Hey everyone, need to share something

[jimfro]

I put 2-3 nice sized worms in my 3 gallon pots.
I swear or maybe it`s wishful thinking but it helps my girls Being worms , they cruise around between your roots. Adding castings and making pockets of air around, in and on your developing root system. My plants just look healthy, they look robust and strong. It all starts with your root system and soil..
Hope someone will try it and let me know there thoughts. Thanks, Jim

 

[Old Salt]

I put 2-3 nice sized worms in my 3 gallon pots.
I swear or maybe it`s wishful thinking but it helps my girls Being worms , they cruise around between your roots. Adding castings and making pockets of air around, in and on your developing root system. My plants just look healthy, they look robust and strong. It all starts with your root system and soil..
Hope someone will try it and let me know there thoughts. Thanks, Jim

Nice observation. I second your hope, and that it's a container grow.

 

[Nunyabiz]

I have probably at least 500 worms in each of my 25 gallon no-till pots.

The Unicorn Poop they produce is a large part of my nutrients.
My soil stays like a cloud and water pours into it like it's going through a screen door.
They also help the plant fight off disease.
They also help repel aphids and spider mites.

 

[Bud]

Worms are extremely helpful both for airation of the soil....and as food for the plant as well.

 

[StrontiumDog]

I've heard they can damage the root system so i've never done it but if there is evidence that they are beneficial i would possibly try the slimey critters but i use bat guano and mykos in my soil, mykos creates a very delicate symbiotic relationship with plant and soil and i would imagine worms could spoil this mechanism in my personal grow as ganja can be so temperamental.

 

[Nunyabiz]

I've heard they can damage the root system so i've never done it but if there is evidence that they are beneficial i would possibly try the slimey critters but i use bat guano and mykos in my soil, mykos creates a very delicate symbiotic relationship with plant and soil and i would imagine worms could spoil this mechanism in my personal grow as ganja can be so temperamental.

Actually no, the worms enhance that relationship.
Worms can affect the "ecto" mycorrhazae population which are what works for certain trees, but for cannabis its "endo" mycorrhazae and the affect is just the opposite, worms help endo mycorrhazae.
And worms do not bother the living root system at all.
My grow pretty much completely relies on the soil food web relationship as nutrients for the plant.

 

[BeanTownFan420]

I put 2-3 nice sized worms in my 3 gallon pots.
I swear or maybe it`s wishful thinking but it helps my girls Being worms , they cruise around between your roots. Adding castings and making pockets of air around, in and on your developing root system. My plants just look healthy, they look robust and strong. It all starts with your root system and soil..
Hope someone will try it and let me know there thoughts. Thanks, Jim

Worms live in soil plants thrive in soil pretty much common sense there.

 

[StrontiumDog]

What would be a good worm to pot ratio per gallon for worms, i may try this on one of my indoor plants to see if there is any significant benefit @jimfro, @Nunyabiz you say 2-3 in your 3 gallon pots would this be 1 worm per gallon (4.5ltrs)?

 

[Stunger]

I have re-amended the 4 pots used in last season's grow and they are now in use for this season. As there was nothing growing in them between seasons I didn't give them much water, just a little to keep the biology going, the soil was pretty dry so I was surprised to find in each container there were worms from the worm castings I added a year earlier. One pot got a little natural rain in the growing off season as it was less deeply undercover and it had 40 - 50 worms at least. In 2 pots which were almost too dry and where I found only 3 or 4 worms I added another 5 or 6 to each. There is no point adding too many, better to let them multiply at their natural rate, i.e. depending on what the environment in the pot supports.

I also have a worm farm I bought 6 months ago, so now it has 2 layers and lots of worms, seething clumps of them. They seem happy and it now produces plenty of 'worm wee' that I dilute somewhere between 5X and 10X. I have been using it on my plants and general garden veges, I feel they are thriving with it. But I wanted to mention about a previous post expressing concern that worms could damage the roots. All of my 4 plants currently potted in living organic soil all have worm populations and they appear to be in very good health. But another observation I made this week when I lifted up the 'worm blanket' of the worm farm and I noticed a whole clump of rockmelon seeds (that had been amongst some pulp) had sprouted to be 3 or 4 inches long, I pulled them to crush the stalks so they can rot for the worms, they came up in a clump and I noticed that worms were threaded through their roots which looked white clean and healthy, I wondered whether they were seeking some of the exudates that the microbiology also likes. It very much looked that from the worms threading the roots that they were making really nice aeration tunnels/spaces about them. Just my 2 cents for what it's worth.

 

[Stunger]

My pot sizes are 2 X 30 liter (about 7.5 gallons) and 2 X 50 liter (about 12.5 gallons). One of 50 liter pots had at least 40 - 50 worms in it.

 

[StrontiumDog]

My pot sizes are 2 X 30 liter (about 7.5 gallons) and 2 X 50 liter (about 12.5 gallons). One of 50 liter pots had at least 40 - 50 worms in it.

Interesting....Would it be right to wash the worms before transplant, if you take them from the garden, so as to not transfer any possible contamination viruses etc?

 

[Jackalope]

I just wanted to mention. Please do not try the worm idea if you are growing hydro!!!!!!

 

[Jackalope]

Interesting....Would it be right to wash the worms before transplant, if you take them from the garden, so as to not transfer any possible contamination viruses etc?

Every time I wash a worm a fish eats it.

 

[Timbo57]

Would my fox farm nutes kill the worms?

 

[Greenlizard]

Yes, as Timbo asked above. What do synthetic nutes do to the worms? I suspect it would harm them?
If one were growing in a soilless mix and use synthetic nutes I suspect that would be a no go for the worms correct?

 

[Nunyabiz]

I put probably at least 100 worms per 25 gallon pot a couple years ago and now I would guess I've got at least triple that if not way more, hard to know without digging up the whole pot.
They appear to kind of self regulate to the size of pot and how much food they have.
But I think best results will be in No-Till pots with cover crops and heavy mulch layer because that makes the perfect natural environment for them.

 

[Stunger]

Interesting....Would it be right to wash the worms before transplant, if you take them from the garden, so as to not transfer any possible contamination viruses etc?

Interesting question, but I can't imagine any need to wash them, you could I guess, but would that really cleanse them of viruses etc, wouldn't they also be in the gut of the worms. Personally I don't imagine it necessary to go that far.

 

[jimfro]

What would be a good worm to pot ratio per gallon for worms, i may try this on one of my indoor plants to see if there is any significant benefit @jimfro, @Nunyabiz you say 2-3 in your 3 gallon pots would this be 1 worm per gallon (4.5ltrs)?

yes, i put 3 in a 3 gallon pot

 

[SmokingWings]

Interesting question, but I can't imagine any need to wash them, you could I guess, but would that really cleanse them of viruses etc, wouldn't they also be in the gut of the worms. Personally I don't imagine it necessary to go that far.

Good point. I harvest worms for fishing bait and keep them for months in a spare beer and worm fridge in the back room. When I am going to fish the Ontario, Canada waters that border the southeastern corner of Michigan I have to have them in an artificial medium to help prevent the transfer of soil organisms that would cause problems for Canadian farmers.

The first step is get all the natural soil off the worms and then get them into the artificial worm bedding. I have found that if I rinse them with city water which contains chlorine that the worms are not as healthy afterwards and loose weight and are not as active and often die off in their storage container within a couple weeks. Now I will rinse them out in a small container of room temperature rain water and that is it.

If a grower has time they can get worms to move into the soil on their own. Put the soil in large containers or pots with regular drainage holes. Put the pots in the shade on the ground. Within a month or two, especially in the spring, the worms will work their way up through the holes and stay in the potted soil. Similar to the way worms will work their way up through layers of vermi-compost.

 

[Vulx]

They say it's no-till but really you just let more industrious soil inhabitants till for you while you enjoy the amazing bud that grows from it..