Earthworms

Nothing exciting happened this week. So what do I write about. Its been a while since I posted useful information. So I came across some photos I took last year in a vineyard. This was the most amazing piece of land. Fertile, rich in humus and had earthworms as big as baby snakes, but small in comparison to the worm you'll see in the video!!

So, what makes these guys so important for me to write about? Its just worms right? Right?

Not really. Here is the deal on earthworms:

There are approximately 2700 different kinds of earthworms. The South African Giant Earthworm grows to be up to 6.7 meters (22 feet) and is the largest earthworm known. The record-setting specimen was found beside a road in William's Town, South Africa, in 1967. The worms normally grow to only about 1.8 meters (6 feet).

Earthworms prefer neutral to alkaline soils. They travel underground by means of waves of muscular contractions. The whole burrowing process is aided by the secretion of lubricating mucus. Their tunnels aerate the soil and contributes to overall soil health.

Furthermore, earthworms converts large amounts of organic matter (e.g. dead leaves) into rich humus, improving soils fertility and structure. The worms breaks pieces of organic matter off, eats it and during the digestive phase it gets mixed with dirt and digestive enzymes. It is then excreted and the deposits can been seen on the soil surface as little granular heaps of soil called "worm casts" or "vermicasts".

Research has show that fresh earthworm casts are 5 times richer in available Nitrogen, 7 times richer in available Phosphates and 11 times richer in available Potassium than the surrounding upper 6 inches (150 mm) of soil. The casts has better porosity, aeration, drainage and moisture holding capacity than normal compost. This has an enormous impact on the immediate soil environment, especially surrounding the root system.

Having this information, we try to add as much organic material to the soil as possible. This is done by putting straw in the vineyards, or compost. The more organic material you have in the soil, the more food there is for the earthworms to digest and to convert into more useful nutrition.

Here are the guys I photographed in the vineyards: