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Learn How to Vermicompost

Want to Start a Worm Farm?

Starting a worm bin and keeping the worms happily composting your food scraps and organic waste is easy – and fun!

If you get off to a good start and keep conditions like temperature, moisture, and pH within a certain range, you’ll be amazed at how well your worms will do, and you’ll be surprised at how much you can actually forget about them while they’re creating organic fertilizer for you.

 

Want to Know How to Start a Worm Bin?

Starting a worm bin, aka worm farm isn’t rocket science, but it’s also very possible to mess it up.

Overfeeding your worm bin and/or keeping conditions too wet is the most common cause of most worm bin problems. The resources on this page will teach you how to avoid these problems and start worm composting with confidence.

Your objective may be one or more of the following:

  • Start a home worm bin to compost food scraps
  • Start worm composting in your office
  • Start a worm farm in your classroom or school
  • Find ways to compost your farm waste
  • Explore business opportunities with worm farming

If this describes your situation, you will find something useful on this page.

How to Use This Resource Page

This page is a place for beginners to learn how to start vermicomposting. You won’t want or need every tool on here, but if you want to start your first worm bin or are having trouble maintaining one, then the resources on this page may be the place to start!

The navigation menu to your right will get you started.

Composting Beginner Resources

Get the Beginner's Guide to Vermicomposting

 

 

What’s In the Vermicomposter’s Starter Guide?

The Vermicomposter’s Starter Guide is written to acquaint you with the following topics that beginning worm composters need to know:

  • The Benefits of Vermicomposting
  • Vermicomposting vs Composting
  • Choosing Your Worms
  • Starting Your Bin
  • Maintaining Optimal Conditions
  • How to Harvest

Take this guide and print it or share it with friends!

Read the Ultimate Guide to Vermicomposting

 

 

What’s In the Ultimate Guide?

This 10,000+ word blog post is a comprehensive introduction to worm composting covering everything from:

  • basic definitions
  • how vermicomposting is different from composting
  • earthworm basics
  • how to set up a worm bin
  • how to choose worm bedding
  • how to choose a worm bin
  • how to maintain conditions in the worm bin
  • the financial opportunities of vermicomposting and vermiculture

 

Read the Ultimate Guide

Join the Urban Worm Network

The Urban Worm  Network is an interactive map of vermicomposters and worm-related businesses around the globe.  See where other worm composters are and know that you’re not alone in this weird world of worm composting!

Put Yourself on the Map and See Where to Buy Worms and Worm Castings Locally

The Urban Worm Network is a fun tool to see where other vermicomposters are located globally. You can also find out where to buy composting worms, bait worms, worm bins, and worm castings near your location, saving you lots of money on shipping.

While you can’t directly contact other users just yet, you will have the option of letting me know if you are interested in local meetup groups, so in the future, the Urban Worm Network may be your way to connect with other worm composters.

Join the Urban Worm Network

Read the Vermicomposting 101 Series

I created a list of beginner-level articles for the new vermiocomposter or the experienced worm composter who wants a refresher. These handy articles tell you how to start a worm bin and care for it properly.

What New Worm Composters Need to Know

You can find articles that cover the following topics:

 

Read All The 101 Articles

Join Helpful Facebook Groups

There is soooo much free information available on vermicomposting-related Facebook Groups. You may find a range of experience and knowledge levels, but you won’t find a friendlier group of people on the interwebs.

Some of the Most Helpful Vermicomposting Groups

Get free advice and support in the following worm composting-related groups

Join the Groups

Learn About the Urban Worm Bag

The Urban Worm Bag is a fabric continuous flow through worm bin that promotes aerobic conditions and allows for an easy harvest of worm castings.

As worms tend to move upwards into layers of food above, the rich, lively castings are left  behind, meaning that the bottom harvest is almost 100% worm castings.

What Makes It Different?

The Urban Worm Bag is 3x larger than the Worm Factory 360 and only 33% of the price of the Hungry Bin.

Version 2 now comes with an interior fabric enclosure that protects the zipper as well as a sturdier frame than Version 1.

Check It Out

Read The Worm Farmer's Handbook

It’s cheapest on Amazon!

Free with a purchase of 3 or more Urban Worm Bags

Don’t invent the wheel. Rather, learn about the practical experience of others with The Worm Farmer’s Handbook written by NCSU Extension Specialist Rhonda Sherman.

Rhonda’s book was released in late-2018 and is already considered a must-read among those who strive for a larger-scale vermicomposting operation.

 

What The Worm Farmer’s Handbook Covers

Although this book is written with the mid to larger-scale operator in mind, The Worm Farmer’s Handbook is written well enough for the beginner to easily grasp. The Worm Farmer’s Handbook is a practical guide to starting and operating a vermicomposting and vermiculture operation beyond the hobby level.

Drawing on interviews with dozens of mid- to large-scale operators around the world, Rhonda details how to

  • find the right production system
  • choose the right feedstock
  • avoid common pitfalls
  • find and grow markets for your products & more

Get the Best Price on Amazon

Read the Manual of On Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture

The On Farm Manual of Vermicomposting is an extremely valuable free resource, detailing the various methods of vermicomposting, sources of feedstocks and bedding, efficacy of vermicompost and more.

Full of academic citation, familiarity with this work by Glenn Munroe of the Organic Agriculture Center of Canada is a must!

What’s In the Manual?

The Manual of On Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture covers the following topics:

  • The Basics of Working With Worms
  • An Overview of Vermicomposting Systems
  • On Farm Vermiculture
  • The Value of Vermicompost
  • Potential Income Diversification

If you consider yourelf a beginner but are also interested in exploring the potential for business opportunities, this is an excellent resource!

Read the Manual

Contact the Urban Worm Company

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Or Via Phone

833-URBN-WRM

 

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Blog Posts for the Beginning Vermicomposter

These blog posts will cover 101-level worm composting topics as well as help transition you into an expert vermicomposter!

Vermicomposting: The Ultimate Guide for the Beginner and Beyond

Vermicomposting: The Ultimate Guide for the Beginner and Beyond

by | Jul 1, 2019 | , , , , , , , , ,

Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Getting Started with Vermicomposting! I aim to make this page the internet’s top resource on taking you from complete ignorance about vermicomposting to being able to: Understand vermicomposting and how it works Explain the benefits of...

Vermicomposting 101: What Happens In A Worm Bin?

Vermicomposting 101: What Happens In A Worm Bin?

by | May 14, 2019 |

New vermicomposters worry that their two-week old bin isn't producing castings and that they may be doing it wrong. Things look fine and smell fine, but the worms aren't "destroying" the food like we think they should. If most beginners think of vermicomposting the...