Worms in soil

Seamaiden · May 17, 2010

Yes, dican, you can have worms in your soil pots indoors. I didn't introduce mine, they introduced themselves.

PureSugar said:
I personally find lady bugs to be a waste of time. They must be released during a dark cycle and be prepared to find dead lady bugs in your light hoods and vents and I have tried them in several grows at different locations none with results that didn't require additional measures.

Worms in an indoor grow while I like the idea of the air pockets sounds messy. And the idea of worms crawling around my room just doesn't sound appealing to me.

They stay in or under the pots. Mine are full of red wigglers because I set the girls outside every once in a while. They're reproducing, too, lots of babies.

Maybe I should get some pix of mine when they wake up.

dican01 · May 20, 2010

Seamaiden said:
Yes, dican, you can have worms in your soil pots indoors. I didn't introduce mine, they introduced themselves.

They stay in or under the pots. Mine are full of red wigglers because I set the girls outside every once in a while. They're reproducing, too, lots of babies.

Maybe I should get some pix of mine when they wake up.

interesting seamaiden. i keep my outdoor and indoor gardens very separate and i treat them very different. are you not worried that other, non helpful creatures (ie nemetodes) might introduce themselves into your soil? have you noticed any positive or negative effects on your plants/garden?

Seamaiden · May 24, 2010

Sorry for the delay in replying. Family emergency.

The biggest problem I've had is with mites that were introduced by someone who had them in their grow rooms. He visited me, a couple months later I found mites.

Other than that, I've had problems with fungus gnats (they're everywhere around here when it gets warm) inside, and whatever makes the caterpillars that start small and get huge as they eat. Both are easily controlled with a combination of sticky traps (gnats) and Bt spray.

I can't say the worms have a great effect, but neither are they deleterious. They introduced themselves because I stuck the mite-ridden plants outside for a week while I cleaned out the veg-table, and to allow more predators access to the mites. I was quite surprised, after they'd been back inside a few weeks, to move the pots to do some cleaning up and there were all these worms under them! All sizes of red wigglers, no earthworms though.

Good time to go fishin'?

P.S. My solution to problems is to stick 'em outside, whenever, wherever I can. It seems to work, at least for this location.

MASSES 420KING · May 25, 2010

SkunkWrangler said:
Sorry if this sounds stupid... Instead of worm castings in soil, can you just put a couple live worms in your containers?

oh yeah this dude called the rev who writes awesome articles for SKUNK MAGAZINE has perfected a technique called true living organics or tlo for short this dude has worms in his buckets and everything that he grows this way looks 1000 times better then just regular store bought organics the pics are crazy you can see trichs galore from pictures snapped ten fifteen feet away

MASSES 420KING · May 25, 2010

froggy said:
Sounds interesting. Would it be possible for you to post that article?
Thanks

im not that computer savey but i can give you the website its skunk magazine under there grow and article spots also one of the revs people are on this site hes the guy growing the cherry malawi using tlo style:420:

dican01 · May 25, 2010

i still remain a skeptic. i wouldn't dare dream of introducing them myself into my 5 gallon buckets. not enough room for them to work there magic. i think red worms, and all worms for that matter, are best kept outside. you make a nice bedding for them out of newspaper, you feed them your garbage (vegetable and fruit scraps, eggshells, cardboard, etc.), and they give you castings, which you can then harvest and top dress your plants as needed, or make teas.
indoors, i like to have control over how much nitrogen is in the soil. especially during flowering. while the castings that they produce are beneficial to my indoor garden, i do not think them digging around in there will benefit my plants health. it may work for some people but the only way i could imagine it is a huge bed of soil. i grow in buckets and i think i will leave the critters outdoors.
just found some mushrooms in my indoor garden this morning. makes me think there is not enough good fungus in gardening (ie mycorrhizae). hope to see more in the future.

justiceman · May 25, 2010

I personally think that if you grow your plants in separate containers their is usually barely enough room left for the roots let alone the worms, Not to mention they would probably run out of food fast. If anything I would introduce them to a big gardening bed outside that has tons of Organic matter for them to feast on.

Seamaiden · May 26, 2010

I couldn't have stopped the worms from self-introduction unless I keep the girls indoors 100% of the time, and that's cruel. That's like... declawing a cat.
<shrug>

justiceman · May 26, 2010

Oh no worries. Ya i wouldn't go through the trouble of introducing them necessarily, but if they come themselves then more power to ya. Those little guys definitely help out! I surely wouldn't' take them away from their home either.

newhousegreen · May 26, 2010

dont put worms in your indoor pots..they will die and your plants too!!

worms in outdoor compost is something different,):rain

they can run out if the temperature increases,but indoor not..

MASSES 420KING · May 26, 2010

i beg to differ for one your roots grow towards the pot walls leaving 40=60%of medium untouched also the worms will create room air pockets and food for your plants and you can try to tell the editor of cultivation for skunk magazine who perfected the technique that his indoor plants are gonna die cause he got worms in them google true living organics when you hold the soil it moves around in your hand hence the term true living organics

MASSES 420KING · May 26, 2010

as a matter of fact check out rev and greenman420 chunky cherry malawi grow and greenman420 can inform you on the benefits of using tlo style grow imho its conniesuer quality medium for conniesuer genetics

dican01 · May 28, 2010

i really believe that outdoor and indoor gardening are two different things. outdoors, with the sun and bugs and worms and all that stuff. that sounds like real organic to me. indoors, everything is pretty artificial. a lot of people don't even use soil indoors and still grow "organic".
if you grow in soil, indoors or out, you are going to have a "living soil". that is the definition of soil. if it is not living, it is just dirt.
there is a reason i use bagged soil instead of soil from my outdoor garden. as good as it may be, a bag of roots organics or fox farm soil will give me the best results when growing in containers indoors. and you can be sure it is pest free.
a. if the argument is that they help fertilize? why not just add worm castings and know how much your plants are getting. nitrogen is bad late in flowering. i get a good bag of 1-0-0 castings for around 15 bucks. or you can make your own. check out worms eat my garbage by mary appelhof.
b. if you need aeration in your soil, then you need to add some perlite or vermiculite.
c. to help your biology, add some mycorrhizae, some enzymes, a dash of sugar, and you got yourself a good living soil. some people even add parasitic nematodes.

i don't think your plants will die from having worms in your soil indoors. i just see no real benefit in having them there.

hopefully soon we can just all grow outdoors, next to our tomatoes and melons. until then, no worms for my pampered ladies.

newhousegreen · May 30, 2010

got 5 plants blueberry(1,5litre pot) with worms from canada,one day(about a week in pots) i smell a vinegar in the box,so i smell near pots,erghhh,plants looked so sick!

i repot them but 2 plants died,worms looked very bad,close to death

i said,only outdoors with these "big"worms

MASSES 420KING · Jun 1, 2010

im gonna start a true living organics thread come check it out guys what im gonna do is go word for word from skunk mag and give them full props on it so no one can get sued so give me 4-5 hours then come check it out

MASSES 420KING · Jun 1, 2010

thread will be in advanced techniques forum

Kodaxx · Jun 1, 2010

dican01 said:
i still remain a skeptic. i wouldn't dare dream of introducing them myself into my 5 gallon buckets. not enough room for them to work there magic. i think red worms, and all worms for that matter, are best kept outside. you make a nice bedding for them out of newspaper, you feed them your garbage (vegetable and fruit scraps, eggshells, cardboard, etc.), and they give you castings, which you can then harvest and top dress your plants as needed, or make teas.
indoors, i like to have control over how much nitrogen is in the soil. especially during flowering. while the castings that they produce are beneficial to my indoor garden, i do not think them digging around in there will benefit my plants health. it may work for some people but the only way i could imagine it is a huge bed of soil. i grow in buckets and i think i will leave the critters outdoors.
just found some mushrooms in my indoor garden this morning. makes me think there is not enough good fungus in gardening (ie mycorrhizae). hope to see more in the future.

but not only do worms provide a natural nitrogen rich fertilizer, they naturally aerate the soil and provide much needed oxygen to the roots. they create little tunnels as they wiggle through the dirt and in the process they also virtually eliminate the possibility of dry pockets in your soil. i believe it was aristotle that called the worms the "intestines of the earth", and the chinese used to call them the "angels of the soil". worms are very beneficial in many ways. I wouldn't see a problem putting them in a container. just one farmers take on it.

dican01 · Jun 2, 2010

Kodaxx said:
but not only do worms provide a natural nitrogen rich fertilizer, they naturally aerate the soil and provide much needed oxygen to the roots. they create little tunnels as they wiggle through the dirt and in the process they also virtually eliminate the possibility of dry pockets in your soil. i believe it was aristotle that called the worms the "intestines of the earth", and the chinese used to call them the "angels of the soil". worms are very beneficial in many ways. I wouldn't see a problem putting them in a container. just one farmers take on it.

please look at my last post. perlite and/or vermiculite are used for aeration in soil in containers. not worms. there are plenty of things that can be done but shouldn't be done. growing in containers is really specific.
if it was such a great idea, more people would be doing it and talking about it. seriously. seems not many people in here have actually tried it. the ones that have were either by mistake or resulted in death of worms and plants. i am sure it can be done, and i am sure it will be done, but i do not think it should be done.
fact of the matter is. i can achieve the best results possible WITHOUT them in my soil. i know for a fact that the best growers are not growing with worms in their soil.
i do not see a need to try it. i have perlite and vermiculite in my soil. i already use worm castings and there are also some in the soil that i use (either roots organics or fox farm).
this is what you do for soil aeration. perlite/vermiculite indoors. worms, a chisel plow, a broadfork, and/or tilling outdoors. seriously.

Seamaiden · Jun 2, 2010

Dican, I don't see how vermiculite is going to aerate anything it's mixed with. It can't because it holds water and keeps the medium wet. It clumps together when wet, too, thus further preventing aeration. Perlite does help lighten it, but 'aeration' is something a little more nebulous outside of books like Sunset West.

Seriously, there's nothing inherently wrong with people giving a couple of worms a try, is there?

You know the best growers?

MASSES 420KING · Jun 2, 2010

vermiculite holds water it does not aireate perlite is pourous does not hold water is good for loosening up your medium and again worms really are the best for your indoor organics soil-mix real organics has nothing unnatural in it for instance pure blend pro organic is not organic it is pseudo organics yes there is organic material in it but there is synthetic material as well in the same bottle if you really want organics follow the thread that i have created in advanced techniques under TRUE LIVING ORGANICS or TLO for short

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