Categories: Garden and gardening

Adding Worms To Bad Soil Won’t Fix It…Here’s Why

Grab an Urban Worm Bag: https://bit.ly/2ybjJbb I get this question A LOT: “Can I just add earthworms into my bad soil to improve it?” The answer is…not really. Worms are the consequence of good soil, not a way to fix bad soil. It makes a bit more sense to start adding organic matter (food for worms and other soil life), allowing that soil life to proliferate, and then worms will start coming back to your soil.

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  • I understand the general concept of converting dirt into soil by starting at the bacterial and fungal level but I don't understand excluding adding worms to dirt. Looking for feedback:

    • You say worms are likely to die if added to "lifeless" dirt. I agree. But what about in-ground worm farms/bins -- isn't it true that adding an in-ground worm bin solves the problem of providing food for worms even in "lifeless" soil?

    • And if the worms are able to survive because of the in-ground bins, wouldn't the worms then be able to aerate the soil and add organic matter UNDER the surface (vs simply adding organics to the surface)?

    • And if this is true, wouldn't the subsurface aeration and distribution of worm castings go a long way in encouraging deeper root growth (vs shallow, sprawling rooting)?

    I can't help but feel like this sort of hyper-focus on starting at the microbial level is causing us to overlook, ignore, or exclude reasonable solutions to creating/restoring soil and the soil food web.

    I'm all for emphasizing bacterial and fungal health as a fundamental element of soil health but I don't see how that would cause me or anyone else to discourage using worms as one among many tools to help reach that goal. Am I missing something here?

  • The mighty earthworms stand on the top of the foodchain. They are dangerous, powerful
    alpha-predators, nobody tries to f... around with those agressive and bloodthirsthy earthworms! Jk…

  • What do you think about the barometric pressure changes in worm species? I've heard that nightcrawlers climb more when the water comes to escape floods as Red wigglers are less likely to make a break for it when that water comes.

    Any issue with putting a hand full of both into a big planter and seeing how things level out?

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