Earthworm Innoculation

[phildirt]

Has anyone ever innoculated their landscape with earthworms? I built a house in a new sub-division that was farmland about 7 years ago. The developer scraped away about 8 feet of the original soil to prepare the lots. The soil is very heavy black clay. We moved in to the house in March, and I began my organic program then.

Since then I have put out compost, Garrett Juice, coffee grounds, nematodes, alfalfa pellets, cornmeal, kelp, fish emulsion and Texas Tea. I built four large flower beds out of compost, lava sand, green sand and topped them with cedar mulch. They are irrigated with a drip irrigation system that I installed. The plants are all doing great.

I dig around in my yard and flower beds often, either weeding or planting. Since March, I have only seen two earthworms and they were in the flower beds. I am concerned that I have not seen more. I thought that an organic program would attract earthworms, since they would have an abundant food supply in microbial rich soil.

So now I'm thinking that the developer may have removed all the earthworms and their food supply when they prepared the lots for houses. If this is true, can you innoculate the worms back into your landscape? I'm thinking it would be better to get local worms from someone who has the same soil conditions so as to minimize any shock to the earthworms.

As to how to do it, I thought it would make sense to mechanically aerate the soil to about 6 inches, then drop an earthworm into the holes then cover the holes with compost.

Any thoughts to this method? Do earthworms native to the North Texas area avoid heavy clay soil? Will they come back once the microbes have microaerated the clay, and therefor make it easier for earthworms to burrow and live?

[Kathe Kitchens]

Yeah, Phil, you can get some earthworms from your neighbors or friends in the area and let them loose. However, I have seen earthworms, big ones, in soil so tight I thought nothing would want to live there, but they'd show up and leave their mark (castings) on the surface after every rain so I knew they were there under the surface. The thing is, they go where there's food, so if there's not enough organic material in the soil to attract them, well, they're not going to be there. Sounds like you have amended the heck out of your soil but if you're starting from scratch you're just going to have to give the natural processes time to work. Regular (monthly in your case) application of molasses goes a long way toward activating the microbes in your soil and you might consider an innoculant like Earthworm to reintroduce the benefical microbes since the soil you got was probably pretty sterile from being moved around and knocked out of balance. Just a thought. Liquid compost or compost tea is a great stimulator/amendment too and very cost effective. I don't know where to rent an aerator as I have never mechanically aerated, but I know that most places like Home Depot and Lowe's have them available to rent. Call around and I'll bet you find one pretty close.

[phildirt]

Thanks again Kathe,
I see no earthworm castings on the surface after a rain or otherwise. Do you continue to put out the molasses through the fall and winter months while the grass goes dormant? Is the molasses a year-round application you put out every month? I thought at some point the microbes would go dormant during the winter (say December through February) and not need much to eat again until the weather warmed up in late February.

I'm building a 3-bin (2.37 cu. yd. capacity finished compost) compost bin this month and will start brewing aerobic compost tea once I get some finished compost to work with. I've got a pile of fine-screened compost from the City of Mesquite's Composting Facility, but it is not finished (can still identify the materials, plus it smells sour). I thought I would put it in the first bin, add layers of greens and browns and then water with the rainwater from my rainwater harvesting system I built and let it cook until sweet smelling.

Ultimately, I want to get away from using municipal compost and use only my own since I have no idea what synthetic chemicals are in the municipal compost. Problem is, getting enough raw material to work with since I don't have any trees larger than 10-feet (new development) and I leave all my grass clippings on the yard. Plus, buying finished compost is expensive.

Guess I'm being impatient and should wait for nature to do her work.

[horseranch]

Phil, keep doing what you've been doing and they'll come back. When we bought our land 4 years ago, it was thoroughly chemical-sterilized. After 3 years of benign neglect (no chemicals, but no organic amendments either -- we were absentee landlords), and one year of a pretty low-key organic program, we're starting to see more and more earthworm castings. So just be patient and stick with your plans :)

[Kathe Kitchens]

Agreed. Just keep doing what you're doing and the microbes and earthworms will come on their own in their own time. I put molasses on the soil at about 4 oz. to the gallon about once a month during the growing season, but I have soil that's been doing fine. Since you are doing a recovery/remediation, you would benefit from molasses so long as it's warm enough for the liquid to go out of the hose. Start out at 8 oz. per gallon, which is heavy, but will kick start your program. Using a soil innoculant will just speed up the process and it's really inexpensive.

You can buy a liquid compost concentrate at Lowe's stores and use that until you get your own product going. It's very clean and I have great results with it. It saves the back, too, which is important for me. I mix the two together and spray away. Have fun and have faith...nature is very resilient and will right itself with just a little help from friends! :D