New Arrival
Wormery City Worms | 2 plates
2 or 3 trays, 11 usable litres per tray
71,65 €
Practical guide
Vermicomposting
Guide contents
01Getting started5▸
02Choosing your model5▸
03Daily care4▸
04Solving a problem4▸
05Living with your wormery6▸
Other topics in the guide
How does a tray wormery work?
The tray wormery is by far the most popular model among beginners at home. Easy to understand, compact and simple to keep an eye on, it relies on a clever principle: several stacked trays, through which the worms move of their own accord over time. Here is how it works in practice.
The principle: stacked trays
A tray wormery usually consists of 2 to 5 identical trays, perforated at the bottom and stackable on top of one another, sitting on a base that collects the compost tea and topped with a lid. You start with just one tray: add damp bedding and your first worms, then gradually add your kitchen scraps, in small quantities at first.
Once this first tray is almost full — with the scraps reaching 2 or 3 cm from the rim, or three-quarters full depending on the wormery model — place the second tray on top. As the trays are perforated, the worms naturally move up into the new tray to follow the fresh food, while continuing to digest the older scraps left below. The same process is repeated for the third tray and any further trays.
Key pointsEach time an upper tray fills up, the bottom one can be harvested and then put back, empty, on top of the stack. That is the principle of a tray wormery: a continuous cycle that keeps running indefinitely once it is under way.
How many trays do you need?
All our models can be expanded from 2 to 5 trays, and the right number depends above all on the size of your household and the amount of waste to process. For a household of 2 or 3 people with a moderate amount of kitchen scraps, 2 to 3 trays are generally enough. Beyond that, for a larger family or a greater volume of waste, it is best to start with 4 to 5 trays from the outset, or to add more as you go.
Household of 2-3 people: 2 to 3 trays
Large family: 4 to 5 traysThe tell-tale sign: when all your trays are full and the one at the very bottom has not yet fully turned into mature compost, you need another tray. This is the best way to know whether to expand your wormery: simply give it time to show you, rather than adding trays in advance. Conversely, it is best not to add unnecessary trays from the start: a young worm colony takes time to colonise a large volume, and too much empty space does not speed anything up.
How long does a full cycle take?
Generally allow 5 to 7 months to fill all your trays the first time, depending on how much waste you produce and how many worms you start with. Once this first cycle is complete, harvesting becomes much more regular: roughly one tray a month, once you have reached your cruising pace. We explain the full harvesting procedure, step by step, in our guide Harvesting vermicompost and compost tea
The advantages of the tray system
Beginners particularly like this model for several reasons. It is very visual: each tray corresponds to a different stage of maturity, making it easy to follow how the process is progressing. It is also modular — you can add extra trays if your waste production increases — and its compact size fits just as well in a kitchen as in a utility room or on a balcony. Finally, the compost tea is collected separately, via the base, without ever coming into contact with the waste being processed.
What to keep an eye on day to day
A few simple habits help you avoid minor problems. The moisture mat, placed on the surface of the active tray, also plays an important role: it retains moisture and helps keep fruit flies at bay. You can also replace it with an old floorcloth or a 100% cotton T-shirt. Finally, if your wormery has a tap, leave it open with a container underneath so the compost tea drains continuously — as well as preventing any overflow, this also stops worms that have fallen in by accident from drowning.
Did you know?It is not unusual to find a few worms in the compost tea collection base: nothing to worry about, they will make their own way back up by crawling along the sides.
Trays or continuous flow?
There is another major family of wormeries, known as « continuous flow » wormeries, which work on quite a different principle: a single large bin in which the worms migrate vertically upwards, with the mature compost harvested from the bottom. Both systems have their own strengths; we compare them in detail in our guide The continuous flow wormery
Choosing your tray wormery
Browse our full range of tray wormeries, available in several sizes to suit the volume of waste your household produces. If you are just starting out, head to our guide How to start your wormery for every step of the set-up.
