Richard Wei

To preface, I dont think this is a pest or nutrient problem, because i used the same soil on other plants and it has been affecting them the same. There was also a time where i did not water properly for a month or so.  I also live in a subtropical environment.

The wilting starts along the stem bottom up, and the leaves start to yellow, then become brown and drop/hang on the stem ( refer to the pictures ive linked). The wilting has persisted despite watering properly now, no over or under watering. Closest match of symptoms ive got online is some sort of fungal disease, called fusarium or verticillium wilt.


So here comes my questions

1. what is the problem with the plant? Is it fungal?
2. how do i stop the wilting from infecting other plants?
3. Is there a way to stop the wilting in my sweet potato plant?
4. Should I fertilise to strengthen the plant? Is applying some compost going to work? (I heard that the sheer amount of beneficial microbes will overpower the ones that are destructive to the plant)



Thanks!

Thanks everyone for the tips, so here is an update after i changed up some of my habits:

Changes:

1. More watering, very moist bedding now
2. More/different bedding, I now incorporated some cardboard into the existing coco coir bedding,as well as layering a thick cardboard layer on the surface
3. Feeding on surface, i now feed the food to the worms by placing on top of the bedding, below the cardboard layer
4. Blending food

Results:
1. There seems to be more earthworms that come up to the surface and feed
2. Im seeing more little wriggling white worms amongst the food, i assume they are baby earthworms
3. Im also spotting different critters in my bin now, some mini red ball-like mites, as well as some gnats
4. the bottom of the bin is quite soggy


so mostly positive changes, but im worried about both the critters and moisture level of the bin. Are the critters i've mentioned harmful to the worms or plants? Also, how do i make sure the bin doesn't go anaerobic since i found out the holes i drilled at the bottom of the bin was too small.

Thanks for everyone's tips, it's worked wonders and basically revitalised my bin, Thanks again for being so kind to a novice like me!

So i bought half a pound of compost worms a month ago so that i could remove our food waste. I had originally planned to increase the worm population to a level that could eat all the food waste produced each day by my family, but  i think they aren't reproducing at a high enough rate to finish all our food scraps.
So this is why im asking if there are any methods to increase worm reproduction, please help me spot if i have made some mistakes in my taking care of the compost worms with my observation below.

1. Bedding is mostly coco-coir and a little cardboard scraps
2. Bin is about 12 L in capacity but im only utilising about half the space, but its very spacious for teh worms as of now, no crowding whatsoever
3. Drainage holes were drilled aty teh bottom of the bin but there is no worm tea coming out as i try to keep waterlogging down
4. Bedding moisture level is usually like a "wrung-out sponge"
5. I feed mainly tea leaves and vegetable scraps, no citrus peels are added and sometimes i add crushed egg shells
6. I feed every time when the previous feed is mostly eaten up with only some residue left
7. I feed by burying it halfway through to the bin, and i always turn the bedding every feed
8, the worms seem to mostly congregate at the bottom of the bin, about 25% are near the surface


so are there any things im doing wrong or can do better to increase worm reproduction? Or is it too early to tell whether or not the population is increasing at a heathy rate? Since i struggled to find any worms that had citellums, perhaps a sign of immaturity or different species?

Thanks

First off, i don't want to buy anything to add nutrients into my soil, especially chemically made ones but even organically made i prefer free, local and abundant sources of nutrients to those found in stores.

So lets say i have a property near a forest. There is often dead wood and leaf litter on the ground of the forest. If take that organic matter and use it in my garden for mulching and hugelkultur, am i essentially depleting the nutrients in the forest (used to grow the stuff i use for mulch etc, and so it doesn't breakdown into nutrients in the forest), and transferring that into my garden?

This is really concerning for me because im trying to revitalize my plot of formerly agricultural land and build up the soil structure + build up local habitats for plant and fauna, but don't want to deplete the nutrients from the forest soil overly.

Is taking organic matter from the forest not so much of a concern as  it still allows the forest to recover? Or may I deplete the nutrients in the forest overly and hurt the local ecosystem?

Since im new to this forum as well as to permaculture in general, your help wuld be much appreciated!


Back ground:
          1.Im thinking of buying land (so im not restricted by size of property) in Taiwan, where the climate will be subtropical which i assume is good habitat for earthworms.
          2. I want to try out methods similar to BTE for permaculture,In particular mulching and composting
          3. In the process of mulching, I would need earthworms/compost worms to break down the mulch top build up soil

Problem/Questions:
          1. Do native worms help in composting/breaking down of mulch? (Or is it only the compost worms that do so?)
          2a. If yes, are native worms in any way inferior to compost worms in composting? ( i heard that compost worms like red wigglers are used in worm bins because they dont mind small places, but since im doing the mulching outdoors and space isnt a problem, I dont NEED to have red wigglers right?)
          2b. If not, which specific breed of compost worm is suggested for the subtropical climate?
          3. If i introduce foreign compost worms to the native taiwan ecosystem, would they threaten the local ecoystem and become invasive?





Thankyou so much