Healthy Soil, No Worms in Sight, I Don't Get It! Thoughts?

14 years ago

Hi All,

I'm a long time gardener but I haven't had enough time to delve into the depths of soil knowledge as much as I should. I'm a big believer in healthy soil yields healthy plants. Get your soil test and don't use synthetic products.

Now, I did a soil test this spring. We didn't need to amend according to the test. This is for a public demonstration garden where the produce is donated to a local food bank that serves 29 counties.

Well, our vegetable garden literally turned into a jungle. And I learned just how vigorous grafted tomato plants can be. I grafted them myself, they turned into monster plants. We planted Mini Zinnias, marigolds, and other low growing flowering plants along the paths because they were supposed to be small. Well, everything grew so well, they grew over the paths. The marigolds and zinnias were supposed to be no more than 12"-14" inches tall. The marigolds were 3 feet and the zinnias were 4-5 feet tall.

This garden has only had compost added every year made from the city's yard waste recycling program. No synthetic fertilizers.

I've been volunteering in this garden every other year for seven years. This season I was in charge of it. In all the time I've worked in the garden, I've only ever seen literally a handful of worms... less than 10 total. The other surrounding beds which are amended according to what's being grown in them seem to have worms.

Here is a copy of the soil test.

To see the garden, look here. There's no doubt in my mind that the soil will make plants grow. I just don't understand the lack of worm population. Can someone please explain this to me? Any theories?

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Comments (12)

Lloyd
14 years ago
Some previous worm discussions

here

and

here

Lloyd
natgreeneveg
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you Lloyd, after a lot of reading, really all I got out of it that makes sense in this garden is "Not all healthy soils will have earthworms."
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Lloyd
14 years ago
Ya, if the plants are fine, no worms don't mean much, they just might be uppity or persnickety.

Lloyd

P.S. and to ignore me! :-)
curt_grow
14 years ago
I live in small town rural Minnesota. Great farming and gardening country. Five worms to a shovel full? How about five shovels full to a worm. Not counting Canadian Night Crawlers of course.

Curt :-)
gardenlen
14 years ago
g'day,

for me if there are no worms then it tells me there is something out of whack, as worms are the first thing you see when building a garden successfully and has been everywhere i've lived.

check this site:

about soil and worms

mulch will play an integral part in encouraging worms as will the continual addidtion of rottable organic matter, so we use green mulches that break down generally over a 6 month period and then all spent vege' plants get tucked in under the mulch along with all kitchen scraps, and then we use our kitchen water (we wash by hand) and my wee water on the vege gardens.

mulch keeps the garden warm and cool when it needs to and also keeps it moist, all suitable climate for worms.

our worm farm is our vege' garden, we have composting worms in the garden as well as the local exotics, no need to dig looking for them just pull the mulch away and there they are. having the worms in teh agrden like that measn the benefits they create are delivered right where they are needed.

so if my garden lacked worms i think i would be doing more to attract them and the first thing i'd suggest is bring some composting worms in to get started. we use no fertilisers or manures ever.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
idaho_gardener
14 years ago
Try skipping adding compost to some of your garden beds as an experiment. Compost is a weak fertilizer anyway, so it probably won't hurt crop yields. Keep the soil mulched. I'll bet you see more worms in those beds in the fall.

I'm in my third year of gardening some beds that were heavily composted. Only now are worms starting to appear. Yields were good last year, better this year.
organicdan
14 years ago
A night survey after or during a light rain might give a more accurate indication. I normally make a weekly tour of the garden one hour after sunset with the flashlight in hand.
You might also chop some browned leaves and scatter atop the beds. In the morning you will be pleasantly surprised to see the tips of leaves protruding from the ground. They pull them under and munch.. munch.. munch.

Collect a square foot of soil, sift and do your count. It would seem you are missing a few in the head count. Ten is a healthy population in one square foot.
paulns
14 years ago
Is the soil sandy? Worms are not that fond of sandy soil. Ours is, and even after ten years of amending to good levels of organic matter (6%) we still don't find many worms. Who cares - there's still the microherd at work. I agree though that mulching with organic matter instead of tilling or turning it in seems to encourage worms.

I see your phosphorus levels are very high. How did that happen? Ours are high as well, due to adding tons (literally) of compost made from shellfish waste the past two years. We figured this out after a soil test.
stevesd
14 years ago
Sometimes sandy soil is hard to get worms to live in. I vermicompost and add the poop to my tiny tomato patch. I also add some mulches. The soil here is sandy, and alkaline, The water is alkaline too. I do have worms, but I really only see them if I pull up a weed. they will be around the roots. I raise really tremendous tomato crops on four or five plants, so I really don't worry too much about the worms. ONe thing to remember, I only irrigate(drip) when there is a crop growing, and rains here are spotty and unpredictable, so the worms have to rebuild their populations each year when the winter rains finally come. That is just the way it is. Have a great time gardening, Steve
natgreeneveg
Original Author
14 years ago
len,

I'm very particular about making sure everything gets mulched. For water retention, weed suppression, and to keep the soil loose.

As for sandy loam type soil, i really don't think so, but i'd have to do a water layer test to be sure.

Any gardener, and there are many who work in our bed envies our soil because it's so ideal. The native soil is red clay.
annpat
14 years ago
I enjoyed the garden tour. It looks like a great group of people to garden with, too.
curt_grow
14 years ago
Sorry everyone I was confused (not for the last time) You don't get many Canadian Night Crawlers in a shovel They live too deep in the ground.I just read Darwin on worms and mould I just harvested two gallons of castings in thirty five minutes. Don't laugh, that's twenty pounds of the best stuff on earth.There were 5 to 10 every square foot in some spots they were touching. Why not spaced I don't have a clue?Sorry Lloyd when I think of crawlers I think of you! Boy that cleared things up??? Try extra water,local spot to get worms that live in your climate/soil?

Curt :-0

Healthy Soil, No Worms in Sight, I Don't Get It! Thoughts?

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Lloyd

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Healthy Soil, No Worms in Sight, I Don't Get It! Thoughts?

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