Getting oxygen to all parts of the bin is one of the main goals. I agree with "try and create structure in the bed with food and bedding." Not wanting to feed my worms every day or even every week is why I often use unprocessed food that will slowly break down. A commercial operation would probably want to take the time to process the food and feed daily.

The problem with trying to create structure is that the bulky stuff you use to bed and feed the worms will eventually break down, and then the structure is gone. When there was a commercial composting forum, they would talk about bulking agents--non-decomposable materials you would add to the pile to create air spaces. The bulking agents would be screened out of the finished compost and reused in another pile. Shredded tires were often used.

One of the reasons I like shredded cardboard as bedding is that it does not clump. So, yes, I do think there is something to building structure.

Airation and what equineox said about time buffering of non-processed food is reason enough not to process. Besides that, I have better things for my time than doing unnessary chores.

I chop my food and freeze. The past couple of times, I've processed the food to a slurry and fed it that way.

It's more an experiment, to see if they eat it quicker.
I don't mind feeding them every few days, and we always have food to feed them! I get tired of chopping and freezing, when I can chop and blend and feed right away.

I will see if it gets to be a wetter bin and if they are unhappy.

edited to say that maybe "slurry" isn't accurate. I don't add water, I just use my processor until things are very finely ground, and any moisture is created with whatever food I'm grinding. e.g. banana peels.

This post was edited by jasdip on Tue, May 6, 14 at 13:27

I use newspaper and corrugated cardboard for bedding in my euro bin. I have been successful for several months in not religiously adding bedding when I feed. Instead, I freeze and then puree the food and place it on a small paper plate suitable to the size of the bin. Then I loosely cover the bin with a sheet of black garbage bag material. The worms come up to eat the food and the paper plate prevents a lot of liquid matter from going down into the bed.

I also gently aerate the bin weekly by hand. There are no holes in the sides nor in the bottom (it's a Rubbermaid bin) ,but I have large holes in the lid and window screening covering the holes.

I check on them daily by pulling back the cover sheet. So far, I have no problem with the bin becoming too wet, no problem with flies or other critters, and the worms go after the food like crazy.

I'm not saying that I never add bedding material. It's just that I don't do it every time I feed or on any other set schedule. It is my theory that this encourages the worms to finish composting the original bedding and this method has worked well now for almost a year.

I enjoy working with the worms and have the time to check on them regularly andto process their food for them. The bins are located inside the house and it's easy for me to keep an eye on bin conditions. The worms appear active and healthy and certainly take advantage of the food I leave. Should conditions in the bin change for the worse, I am armed with the good advice I find on this site for correcting the problem.

One way to manage this is to give the bin or Inn a range.
One of my outdoor bins got what looked like a little too much rain,
so I just put a block under one end so it woud drain some.

As for feeding slurried kitchen waste, I'm putting about a cup a week
in the bins which are otherwise all horse manure now. As you all know,
the Inn tends to be drier than the tote bins. As the weather warms up
(Pacific North West ) I'll have to check the Inn more than once a week.

Your tall setups will have such a range, I think you'll find worms at every level. Even in fluff that is as dry as a leaf pile on a sunny day.

Where E. fetida live in "the wild" has "texture". If not in a commercial production operation, I suspect the most productive environment that we can produce for our captive E. fetida is one that has comparable "texture".

That said, I don't think feeding 'slurry' is 'bad'. In fact, ignoring the added labor, I think it is 'good' because it SHOULD accelerate the decomposition process that makes the food available to the worms. I just think that if one intends to use 'slurry' "a lot", then one should add some "texture". Life in "the wild" has "texture"; metaphorically and literally.

Paul

I'm a fan of sticking empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls in the bin vertically to add circulation and and wick moisture away. I find that if you place them in the shape of your favorite constellation, the worms start to wonder if some higher intelligence put them there and is trying to communicate with them.

:D:D:D:D:D

Paul

First worms I ever heard of served their food on a plate.

Worms, in my experience, wonder not. They are driven only by those most basic urges....eating and reproducing.

They could care less about foreign policy.......or, in this case.....alien.

CD

Structure has two meanings: shape and functions of contents -- moisture and air. If I had just read Appelhof, I wouldn't have bought a Worm Inn. She thinks shallow is good. She likes shallower containers. And she writes that all the worms don't migrate up in the stacking type bins. Her book is where I learned that the worms can't live indefinitely in their castings.

My Worm Inn works fine. I think it works because the bedding is horse manure and I added the mosquito net so it can be upheaved to fold the dry into the moist . Today it seemed quite dry, but the worms have multiplied in the past month.
I like to add enough slurried kitchen waste to make some drip.
(I can add it to horse poo tea and aerate it .)

She says new beds, not just added bedding about every 4 months: that vermicompost is better than purer castings.
This post is long enough, but I'll have the book for a while if anyone wants direct quotes on any topic.

I'm not saying her words are the last words. I agree with all who feel that this is a developing art/science. Mary has been composting with red wigglers for 25 years. That makes her credible to me.

""She says new beds, not just added bedding about every 4 months"" That's about right as I "t r y" to harvest the bottom VC every 4 months, especially in enclosed bins. The F(low) T(hrough)s are more forgiving since there is more space above the finished VC once the bottom part is removed.
Worm Inn is considered a FT as well.

Again, we are putting beginners at the mercy of forum common knowlege. Even tho I read this in May, and posted, when I looked at the topic I thought it would be about building a bin, not about the texture of the contents.

You are right! I should have titled this subject "Creating worm-bed structure" or "Creating air in the bed" or "Fluffy bed". I don't think the title can be edited.

The most basic bin structure would be a pile of the contents of a formal worm bin just piled up on a flat surface. If you do that, it's good to make in a conical shape. But the most important thing:

Make sure the worms really, really love where they're living.

If you are skeptical, just put a plastic tote on the pile inverted. Just for your...how you say... assurance.

I've done this...for "what if" purposes. It works great.

CarlosDanger