Hey all, I’m trying to maximize the productivity of the worm bins I maintain at my work.

We have 5 Wriggly Wranches that were started before I came on board 2 months ago, at various stages of decomposition. I believe all of them were started with damp shredded paper (made by the office shredder) and coffee grounds/egg shells. Our red wiggler worms are mostly fed juice pulp from a local organic juicer and we’re in coastal Southern California so temperatures stay pretty mild.

One thing I’m noticing, especially with the 2-ish month old bins, is that the paper at the bottom of the bins gets matted/compacted and a bit slimy. I haven’t noticed an anaerobic smell so I guess aeration is okay, but it doesn’t seem the worms can easily penetrate these mats to eat the paper and produce finished castings. This especially seems to be a problem in the more full bins where the bedding is 6-8 inches deep.

However, even in the more finished bins with 3-4 inches of bedding/castings, I’m finding that the castings are very dense and fudgy, with bits of paper still uneaten. I’m not sure if this is caused by compaction throughout the process or another factor.

Another guess is that the water content of the feedstock, juice pulp, is too high and this is contributing to a compacted and fudgy final product. Perhaps I need to start squeezing out excess moisture.

If you use shredded paper as a bedding, what do you find to be the right depth for your worms?