Hello, i am growing in a homemade organic mix of 20% perilite 20% coco 20% earth worm castings and 40% peat moss. Using tap water (its very hard around 600ppm) that has been bubbled for 24hr +. Feeding with General organics at the recommended strength. i am not using the cal mag additive as the water has more then enough in it already. i went to my local pet store and picked up 48 red wigglers and am wanting to add them to my containers. Are there any changes i should make to ensure the success of the worms. To try how many should i be adding to each container. The containers are 4 gallon tree pots (plastic) with extra drainage holes drilled in them. Thanks any advise appreciated.
you already have worm castings in your soil. All the worms can do is aeriate the soil and hopefully they wont chew the roots. Good luck! 1 or 2 worms per container
Worms do till the soil but the bacteria that they secrete during their digestion is imperative to the breakdown of organic matter in a way that is accessible to plants. They do much more than just aerate if you provide them with food. I have hundreds on the surface maybe thousands when I peel back the mulch. As you layer/mulch down those worms will continously turn compost or available organic matter into castings right in the container . A handful per container, they will never eat live roots! They even leave the viable seeds in my composter when fed apples. (they eat around seeds) Which makes sense because if worms ate seeds in nature we would be screwed. Sent from my SM-G903W using Grasscity Forum mobile app
This ^^^ worms self regulate their population anyways so you really can't add too many. Worms eat the bacteria slime, they don't actually have teeth, more "Tremmers" less "Teeth" HaGGarD AF
worms actually will pass seeds (if small enough to be ingested) through their tract and they will still be viable when they make it out the other side (according to Elaine Ingham)
I'm using a similar mix, equal parts SPM, perlite and potting compost and also wondered about live worms. Would that mix support them or would I need to add mulch as well? What would you recommend as a cover crop? Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
Bump up your aeration to about 40% and use w.e. If your not good at keeping up with your IPM that cover crop will get loaded with pests just an FYI. You'll see me in almost every cover crop thread here and I stopped lol I also don't notill anymore though HaGGarD AF
I don't run pots big enough to really get the full benefits, plus being in an apartment makes recycle just easier. I like to fluff and tweak anyways so it works for me. Notill 1gal is hard to pull off HaGGarD AF
Mulch is a must! They must have a good supply of food breaking down. They also need a place to hide. Leaves, straw, grass clippings, whatever you have. I suggest a small amount of compost (like a cup or more) dampened and covered with mulch in a solo cup or similar. Put the worms in this cup for a couple days. This will get the worms comfortable before moving to the pot. Then place the contents of the cup on top of the pot and cover with mulch and keep it misted. It will also help keep them from running away from the new environment. This works very well. Also remember, they don't like soil temps above the high seventies. I recently drove all the worms out of a couple pots, because I had the seedling mats cranked up to 80 F. (damit ) hth os