So I have happened to come across
an article by the United States Department of Agriculture and they have done
some research on the benefits of earthworms and what impacts them. I have found
out that there are three categories of earthworms but two of them help with
your everyday garden or lawn. The Endogeic type of worm is a topsoil worm and
eats most of the organic matter on the top. They create a maze of tunnels in
the soil which they can use to spread nutrients to all parts of the plant. The
other kind that beneficial is Lumbricus and is a deep burrowing worm. These are
the worms that make drainage tunnels to the deeper parts of the plant to
provide nutrients to it. All of the worms create cast rich in nitrogen, phosphorous
and potassium. Another interesting fact about worms is that if you use harmful
pesticides on the plants and the chemicals runoff into the drainage tunnels the
worms actually slow down and block the tunnels so that the chemicals don’t go
further down into the soil. Also if you put lime on your plants it can increase
their population in the area because they like their soil in with a neutral ph
level and they also like to feed on calcium.
That’s all I have for now I will they a link to the article for you guys
to see.
Mason--lots of good information. It would be helpful to your reader if you would always include some sort of pic e.g., each type of worm. Also--I believe you once said that fertilizers 'killed' worms. Will your research be about the impact of a commonly-used pesticide or fertilizer on worms?
ReplyDeleteCan to much lime cause harm? What if you have a neutral pH and you add lime? Also do you think that lime would be a good pesticide to use for your project? I would be interested in that because I use lime to kill the "scale" that forms on my gardenia bushes.
ReplyDelete