One month in questions
Hello all, I am a few weeks into vermicomposting, and I have a few questions.
First, I'll explain my situation so far. I have two 17 gallon tote worm farms. These are for the sole purpose of composting and amending the poor soil in my vegetable garden.
My first tote was "500" super red European wigglers delivered on March 25th (I say 500 in quotes because i would be surprised if there were actually 250 in there. It was a bogo deal, so I wasn't too upset). They have a bedding of 95% shredded paper and 5% newspaper. Any new bedding added is newspaper. They have never really settled in to the tote. At first, I may have had the bedding too wet, but I added dry bedding to even it out. They have probably 10" of bedding. Even since then, after a day or so, there have been a few worms at the top trying to get out. If I leave the light off, more than that.
It was after I realized that super reds weren't actually the best for my goal of composting, and I was a bit unhappy with their performance, that I ordered a pound (~600) of red wigglers from Naturesgoodguys. I have been much more happy with this order/tote. These worms arrived on April 10th. They have a bedding of 100% shredded newspaper. They only ever tried to escape en masse once within the first 3 days. I think they were exploring. They have also been attacking the food a bit more, as well.
So here are some of my questions: what is with my super reds? Is it that the bedding is shredded paper, or am I doing something wrong? If it is the bedding, how do I amend it? I have fluffed it several times, but it didn't really make a difference.
How much less can I expect them to eat than my red wigglers, and how much can I expect each tote to eat per week?
Also, I could've said more about this, but between my two orders, I was really let down by Uncle Jim's and pretty happy with Naturesgoodguys.