Worms?

[Phat J]

I had someone suggest using worms in the pots. Probably red worms they are smaller than nightcrawlers with less chance of getting out of the pots. Sounds kinda crazy. Anybody know the pros and cons? I never heard anybody suggest it before? Is it ok to try or could it cause problems?

 

[Wetdog]

Most will likely die. Conditions for growing mj are different than what worms require.

Start a worm bin. The cocoons in the castings will give you plenty of worms when added to your mix. I've found plenty in mine, but pretty much zero at the end of a grow.

They won't hurt a thing, just not likely to survive.

Wet

 

[snowboarder396]

Check out the rols no till thread. As long as you have a good active live soil they should do fine. If they have food they should survive and will provide your soil with good castings. Not sure about smaller containers you'd probably need to do no less then I'd say 10 gallon

 

[Phat J]

That was the idea. Good castings and airetion.

 

[Cann]

if you aren't using chemical nutes they'll be fine and as much as I respect Wet, I have to disagree w/ this statement:

"Conditions for growing mj are different than what worms require."​

I put some redworms and castings (w/ cocoons) in my pots at the beginning of last cycle...I harvested about two weeks ago, and when I went digging around in my pots (to make holes for fresh transplants) I found a ton of redworms inside the rootball. I mustve found 10-20 adult worms per pot (#5-#10 smartpots), and a bunch of younger worms. the larger pots had even more! I actually have to be pretty careful while digging or I'll mutilate a bunch of worms...


starting a wormbin is a great idea too...but you can definitely add some worms into your pots if you want. but a 2'' topdress of fresh vermicompost is going to be much better for your plants than placing a dozen redworms in the pot..so you should get started on the worm bin ASAP. Also, proper castings will contain lots of cocoons...which will hatch in the right conditions (hopefully the conditions of your soil) and therefore you will end up with worms in your pot even if you don't physically place them in there. bagged castings won't do this for you. either way, proper soil will contain all sorts of organisms ranging from the smallest bacteria and protozoa up to things like centipedes, springtails, and even large ol' creatures like redworms. IMO conditions for redworms are very similar to conditions for MJ..with the exception that worms enjoy fresh foodstock and ganja likes the food to be composted first.

to put it in perspective...i have a few 30gallon smartpots in my flower room w/ ROLS soil. I also use a 30gallon smartpot for vermicomposting. The smartpot I use for vermicomposting is filled with roughly 1/3 ROLS, 1/3 manure, and 1/3 malibu compost (bu's blend)..plus a bit of pumice for aeration. I could probably throw some veggie seeds in my worm bin and have them grow...as long as I placed my fresh food scraps on the other side of the pot. the worms love it...and the conditions aren't very far from the conditions in my no-till pots indoors. the worms in my no-tills probably don't reproduce as much as the ones in my worm bin..but they're still playing their part in the soil ecosystem and improving things.


here is a plant in a #10 smartpot that probably has two dozen worms in it





also the worms can be a great measure of soil moisture...when it gets too dry they start to crawl out of the pots. a good visual indication that the soil is too dry!!! lol. if worms think it's too dry, the microbes will think its too dry, and also probably the plant...these are all bad news. keep the worms happy, you'll keep the microbes happy, and your plant will be happy. worms also hate anaerobic conditions, so they will crawl out if you are overwatering friendly little helpers...

 

[Rising Moon]

Cann is 100% correct.

I put worms in my pots all the time, and they also end up hatching allot because I use home made EWC.

I recently noticed at least 5 healthy happy worms inside 1/2 gallon plastic pot during transplant. They had most likely hatched in the EWC, and the plant they were living under looked amazing!

With my new no till set-up, worms are a way of life, and as long as I give them organic matter (canna mulch, comfrey/herbal leaves) they are more than happy, and actually breed in my pots as well.

 

[Wetdog]

I should of mentioned the size of the container.

1 gallon-very seldom>none
5 gallon-some
10+ gallon-many more

My worm bins are also 30 gallon.

Usually the problem is too much water for the worms to be happy. With more experience growers tend to be less happy with the water can and the worms do better.

It also seems to work better when the worms are hatched from fresh EWC rather than full grown worms added to the container. Sort of *seeding* them as it were.

Wet

 

[Cann]

great clarification

although w/ 1 gallon smartpots you could definitely have worms...hard to overwater those babies. 1 gal plastic pots and it gets a bit harder not to flood out the worms..

 

[jcmjrt]

great clarification

although w/ 1 gallon smartpots you could definitely have worms...hard to overwater those babies. 1 gal plastic pots and it gets a bit harder not to flood out the worms..

I was thinking something similar. I've been using airpots 3, 5 and 8 gallon and I've got worms in them all. The aeration seems to be important...and I know that my plants root balls are larger with the airpots than they were with plastic pots. I'm pretty much sold and will continue using the airpots...smartpots seem to work on the same idea.

 

[Trousers]

Hmmm, what about worms in a 3 gallon superroots airpot that is hooked up to a diy sip deal?

I have a tub of red worms outside in coco. They are starting to warm up and get fat.


edit: they might crawl out of the holes?

 

[snowboarder396]

Hmmm, what about worms in a 3 gallon superroots airpot that is hooked up to a diy sip deal?

I have a tub of red worms outside in coco. They are starting to warm up and get fat.


edit: they might crawl out of the holes?

As long as you keep them happy they'll stay put. If you make them unhappy by adding something that irritates their skin or not enough food for them then they'll leave in search of new food

 

[Phat J]

Thanks for all the tips. Definitely gonna get some worms.

 

[Cann]

edit: they might crawl out of the holes?

​

just like a worm bin, the worms will escape if they aren't happy. don't worry about the holes.

the holes in the side of my worm bin are basically the same size as the holes in my airpot and they never try to escape

 

[Trousers]

I should have realized that since I have 1/4" holes in the bottom of my worm bin.