@@GardeningInCanada Ashley, does the "like button comment" in this video get us a free visit from Kevin to help us improve the soil, or is it just to the first person who calls it out? It's obviously a secret contest~
I started gardening last spring. I tore off the sod and poured a whole bag of garden soil and compost in a 3x5 mound. My soil is really bad clay. Mud and puddles when wet and hard like cement when dry. I had “garden burnout” as the weather got colder so I left some plants to rot in its place. Last week I started tidying up to get ready for the season and as I was pulling out old dead plants I was so surprised to see earthworms!!!! I didn’t put it there I promise. Nature is so amazing. They find a way!
I absolutely agree with this video. When I started growing a garden, I had zero worms in my gardening area, which was totally inert sand (I live in NE Florida). I started with throwing yard waste I gathered from around my neighborhood. Eventually the worms made it in my soil, but I never added them.
Build It, And They Will Come! My raised beds are filled with rich organic material, including lots of home make compost, and the worms came to feast on it. Each year the beds get a little richer in organic material, and the worms help break it down into rich black soil.
This video did 2 things for me as a first time grower. It gave me hope that I'm starting with good soil because I already have worms! 2, it bolstered my desire to compost 😁
Another point which I think it's important to make - worms don't belong in the soil of container plants. Some people think it's a good idea to drop them in, or leave them there if they find their way in, because "worms are good for soil." But worms living in a plant pot or grow bag have to keep digging and digging through a very limited amount of soil just to try and get enough nutrients to survive, so the fine roots of the plant are constantly being severed as they try to grow. I've had a lot of problems with worm eggs from my homemade worm compost getting into plant pots with the compost, and then later I'm wondering why the plant just isn't growing. After months, when the roots should have filled the pot, I'll knock the plant out of the pot and find the roots are only in the top 1/3 or 1/4 of the soil, and the rest of the pot is filled with a totally loose, soggy pile of worm castings. (In addition to the constant severing of the root hairs, the constant worm pooping in the pot is way too much of a good thing - all that worm mucus retains tons of water and you've got a soggy swamp in your pot.)
@@Nils31199 No, because what I'm talking about is the damage done by live worms over time. Did you mean mulching with worm castings? Top dressing with worm castings is a good thing for container plants. A lot of people mix worm castings into their potting soil before planting, too. That's a good thing as long as you use a very small amount of worm castings. Too much worm castings will retain too much water in the soil. On the surface of the soil they will just break down slowly and the nutrients will gradually wash down into the soil with each rain or watering.
I would add worms to bad soil. But only in combination with compost, fresh green material, and other food for the worms. Combined with a good amount of water
@@abyssal_phoenix 🙄 Not when the owner of the house has told us to kill them because she doesn't like them. 😁 So now I'M in charge of our garden... It needs a huge makeover so, worms... The plants need worms, umma get them worms!
One thing I’ve learned this year is if you lay cardboard and put any soil worms will be crazy with it! Just turned my cardboard this morning to put my bulbs and to my surprise worms are so many and they are huge too.
Weirdest thing. I put bagged soil into my pots on the deck this year, and then when I moved them this fall to clean up the deck, they are all full of worms! Magic. (birds? worm eggs? I don't know).
Worm eggs could have been in the soil, especially if you used homemade compost in the soil mix. Birds dropping worm eggs is *possible* but very rare. But most people don't realize that worms can crawl across surfaces, climb up walls or posts, and wiggle into pots when it's wet - that's how they seek out new territories to colonize!
I would never recommend adding worms of any kind to gardens. They will add themselves if they are present in the surrounding area. There are many species that are invasive to different places that, if added, can have bad consequences for the environment. The Jumping Worms introduced from Asia to North America are a prime example: destructively mobile and overly efficient at changing the soil structure in ways the native ecosystems is not designed to handle!
My thoughts exactly... People forget that worms are like any other animal. Releasing a bunch of totally foreign organisms into your environment is always a horrible idea. I feel the same way about lady bugs. Who knows how many viruses and pathogens they have, you could start a insect pandemic.
@@Hayley-sl9lm amen regarding ladybugs! any introduced animal is a bandaid of some other issue. If the system is healthy, the animals will introduce themselves!
personally i dump dead soil into my worm bins and by the time that same soil gets to the bottom, it's full of castings and leftover organic material that i've dumped into the bin over time. Worms can actually fix dead soil, but you'd have to add materials the worms can eat.
i've also found various compost worms in my yard, presumably some of my bin's worms escaped and started breeding as i've got alot of mulch around for them to chew on. Also found some in my composting heap where i've never added composting worms, again assuming these must've escaped from my bin at some point.
I always include worms in my containers and grow bags. They get carried in with my compost. I just make sure there is a nice supply of organic material in the bottom and on top. Have been pleasantly surprised how these worms survive everything my SE Texas weather has to offer from mild freezes to blazing hot summers. If they are in a container with a heavy feeder like tomatoes they will get the odd extra treat.
Bought a house, with sand. So much sand. However, they did have to remove a tree during the sale, so...I have wood chips. And a space to put in a garden already, which I can’t do anything with, because it’s looooooooose sand. So, I’m thinking half a dozen adult chickens on a yard of wood chips for the winter, and by March, I’ll be ready for good young egg layers, some sifting, and a worm farm. I doubt I’ll be fully functional for a few years. So much sand.
One of my favourite gardener is back!Another great educational video from you!Thanks for making my life easier!I'll cultivate that like button for you!
Wow great episode. I would automatically think about adding compost before adding live earthworms. When I make the garden of my dreams I plan on using lots of tilled under cover crops to feed my "soil" but I know it takes a long time to break down.
Ok I apologize but I had to restart the video about halfway in to say how distracted I was at how handsome He is 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️ the green on the left and right and then the pumpkin and then all That information paired with all that good energy. But for real. What a great video. I’ve been playing around with mine and composting and trying to figure out if I’m Doing it right and this is just what I needed. Thank you so much for sharing 🥳
@@Lady--G I internally caught myself saying.... wait what ......and having to start ALL OVER because my eyes were so comforted 🤦🏽♀️🤣 ANYWAYS.... Thankful for a big rain today and a yard full of leaves and kids that waste a little 🤣 Perfect weekend for REwatching this video
Love your explanations to understand WHY instead of just telling people what to do or not do. You mentioned fallen leaf layering on garden beds - can I just throw them straight on active beds as a mulch? I've thought about it for my garlic or some of the brassica seeds I just planted but I wondered if they would block too much sunlight.
I heard a Master Gardner put it this way: concentrate on feeding the soil not the plants. Gardening is 3/4 growing what’s below the ground & 1/4 growing above ground. I do what I call direct composting. I collect food scraps in a 5 gallon bucket. When it’s full I dig a trench in my garden and spread the contents out. I cover it with the soil I dug out of the trench and put a stick in it. When the 5 gallon buckets is full again I go over a couple of feet dig another trench pour in the contents cover it and again mark it with a stick. that way I can always use a new location. I have some fat happy earth worms & rich soil!
Would love to see you cover isopod use in soil! They are wonderful for dealing with breaking down compost and i credit them for saving my potted orange tree from root rot
I just topped up my beds with 5 yards of compost for a grand total of $75. I built most of them this spring using Charles Dowding’s method. I was amazed at how many worms we had this fall.
I plant a winter mixed cover crop in my raised beds. In early spring I cut them down and use them on top as mulch. I am always surprised at how many worms I find.
Thank you, very comprehensive. In areas of my garden that need extra nutrition, I find a number of (shaded) open bottomed worm farms are the perfect answer for us. Super simple. I site them as high as possible so that the worm castings and wee move slowly through the soil with gravity. Soil improvement and creation really is the foundation. On my soil paths (small site) I do “everywhere” composting , with added coir for moisture and chop and drop leaves and cardboard and wood chips. My previous super thin, bare rocks and barren hydrophobic soil is as luscious as chocolate cake. Key are layers and layers or organic material to attract the worms, no organic material ever leaves my site. It is all incorporated.
In my opinion, You could sow a few beans. Since they grow fast, When harvested cut the stem at soil level and let them roots die off. Since they pull nitrogen from the air. Second is to plant sunflowers and let their roots die off. Great, organic, method to fix your soil easily. I do it to rejuvenate my indoor soil.
What I usually do is transfer the soil into a large pot, water it a lot for a few days, then let it dry for 2 days, dig in massive amounts of fresh green matter (leaves, greens, leftovers, peels etc). Then keep it moist and outside. Worms and springtails pop up out of nowhere. Then I will cover the soil with a layer of dried grass to then top it of with living claw moss. Continue this for around 2 months and the soil is completely freshened up, full of nutrients and microbes and sometimes gets more fertile than it was when I bought it
Today one of my tomato plant just got sick like its has been pulled out.. I was pretty sure it will die so i pulled it out.. Then found that a bunch of large earthworms about 7-10 were colonizing between the roots... And i didnt see any other possible cause.. Just worms.. It was so sudden..
just make some worm resturaunts in various places around your yard.. build them underground.. connect them with little worm subways and canals.. make some worm museums and cafes occasionally, worms like reading books and looking at worm art
I installed a few worm towers in my garden beds few months ago. I put more than 10 earthworms in each tower and they have multiplied a lot inside as I feed them once weekly with cut banana peels, lettuce leaves, crashed egg shells, tea leaves etc.
Excellent explanation of what makes up our soil and how to get it healthy! Thanks for explaining the difference between our "native" worms and composting worms.
Hi Kevin! I am currently on a quest to get earthworms from around my area. I live in an apartment, a third floor to be precise, so the chance of seeing worms naturally up here is petty much 0. I was wondering what tips you have for apartment gardening regarding soil life, and if you are considering making a more in depth video regarding worm types and such. Thanks a lot!
I second this,as I live in a 2nd floor apartment! Can you also give tips on growing normally, with hydroponics, and (fish) aquaponics along with having words indoors? THANK YOU!
@@epicgardening thanks for your reply! I might have gotten a bit ahead and picked some already while hunting for worms. Do regular earthworms work for composting, or should I get composting worms?
Kevin, there is something that we use in our beds , yard and pasture. It's called Bio- Si. You can do some research on it. It puts the microbes back in your soil.. which helps to really build it up. We've noticed a huge difference since using it. They use this on ball and golf fields. I was so glad to see you do this one. I've been working on making our soil the best it can be. Good soil, good garden, good nutrition to us.
Found a bunch of worms at the bottom of some pots where I have 2 baby majesty palms. Idk, they made me happy to see them but kinda worried like are they supposed to be popping up there? Will it affect the growth rate of the roots of the transplanted Majesty palm?😩 so many questions
This was my first year using compost because of you! And my garden grew and I had vegetables 🍅 & fruit 🍉 I literally couldn’t believe it 👩🌾😳🤯!!!! My fiancé was blown away by our garden and I couldn’t figure it out why I did so well this must be it! Thank you 😊
I don't know if I've just had strange circumstances, but my Red Wigglers have always lived all throughout my 16-inch deep bins. I've went out of my way to try to attract them to the top, but most of them hang out at the bottom where its really moist. I've also done some testing of mixing multiple worm types. I had one bin of pure red wigglers, and one with every type of earthworm I could find in my yard along with red wigglers. Believe it or not, the mixed bin devoured waste almost twice as fast as the pure red wiggler bin. I've only done the one test, and I didn't exactly count the worms one by one, so if anyone else out there has experimented with this, let me know!
I filled my raised beds using a Hugelkultur approach and topped them with a blend of soil, homemade compost, peat, chicken manure, and pearlite. After watering the beds, I took my worm composter leechings and added them to five gallons of water, then poured this throughout the bed. The homemade compost already had a population of compost worms (red wigglers) and eggs. After a month, I purchased a container of night crawlers from a local bait shop and added them to the beds. I did this so the night crawlers would help with the vertical transport of organic matter and microbial life. The beds have thrived and so have the worm populations. When I pull back the mulch, composting worms are always wriggling at the surface and top three inches, and if I disturb the soil in the morning or evening, I find much larger worms that are not the red wigglers. I know the population of night crawlers has grown because they attract opossum and raccoons that will dig down as much as ten inches to get them if I do not protect the beds with netting. Because I have to place weed-cloth (and gopher wire) underneath the raised beds to prevent invasive weeds, this creates a barrier for native worms; I now add a container of night crawlers to any of my raised beds that are 24" or deeper and feel they are an important part of the ecosystem to get the most out of the logs and other organic matter I used as a base layer in the raised beds. Because my 24"+ raised beds are significantly more productive and easier to work in, I no longer build or recommend anything shallower to friends. These deep beds with a base of large organic matter seem to have the necessary nutrients to support a sustainable colony of worms, especially if you kick things off with inoculation of worm tea. I fortify the beds with compost and a bag of manure when transitioning from one season/crop to another, and I am always surprised to see the number of red wigglers despite everything I have been told about them needing high levels of compost or kitchen scraps to survive. Granted, they are not present at the levels of a worm composter, but that is not a normal environment for any worm, nor would vegetables grow in it.
I was doing research and I wonder if the worms that showed up after the property was blown up (literally) have actually been hurting my soil. I’ve been trying to amend it. Almost all clay. Top layer is nice but directly underneath the compost, mulch, plants, and other organic matter. It’s hard as a rock. The worms loved the sod when I was a kid.
I've been using a mulch "with beneficial mycorrhizae". One bag must've split and after sitting ~2 months was discovered yesterday with a MASSIVE stack of mushrooms growing out the shady side! Haven't ID'd them but they look very much like oysters. Probably could've eaten them but I broke them up and tossed them into my massive yardwaste pit where I've been stacking all my yard and tree waste for years, eventually to be buried in soil after some upcoming excavation. It's right in the center of a redwood fairy ring and I hope it'll nurofy those for years to come.
Very informative . The soil has to be made by an addition of organic material. Please note anyone reading this you can return escaped worms after a rain. I like to ensure they don't go down the drains.
I don't have any native worms in my garden where I live as it's sand, sand and more sand. The worms I have now came from my worm bin's wormcastings. Sure I try to sift out the cocoons but it's nearly impossible to get them all. So, I chop and dig and drop to give them food. They're doing quite well, actually. They eat dead roots from old plants too. If I waited for a worm to get past all the sand to find my little patches of raised beds and containers, I might be waiting forever.
I can't thank you enough for bringing my garden back to life. I watched the video about how to compost and my garden is popping things here and there. Are you still coming over to bless my garden with your two hands? 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Kevin I’ll be receiving my raised bed pretty soon and I have no idea where to start with what kind of soil to put in it? I’m going to be growing food such as cabbage lettuce tomatoes etc.… Where would I get my soil and what kind should I get?
Check my vid on filling a tall raised bed! If you wanna buy bagged mix get best veggie mix you can afford, if you want to make, you can use 50% topsoil 50% compost or 1/3 1/3 1/3 peat vermiculite compost
He did a video on that recently, here's the link ruclips.net/video/SuF_ICy0JOE/видео.html . To summarize it, he fills the bottom of the bed with wood and whatever organic matter he has handy. Then for the top layer he puts roughly a foot of "Mel's mix" which is compost, peat moss, and vermiculite mixed together. This way you can cheaply fill the bottom section of your raised bed and only use the more expensive soil mix where most roots will be growing.
Have you ever tried reading a gardening book? Did you know that, before computers exited, people got their knowledge from books and talking to experienced people? Do you realise that you don’t have to let the people posting on the Internet do all the research and work for you? Lazy minded people put Trump into office. Only thinking people can make a positive difference in this world. Choose to become one of them ASAP.
Hi, love your video, very helpful. I want to start my own herb garden. How could I save worms they came out of the garden into my porch, is starting raining and is getting cold here in Concord, CA. What soil could I buy to save them.
The soil is really, really bad at my place. Therefore this past summer I made lots of very large raised beds for both my vegetable gardens and some flower gardens. I filled them with soil scrapped from a local rancher's cow feeding pens. It's at least 50% cow manure. I bought some red wiggler composting worms to help speed up the conditioning of the manure/soil mixture and put some worms in each raised bed. Do you think by next year they will have this soil broke down enough I can plant in it? I tried a test plant and presently the soil is too strong and killed the plant. Freezing winter weather will soon be here - will all my composting worms die and I will need to start over again next year with buying more worms? Your thoughts and recommendations please.
how do the worms come back. Im in a new subdivision with basically dead soil. Im building up my dirt with compost and manure. The dirt is rock hard, how would worms arrive there? They'd need to have jack hammers to burrow through!
Consider doing a video on the Asian jumping worm- people have the mindset "all earthworms= good" and need to be aware of the fact that there are earthworms out there that are actually destructive and no one should ever even contemplate acquiring them for any purpose whatsoever. I've worked in my garden for 22 years to improve the soil, had it where I wanted it and then at some point these worms came in on something and undid all that work. For that reason, I totally ignore the advice to do as little tilling as possible because tilling the soil to get amendments down where these worms have less access to it and letting the moles, birds, and whatever else may eat them do their work are the only ways I know of at this point to exercise any sort of control of these pests which multiply at an insane rate. It's highly probable that you have viewers who aren't even aware at this point that they're dealing with the effects of these worms.
Thanks. Really informative. Soil or different types of soil have to be amended in their own way. This being said, your home made compost is the best way to start putting microbiology so worms can be put to good use, providing of course that circumstances allow it to happen.
This is interesting, so last few months we turned the front yard into an orchard. Found out we have loamy soil little on the clay side. Side note absorbs water well, just doesn't want to let it go lol. But what was interesting, is every shovel I did as I flipped the grass to be under the soil had a ton of worms in it. But there is ZERO organic matter in that loamy soil. Compared to my raised beds, I have no idea what is supporting all those worms lol. But we have cane sugar straw on it now, and we now have a ton of bugs, like slaters, breaking it down, so hoping that over a year or two we can build the soil to not hold so much water.
@@epicgardening If you want to call it that. Most of the time we had 1-2 cars on it, heavily compacted, mostly dirt and stones, some grass on the outer edges.
I haven’t even watch this video. But I can give a answer to the statement. Can’t fix your soil with worms because they run away if you have horrible soil!!!. I have sandy loom down here in the bottom South Carolina. Oh worms hate sandy loom.
My fave soil amendment is bokashi waste. The worms love it and in turn my plants love it. I recently checked out the portion of my raised bed where i buried the waste....there was a worm feeding frenzy going on - it was exciting to see even baby worms and worm eggs too, so it means they r reproducing as life is good 4 them 😂🤭 So yup, it starts off with the organic matter. I also saw other tiny insects scurrying around. Living soil = healthy soil.
What if I have raised beds that are on legs at table height? The soil doesn't contact the ground, so worms won't be able to get to it. I was thinking I could top off the beds with a good layer of purchased compost when I put the garden to bed for the winter, then introduce worms next spring.
I understand your reasons to not just add worms to my soil. But I want to double check because I live on a property with a new house that was built after the big Camp Fire in Paradise CA in 2018. After the previous home (and most of the town) burned, they also came in and scraped all the burned horrible stuff off along with the top layers of soil. So my task in building a garden is BIG. I am adding as much cardboard and compost and manure and leaves as I can buy and find. And some of my garden in doing very well, especially in my raised beds. But I am also trying to garden the rest of my 1/3 acre, and cannot possibly do raised beds everywhere. I also have physical limitations, so cannot use a wheelbarrow, and need to keep what I lift under 20 pounds, and limited number of times a day.....so I was hoping adding worms plus cardboard and leaves for them to work in might help me. Do you still say no?
I'm lucky to have worms through out my property, so for some potted plants, would it work to set my pots in the ground an inch or so in hopes that worms would come up through the drain hole?
I understand the general concept of converting dirt into soil by starting at the bacterial and fungal level but I don't understand excluding adding worms to dirt. Looking for feedback: • You say worms are likely to die if added to "lifeless" dirt. I agree. But what about in-ground worm farms/bins -- isn't it true that adding an in-ground worm bin solves the problem of providing food for worms even in "lifeless" soil? • And if the worms are able to survive because of the in-ground bins, wouldn't the worms then be able to aerate the soil and add organic matter *UNDER* the surface (vs simply adding organics to the surface)? • And if this is true, wouldn't the subsurface aeration and distribution of worm castings go a long way in encouraging deeper root growth (vs shallow, sprawling rooting)? I can't help but feel like this sort of hyper-focus on starting at the microbial level is causing us to overlook, ignore, or exclude reasonable solutions to creating/restoring soil and the soil food web. I'm all for emphasizing bacterial and fungal health as a fundamental element of soil health but I don't see how that would cause me or anyone else to discourage using worms as one among many tools to help reach that goal. Am I missing something here?
Hey Kevin. Thanks for the upload. Your comment about the difference between earthworms and composting worms brings up a question. I pooped over to your store and was looking at the worm castings description and it said that it’s not screened as finely, which increases the chance of worm eggs and worms to be in it. Which kind of worms are used to produce the castings?
What do you think about the barometric pressure changes in worm species? I've heard that nightcrawlers climb more when the water comes to escape floods as Red wigglers are less likely to make a break for it when that water comes. Any issue with putting a hand full of both into a big planter and seeing how things level out?
My planters are loaded with organic material. most recently, several inches of tree mulch from a large tree in my yard that had to be removed. Several neighbors enjoyed the mulch as well. I find worms each year when I plant flowers. I'm glad I never added more, they apparently know where to find food. On the other hand, my lawn looks like your pie chart. I think the only organic matter is the grass, clover, and bugs. There's no soil to speak of. The clover seems to like the clay and the bees love the clover, so it works. My question is, should I be adding clay or other inorganic to the planters? or just leave it be as long as what I want to grow does well? There is so much discussion now about not disturbing the soil, it's confusing. I am thinking of making the planters into a pollinator garden.
Excellent info! Quick question: Would you use leaves from a lawn treated with chemical fertilizer and weed killer? I live in a neighborhood where we have to treat our lawns and am concerned if I should use my leaves. Thank you!
Luffa video COMING NEXT! Snag an Urban Worm Bag if you wanna get your composting going: bit.ly/2ybjJbb
Ooooh i love Luffa
It is nice to get an in depth response that actually explains why instead of just telling you not to do something.
:) glad to hear
As a soil scientist I approve of this message 🤓❤️👩🔬
:D
As a gardener I do too.
@@carolgibson-wilson4354 hahah yes!
@@epicgardening 🤓
@@GardeningInCanada Ashley, does the "like button comment" in this video get us a free visit from Kevin to help us improve the soil, or is it just to the first person who calls it out? It's obviously a secret contest~
I started gardening last spring. I tore off the sod and poured a whole bag of garden soil and compost in a 3x5 mound. My soil is really bad clay. Mud and puddles when wet and hard like cement when dry. I had “garden burnout” as the weather got colder so I left some plants to rot in its place. Last week I started tidying up to get ready for the season and as I was pulling out old dead plants I was so surprised to see earthworms!!!! I didn’t put it there I promise. Nature is so amazing. They find a way!
I absolutely agree with this video. When I started growing a garden, I had zero worms in my gardening area, which was totally inert sand (I live in NE Florida). I started with throwing yard waste I gathered from around my neighborhood. Eventually the worms made it in my soil, but I never added them.
I know. I find it so cute how they are able to make their way I'm out garden bins 🥰
Build It, And They Will Come! My raised beds are filled with rich organic material, including lots of home make compost, and the worms came to feast on it. Each year the beds get a little richer in organic material, and the worms help break it down into rich black soil.
How do they get into raised beds?
@@anthonyca I plant cover crops in the fall. The beds fill with worms by spring.
If you plant cover crops they will come!
@@anthonyca They crawl up from the ground the beds are setting on. They are always in pursuit of food.
@@ohio_gardener thanks Nanch and OhioGardener.
This video did 2 things for me as a first time grower. It gave me hope that I'm starting with good soil because I already have worms! 2, it bolstered my desire to compost 😁
Another point which I think it's important to make - worms don't belong in the soil of container plants. Some people think it's a good idea to drop them in, or leave them there if they find their way in, because "worms are good for soil." But worms living in a plant pot or grow bag have to keep digging and digging through a very limited amount of soil just to try and get enough nutrients to survive, so the fine roots of the plant are constantly being severed as they try to grow. I've had a lot of problems with worm eggs from my homemade worm compost getting into plant pots with the compost, and then later I'm wondering why the plant just isn't growing. After months, when the roots should have filled the pot, I'll knock the plant out of the pot and find the roots are only in the top 1/3 or 1/4 of the soil, and the rest of the pot is filled with a totally loose, soggy pile of worm castings. (In addition to the constant severing of the root hairs, the constant worm pooping in the pot is way too much of a good thing - all that worm mucus retains tons of water and you've got a soggy swamp in your pot.)
Do you think one has the same problem if you mulch the soil with worm food?
@@Nils31199 No, because what I'm talking about is the damage done by live worms over time. Did you mean mulching with worm castings? Top dressing with worm castings is a good thing for container plants. A lot of people mix worm castings into their potting soil before planting, too. That's a good thing as long as you use a very small amount of worm castings. Too much worm castings will retain too much water in the soil. On the surface of the soil they will just break down slowly and the nutrients will gradually wash down into the soil with each rain or watering.
I would add worms to bad soil. But only in combination with compost, fresh green material, and other food for the worms.
Combined with a good amount of water
Amen
That's what I'm doing now. I just need the worms. 😂
They actually Crawl into bad soil themselves when I dig in fresh kitchen scraps. Just put it in a pot with holes and then out the pot on a lawn or so
@@abyssal_phoenix 🙄 Not when the owner of the house has told us to kill them because she doesn't like them. 😁 So now I'M in charge of our garden... It needs a huge makeover so, worms... The plants need worms, umma get them worms!
@@Neri4x4 my mother doesn’t like that as well, but she doesn’t want to have them dead😂
One thing I’ve learned this year is if you lay cardboard and put any soil worms will be crazy with it! Just turned my cardboard this morning to put my bulbs and to my surprise worms are so many and they are huge too.
Hi Kevin I’m 13 and you and mark from self sufficient me really inspired me to start gardening 👍
That's so awesome Melissa!
Great Video Kevin! It would be interesting to add an extra video about worms varieties and their different use in the garden =)
Oh, I def need to do that!
@@epicgardening just a bump to remind you to make a worm video.
I’m glad you mentioned worms because I forgot about my worm bin again...
Good afternoon freind am in zone 10 port st luice Florida we have sandy soil so what i use is oak leaves after been broken down along with food scrap
Begging my hubby for a worm butt bag OR some birdies beds......He'll give in eventually.
Fingers crossed!
I have clay underneath, sandy dirt on top, and tons of alkaline. No idea how to get it better to grown grass. Only grows nothing but weeds 😬
Weirdest thing. I put bagged soil into my pots on the deck this year, and then when I moved them this fall to clean up the deck, they are all full of worms! Magic. (birds? worm eggs? I don't know).
Worm eggs could have been in the soil, especially if you used homemade compost in the soil mix. Birds dropping worm eggs is *possible* but very rare. But most people don't realize that worms can crawl across surfaces, climb up walls or posts, and wiggle into pots when it's wet - that's how they seek out new territories to colonize!
I would never recommend adding worms of any kind to gardens. They will add themselves if they are present in the surrounding area. There are many species that are invasive to different places that, if added, can have bad consequences for the environment. The Jumping Worms introduced from Asia to North America are a prime example: destructively mobile and overly efficient at changing the soil structure in ways the native ecosystems is not designed to handle!
Jumping worms is a fear I never thought I would have... yet here we are with a whole new set of terrors to haunt me while I sleep.
@@mikekeller61 Just don't read too much about nematodes! (Though most are harmless.)
My thoughts exactly... People forget that worms are like any other animal. Releasing a bunch of totally foreign organisms into your environment is always a horrible idea. I feel the same way about lady bugs. Who knows how many viruses and pathogens they have, you could start a insect pandemic.
@@Hayley-sl9lm amen regarding ladybugs! any introduced animal is a bandaid of some other issue. If the system is healthy, the animals will introduce themselves!
Nah i dont touch jumping worm. Their behaviour is really scary.
personally i dump dead soil into my worm bins and by the time that same soil gets to the bottom, it's full of castings and leftover organic material that i've dumped into the bin over time. Worms can actually fix dead soil, but you'd have to add materials the worms can eat.
i've also found various compost worms in my yard, presumably some of my bin's worms escaped and started breeding as i've got alot of mulch around for them to chew on. Also found some in my composting heap where i've never added composting worms, again assuming these must've escaped from my bin at some point.
I always include worms in my containers and grow bags. They get carried in with my compost. I just make sure there is a nice supply of organic material in the bottom and on top. Have been pleasantly surprised how these worms survive everything my SE Texas weather has to offer from mild freezes to blazing hot summers. If they are in a container with a heavy feeder like tomatoes they will get the odd extra treat.
Bought a house, with sand. So much sand. However, they did have to remove a tree during the sale, so...I have wood chips. And a space to put in a garden already, which I can’t do anything with, because it’s looooooooose sand. So, I’m thinking half a dozen adult chickens on a yard of wood chips for the winter, and by March, I’ll be ready for good young egg layers, some sifting, and a worm farm. I doubt I’ll be fully functional for a few years. So much sand.
That'll work REALLY well though
One of my favourite gardener is back!Another great educational video from you!Thanks for making my life easier!I'll cultivate that like button for you!
So nice of you
Wow great episode. I would automatically think about adding compost before adding live earthworms. When I make the garden of my dreams I plan on using lots of tilled under cover crops to feed my "soil" but I know it takes a long time to break down.
Smart approach!
Ok I apologize but I had to restart the video about halfway in to say how distracted I was at how handsome
He is 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️ the green on the left and right and then the pumpkin and then all
That information paired with all that good energy.
But for real. What a great video. I’ve been playing around with mine and composting and trying to figure out if I’m
Doing it right and this is just what I needed. Thank you so much for sharing 🥳
LOL. Some of my fellow gardening sisters are just too funny 🤭🤣🤣🤣🤣🤭
@@Lady--G I internally caught myself saying.... wait what ......and having to start ALL OVER because my eyes were so comforted 🤦🏽♀️🤣
ANYWAYS.... Thankful for a big rain today and a yard full of leaves and kids that waste a little 🤣
Perfect weekend for REwatching this video
Very good content! I'm a newbie in gardening! Cheers from Morocco 💪🇲🇦
Love your explanations to understand WHY instead of just telling people what to do or not do. You mentioned fallen leaf layering on garden beds - can I just throw them straight on active beds as a mulch? I've thought about it for my garlic or some of the brassica seeds I just planted but I wondered if they would block too much sunlight.
Totally can, but yea don't smother something to do it
@@epicgardening Thanks! I'll wait for them to sprout up a bit more first.
I heard a Master Gardner put it this way: concentrate on feeding the soil not the plants. Gardening is 3/4 growing what’s below the ground & 1/4 growing above ground. I do what I call direct composting. I collect food scraps in a 5 gallon bucket. When it’s full I dig a trench in my garden and spread the contents out. I cover it with the soil I dug out of the trench and put a stick in it. When the 5 gallon buckets is full again I go over a couple of feet dig another trench pour in the contents cover it and again mark it with a stick. that way I can always use a new location. I have some fat happy earth worms & rich soil!
Hmmm im curious to how this works.. I wanna try this in my rental property. We have heavy clay soil
Would love to see you cover isopod use in soil! They are wonderful for dealing with breaking down compost and i credit them for saving my potted orange tree from root rot
I just topped up my beds with 5 yards of compost for a grand total of $75. I built most of them this spring using Charles Dowding’s method. I was amazed at how many worms we had this fall.
I plant a winter mixed cover crop in my raised beds. In early spring I cut them down and use them on top as mulch. I am always surprised at how many worms I find.
Thank you, very comprehensive. In areas of my garden that need extra nutrition, I find a number of (shaded) open bottomed worm farms are the perfect answer for us. Super simple. I site them as high as possible so that the worm castings and wee move slowly through the soil with gravity. Soil improvement and creation really is the foundation. On my soil paths (small site) I do “everywhere” composting , with added coir for moisture and chop and drop leaves and cardboard and wood chips. My previous super thin, bare rocks and barren hydrophobic soil is as luscious as chocolate cake. Key are layers and layers or organic material to attract the worms, no organic material ever leaves my site. It is all incorporated.
In my opinion,
You could sow a few beans.
Since they grow fast,
When harvested cut the stem at soil level and let them roots die off.
Since they pull nitrogen from the air.
Second is to plant sunflowers and let their roots die off.
Great, organic, method to fix your soil easily.
I do it to rejuvenate my indoor soil.
Yup, always do that!
ruclips.net/video/F1HknG5b4Wk/видео.html
What I usually do is transfer the soil into a large pot, water it a lot for a few days, then let it dry for 2 days, dig in massive amounts of fresh green matter (leaves, greens, leftovers, peels etc). Then keep it moist and outside. Worms and springtails pop up out of nowhere.
Then I will cover the soil with a layer of dried grass to then top it of with living claw moss.
Continue this for around 2 months and the soil is completely freshened up, full of nutrients and microbes and sometimes gets more fertile than it was when I bought it
But you can eat sunflower roots!
Today one of my tomato plant just got sick like its has been pulled out.. I was pretty sure it will die so i pulled it out.. Then found that a bunch of large earthworms about 7-10 were colonizing between the roots... And i didnt see any other possible cause.. Just worms.. It was so sudden..
just make some worm resturaunts in various places around your yard.. build them underground.. connect them with little worm subways and canals.. make some worm museums and cafes occasionally, worms like reading books and looking at worm art
I installed a few worm towers in my garden beds few months ago. I put more than 10 earthworms in each tower and they have multiplied a lot inside as I feed them once weekly with cut banana peels, lettuce leaves, crashed egg shells, tea leaves etc.
Excellent explanation of what makes up our soil and how to get it healthy! Thanks for explaining the difference between our "native" worms and composting worms.
Hi Kevin! I am currently on a quest to get earthworms from around my area. I live in an apartment, a third floor to be precise, so the chance of seeing worms naturally up here is petty much 0. I was wondering what tips you have for apartment gardening regarding soil life, and if you are considering making a more in depth video regarding worm types and such. Thanks a lot!
I second this,as I live in a 2nd floor apartment! Can you also give tips on growing normally, with hydroponics, and (fish) aquaponics along with having words indoors? THANK YOU!
You can grab some native soil from underneath soil that's covered with organic materials (leaves, etc). You should get some cocoons in there
@@epicgardening thanks for your reply! I might have gotten a bit ahead and picked some already while hunting for worms. Do regular earthworms work for composting, or should I get composting worms?
There's earthworms in my grow bags in my garden. I guess I am doing something right! 😁
that's some very good information I add bagged Compost to my raised beds twice a year and I still don't have any worms in my soil
:( try native soil
Have you tried local farm manure?
Kevin, there is something that we use in our beds , yard and pasture. It's called Bio- Si. You can do some research on it. It puts the microbes back in your soil.. which helps to really build it up. We've noticed a huge difference since using it. They use this on ball and golf fields.
I was so glad to see you do this one. I've been working on making our soil the best it can be. Good soil, good garden, good nutrition to us.
I'll check it out!
Found a bunch of worms at the bottom of some pots where I have 2 baby majesty palms. Idk, they made me happy to see them but kinda worried like are they supposed to be popping up there? Will it affect the growth rate of the roots of the transplanted Majesty palm?😩 so many questions
This was my first year using compost because of you! And my garden grew and I had vegetables 🍅 & fruit 🍉 I literally couldn’t believe it 👩🌾😳🤯!!!! My fiancé was blown away by our garden and I couldn’t figure it out why I did so well this must be it! Thank you 😊
True the worms won’t have much to eat but you can put a worm compost pot in each veggie bed. They’ll tunnel out and fertilize that way.
I don't know if I've just had strange circumstances, but my Red Wigglers have always lived all throughout my 16-inch deep bins. I've went out of my way to try to attract them to the top, but most of them hang out at the bottom where its really moist.
I've also done some testing of mixing multiple worm types. I had one bin of pure red wigglers, and one with every type of earthworm I could find in my yard along with red wigglers. Believe it or not, the mixed bin devoured waste almost twice as fast as the pure red wiggler bin. I've only done the one test, and I didn't exactly count the worms one by one, so if anyone else out there has experimented with this, let me know!
I filled my raised beds using a Hugelkultur approach and topped them with a blend of soil, homemade compost, peat, chicken manure, and pearlite. After watering the beds, I took my worm composter leechings and added them to five gallons of water, then poured this throughout the bed. The homemade compost already had a population of compost worms (red wigglers) and eggs. After a month, I purchased a container of night crawlers from a local bait shop and added them to the beds. I did this so the night crawlers would help with the vertical transport of organic matter and microbial life.
The beds have thrived and so have the worm populations. When I pull back the mulch, composting worms are always wriggling at the surface and top three inches, and if I disturb the soil in the morning or evening, I find much larger worms that are not the red wigglers. I know the population of night crawlers has grown because they attract opossum and raccoons that will dig down as much as ten inches to get them if I do not protect the beds with netting.
Because I have to place weed-cloth (and gopher wire) underneath the raised beds to prevent invasive weeds, this creates a barrier for native worms; I now add a container of night crawlers to any of my raised beds that are 24" or deeper and feel they are an important part of the ecosystem to get the most out of the logs and other organic matter I used as a base layer in the raised beds.
Because my 24"+ raised beds are significantly more productive and easier to work in, I no longer build or recommend anything shallower to friends. These deep beds with a base of large organic matter seem to have the necessary nutrients to support a sustainable colony of worms, especially if you kick things off with inoculation of worm tea. I fortify the beds with compost and a bag of manure when transitioning from one season/crop to another, and I am always surprised to see the number of red wigglers despite everything I have been told about them needing high levels of compost or kitchen scraps to survive. Granted, they are not present at the levels of a worm composter, but that is not a normal environment for any worm, nor would vegetables grow in it.
Worms in my garden love grass clippings.
what do i do if i have worms in my indoor pot plants? I try to put them outside but they keep coming back to some of the bigger pots.
Wow... never thought of it that way. this is a great response!
LOVED your shirt! Do you mind telling us where you got it? Thank you!
www.thesill.com
I was doing research and I wonder if the worms that showed up after the property was blown up (literally) have actually been hurting my soil.
I’ve been trying to amend it. Almost all clay. Top layer is nice but directly underneath the compost, mulch, plants, and other organic matter. It’s hard as a rock.
The worms loved the sod when I was a kid.
looks like something we need to look into
I’m available this weekend 😁
I've been using a mulch "with beneficial mycorrhizae". One bag must've split and after sitting ~2 months was discovered yesterday with a MASSIVE stack of mushrooms growing out the shady side! Haven't ID'd them but they look very much like oysters. Probably could've eaten them but I broke them up and tossed them into my massive yardwaste pit where I've been stacking all my yard and tree waste for years, eventually to be buried in soil after some upcoming excavation. It's right in the center of a redwood fairy ring and I hope it'll nurofy those for years to come.
Love when that happens!
I regret putting worms into my garden beds. I used to do that and had a better garden than now.
Very informative . The soil has to be made by an addition of organic material. Please note anyone reading this you can return escaped worms after a rain. I like to ensure they don't go down the drains.
Thank you for this video, I was thinking about doing this exact same thing. Go to a bait shop and buy some worms for my dry dead AZ soil
I don't have any native worms in my garden where I live as it's sand, sand and more sand. The worms I have now came from my worm bin's wormcastings. Sure I try to sift out the cocoons but it's nearly impossible to get them all. So, I chop and dig and drop to give them food. They're doing quite well, actually. They eat dead roots from old plants too. If I waited for a worm to get past all the sand to find my little patches of raised beds and containers, I might be waiting forever.
I can't thank you enough for bringing my garden back to life. I watched the video about how to compost and my garden is popping things here and there. Are you still coming over to bless my garden with your two hands? 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I am!
@@epicgardening Well than I'll open a bottle and make dinner.
Kevin I’ll be receiving my raised bed pretty soon and I have no idea where to start with what kind of soil to put in it? I’m going to be growing food such as cabbage lettuce tomatoes etc.… Where would I get my soil and what kind should I get?
Check my vid on filling a tall raised bed! If you wanna buy bagged mix get best veggie mix you can afford, if you want to make, you can use 50% topsoil 50% compost or 1/3 1/3 1/3 peat vermiculite compost
He did a video on that recently, here's the link ruclips.net/video/SuF_ICy0JOE/видео.html . To summarize it, he fills the bottom of the bed with wood and whatever organic matter he has handy. Then for the top layer he puts roughly a foot of "Mel's mix" which is compost, peat moss, and vermiculite mixed together. This way you can cheaply fill the bottom section of your raised bed and only use the more expensive soil mix where most roots will be growing.
Have you ever tried reading a gardening book? Did you know that, before computers exited, people got their knowledge from books and talking to experienced people? Do you realise that you don’t have to let the people posting on the Internet do all the research and work for you? Lazy minded people put Trump into office. Only thinking people can make a positive difference in this world. Choose to become one of them ASAP.
I just digg the soil from my neighbors yard when he's sleeping.
presented professionally I understood every word, thank you
Kevin is always on the boujier side of things but also down to earth. Heh.
Me before watching the video: oh 😔
Me after watching the video: oh! ☺️
Just in time!!! Thank you my soil doesn't have worms, and couldn't figure out why. I thought nematodes were bad for plants? I'm confused.
I believe there are good nematodes and bad ones ie. U want the good 1s and not the bad ones.
Hi, love your video, very helpful. I want to start my own herb garden. How could I save worms they came out of the garden into my porch, is starting raining and is getting cold here in Concord, CA. What soil could I buy to save them.
Totally agree. After covering the soil nature will sort itself out
My raised beds are full of mushrooms so I'm hoping the worms are underneath the surface too🌱
Would love to see videos of case studies! Go to gardens that need a rehab and point out issues that you see.
The soil is really, really bad at my place. Therefore this past summer I made lots of very large raised beds for both my vegetable gardens and some flower gardens. I filled them with soil scrapped from a local rancher's cow feeding pens. It's at least 50% cow manure. I bought some red wiggler composting worms to help speed up the conditioning of the manure/soil mixture and put some worms in each raised bed. Do you think by next year they will have this soil broke down enough I can plant in it? I tried a test plant and presently the soil is too strong and killed the plant.
Freezing winter weather will soon be here - will all my composting worms die and I will need to start over again next year with buying more worms? Your thoughts and recommendations please.
how do the worms come back. Im in a new subdivision with basically dead soil. Im building up my dirt with compost and manure. The dirt is rock hard, how would worms arrive there? They'd need to have jack hammers to burrow through!
You'd be surprised how it happens
@@epicgardening I have worms in my garden, I've been building up my dirt and it is looking sooooooo good. How did they arrive?
Consider doing a video on the Asian jumping worm- people have the mindset "all earthworms= good" and need to be aware of the fact that there are earthworms out there that are actually destructive and no one should ever even contemplate acquiring them for any purpose whatsoever. I've worked in my garden for 22 years to improve the soil, had it where I wanted it and then at some point these worms came in on something and undid all that work. For that reason, I totally ignore the advice to do as little tilling as possible because tilling the soil to get amendments down where these worms have less access to it and letting the moles, birds, and whatever else may eat them do their work are the only ways I know of at this point to exercise any sort of control of these pests which multiply at an insane rate. It's highly probable that you have viewers who aren't even aware at this point that they're dealing with the effects of these worms.
I love the pumpkin next to you... :)
I'm thinking about putting a worm bin in a raised bed.
Thanks. Really informative. Soil or different types of soil have to be amended in their own way. This being said, your home made compost is the best way to start putting microbiology so worms can be put to good use, providing of course that circumstances allow it to happen.
Instead of buying expensive worms from a grower, just go to wal Mart and get some cheap red wigglers and earth worms from the fishing section
But I add compost worms to compost (rotating bin), after 3 months or so, I put the compost in the raised beds.
Am I supposed to pick out the worms!!
I'd say that's fine :)
This is interesting, so last few months we turned the front yard into an orchard. Found out we have loamy soil little on the clay side. Side note absorbs water well, just doesn't want to let it go lol. But what was interesting, is every shovel I did as I flipped the grass to be under the soil had a ton of worms in it. But there is ZERO organic matter in that loamy soil. Compared to my raised beds, I have no idea what is supporting all those worms lol.
But we have cane sugar straw on it now, and we now have a ton of bugs, like slaters, breaking it down, so hoping that over a year or two we can build the soil to not hold so much water.
Grass was in it, right?!
@@epicgardening If you want to call it that. Most of the time we had 1-2 cars on it, heavily compacted, mostly dirt and stones, some grass on the outer edges.
I haven’t even watch this video. But I can give a answer to the statement. Can’t fix your soil with worms because they run away if you have horrible soil!!!. I have sandy loom down here in the bottom South Carolina. Oh worms hate sandy loom.
My fave soil amendment is bokashi waste. The worms love it and in turn my plants love it. I recently checked out the portion of my raised bed where i buried the waste....there was a worm feeding frenzy going on - it was exciting to see even baby worms and worm eggs too, so it means they r reproducing as life is good 4 them 😂🤭 So yup, it starts off with the organic matter. I also saw other tiny insects scurrying around. Living soil = healthy soil.
This video just reminded me to water my herbs 🌿 👍🏾😊
What if I have raised beds that are on legs at table height? The soil doesn't contact the ground, so worms won't be able to get to it. I was thinking I could top off the beds with a good layer of purchased compost when I put the garden to bed for the winter, then introduce worms next spring.
I understand your reasons to not just add worms to my soil. But I want to double check because I live on a property with a new house that was built after the big Camp Fire in Paradise CA in 2018. After the previous home (and most of the town) burned, they also came in and scraped all the burned horrible stuff off along with the top layers of soil. So my task in building a garden is BIG. I am adding as much cardboard and compost and manure and leaves as I can buy and find. And some of my garden in doing very well, especially in my raised beds. But I am also trying to garden the rest of my 1/3 acre, and cannot possibly do raised beds everywhere. I also have physical limitations, so cannot use a wheelbarrow, and need to keep what I lift under 20 pounds, and limited number of times a day.....so I was hoping adding worms plus cardboard and leaves for them to work in might help me. Do you still say no?
I'm lucky to have worms through out my property, so for some potted plants, would it work to set my pots in the ground an inch or so in hopes that worms would come up through the drain hole?
I understand the general concept of converting dirt into soil by starting at the bacterial and fungal level but I don't understand excluding adding worms to dirt. Looking for feedback:
• You say worms are likely to die if added to "lifeless" dirt. I agree. But what about in-ground worm farms/bins -- isn't it true that adding an in-ground worm bin solves the problem of providing food for worms even in "lifeless" soil?
• And if the worms are able to survive because of the in-ground bins, wouldn't the worms then be able to aerate the soil and add organic matter *UNDER* the surface (vs simply adding organics to the surface)?
• And if this is true, wouldn't the subsurface aeration and distribution of worm castings go a long way in encouraging deeper root growth (vs shallow, sprawling rooting)?
I can't help but feel like this sort of hyper-focus on starting at the microbial level is causing us to overlook, ignore, or exclude reasonable solutions to creating/restoring soil and the soil food web.
I'm all for emphasizing bacterial and fungal health as a fundamental element of soil health but I don't see how that would cause me or anyone else to discourage using worms as one among many tools to help reach that goal. Am I missing something here?
Hey Kevin. Thanks for the upload. Your comment about the difference between earthworms and composting worms brings up a question. I pooped over to your store and was looking at the worm castings description and it said that it’s not screened as finely, which increases the chance of worm eggs and worms to be in it. Which kind of worms are used to produce the castings?
I've never added. Compost pile and all my plots are loaded with earthworm
Nice pumpkin
Well explained.
Please fly to South Africa bring some of your magic
What do you think about the barometric pressure changes in worm species? I've heard that nightcrawlers climb more when the water comes to escape floods as Red wigglers are less likely to make a break for it when that water comes.
Any issue with putting a hand full of both into a big planter and seeing how things level out?
My planters are loaded with organic material. most recently, several inches of tree mulch from a large tree in my yard that had to be removed. Several neighbors enjoyed the mulch as well. I find worms each year when I plant flowers. I'm glad I never added more, they apparently know where to find food.
On the other hand, my lawn looks like your pie chart. I think the only organic matter is the grass, clover, and bugs. There's no soil to speak of. The clover seems to like the clay and the bees love the clover, so it works.
My question is, should I be adding clay or other inorganic to the planters? or just leave it be as long as what I want to grow does well? There is so much discussion now about not disturbing the soil, it's confusing.
I am thinking of making the planters into a pollinator garden.
Can you make a video showing how to fix a dying closed terrarium? mine is going putrid. Tried to lower the water level but it seems too late. :(
Fallen leaves and Amazon boxes make great worm food!
Can you put chunks of clay in vermicompost bin and turn it into earth?
Very informative. Dont add worms, make the soil ok first. Tfs
Excellent info! Quick question: Would you use leaves from a lawn treated with chemical fertilizer and weed killer? I live in a neighborhood where we have to treat our lawns and am concerned if I should use my leaves. Thank you!
waiting for you to come to my home to fix my soil problems :P
Im so happy worms are starting to comeback to my garden after I accidentally killed the soil 2.5years ago
great video, so informative!
I have pot worms in my plant how do I get rid of them
2 years later and you never showed up to amend my soil while we sip seltzers
I laugh stupidly hard at every promise you give for clicking the like button.
Lol I keep getting more ridic
Apparently those improv lessons are coming in handy after all! 😁