Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Ralph Thurston <thurstonessays@yahoo.com>]

I'd love to let the worms do it on their own.
Unfortunately, on a five acre field I have yet to turn
a single earthworm out of the ground. This may be from
years of "normal" farming done on the piece before I
bought it. I am surprised that after five years
earthworms haven't returned to the farm on their own,
but it appears I'm going to have to help them out
somehow.

--- Ken Hargesheimer <minifarms2@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I want to add a "second" to Dieter's advice below. 
> Why do all that work and take the time to do it? 
> Let the worms do their thing in the soil without any
> time or work by the farmer/gardener.  Have the soil
> covered to protect it.  No water runoff, etc.
>    
>   Ken Hargesheimer
> 
> Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com> wrote:
>     Here is the opposing argument:
>    
>   According to a calculation I read the other day,
> 200 to 400 earthworms can live
>   in 1 square meter of good garden soil, supposing
> further that each worm can 
>   produce its own weight of high quality compost
> each day, this translates into 
>   about 1 cm of compost over the entire surface or
> about 50 truck loads of high 
>   quality compost per hectare (about 2.5 acres) a
> year.  Try to make this amount 
>   of compost in your vermiculture facility!
> 
>   If on the other hand, you raise earthworms in a
> box to liberate them in the 
>   garden, the earthworms raised on a high nutrient
> diet in the box may not do
>   very well when left to their own devices in the
> wild.
>    
>   What I mean is that it may be more advantageous to
> create the right conditions
>   in the garden or in the field for earthworms to
> prosper and multiply rather than to
>   raise a few in a box.
>    
>   Dieter
>    
>   
>  
> 
>        
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