Worms

This morning I planted willows along a border for future use as baskets, wattle and daub thingies and firewood. Our Workawayer dug the holes for me (No way I could do that!) and I planted. As I filled in each hole (12 trees) I looked for worms. Not one. Not a single one. Now, I live in Galicia, an abundantly green and productive part of Spain, with the ideal climate - our seasons do what it says on the tin. But clearly, donkey years (or should that be mule years, or even oxen) have taken its toll with constant ploughing and the soil is dead. The only parts of our 5 year tenured-land is where I have mulched with paper and hay and gradually with compost. There we have worms.
Is anyone else as scared as me?

What I read from that Amanda is that where we do the right thing, we bring back the worms. Where we do the wrong thing, we drive them away. It's pretty much like that in every other area of our environment and society as well. Yes it's scary to watch the evidence unfold of the damage being done by conventional farming, building, pharming, banking, planning, transport, landscape management etc. but it's also encouraging to see the many constructive things that we can and are doing as well that can help to rebuild, regenerate, revitalise and enrich ourselves, our land and our society.

Here's to hope for the future :-)

The amount of worms per acre of healthy soil is around the same mass as an elephant. And worms do indeed migrate to where the conditions are more favorable. I expect your underground elephant is somewhere nearby, you'll just need to coax it out

5 years ago I inherited a large garden with not one worm in it. After pumping organic matter into the soil, and not applying any chemicals, I almost always get a worm when I scoop out some soil.

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:This morning I planted willows along a border for future use as baskets, wattle and daub thingies and firewood. Our Workawayer dug the holes for me (No way I could do that!) and I planted. As I filled in each hole (12 trees) I looked for worms. Not one. Not a single one. Now, I live in Galicia, an abundantly green and productive part of Spain, with the ideal climate - our seasons do what it says on the tin. But clearly, donkey years (or should that be mule years, or even oxen) have taken its toll with constant ploughing and the soil is dead. The only parts of our 5 year tenured-land is where I have mulched with paper and hay and gradually with compost. There we have worms.
Is anyone else as scared as me?

Willow is great for many things, firewood is not really one of those things, willow will burn up fast and it doesn't burn hot like oak or hickory or even ash or aspen.

Compost is always a friend to the soil especially the microorganism world part of soil, the more you can spread the better the soil can become. Compost teas are a great way to get every benefit of compost without needing tons of it.
If the area was farmed, the first thing to think about is de-compacting, this can be done at the same time you are doing the water control structures.
Getting life into the soil by using compost or composted manures is the most efficient method of building your soil back into health, it will just take some time to get to that point.
Fortunately you live in one of the "near perfection" areas of the planet, so all you need to do is make compost and spread it both by using compost as mulch and using compost teas.

Redhawk

Compost is always a friend to the soil especially the microorganism world part of soil, the more you can spread the better the soil can become. Compost teas are a great way to get every benefit of compost without needing tons of it.
If the area was farmed, the first thing to think about is de-compacting, this can be done at the same time you are doing the water control structures.
Getting life into the soil by using compost or composted manures is the most efficient method of building your soil back into health, it will just take some time to get to that point.
Fortunately you live in one of the "near perfection" areas of the planet, so all you need to do is make compost and spread it both by using compost as mulch and using compost teas.

Redhawk

We are making compost and mulching as fast as we can collect the materials! We have a long way to go.

I just read about the three kinds of earthworms in Colorado.

I have alkaline soil, varying depths over limestone (maybe) benches… anyway stone benches.  It’s dry too.

The big worms, night crawlers have “permanent” burrows.  The red wriggler worms don’t go underground… live in leaf piles, compost.  Neither of these survives freezing… except possibly as an egg?

So, to get worms into my soil, I need to protect from freezing, and keep the soil moist.  I’m thinking of a few loads of wood chips…. and wetting it down… the wood chips, but especially the ground beneath.  When I have achieved that, buying healthy night crawlers fishing worms.

So, here are my questions, does this sound viable, and should I provide food for the worms?  Seems like they will need something to eat!  I could get a bale of alfalfa and put it in a 3-4 inch layer before I get the chips delivered.  Do the worms need alfalfa, or would hat or straw or corn stalks do?  If I usedalfalfa pellets, would they rot too fast for the worms?

I am planning for them to overwinter, growing and reproducing.  In the spring, I thought i could make furrows in the wood chips, and plant in them.

I don’t know much about worms, what else might they need?

Thanks so much.

Loads of wood chips, yes! What other organic material do you have to offer?  Compost?

I think if you have healthy soil, worms will come, and you won't need to add any. Wood chips and leaf matter and mulch should all help attract them!

Hi Anne,
Organic matter?  None to speak of, unfortunately.  I might be able to pick up a few bags of leaves from the sidewalk in a nearby town in the fall, but it wouldn’t amount to much.

There’s a layer of darker topsoil, but it’s certainly not deep enough to protect the worms from freezing.

I have been doing more reading, and have developed some confusion over how cold an earthworm can tolerate.  Some sources say they survive freezing if the rewarming is gradual.

What I want is to create conditions that the worms will be actively growing and reproducing all winter.

Seems like they will need food, and the coniferous wood chips available from the local sawmill don’t seem like they bring much ready to eat carbon or fungi.

Looks like I am talking myself into the idea that a mix of organics would be best!

Syd Smith wrote:I think if you have healthy soil, worms will come, and you won't need to add any. Wood chips and leaf matter and mulch should all help attract them!

My soil isn’t that healthy, yet. 🤣  I was seeing the worms as a means to speed the process to healthy soil…. Trying to understand what makes habitat to support them.

The woodchip might act as insulation, but I think the worms will need a range of decomposing organic material.

I sometimes find my worms curled up in a little ball to hibernate. I think they do that when it is too cold or dry to move around.


sussex wildlife trust agrees with me on that.

No idea how cold they can tolerate. I have heard that worm bins need protection in cold weather, but the worms seem to be fine in my compost bin and soil here (mild frosts only).

Nice looking worm, Nancy.

I’m envious!

I took some photos of my target area to show the soil profile and how little organic matter already exists.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Nice looking worm, Nancy.

Oh it's not one of mine! That photo is from the sussex wildlife trust site. Mine are looking pretty good now though - much improved from the pale sad looking ones I started with.

First photo is of the general appearance of the ground.

The second shows the soil profile.  It’s a prairie dog burrow.  

The third is a glimpse of the subsoil.  This is what I see whenever the prairie dogs get busy with an excavation.  Plenty of clay, some gravel.

To me it looks like it could be transformed into marvelous rich fertile soil.

We’re in our hottest part of summer.  Beginning in mid august I can probably begin to wet the ground which will be beneath the wood chips.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:To me it looks like it could be transformed into marvelous rich fertile soil.

I don't see why not! Here's a test pit of my field when I started improving my vegetable area:



It actually doesn't look so bad in my picture, but the grass roots only penetrate the top couple of inches as it is so compacted, and the water was running off the surface rather than soaking in. I needed to put air in my soil (through digging and organic matter). I think water and organic matter are the key for you. The worms will survive your dry summer curled up in their mucus sealed balls, but they will need some moisture to move around and breed.
Another suggestion for you is some sort of cover crop - like fodder radish. That would add organic material deep in the soil, and probably get killed off in your winter. Follow that with woodchip in spring to insulate and add longer lasting carbon and introduce the worms in spring too. They might get going before the summer heat kicks in and have two active seasons, spring and autumn.

Anne Miller wrote:Loads of wood chips, yes! What other organic material do you have to offer?  Compost?

What is organic matter?

Coffee grounds, tea leaves, food scraps, leaves, twigs from pruning, chop and drop, straw, etc.

There must be other organic material laying around or easily obtained ...

From my own experience, placing a layer of wood chips (the thicker the better) does indeed seem to act as a magnet for worms. I think the combination of decaying organic matter, moisture, and large pore space seems to do the trick for them.

Personally, I have not had to add any outside worms to get them to appear. They just seem to figure out how to get there and appear to raise their future generations there. I hope that might be your experience too in the future if you try!

Had the same starting point with compacted soil and basically no worm activity. Thick layer of wood chips and within a few months they appeared on their own. The thing I noticed is they congregate right at that boundary where chips meet soil, that decomposition layer seems to be where all the action is. Once you get that damp rotting interface going they just find it somehow.

Thanks, everyone.

Here’s what I’m thinking:  For the worms to show up, they would either need to already be dormant in the “soil”.  Or they would have had to cross a broad expanse of dry, compacted alkaline clay soil.

I will probably start the habitat development, then when things have cooled down, I can add worms if no worms have shown up.

First make a depression in the ground, maybe dig a few post holes a few feet down.  I will spread various organics such as alfalfa and corn stalks before the spruce and pine wood chips arrive, and I will inoculate all that with fungi… most mushrooms prefer hardwoods and deciduous chips. I am researching that as I have read that the resins in pines and spruce suppress fungal growth.

I will admit I am skeptical about the worms showing up.  They aren’t native in most of North America, came with European settlers.  They would have to cross an expanse of dry alkaline clay, hot in the summer, frozen in the winter, unless there’s a protective layer of snow.  But more significantly, I have dug irrigation furrows through neglected but living pasture and planted more than 50 trees, and not encountered worm one.  I started a tree plot, digging woodchips in, and covering with more wood chips.  In addition to the tree seedlings, I planted tons and tons of seeds.  I put a goat barrier around the 16 foot square plot.  I have faithfully watered since April.

🤷🏻‍♀️ no worms.  Does it take longer?

Anyway, as I said, I won’t introduce worms until fall, or as late as next spring, just to see.  I’m thinking I will get some red worms as well as the deep burrowing night crawlers.

As I write this, it occurs to me I could make two worm plots .  One adjacent to the tree plot, to which I would introduce worms and one at a distance, to which I would not introduce worms.  Eventually the plots will become connected.  (That’s my objective anyway). But I could probably keep that plot where I didn’t introduce worms isolated for a few years.

But, I might be too tired or not have enough time.

Timothy Norton wrote:Personally, I have not had to add any outside worms to get them to appear. They just seem to figure out how to get there and appear to raise their future generations there. I hope that might be your experience too in the future if you try! :)

Considering that I've occasionally found worms in the eves trough of our 2 story house, I think they're capable of teleportation.

That said, Thekla is correct that worms were imported from Europe and they may have naturalized to many of our ecosystems, but I think I'd want to research potential reasons for *not* introducing them to an ecosystem they haven't yet been introduced to.

Permies think that worms are universally wonderful, but they evolved in an ecosystem which evolved with them. The "Jumping Worm" has had some bad press and I gather part of that is that it eats the detritus in the soil faster than it is easily replaced and this can be a net negative in many situations. I have read that fishermen have released worms leftover from fishing into Canada's forests and that is having a negative impact.

My research so far says we have these worms in colorado, AND that the threat they present is in ecosystems that developed in the absence of worms.  The specific example I read is of worms moving north into Canada’s arboreal forests where decomposition in the soils happens more slowly, much more slowly, and depended primarily on arthropods.  As the worms move in, they speed up soil decomposition, leaving the native community without food.  And many other changes befall the ecosystem.

It’s an important consideration.  I wish I could do something about those soil organisms in northern boreal forests.  Dunno what else will be lost.  I believe every loss is important.  

We grow rabbits for meat. The plan is that they end up in the freezer, but some of them die earlier, from illness, predators, misadventure, and even old age. Those, we bury. Other than treating them with respect, the idea is that they go back to the soil, because everything good goes back to the soil. We've long noticed that areas where we've buried a few rabbits have lots of worms. So, other than contributing their nutrients to the soil, they share those same nutrients with lots of grateful worms, who are attracted to the area, proliferate and, of course, give back to the soil.
Even if you don't have access to your own animals in need of burial, it might be worth bringing back roadkill animals to bury in your land. At least you'd be salvaging something from the tragedy, and it all looks the same from a worm's perspective.
I'd caution against using any parts of industrially-grown animals, because they'll be filled with pollutants you don't want in your soil. That's a tragedy you can't salvage anything from, not even food.