City Worms Worm Composter

Yes. The City Worms can be set up in a kitchen, apartment, or basement, but also on a balcony or in a yard, as long as it is protected from rain and sun. Its manufacturer is clear: never in direct sunlight.

• Place it in the shade and out of the rain.
• During a heat wave, bring it indoors: its casters make it easy to move.
• Below about 23 °F (-5 °C), cover it or bring it inside.

The worms work best between 59 and 77 °F (15–25 °C). Indoors, the compact City Worms worm bin fits easily in a kitchen or office.

All our tips: How do you protect your worm composter from cold and heat?

To start your City Worms, plan on 8.8 oz (250 g) of worms for 1 to 2 people, 1.1 lb (500 g, about 1,000 worms) for 3 to 4 people, and at least 2.2 lb (1 kg) for a larger household.

Place them all in the first tray, on moist bedding. The worms reproduce on their own, and their population self-regulates based on the space and food available, so there's no need to add too many. Starting with more worms gets your City Worms worm composter up and running faster. Then feed in small amounts, with as much cardboard as food scraps, and wait until the previous feeding has been partly eaten.

All our tips: How do you start your worm composter, step by step?

The City Worms comes with a self-supporting lid, 2 or 3 trays, a leachate tray with spigot and 2 gaskets, 4 legs, 4 casters, a shelf, our vermicomposting guide, and a video training session.

If you didn't order it as a bundle, add some worms; you'll also need bedding (coconut fiber or cardboard) and a square hemp mat, sized to fit its trays. Designed and made in France from recycled materials, the City Worms worm composter comes with a 2-year warranty. Extra trays and a replacement spigot with gaskets are available in our store.

In the City Worms, your worms eat about half their body weight in food scraps every day, sometimes up to their full weight. That means 1.1 lb (500 g) of worms digest about 8.8 oz (250 g) of scraps a day. Their population doubles every 3 to 4 months, then adjusts to the space available. The City Worms worm composter's product page promises up to 50% less food waste, with 2 to 4 trays of 2.9 gallons (11 liters) each in a compact design.

Bonus: your cardboard, paper, and egg cartons get recycled too, in equal parts with your peels, and it's this balance that keeps odors away.

All our tips: What can you feed the worms in your worm bin?

To get your City Worms off to a great start, we recommend:

• our Eisenia composting worms: 8.8 oz (250 g) for 1 to 2 people, 1.1 lb (500 g) for 3 to 4 people, and 2.2 lb (1 kg) or more for larger households;
• a 2.4-gallon (9 L) coconut fiber block, as starter bedding;
• our square hemp mat, sized to fit the City Worms, laid on the active tray;
• extra trays for the City Worms, up to 4 in total;
• our graduated 1-quart (1-liter) leachate tray, which sits on its shelf under the spigot.

To get everything at once, our 5 Essential Accessories Pack includes 2 square mats, WormFood, RegulaWorm, WORMboost, and a mini rake.

All our tips: Which accessories does your worm composter need?

Be patient: in the City Worms, food scraps lose a lot of water and settle. When they rise about 0.8 in (2 cm) above the arrows marked inside the tray, place the next tray on top. Make sure there's no gap between two trays, since a gap would keep the worms from moving through.

When all your trays are full, harvest the bottom one: move it to the top, remove the lid and mat, and let the light drive the worms down before collecting the vermicompost in thin layers. Limit the City Worms worm composter to 4 trays to keep the stack stable.

All our tips: How and when to harvest vermicompost and worm tea

The City Worms worm composter produces two natural fertilizers for your plants:

• compost tea (worm tea), after about 2 to 3 months: place a bottle on the City Worms shelf, under the open spigot, and the tea drains into it continuously. Dilute 1 part tea to 9 parts water;
• vermicompost: first harvest after 3 to 6 months, then roughly every 1 to 2 months. Mix 30% vermicompost with 70% potting soil; it keeps for 2 years.

All our tips are in our guide: How and when to harvest vermicompost and compost tea