worms

From: Carolyn Schaffner <drsnooks@buffnet.net>

Aner and others --

Worms in your soil have acclimated very well. They are very hardy
things, with many mechanisms for survival of the species. For example,
they reproduce both asexually and bi-sexually. They produce egg cases
which are able to live through thick and thin and drought and famine as
well as wet floods and tornados. 

By introducing foreighn worms, you would not have "worm wars" as they
are very busy just feeding and reproducing and surviving the above
conditions. They really don't know/care when it's people or mother
nature which has interfered with their appointed rounds. 

In other words, they're pretty DUMB!

SO, to help your worms out, you might dig in your own garden for some
locally native worms and enclose them in a worm bin with some of their
own environment, plus your supplements to reproduce, and then
reintroduce them into your garden. However, without garden conditions in
which they would like to reproduce and thrive as a species, the numbers
would probably restabalize to the pre-worm conditions.

BUT your own garden provides lots for them to do. AND you could
introduce lots of (horrors for iris) organic matter. They "luv" alfalfa!
AND more horrors for iris, cultivate the soil to get some air down there
for the worms. They will survive better where there are (more iris bed
horrors) weeds and, well, decaying leaves and etc.

Chances are, however, that if your iris bed doesn't have many worms, the
next non-iris bed does. And fer sher yer compost pile does. Since I've
been using alfalfa, and interplanting companions, I have more worms in
the iris beds. This is not everyone's way of growing iris.

The worms you'd find at a bait shop are likely NOT earthworms. They are
probably "red wrigglers" (note spelling) which will not survive in your
garden soil. There is some possibility that they will survive a short
time in a compost pile, but not for long.

"Red wrigglers" are worth cultivating in their own worm bin
to produce rich worm castings which could be used in the garden or on
your houseplants. 

You can even purchase a complicated worm growing factory type
contraption. I built a box from scrap plywood and went from there.
Growing worms, or vermaculture, is certainly a hobby which takes time
and attention, but is GREAT for kids!

Carolyn Schaffner in Buffalo, NY
********
> Yeah. Dirt without worms is a real sad thing and they are not the only good 
> thing living in the soil. I keep thinking I should go get a mess of night 
> crawlers at a bait shop and introduce them in to my garden to see if they 
> will take, but that seems a pretty desperate measure and if I have a 
> different kind of worm here then there might be worm turf wars in the yard 
> and that would be too bizarre for words.

--------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ----------------------------

    GRAB THE GATOR! FREE SOFTWARE DOES ALL THE TYPING FOR YOU!
Tired of filling out forms and remembering passwords? Gator fills in
forms and passwords with just one click! Comes with $50 in free coupons!
  <a href=" http://clickme.onelist.com/ad/gator4 ">Click Here</a>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index