Red Wigglers and imapct on nutrient availability

[CannabisMingus]

As long as you keep your soil in a good hydrated level they will thrive. I’ve kept some alive in 5gallon pots for almost a year

Africans (Eudrilus eugeniae)? My concern is that these pots will be kept through the summer (85+ in the tent probably) w/o plants other than a cover crop run or two. I think this species is the most heat tolerant of the available ones.

 

[CannabisMingus]

Eco-Taxonomic Profile of an Iconic Vermicomposter — the ‘African Nightcrawler’ Earthworm, Eudrilus eugeniae (Kinberg, 1867) (bioone.org)

"Several authors, have confirmed phytohormone-like effects of casts as reported by Tomati et al. (1988). For instance, Nagavallemma et al. (2004) found generic vermicomposts to have higher percentages (nearly double) of both macro- and micronutrients and higher microbial activity compared with garden composts, plus they detected these plant-growthpromoting agents. Data from Parthasarathi (2006) is summarised in Table 2.

It is from the microbial activity that most of the benefits of worm casts accrue, relating to mineralisation and the gradual release of nutrients, as well as plant-growth-promoting enzymatic agents. As vermicompost ages, this biological activity declines, but the vitamin content may double with time (Prabha et al. 2007). Studies by Parthasarathi and Ranganathan (2000) showed that enzymes (cellulase, amylase, invertase, protease and phosphatase) declined as the casts aged. Parthasarathi (2006) found that Eudrilus eugeniae fed on sugar cane pressmud had a more than four-fold increase (significant p<0.05) in microbial population (fungi + bacteria + actinomycetes) and dehydrogenase enzyme activity in fresh casts, leading to enhanced nutrient mineralisation, but this activity gradually decreased over the period of a month as the casts aged (see Table 2)."

. . .
"Comparative glasshouse experiments and field trials (Blakemore 1994, 1997, 2008a) showed statistically significant yield increases when this worm was introduced to soil cores ranging from +21–74 % for oats and +15–50 % for grass shoots (and up to +50 % for grass roots), compared to uninoculated pots."

 

[nizmoKush]

I’ve had mine in that ambient temp and higher sometimes. My grow was before in a walk on closet with no ventilation and the S. Texas weather ain’t a cool one. The worms I had were from uncle Jim’s, but there’s a place here in tx so I might try them later

 

[CannabisMingus]

I’ve had mine in that ambient temp and higher sometimes. My grow was before in a walk on closet with no ventilation and the S. Texas weather ain’t a cool one. The worms I had were from uncle Jim’s, but there’s a place here in tx so I might try them later

Texas Worm Ranch?

 

[nizmoKush]

Texas Worm Ranch?

Yes inthink that’s the one. Ima try them next time I might need worms for now I can take some from my eb jr and move them to the other pots here and there

 

[dogfart]

I was doing some random research (instead of work) and found this:

"Overall, literature findings show that no clear effect of epigeic earthworms can be detected in microbial biomass, nor on the growth rate of microbial populations."

Red wigglers (E. fetida) are epigeic. The meta-study seems to conclude that these worms may not increase bacterial biomass or nutrient availability in the soil below.

Frontiers | Earthworms Building Up Soil Microbiota, a Review | Environmental Science (frontiersin.org)

Planning a future living soil grow using E. fetida and now am reconsidering my worm strategy.

Edit: Re-read the study and it's unclear as to whether they took any real conclusions on this issue. Seems like the previous studies cited were substrate dependent (and mostly manure). Interested in other's conclusions.

If I'm fair I never use the red wigglers for any reason other than the fact that they could just Hammer through the biomass that I had accumulated for them and live in cardboard housing that I would like my old red wiggler houses that I used to have in my breezeway were the blue recycle bins but I would lasagna layer them and I would leave the very top layer 3/4 of it would be dry and I would newspaper and cardboard it so they had a dry area to house at night and then I would cut a corner out say like as wide as a deck of cards length width wise and then leave that area open and dump all the biomass down that side and allow them to hammer it dude I even gave him my hair clippings after I got my haircut they loved it I found when it comes to planting in my soil that the Canadian nightcrawlers that they sell here locally is fishing Bay are phenomenal to keep in my soil because of the aerate and eat and I let them have all the bio like the all the leaves everything that falls off the plants anything that's in the garden that lands down on the actual medium and substrate if they can't get to it overnight with lights off I'll push the stuff to the corner and put it and make it available for them and when they die I figure they're just fertilizing the plants, I've been fortunate in that I've been able to keep my mediums cool enough where it didn't affect the red wigglers or the Crawlers enough to kill them

 

[paulg]

So, was there a conclusion drawn here? Are Red Wigglers beneficial to organic soil? Thx

 

[hecno]

Yes they are ,

 

[paulg]

Got mine, they’re working as I write!