Ok, more thoughts coming to me on this…

We give our worms food waste. At the farm that this sample came from, all the food waste came from a food bank. 90% is unprepared food (whole fruits and vegetables) none of it is organic. Food banks get huge donations of food that is about to expire, they don’t use it all and then they unload the rotting food on us.

Back to the Ammonium and Nitrate topic (which is interesting but not that important). Maybe total nitrate is a lot higher than total ammonium, because nitrate is a preservative and ammonium is volatile. So once produce has been picked and it sits for 1-2 weeks before consumption (3 weeks before meeting our worms), most of the ammonium has volatilized and all the nitrate is still there??? So most of the ammonium that exists in the solution will come from decomposition of amino acids by way of vermiculture, and it will quickly cross membranes, osmotically move from solid to solution. Therefore the difference isn’t that big? Somebody want to check me on this theory?