5: leave well enough alone.

What you are describing is normal.

If your 1/4 head of lettuce still has its core intact, it probably thinks you have planted it, and doesn't have the good sense to decompose. You have put it in a moist environment. It thinks it is supposed to grow there. Give it time.

Poor little lettuce- I had no idea that I was leading it on in such a way!!!

Maybe I should microwave it and put it out of it's misery....

I'm with sbryce, as long as things aren't going out of whack in your bin they do well without us poking around. Sometimes it's hard to fight the itch to go poking around the bin. What I did was put together another bin. I filled it about half full of leaves and put about 2 pounds of partially composted material from my first bin complete with worms on one side. I want to see how far composted this will get without my intervention. If you want that head of lettuce to go faster try tearing it apart.

If you re going to err on the side of one of your first 4 ideas, I'd go with #3. Sometimes the dense stuff on the bottom does not decompose well. Breaking it up and pulling it up near the top will help it break down.

The "too wet" stuff is false unless you mean submerging them. Worms love it wet. Wrung out sponge consistency is too dry. One thing that helps is to just study a little about worm biology and natural conditions. Redworms (manure worms) naturally thrive in dense, moist crap. You can always find them in a wetter pile of horse manure than drier stuff if you ever deal with horses.

My bins are quite moist, but don't flow water. Essentially, my bins are more like saturated chamois cloths. Completely saturated without losing water. The only bin that has water that needs drained occasionally is my worm factory. The others can sit until it's time to harvest the castings. Yeah, I get a ton of mites and occasionally some stinky pot worms, but my worms eat voraciously and never want to wander unless I do something like forget to feed them.

How many worms do you have? I mean, not enough worms can be part of the problem.

Is there a light on? Worms will stay deep if there is light. Even if you have a lid. Hold up a plastic lid to the light and you will notice the light still penetrates.

I freeze the food first and then let it thaw. They will eat it a lot faster. I also don't bury it much. I dig a little pit and drop it in, but leave it exposed. Sometimes I just use a piece of cardboard cereal box to cover it. Burying promotes anaerobic bacteria, which produces gases and liquids that can deter worms. Sometimes enough to send the worms running. If you look into worm farms, you will find that top feeding is the most successful method of feeding worms.

I agree, I think my worms like it wetter too. They are more active and came out to crawl around under the top bedding. I burry the food under the bedding, not in the VC.

Well, I pretty much followed the "leave well enough alone" method, along with freezing/thawing the food and spritzing the top of the bin a bit more often. It's in a basement with a dehumidifier, which may dry it out a bit. Still - we do get mildew on things in the basement, so I don't think it's TOO dry down there!

Anyway, they have been noticeably more active and have moved higher up into the food zone since I added more water. The lettuce is almost gone, and they even ate a whole green, mildewy tomato that I threw in there in a huff without even squashing.

Thanks for the feeddback!

Yep, I'd say wet is better than dry. When I dig through my bin the larger concentrations of worms will tend to be in the wetter lower portions. I think that the only concern with a wet bin is that a lot of liquid in the bottom may not get enough oxygen for aerobic bacteria to go to work and create conditions more suitable to anaerobic bacteria to thrive. These anaerobic bacteria are the ones that create the alcohol and sulphur compounds that tend to smell more. Also, anaerobic bacteria will decompose organic matter at a slower rate than aerobic bacteria, even more reason to keep good airflow to the compost. I am of the opinion that digging up the bottom layers and pulling them to the top once in a while does a good enough job of getting oxygen into the compost. Seems to be going well for me. It also serves to temporarily dry the bottom compost a little and wets the upper compost a little.

Yep, Wetter is Better;
Here's a quote from an online PDF file entitled: 'Vermicomposting Organic Wastes-a Review' at:
http://webs.uvigo.es/jdguez/old/documentos/cairo1.pdf
Just highlight it and paste it into your browser. It's well worth downloading and has interesting Tables (not kitchen or dining room).
"Moisture Content:There is a relationship between the moisture content in organic wastes and the growth rate of earthworms. In vermicomposting systems, the optimum range of moisture contents has been reported to be between 50 to 90 %. E. fétida can survive in moisture ranges between 50 and 90 % (Edwards 1988, and Sims and Gerard 1985), but grows more rapidly between 80 and 90 % in animal wastes (Edwards 1988). Reinecke and Venter(1985) reported that the optimum moisture content for E. fétida was above 70 % in cowmanure, but E. andrei cultured in pig manure grew and matured best between 65 and 90% moisture content, with 85 % being the optimum (Domínguez and Edwards1997). According to Reinecke and Venter (1985), it seems likely that a lowering of the growth rate due to low moisture conditions can also retard sexual development so that earthworms of the same age could develop clitella at different times under different moisture conditions."
Even though I don't use manure, still I realized that 50%-90% moisture is a lot wetter than a well-wrung out sponge.
I started out with the damp corrugated cardboard technique and everything seemed to be going ok until I added a batch of slimy, mushy, rotten apples and then all my worms disappeared. For three weeks, I didn't see anything except a few stragglers here and there. I figured they'd all died and decided to take the bin apart and start over. When I got down to the bottom level (underneath the apple mush) there they all were, alive and well. After that, I started spraying the bin daily and now it's probably around 70%-80% moisture; and the worms appear to love it. They're up at the top and all over the place. Also, I have a drainage tap installed on one side, almost at the bottom, but no liquid has ever come out. I can't understand where the 'damp cardboard bedding' idea came from though it seems to be universally accepted.

Shaul

I think the damp cardboard bedding idea came from the fact that a wet environment is prone to going anaerobic, which can result in a smelly mess for the owner of the bin. Keeping things wet and aerated can be difficult.

The issue of how wet you should keep your bin is very confusing. I have read several warnings about maintaining your bin so it doesn't get too wet. Some say that the wormies don't really like it too soggy and will leave. Based on this principal 90% sounds way too wet to me.

Some say that the water in the food will keep it moist enough. I worry about the water content of my bin because of how it impacts the wormies. So, which is it? How many people here actually waters their bin on a regular basis?

Sandra

Shaul ... Mega thanks for the reference to the article about earthworms. I learned so much! My worm "herd" is all wild ... not in a contained 'farm'.... but I see the steady population growth in places where I have 'fed' them with deposits of spoiled food or coffee grounds.

fisheggs, How about a 5th choice. Flip the first bin into a second bin. The wet will be on top and the dry on the bottom. The worms will now eat the stuff on top and in a bit the bin will be evenly worked over by the worms.

rom.calgary.ab, That is so interesting I have never heard the information put quite that way and clearly. He posted "anaerobic bacteria are the ones that create the alcohol and sulphur compounds that tend to smell more. Also, anaerobic bacteria will decompose organic matter at a slower rate than aerobic bacteria". Any thoughts on how this relates to bokashi? I think of bokashi as pickling. Are anaerobic bacteria what make wine and beer? Seeing as how worms can live in aquarium gravel obviously it is not how wet but how much disolved oxygen. Water can hold oxygen. That is how fish breath. I so agree with you about can't be too wet but can be not enough oxygen.

shaul, The researcher's best moisture % data may of varried due to how much oxygen was available to the bacteria in the vermicomposting process.

sbryce, "Keeping things wet and aerated can be difficult." Yes I think that is the secret or trick to vermicomposting, geting that mix right.

All you, my favorite posters, seem to have used similar or different methods to balance the air / mositure mixture. And a lot of the posts are about messing around with ways to do this best. I do this in the undrained bin with false bottoms of egg cartons and such and cardboard tube to the hollow bottom. I love reading about all the new ideas for getting the mix of air and water right that I might also try.

joe.jr317, "my bins are more like saturated chamois cloths. Completely saturated without losing water." I like your analogy so much better than a rung out sponge. I will try my bins more towards this way. And just shy of anerobic. As wet as I can get the bins without them going anerobic. I do not know that I would advise it to beginners because even with the goal of a rung out sponge they over feed and get drippy chamois. Maybe the wrung out sponge analagy is good because it shows the airspaces needed in the moist enviornment.

And why does nearly everybody add their cardboard wet? The dry cardboard give my vermicast manufacturing process its structure and air pathways. Plus I do not have to tear it.

~dry cardboard proponent

I add my cardboard dry, but I also spray it. I get more water running out the bottom than I should, so I may not have to spray it.

Do you pour the microbe rich drainage back on top to innoculate the cardboard and give it a jump start?

Which makes me think of the many Grow Power video someone linked to where the tinest comment was made on the video stating they actually put a bit of the finished vermicastings on top of new bins to discourage fruit flys. But that is also an excellent way of jumpstarting a bin.

I guess it is a bit off topic so feel free to start a new topic if anyone has comments on these two subjects.

Yes, I do. Unless there is just WWAAYY too much of it, which only happened once, when I fed too much water melon rind.

Interesting discussion.

Any liquid I get from the WF gets diluted 1 in 5 and watered onto my strawberries. So far so good. Never back into the WF. Heres why (IMHO):

I am a proponent of the non-drained plastic bin, and only add wet cardboard when starting a new bin (to give it it's base-line moisture content). DRY cardboard is the most valuable thing I have to manage moisture content of my bins.

I have NEVER sprayed or added wet bedding to a running plastic bin (I have 10 gallon totes and a WF), and strive for minimal drainage (WF) and no drainage from the totes.

I have just started an experiment with about 30 holes drilled just under the top rim (1/4" and 2 " apart) of one tote, and another with no holes as a side by side comparison (for moisture management). Even after only 2 week (no worms, just wet cardboard and a little blended food in each), the difference in noticable in the lower moisture content of the holes in bin. Mind you, it's high summer here, and I alway have a little condensate on the underside of the lids, but less so on the one with holes drilled.

Yes, wetter is better, just short of swimming.

I would just leave the layers as is until the bin is done composting. I also use the diluted liquid to water plants. Its great fertilizer.

I always cover the food with torn up moistened paper. I put it in the sink, spray it, and let it drain for a few minutes.

One complicating factor to the moisture question is that the need to mist the tops depends on how dry the air is in your house. If the paper is dry misting it is a good idea. As long as you have good drain holes and have the bin raised up over a good tray any extra will drain out and you can collect it for your plant. I use a turkey baster and put it right in the watering can.

Wow, I just checked in (had a baby and was traveling for a month) and the additional discussion this month is really helpful.

My worms survived being ignored for the past two months, although the mix is much compacted. I'm going to take another go at it now!

I have lots of potworms, btw.