I'm not sure what the wood chip is that you are referring to. Because the wood chip I know are something large enough that can be broken down to pieces. Something you use for grilling (both to make fire and to fume scent into meats). If you are referring to a soil-like particle, the "substrate," okay. There are many different recipes. I came up with SO MANY recipes even for myself alone. I tried different ways to see how larvae of different species doing.
I haven't read
Ratmosphere's post, so I can't say much about his work, but the ratio can actually be ignored depending how much amount you are handling. If you are making a lot, like 100 gallons. You don't have to add anything but just ferment starter. Ferment starter is the important thing for the fermentation. Everything else are just optional additives. Like a supplementary for human health. You don't need it, but can be helpful. I don't know what ratio you added, but I once added more than 20% of wheat flour to the substrate, and never had such problem. Maybe you added and did not mixed up properly. If you add wheat flour to wet substrate, it is pretty difficult to mix it up properly as wheat flour absorbs moisture from substrate, and becomes like a "dough." This might be the cause of problem you are experiencing. Next time if you are adding wheat flour again, try to dry out your substrate ahead. then Mix up the flour and add water into it.
Bran over wheat flour? I don't see a difference. I always succeeded with everything and even with nothing. The reason you are adding such things is to just
help fermentation,
not triggering or for the main reason of fermentation. Bran or wheat flour, dog food, cat food, anything else (but ferment starter) is
to keep or raise temperature. The temperature is important to keep up with the fermentation for enough time to make more and more nutrients (by having microorganisms actively propagate). If you are working with about 20 gallons, you don't need any additives. Just adding ferment starter and store it somewhere warm is ENOUGH. If you are adding wheat flour to make substrate, I would recommend adding about 5 to 15% to amount of substrate. Not by weight, but a rough volume. What do you add other than wheat flour?
*I've made and making hundreds of liters of substrate every summer for over a decade.
I thought I would post here that I started fermenting some aspen wood chips a few days ago. The ambient temperature is about 72-degrees Fahrenheit, and the highest temperature I have recorded in the substrate so far is 92.5-degrees (I am recording temperatures over the fermentation process). I am using wheat flour and thought I followed Ratmosphere's advice on the flour to wood ratio, but I think I may have added a little too much flour because the substrate feels like sticky pizza dough with a lot of wood chips. Will this cause problems for the beetles, or did I reach the right consistency?
