to deal with you are cerainly in very good shape! ::grin:: On the upside, the fact that straw will tend to hang around longer than most other bedding options means that it will remain in the system after all other materials have been fragmented into very small pieces, aiding in keeping channels open for good oxygen penetration. The take home message in this is that straw, as with all bedding materials, comes with some drawbacks and some advantages, but it is generally considered a good bedding option and is used successfully in many home vermicomposting systems. You're in good shape! As to feeding your worms, begin small and work up based on worm activity. Consider burying about a cup of food scraps (be sure to include some moist, succulent veggie and fruit peals) in the bedding, making sure the scraps of completely buried, and check this pocket of scraps daily to see when the worms move in to begin feeding. Once they've become active in the first addition of food scraps, bury another cup or so of scraps in the bedding, adjacent to the first addition. Check this new addition of scraps daily to see when the worms move in. When they move in to the second addition of food scraps, add another adjacent to it, and keep checking. The previous addition of food does not need to be completely finished before adding more, there simply needs to be several worms active in and/or around it. Feeding in this way means you are feeding based on worm activity, and ensures you are adding sufficient material to keep them well fed and comfortable with breeding, but not so much that the bin envionment can become overly wet (due to the high moisture content of food scraps) and unpleasant. As to ants, it is only fire ants about which we need to be concerned in North America, and we do not have fire ants here in the PNW (I live in southwestern WA state). Few ant species anywhere in the world are predators of earthworms and none of our Northwest species are problematic in the bin at all. The presence of ants in the soaked leaves should NOT discourage you from using those leaves, which tend to have many advantages in a worm bin. Add the leaves! You'll be glad you did! It sounds as though you're doing just fine with your bin. Mix some of those lovely wetted leaves in as a part of the bedding, add some food, and don't be afraid to check on the progress of the worms, despite the cautions agains "disturbing the worms" that you might read on other web sites. These worm species are incredibly tolerant of disruption to their environment, and a system functions far more effectively when the humans involved are comforatable with observing and interacting with the bin environment. This is really is a simple system to manage, Patti, and it sounds as though you've started things off very well. You and your daughter are going to love it; trust me! Kelly S