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

Did you ever find the actors you needed?

budiningsih thank you so much. Your countertops look great. So the problem in my area is there are literally no white quartzites. I have been to so many enormous warehouses. The luce di luna/white macaubas here is beige. I was told all of the actual white quartzite is bought by fabricators before it hits the warehouse floor and is shipped to Nantucket etc. Princess White is the only one I have found with a white background with grey parts and not beige/tan. We like the grey but just want there to be enough of it to repeat and establish a pattern, so it does not look like a random blob. The first time I saw Princess White was at a place with a remnant and a cracked slab and ever since then I have been searching for real slabs. I knew it was what I had been searching for. After that I only found one place in all of MA that has it. Overall we want a white/grey kitchen so we are trying to avoid brown/tan/sand which is every other quartzite I have seen. I even told my fabricator I would drive anywhere in New England to look at other slabs but they had zero recommendations. Thank you so much for your help. I agree that a second quote would really help clarify whether I am getting ripped off or whether I will be making princess white cutting boards out of the leftovers for all of my family members for Christmas:)

Can you say more about what has happened in the past when the population crashed? Twenty red wigglers is not a lot. If I'm doing the math right, that would be about 1/3 ounce of worm weight, allowing .016 ounces per worm. Going by the standard guideline of half their body weight per day in food, you should feed no more than 1/6 ounce of food per day. Call it an ounce per week, maybe. That would be ... one apple core. A skinny one. Definitely chop up whatever you feed, so it'll have more surface area per unit of weight. The usual guideline for worm population growth is that the starting "worm weight" should double in about 90 days, give or take. Since after 90 days you'd have a mixed population of all ages, that wouldn't necessarily be 40 worms, but it should be double your starting weight or 2/3 oz of worms, so by October 9 you'd be up to feeding 1/4 oz of food per day. With so few worms at the outset, even allowing for the fact that these guidelines aren't exact, it's going to take an awfully long time for the worm population to build up to any useful level.