Estimated reading time: 14 minutes

Today I wanted to share my complete guide to feeding an apartment compost worm bin. To get the best, nutrient-rich compost, you need to know what to feed your worms and what to avoid. Many people are surprised to learn that worms love avocados, but a tomato could kill them.

First, I’ll share the basics of how worms eat. Then I’ll share some notes about how small space composting differs from outdoor. Afterward, I’ll share a list of good, bad, and unconfirmed foods you can use as worm food. Finally, you will get some basic directions on how to feed your worms and stay consistent.

How Worms Eat

Worms have a gizzard, so you need to add grit. This sounds weird because worms are soft and squishy, and spirit sounds dangerous. I understand your concerns- but let’s discuss the basics.

Food enters the worm’s mouth, moves from its pharynx, and is stored in the crop until it moves to the gizzard. A worm uses its gizzard, full of stored grit, to grind up the food like a chicken. The gizzard acts almost like the worm’s teeth to help the rest of the digestive tract absorb as many nutrients as possible.

If you fail to add gritty items like eggshells, oyster shells, or coffee grounds to your bin, your worms will have difficulty digesting food and producing compost. The added calcium and pH balancing impact is an added benefit of ground egg and oyster shells.

Want a quick reference guide?

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Download our poster and keep it next to your compost bucket in your kitchen or near your bin. Keep it as a reminder of good feeding practices for your indoor compost worms.

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Note About Apartment Vermicomposting

Later in this article, I’ll share what I’ve found to be ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods you can use to feed your compost worms. I want to note this is specific to my experience, preference, and bin size. Some people will argue that foods on the ‘bad’ list are quite acceptable for worms to eat. However, there are a few things I want to note about indoor vermicomposting.

Pests & Fellow Composters

I agree you can add more citrus, garlic, or onions in an outdoor bin. This is often because other types of composters exist in outdoor compost bins. Composters such as black soldier flies, maggots, mites, pseudoscorpions, or small vermin may help decomposition. However, you may not want to attract these insects and rodents into your home.

Ph Balance

Another issue that apartment composters must be aware of is the Ph balance of their bin. While worms love coffee grounds, you can kill them if you add too much. Worms prefer a pH of around 7.0, but they can live in pH levels of 4.2 to 8.0 or higher.

You must be more mindful of this when you are composting in a small space or apartment. A worm can wiggle away from the problematic food in an outdoor bin. The worm will crawl the sides of a small container and likely die if the problem is not eventually remedied.

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Smell

I’ve also noted certain foods I’m mindful of limiting each feeding. These are typically Cruciferous veggies, potatoes, asparagus, and similar foods. This is a personal preference thing, for sure. However, if you live in a small home or apartment, be kind to yourself, roommates, and neighbors – skip the stinky stuff.

Good Worm Foods

Below is a list of items to feed your compost worms. A note to this list is everything in moderation. Worms love foods like watermelon rinds and sweets. However, a bin full of rinds may attract fruit flies and unwanted pests because of the sugars.

Mix a variety of foods to keep your worm bin balanced. The added benefit from this method is a more nutritious food for your worms and a better, bio-diverse vermicompost for your house plants.

• Alfalfa Sprouts
• Apple
• Apricot
• Asian Pear
• Asparagus (in moderation/ smell)
• Avocado
• Bamboo Shoots
• Banana
• Bean Sprouts
• Beets
• Belgian Endive
• Bell Peppers
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Bok Choy
• Boysenberries
• Broccoflower (in moderation/ smell)
• Broccoli (in moderation/ smell)
• Brussels Sprouts (in moderation/ smell)
• Cabbage (in moderation/ smell)
• Cantaloupe
• Carrots
• Casaba Melon
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Cherries
• Coffee Grounds
• Collard Greens
• Corn
• Cucumber
• Eggplant
• Grapefruit
• Grapes
• Green Beans
• Greens
• Guava
• Honeydew Melon
• Horned Melon
• Iceberg Lettuce

• Kale
• Kiwifruit peels
• Lettuce
• Lima Beans
• Mangos
• Mushrooms
• Napa Cabbage (in moderation/ smell)
• Nectarines
• Papayas
• Parsnip
• Peaches
• Pears
• Peas
• Peppers
• Plantains
• Plums
• Pomegranate
• Pumpkin
• Raspberries
• Red Cabbage (in moderation/ smell)
• Romaine Lettuce
• Rutabaga
• Shallots
• Snow Peas
• Spinach
• Sprouts
• Squash
• Strawberries
• String Beans
• Sweet Potato
• Turnip
• Watercress
• Watermelon
• Waxed Beans
• Yams
• Yellow Squash
• Zucchini Squash

How To Make Worm Chow

For one reason, you may want to have some dry, ready-to-use worm food on hand. Some people use ‘worm chow’ to increase the size of their worms. You can purchase pre-made worm chow, or make your own. Other people use it when they don’t have any fruit and vegetable scraps on hand.

Thankfully, making your dry worm food is easy without having to make a memorable trip to the supermarket. Here is a basic recipe you can follow:

• Two parts oats
• 1 part cornmeal
• 1/8 part crushed eggshells

To make:

1. Bake your eggshells at 250 for 10 minutes to kill any potential salmonella bacteria
2. Add baked eggshells to the Blender and process on high for 45 seconds.
3. Add cornmeal and oats to the Blender.
4. Blend on high for 45 additional seconds
5. Store in an air-tight container.

To Use:

Your use depends on how many worms you have in your bin. Start first by sprinkling one tablespoon over the top of a small section of your bin.

Mist the dry food with a spray bottle and cover it with moist bedding.

I’ve seen different recipes for dry worm food on other blogs and youtube videos over the years. Cornmeal is a common ingredient in all recipes. You could also substitute the crushed eggshells for ground oyster shells.

The oats and cornmeal provide an easy-to-digest meal, and the eggshells grit calcium and act as a Ph balancer. I always recommend using the least processed items when using your worm chow.

And for the best vermicompost/ fertilizer, use natural fruit and vegetable scraps whenever possible for greater biodiversity.

Bad Worm Foods

Now let’s talk about foods you should not feed your composting worms. It will probably be fine if you’ve accidentally added a tiny amount of any of these items. For example, a garlic peel will not doom your worms to death.

However, a bin full of onion and orange peels will kill your worms.

I also added pet waste to the list, a common question from beginner vermicomposters. It is true that in nature, composting worms live in piles of manure. But, it is not advised to add pet waste to your bin because of bacteria, pH balance, and smell.

• Processed food
• Animal & pet waste
• Garlic
• Green Onions
• Leeks
• Lemons
• Limes
• Mandarins

• Mandarin Oranges
• Meat
• Onion
• Oranges
• Pineapple
• Potatoes
• Tangelo
• Tangerines
• Tomatillo
• Tomato

Unconfirmed Worm Foods

I’ve listed some types of fruit and vegetable I’ve never tried in my bin. If you’ve tried any of these foods, please leave a comment below. I would love to keep the list up-to-date with various foods we can feed our worms.

How To Feed Your Worms

Now that you know what foods are good and bad for your worms, it’s time to feed them.

How I prep my compost worm food:

How I process my worm food

Here is an essential guide to feeding your compost worms. This way of processing has increased. The overall amount that my worms eat. This means even more nutrient-rich compost for my garden and houseplants.

Total Time Needed :

30

Minutes

Total Cost:

0

USD

Required Tools:

– A kitchen knife

– A blender

Things Needed?

– Food Scraps

Steps to configure the How-to Schema:

Step 1: Bake Eggshells

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes to kill any potential salmonella bacteria

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Step 2: Add Baked Eggshells

Process eggshells in Blender on high for 45 seconds. Avoid any shell dust and let the shell dust settle before opening the Blender. I like to crack the Blender with a bit of water and turn on the Blender again. This helps reduce the amount of shell dust that can escape.

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Step 3: Add food scraps to Blender

Add your food scraps to the eggshells in the Blender along with a quarter cup of filtered water. Avoid adding tap water as it is often chlorinated. Start Blender on low and slowly increase speed.
Add a little water at a time until everything blends into a slurry.

Read More

After mixing all of the food, I can feed it directly to my worms or store it in the freezer for future use.

Pocket Feeding Method Explained

I use a pocket-feeding method to feed my worms. That means I open the bin and choose a corner – think of the five-side of a dice. I will dig a small hole, careful not to hurt the worms in the area.

Next, I place a few scraps of the newspaper at the bottom of the hole. This paper absorbs the added liquid and any liquid from decomposition. I then place 1/4 cup of the slurry into the hole on top of the newspaper. I then add some additional dry newspaper scraps on top for extra absorption. Finally, I used the material I moved when digging the hole to cover the feeding area.

Often I’m left with a blender full of worm food slurry that I need to store for the future. The easiest way to consistently feed my worms the same amount on the same schedule is to freeze a pre-measured amount.

I’ve found the best way to get rid of paper waste and pre-measure my worm food is with toilet paper rolls. You could also use cardboard egg crates, fill them like an ice cube tray, and freeze them. Once frozen, you can rip off an egg section and follow the same pocket-feeding method.

Summary

I hope you feel confident in feeding your compost worms from now on. Feel free to refer back to this guide whenever you have a question. Please share helpful tips; let me know what you think of today’s article.

Be sure to share any foods your worms loved or hated that I don’t have on the list. If you’ve tried any of the unconfirmed items in your bin, be sure to share your experiences. I will keep this list up to date to help any future baby vermicomposters!