Wormery City Worms

Yes. The City Worms can be set up in a kitchen, flat or cellar, but also on a balcony or in a garden, provided it is protected from rain and sun. Its manufacturer is clear: never in direct sunlight.

• Place it in the shade and sheltered from the rain.
• During a heatwave, bring it indoors: its castors make it easy to move.
• Below around -5 °C, cover it or shelter it indoors.

The worms work best between 15 and 25 °C. Indoors, the compact size of the City Worms wormery fits easily into a kitchen or office.

All our advice: How do you protect your wormery from cold and heat?

To start the City Worms, allow 250 g of worms for 1 to 2 people, 500 g (around 1,000 worms) for 3 to 4 people, and at least 1 kg for a larger household.

Put them all in the first tray, on moist bedding. The worms reproduce on their own and their population self-regulates according to the space and food available: there is no need to add too many. Starting with more worms gets the City Worms wormery up and running more quickly. Then feed in small amounts, with as much cardboard as waste, waiting until the previous feed has been partly eaten.

All our advice: How do you start your wormery, step by step?

The City Worms comes with a self-supporting lid, 2 or 3 trays, a collection tray with tap and 2 seals, 4 legs, 4 castors, a shelf, our vermicomposting guide and a video training session.

If you did not buy it as a pack, add some worms; you will also need bedding (coconut fibre or cardboard) and a square hemp mat, sized to fit its trays. Designed and made in France from recycled materials, the City Worms wormery comes with a 2-year guarantee. Extra trays and a replacement tap with seals are available in our shop.

In the City Worms, your worms eat around half their body weight in waste every day, sometimes up to their full weight: 500 g of worms therefore digest around 250 g of waste a day. Their population doubles every 3 to 4 months, then adjusts to the space available. The City Worms wormery's product sheet states up to 50% less kitchen waste, with 2 to 4 trays of 11 litres in a compact format.

Bonus: your cardboard, paper and egg boxes are recycled too, in equal parts with peelings, and it is this balance that prevents odours.

All our advice: What can you feed the worms in your wormery?

To get the City Worms off to a good start, we recommend:

• our Eisenia compost worms: 250 g for 1 to 2 people, 500 g for 3 to 4 people, 1 kg or more beyond that;
• a 9L coconut fibre block, as starter bedding;
• our square hemp mat, sized for the City Worms, laid on the active tray;
• extra trays for City Worms, up to 4 in total;
• our graduated one-litre liquid collector, to stand on its shelf under the tap.

To get everything in one go, our Pack of 5 essential accessories includes 2 square mats, WormFood, RegulaWorm, WORMboost and a mini rake.

All our advice: Which accessories for your wormery?

Be patient: in the City Worms, the waste loses a lot of water and settles. When it rises about 2 cm above the arrows marked inside the tray, place the next one on top. Check that there is no gap between two trays, as this would hinder the worms from moving through.

When all your trays are full, harvest the bottom one: place it on 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 wormery to 4 trays to keep the stack stable.

All our advice: How and when to harvest vermicompost and compost tea?

The City Worms wormery produces two natural fertilisers for your plants:

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

All our advice in our guide: How and when to harvest vermicompost and compost tea?