What do worms do?

Why you need worms:

The earthworm is naked and blind, and has no teeth or claws or for that mater no weapons or defense. The worm has no mind to be afraid and no feet to run away and yet Charles Darwin noted that no other creature played such an important part in the history of the world.

For it is the earthworm that continually maintains and renews the valuable film of top soil in which your crops grow. All waste products of life, dead vegetation, manure as well as dead animal residues make up the chief source of earthworm food.

It is well noted that animal life, in all its forms from man down to microbe, is the great transformer of vegetable matter into food for the lowly earthworm.

If you take notice of the above you will realize that the number and distribution of earthworms is of course influenced by the many different factors of soil environment. The numbers of earthworms will change according to the amount of organic matter in the soil.

No one can say:” my earthworm population is high and I need not do any thing more about it”. You cannot have too many worms. As a grower you much be constantly caring for your soil by creating an environment suitable for the earthworm.

A good worm should be about as thick as your little finger and two to three inches in length. The worm is general more active in the spring and fall and in the summer and winter will general go down deep into the soil and and ‘sleep’ (for want of a better word). They do not like the dryness of summer or the cold of winter.

All thing being equal, when you dig your soil you should see at least one worm for every forkful . If you do not have this level of worms active in your soil then you will need to encourage them into your soil by adding humus and some form of irrigation. They will appear like kids to a sweet shop.

A worm, by the way, lives for about fifteen years and has both male and female parts.

The earthworm is the true cultivators of the soil and the grower must see to it that they are helped in their work by providing food for this army of virtual workers.

The real fertile soil has a crumb structure. The particles of soil are loosely stuck together to form crumbs; these are only lightly attached to their neighbors. The host of fungi that live in the soil weave fine strands among and about the crumbs of soil and in doing so help prevent them from sticking together too strongly. The more fibrous the roots are, the more lasting the effect.

It is the long straight burrows of the earthworm that gives the main channels for air and water. Roots of your crops will find it easer to grow down a worm hole than go down through the soil itself. All you have to do, as a grower, is to supply the organic matter in the form of compost and this compost by its very nature will provide plant food for you crops and food for the lowly earthworm.