5 Things to Start a Worm Bin That Doesn't Smell

The pick

Worm Factory 360

$134.95 on Amazon

The tote-bin method works until harvest day, when you dump the whole thing on a tarp and sort worms by hand. Stacking trays fix it: worms migrate up into fresh trays as they finish the lower ones, so harvesting is lifting off a tray of finished castings with barely a worm left in it. The spigot catches the liquid.

A drilled tote does work for a third the price - you are paying for easy harvests.

The pick

Uncle Jim's Red Wigglers, 1000

$59.95 on Amazon

Garden earthworms are burrowers that die in a shallow bin - composting needs red wigglers, surface feeders that thrive exactly there and process half their weight in scraps daily. A thousand worms is a starting population that doubles every few months to match the food supply.

Feed lightly the first month: a small colony buried in scraps is how bins go sour.

The pick

Coco Coir Bricks, 2-Pack

$12.34 on Amazon

A worm bin is 80% bedding and 20% food - get the ratio backwards and it turns anaerobic, which is the smell people remember. Coir bricks expand in water into clean neutral bedding worms love; mixed with shredded cardboard it is the carbon blanket every feeding gets buried under.

Plain shredded cardboard alone works free; coir just makes the start foolproof.

The pick

Worm Blanket

$17.99 on Amazon

Worms feed at the surface only in darkness and moisture, and a bare surface dries and strands them below. A breathable blanket laid directly on the bedding keeps the top inch working, holds moisture even, and quietly stops fruit flies reaching the food underneath it.

Wet burlap or a folded sheet of cardboard does the same job for nothing.

The pick

Fiskars Ergo Cultivator

$8.94 on Amazon

Scraps tossed on the surface are a fruit-fly festival. Proper feeding lifts the blanket, pockets the scraps into a different corner each time, and covers them with bedding - which is fork work unless you like doing it bare-handed. Rotating corners also tells you instantly how fast the colony is eating.

If a corner still has food from last time, skip a feeding - the bin sets the pace.