No worms

[Britesea]

Absolutely get a ratter type dog. They will really go after the critters. Just make sure they leave the chickens alone...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Found this:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1703356/worms-in-sandy-soil

It would be my guess that they need lots of organic matter - which I know you've added. Maybe you could 'seed' the area with some purchased worms and hope they stick around?

Would be an interesting experiment.

 

[Joel_BC]

Just a couple thoughts, and I'm not sure what they're worth really.

Our gardens have essentially sandy soil, but both the people who owned this land before us and we ourselves have amended the soil worked toward developing a reasonable topsoil. So I assume this history goes back to the mid 1950s, when the land was cleared of trees.

We find the common earthworms and also "nightcrawlers" (like a giant earthworm) in our soil.

As to red wigglers. They show up spontaneously in our compost bins, so I believe their eggs are in the bins. But when we apply compost that has lots of red wigglers in it to our gardens, after a fairly short while we never run across red wigglers in the garden soil. Even when weeding or digging, we just don't see them. I don't know what happens to them, but their habitat seems to be in the compost materials so long as these are cool, not hot from bacteria processing the carbon/nitrogen materials.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

That was my thought Joel, that maybe the garden area is just too hot yet as it breaks down. Or maybe there are birds or another worm predator really fattening up on your worms?
If you go 5-10 feet away from the garden, where it is not amended, and turn the soil, are there worms there?
Also, has it been very dry recently? Especially hot and dry? Maybe they need more (or less) moisture? I've been trying to start a worm colony, but I keep forgetting to give them a little moisture...

 

[Chic Rustler]

thank you all for the replies. Not there's no worms anywhere on the property that I have found. We have had dry periods and very wet periods and I have not seen any either time. The garden stays moist because of the mulch. I wet it sometimes but it just seems to stay moist more than before the mulch. The mulch isn't getting hot like a compost pile. But it is slowly braking down. There's a thin layer of black goodness between the mulch and sand now.

I spread rabbit manure over the mulch every now and then. Not much but maybe a 5 gallon bucket over the 40x40 area. I'm hopeful it will help speed decomposition.


I don't even have worms in the dirt under the rabbit hutch! I think the property is just barren. I've never seen worms on a beach before either. I think it's just because there's no food for them

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I think it's because our soil is so rich and well, wet.

Mushrooms must grow well there!

 

[Chic Rustler]

I may order some. Or I may just pick up a box from the bait store and turn them loose every now and then. They are supposed to populate quickly.

 

[Chic Rustler]

Today I dug a hole u dear the rabbit butches. I have a gopher problem and he decided to build a tunnel under there. I was very surprised to find a solid 2 inches of black dirt before the sand. But still no worms.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's weird - that's one place that you'd think there'd be tons of worm! I think it'd be a great idea to broadcast some under there and see what happens.

 

[CrealCritter]

Maybe try and dump a bunch of leaves in there, earth worms love leaves.