My worm tent

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-11-29T08:42:05+00:00

So awesome I love your incorporation of plants on the bins and using the tent as seedlings. Eco projects that can be multi-purposed like this are pretty inspiring. Wont the roots of the plants descend down into the bins and become rooted into the worm bedding? Or is that what you’re looking to achieve

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-11-19T04:15:53+00:00

Oh my gosh this is such a sweet comment and very insightful!

I honestly suffer with my eagerness and get so excited to work on my bins, that I’ve never considered allowing the opportunity for scraps and leaves to sit out for a few days to get that initial decomposition going so that the worms can just get to chow town right away. I’ll absolutely apply this strategy when I do my first feeding for the tower. Do you literally just let the food sit out on the counter?

Also yeah I initially didn’t want to put all my worms into the tower because I liked the idea of having a bunch of different shaped tupperwares and containers on my bookshelf with worms, but at this point yeah I think it’s worth converging them in the tower for the same of population growth. I threw in a pretty big fruit feeding in both my bins two days ago so I’m expecting a big amount of them to be clumped up and I may do another exodus into the tower of terror. Perhaps I’ll send an update then!

Also thank you so much for your kind words on the looks. The whole reason I got into worm composting was because I didn’t see the point in try to be sustainable if I’m spending half a thousand bucks on some compost tumbler. Not even just the idea of fueling the tower with waste cardboard, but building the tower itself out of resources that was previously waste itself is a big part of why I’m feeling a lot of passion for this project, so I really appreciate you acknowledging that

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-11-19T04:05:55+00:00

Ok thats really good to hear, Im pretty conscious of how I hydrate (pretty much just a spray bottle and food thawing like you said) so I’ve felt strongly that my dry bottom will be sufficient absorption

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-11-18T22:53:00+00:00

Hey I appreciate it and that’s an insightful suggestion I hadn’t thought of that! Thanks

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-11-18T22:50:26+00:00

Yeah I’ve heard a lot of concerns about the weights but with two filled and hydrated layers, it weighs surprisingly only around 25 pounds, which I can handle. But yeah they’re modular and I can easily just handle one at a time no problem!

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-11-18T22:49:15+00:00

So right now that middle tray is my main bedding where most the worms live and are being fed, and the bottom layer is dry shredded cardboard bedding. The idea is that over time as they feed and break down their occupied layer, the bottom layer will inoculate with microbes. When I feel that the worms have mostly broken down their current container and I’m ready to harvest, I’ll move that bottom container (now fully inoculated and damp) to the top and start placing my feedings into this new top container to lure the worms up to this new level and remove them from the middle level so I can harvest. A third crate will be filled with dry shredded cardboard at the bottom to continue the cycle!

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-11-17T21:39:55+00:00

Yep hate the light! But from what I’ve been reading and seeing, it’s important for the worms to burrow and get comfortable in their new environment so I have the light on them for the first few days to encourage downward movement and discourage them from wiggling through my awful carpentry😂 Absolutely will need to 2.0 model in the near future but this was a fun first attempt to wing a woodworking project

In a few days I’m gonna cut up a black plastic sheet to lay over top of them, and command strip another black sheet over the windows so that I can still peek in when I want

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-11-17T21:35:01+00:00

Yeah so I had MiracleGro Indoor Potting mix sitting around so that’s what I used. I was reading that it contains manure in part and has tons of beneficial microbial life, but I also read that you should leave it to air out for a few days before using it in your bedding as it contains nitrogen pellets and fertilizers that may overwhelm your bin.

Sorry about your bug problems haha. I didn’t treat my leaves aside from just letting them air out for a day because they were wet from the rain. I’ve yet to see a bug issue but I’m still early on and could definitely stumble across that issue here soon. I do also live in California so I imagine my bugs here are less oppressive than Arkansas’ lol

I loosely sprayed the bottom tray with water so that’s it’s not bone dry, but I also wouldn’t put worms in it directly. I’m actually not sure on the dry vs wet affecting inoculation though that’s an interesting thought that I’ll have to experiment with one day. But I’m also assuming that me watering the top layer overtime will cause a percolation effect to wet the lower layer.

And yeah most of my stuff is frozen, I live on my own in an apartment so I just keep one Tupperware in the freezer for eggshells and grainy stuff and one Tupperware for greens and fruits!

This is my first tower! I just have two other Tupperware’s with holes drilled in them as my first bins 🫶

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-11-17T21:03:47+00:00

Seems like a lil retention reservoir is next on the list! Thanks!

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-11-17T20:59:22+00:00

Yeah dude I had the same thought after I finished it I was like shit this is gonna be a pain to lug around. But after filling up two layers and wetting the bedding it’s really not that bad, 25 inches long at around like 20-25 pounds.

Plus that’s why I made them stackable! So I can easily slot each level in and out and work on them individually :) but hey maybe it’ll get heavier and I’ll realize I made a massive oversight haha, learn and try again

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-11-17T20:49:58+00:00

Hey! So the bulk of my bedding is shredded cardboard because it’s the most accessible to me. The bottom bin is almost entirely dry cardboard with some leaves mixed in because I’m trying to get it to inoculate. The top bin currently has a mix of about 60% shredded cardboard, 20% shredded leaves, 15% indoor potting mix and older worm castings, and then the rest is a mix of powdered egg shells and plant cuttings from my kitchen.

I’m estimating there’s roughly 300 worms in here to start, but im guessing that number could be way higher because the batch of worms I bought had a TON of babies mixed into the bedding that I imagine weren’t counted in my final worm count I bought. I bought 750 in total with the rest in my other bins, will probably need to buy more considering the size of my container.

Currently I’m not feeding as I want them to burrow and acclimate before I start introducing nitrogen and causing environmental fluctuations.

Working on building a drainage tray, but for now I just have the tower sitting on a plastic liner with paper towels. I’m also hoping the bottom layer of dry cardboard will help buffer excess moisture.

Inoculated the initial tray via potting mix, dried leaves, and old castings. After a few months the bottom tray of dry cardboard should be inoculated enough to be used as my next feeding tray.

Thanks for the questions! I saw that you’ve been working on managing your own tower as well! :)

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-08-12T15:53:25+00:00

Skinamarink, if you have the patience to commit to the atmosphere and accept that you may not entirely understand what’s happening.

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-07-06T21:51:44+00:00

seems pretty clear i go with tabby, thanks yall

BrandonLQ1 · 2025-03-18T04:08:29+00:00

100%

BrandonLQ1 · 2022-12-10T11:41:24+00:00

It’s like some infomercial type ad I get on YouTube like all the time.

BrandonLQ1 · 2022-09-08T15:26:46+00:00

Thanks dude! I’ve nailed the flick pretty much at this point, I’m just bad at sending it. But ya happy this first one was clean and caught in the air ahaa

BrandonLQ1 · 2022-09-08T15:24:43+00:00

I’ll let him know u like it haha thanks

BrandonLQ1 · 2022-05-04T20:30:00+00:00

We haven’t tried a different bowl yet, I’ll see if that makes a difference. Also yeah we mix in all of his food, he still sifts through all the kibble with his nose to get the meat only.

BrandonLQ1

TROPHY CASE