Perfect for apartment dwellers, worm composting uses worms to recycle food scraps and other organic material into a valuable soil amendment called vermicompost. Worms eat food scraps and become compost once they pass through the worm’s body. Vermicompost is great to use to grow plants!

For step-by-step instructions on how to get started, view this presentation and handout.

Click here for a list of suppliers that sell  worms.

To make a bin, drill air holes in the top and halfway down the sides of a lidded plastic or wooden container. The container should be 12" deep at most and opaque or covered with a dark cloth, since worms hate light. Use newspaper strips as bedding. Dampen with water with a spritz bottle. It should be as damp as a wrung-out sponge, not dripping wet.

Always cover food scraps with bedding to prevent odors and fruit flies, and add only as much as the worms will eat. At first, the process will be slow since worms only eat food that has begun decomposing. For faster decomposition, chop the food scraps into small pieces.

Worms prefer 40-80°F. In an apartment building, worms can live quite happily on the balcony until temperatures drop to 40°F, after that take them indoors. Basements or garages that do not freeze are good locations.

Redworms can be found in decaying leaves, manure piles or other organic material, such as compost piles. If you have access to natural areas, you can collect your own redworms. A few handfuls are enough to start a bin, but add only small amounts of food scraps until the worm population increases enough to handle more (3-4 months). 

When the compost looks like rich, brown soil, usually after about 3-6 months, the volume of materials will decrease and the original bedding is no longer recognizable. Move the finished compost and worms to one side of the bin and add new bedding to the vacant side. Put new food wastes into the fresh bedding so the worms will move from the finished compost in search of new food. Scoop out the finished compost a few layers at a time and place in a plastic bag or dedicated container until you're ready to use it. Mix worm castings are typically very moist, so mix with organic soil to balance moisture.

Add fresh bedding to the vacant side of your bin and keep on composting!