I have read some conficting information on worms in the compost pile. One source said that nightcrawlers do not like the heap because of the heat, and that redwigglers were better.
Another said that redwigglers do not like to be in the garden, so use nightcrawlers...which means I just wasted alot of money!
Advice?
thanks, merri

Worms show up when your soil is healthy. You don't need to add them to compost or the garden.

rats...i was thinking that i could use them as an aid to reach the GOAL of healthy soil. We have old pasture land, over which we placed some raised beds. as it is, we have no worms at all. well, i suppose they are down there someplace, but not in the top layer where we (try to) dig. the land is hard as granite~
guess i am just impatient?
thanks!!!
merri

when I started working my current place it was hard packed red clay. I tilled, plowed and dug holes for three years before seeing a worm. After tilling in leaves and following the organic plan I now have the biggest worms you could imagine. I talked to some farmers in the area. My place is cut out of a 40 acre field where cotton and sorghum once grew. They also told me the family applied the usual chemicals by air every year.

I went to the Fort Worth Organic Gardening Club meeting tonight, so as to soak in more information...

One fellow said not to use oak leaves in my beds (and, I assume, my compost) because the tannic acid would kill my worms.

But I ahve already mixed tons of leaves in to add organic matter~~~I really have just started my compost piles.

Has anyone else heard this?

Thanks, merri

hmmmm, makes you wonder how all those 'non-domesticated' forest floor worms survive under the oaks if thats true..............

I know squid!!!
I am so new to all of this, and all of the information (and and various, often conflicting, 'schools' of organic thought) have me totally saturated and overwhelmed!
you are right, tho...i goggled around last night looking up earth worms and oak leaves, and - of course - most things that came up refered to how you can find the worms under the leaves...ecosystem function, etc.

thanks!!,
merri