How Many Worms is Too Many

[OROZCONLECHE]

So ive been finding alot of worms alot my yard and I pick them up and put them in my containers, but how many is too many worms?

[Kisal]

I don't know how many worms is too many for a container. It would depend, for one thing, on the size of the container, but it also would depend on how much food is available for the worms. I've read that one worm eats 1/3 its weight every day, and I don't add worm food to my container plants, like one would to a worm bin.

That's just one reason I don't put worms in my plant containers. They can't easily get out if there isn't a sufficient food supply. Even a worm doesn't deserve to die of starvation. JMO, though. I know others disagree with me.

[OROZCONLECHE]

What exactly does a worm eat?

[Kisal]

Most people feed them kitchen wastes, like vegetable and fruit trimmings. I don't have a worm bin, so can't tell you exactly. Search the forum for worm composting and vermicomposting, and you'll find a lot of past discussions about the subject. You might even find some fairly recent threads in the Composting forum.

[OROZCONLECHE]

Nice, Thank you =D

[PunkRotten]

I feed my worms all kinds of vegetable and fruits. All the waste I don't use or cut off from the produce goes to the worms. They also eat the newspaper I put inside their bin for bedding. I do know it is easier for them to eat softer foods. Tomatoes, melons, berries, kiwi, cucumber etc they will eat it almost right away. Hard stuff has to break down and get squishy before they can get at it.

As for wild worms I wonder sometimes when they are in the soil or in a pot how they manage to survive. Like where do they get their food? I see wild worms in my compost outside eating the compost.

[Kisal]

Nightcrawlers will pull dead leaves and other plant material into their burrows and eat it after it softens enough. Red worms live under piles of fallen leaves and other such debris. I don't think they actually burrow into the ground, at least not much. But essentially, all worms eat decaying plant material. Or so I understand from what I've read, since I'm not any kind of authority on worms.

[GardenRN]

Kisal, you're right. worms eat decaying organic matter. It's funny how they leave the live stuff alone. In the "wild" (insinuating you can train a worm) they eat fallen leaves and plant bits on the soil surface as well as bits of organic material mixed in the soil. The more food there is, the more worms there are. And they will migrate toward healthier food supplies. So when you make a compost pile that is on the ground, they will find their way to it and make lots of babies.

[applestar]

If you use compost and under the leafpile top soil in your soil mix, the worms will have a good starter base. I usualy intentionally put one earthworm per 6"or smaller container. 2 per 8-10" and so on. Then I water with UCG water -- since I drink one cup at a time, about two cups worth or about 4 tablespoon dry measured coffee grounds are dumped in a 2L watering can water added, sometime a drop of molasses, and the remaining UCG in the can is poured onto the surface of the last pot.

The earthworms seem to migrate from pot to adjacent pot -- I don't know if they exhausted the food supply or if they didn't like it that I watered... Or that I hadn't watered enough. I have only seen lost earthworms on the floor 2 or three times.

During the season, my containers are sitting directly on the ground or on the ungrouted (sand-only) brick patio. I think they move out when it gets too hot, and move back in if the ground gets too wet. When I'm hardening off seedlings, I sometimes see a worm tail hanging out of the container after they moved in.

[OROZCONLECHE]

Wow, that is alot of info, the only problem I got with giving them fruits is the fruit flies, but I'm going to add leaves and stuff so they have something, I'm using 2 worms per containers at the moment, and my containers are all different size so I should get them food before they starve lol