Earth Worms a problen?

Yeah, worms are great for soil, whether it is in containers, or in the ground...worms aerate the soil and roots, and also digest the soil and poop out better conditioned soil with more nutritive value.

missnu said:

Yeah, worms are great for soil, whether it is in containers, or in the ground...worms aerate the soil and roots, and also digest the soil and poop out better conditioned soil with more nutritive value.

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good to know I wont try to trap them then,lol. Thx all!

My horticulture teacher once told me that the European angle worm was introduced to America by settlers and that they are a nuissance to gardeners because they compete with plants for the same nutrients. That's from the mouth of a certified Horticulture professor. They may prove benneficial to aerate the soil but I would suggest mychorizae when it comes to breaking it down and composting.

Nunchukawaria said:

My horticulture teacher once told me that the European angle worm was introduced to America by settlers and that they are a nuissance to gardeners because they compete with plants for the same nutrients. That's from the mouth of a certified Horticulture professor. They may prove benneficial to aerate the soil but I would suggest mychorizae when it comes to breaking it down and composting.

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My understanding is that they break down organic materials that are unusable to the plant, leaving behind nutrient rich earthworm castings. My grandmother intentionally put nightcrawlers and redworms in her garden for years, never had one problem. We did the same thing in my garden as a kid, no problems either. There's a reason that vermicomposting has such a following.

i always have a few worms in my soil indoor and outdoor. but i think if theres to many and food is scarce they may eat your roots

earthworms dont compete with the plants for nutrients come on now worms have been is soil longer than humans have been in existance, they do eat up organic materail thas is usually unavailable to the plant and process it into castings which the plants can feed on, thas why when u raise worms u feed them things like table scraps, cannalope rinds, coffee grinds, those things would take alot longer to break down in a natural enivroment if worms wernt in our soil to eat them up, the trick is to not kill those worms in ur soil, alota liquid nutrients will have a bad effect on worms even if they are organic liquid nurtients, and if u have a bunch of dead worms in ur soil the ph of ur soil is gona swing like a mafucka trust me ive learned this from expirence, if ur plannin on keepin the worms in ur soil go with a more natural approach to feeding, use organic material like bone meal and kelp meal instead of liquid nutrients, keep those worms alive and they will work to help ur plant

hahaworms dont get too hungry and start eating things they dont eat...they eat dirt lol theirs always plenty of dirt in the ...dirt?! also they are in noooo way bad for your plants or soil and whether they eat up some nutes or not they arent competing with the plant because they also leave nutes in the castings. worms=good bottom line, the only thing not mentioned here yet is that if your using chemical nutes in a smaller pot you will likely kill the worms anyway.

oops didnt see the guy above me basically said the exact same thing....to add to what he said i have to say the best growth ive ever seen in a pot plant was outdoors with bone/blood meal and obviously worms lol the thing was like a tree in one short growing season!! granted this was outside so sun played a part but still

I think I'll go with my horticulture proffesors advice over all the heresay and folklore. Beneficial fungi beats the pants off of earthworms anyways.

IMO earthworms are great!

Nunchukawaria said:

I think I'll go with my horticulture proffesors advice over all the heresay and folklore. Beneficial fungi beats the pants off of earthworms anyways.

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I'll go with empirical evidence over hearsay any day. I'd place the results of a woman who came from a line of farmers over some teacher who was talking out of his ass. I'll stick with the US Department of agriculture on this one. Earthworms are good, and they benefit your microbes by breaking up organic materials for them. http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/concepts/soil_biology/earthworms.html

By the way, if your professor says it, and you repeat it without substantiation, that's hearsay.