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Boosting Earthworm Populations and Fertilizing With Worm Castings |
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Written by Administrator
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Sunday, 11 September 2005 |
by S. Zorba Frankel
I
want to improve my garden’s soil. Should I buy worms to put in my
garden? Should I dump redworms in there along with the worm compost?
Earthworms are renowned for their abilities to improve soil. Their work
adds to the fertility of agricultural soils and garden beds alike. They
have a great number of talents, just some of which include:
- drilling burrows that allow heavy rains to drain downward quickly, thus preventing surface flows that wash away topsoil,
- aerating the soil, which promotes aerobic life in root zones and much deeper,
- excreting a time-release capsule of fertilizer that’s consdered to be the finest available,
- mixing mineral particles and organic matter into the soil,
- giving birds something to do in the early morning (they’d sleep in otherwise, and act listless all day).
Transplanting soil-dwelling worms into a new location, however, may not
be the answer. It has been done, particularly on a large scale, when
inoculating pastures with worms by bringing in blocks of soil
containing the appropriate species. For the home gardener to purchase
the right earthworms would mean first having your worms identified by
an oligochaetologist — a scientist who studies earthworms! Then, you’d
search long and hard for a source for your particular soil dwelling
species! (Of course, you can always transport several buckets of soil
from an earthworm-rich bed, to a location where you’d like to have
earthworms. If you try this, you can improve your chances of success by
watering the soil and covering with a mulch.)
In fact, it’s easy to create earthworm-friendly conditions in your
garden. Though you may not see earthworms now, your soil probably
contains some earthworm cocoons. To encourage cocoons to hatch and
existing earthworms to reproduce faster, add compost and/or
vermicompost frequently, and keep a layer of mulch on the soil’s
surface. You’ll begin to see a great improvement in your soil’s overall
fertility, and you’ll find earthworms in your soil within months, if
not weeks. Organic matter provides the nutrients for microbial life,
which, in turn, provides food for earthworms.
Most of the worms we use in vermicomposting are not soil-dwellers, so
don’t add them to your garden beds. It’s fine if some redworms end up
there. If you’ve mulched your beds well or mixed in lots of organic
matter, and the beds are moist, then composting worms may live a while.
Otherwise, they’ll soon die and return their nutrients back to the soil.
Using Vermicompost and Castings in Your Garden
Vermicompost is a mix of worm castings and organic matter that’s
decomposed via aerobic organisms. Castings are the portion of
vermicompost that has come out the back end of the worm. Castings are a
good fertilizer and will “stretch” farther if mixed into the soil, a
potting mix or other compost, rather than used straight. They should
also be kept moist, because castings tend to repel water once they’ve
dried out. For that reason, try to mix castings and vermicompost into
the soil, rather than letting them remain at the surface.
To make a terrific potting soil, mix 15% worm castings (or 25%
vermicompost) with 20% coconut fiber (coir) 10% vermiculite or perlite,
30% topsoil and 25% compost. When moving starts outdoors, mix a heaping
tablespoon of castings (or two to three tablespoons vermicompost) into
the soil at the bottom of the transplant hole. Before planting a row,
mix vermicompost or castings right into the top few inches of soil to
give your vegetables and blooms a boost! And...let Worm Digest know how
your garden grows! |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 18 September 2005 )
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