As far as growing produce goes, the most important ingredient to get right is the soil. If you think about it, you are growing living plants and they need living soil to grow in, nutrient rich soil full of living organisms. Why are earth worms good for the soil? Because they help to create it.
Why Are Earth Worms Good For The Soil
The presence of earth worms indicates a healthy soil. Dig one spade depth into your soil, if you reveal earth worms then you have good healthy soil. To explain this better we need to look at how earth worms operate and just what they do.
What Do Earth Worms Need To Survive
Earth worms live underground, and need 4 main things to survive. These are an ambient temperature, oxygen, food, and moisture. If any one of these 4 needs are missing, so will the earth worms. They will move to somewhere that suits them better and that is a potential disaster for us gardeners.
How To Provide Earth Worms With What They Need
The temperature is out of our control but if it is mild enough to grow plants then it’s warm enough for earth worms. Moisture and oxygen can be controlled by us, water, but don’t over water. As for food well that’s where it gets really interesting.
What Do Earth Worms Eat
Surprisingly not earth, earth worms eat organic matter found in the soil, stuff like well rotted manure, rotting plant material including dead roots and other plant related debris. Just spread organic material on the top of the soil and the earth worms will start to take that down through the soil.
What Do Earth Worms Do
Worms are basically living soil improvers, they eat organic matter and their waste known as worm castings are free fertiliser. Earth worms Tunnel into the deep soil and bring the subsoil towards the surface and mix it with topsoil. To propel themselves they produce a slime which contains nitrogen which is an important nutrient vital to all plants.
The tunnels they create helps to break up compacted soil making it more aerated allowing more oxygen to get to plant roots. So to summarise earth worms dig the soil, spread fertiliser, dispose of organic material and create nitrogen all without pay. Wow! There’s the answer to why are earth worms good for the soil right there.
How To Encourage Earth Worms Into Your Garden
Add plenty of organic matter onto your plot, this is the single most important way to encourage earth worms to take up residence. Keep the soil moist but not drenched, if your growing plants you shouldn’t have to worry about this too much. To find out more about determining earth worm numbers in your sol click here to go to a Michigan state university post.
Use grass cuttings as a mulch, worms will appreciate the protection this gives them from predators. Keep away from pesticides, herbicides, and artificial fertilisers as these can burn earth worms and will stop them from setting up home in your garden.
How Do Earth Worms Increase Fertility Of Soil
The secret is all that free fertiliser we were talking about earlier, that and the nitrogen. Oh and don’t forget the subsoil with it’s added nutrients. Why are earth worms good for the soil we should be asking how do we grow plants without them.
What Do Earth Worms Decompose
All organic materials like manure, plant waste including leaves, stems, roots and even flowers and vegetive waste. The importance of earth worms to the organic gardener cannot be stressed enough. They are the single most important organism for soil health, free farm labourers, producers of free fertiliser and oxygen and nitrogen suppliers.
If you are thinking of setting up a compost pile or even a compost bin, you will find everything decomposes much faster if earth worms are present. They are truly one of the good guys for gardeners, and organic gardeners need earth worms.
Video Showing The Importance Of Earthworms
Cornmeal For Worms
It is well known in the gardening fraternity that earth worms are attracted to cornmeal. Lightly cover the surface of the soil with a thin layer of cornmeal and lightly water in. After a week or so you should notice an increase in the amount of earth worms in your garden.
Plants That Attract Earth Worms
Earth worms are attracted to plant roots, that’s any plant roots so the more you plant the more earth worms you will attract. If you help your plants along with compost the earth worms will appreciate this organic matter as well.
