60 Minute Worms - A traffic-light rating system to signal healthy soil management practices.

[Susan BBPM]

The following is quoted from the linked article. There's a link in the article to a video showing how to do it, but I've linked to the article for the overview:

"60 Minute Worms is a tracker with a traffic-light rating system to signal healthy soil management practices. The assessment involves digging 10 spade-size topsoil pits, then sorting and identifying the three types of earthworms (epigeic, endogeic and anecic). The results reveal the likelihood of earthworm function in your soils, rated from red (unlikely) to orange (possible) to green (likely).

The traffic light system rates how healthy the soil is.

Tillage intensity, crop rotation and organic matter applications all influence earthworm communities in arable soils. 60 Minute Worms shows how land management decisions above the ground influence the millions of earthworms that are engineering the soil ecosystem below."

By taking part in 60 Minute Worms, practitioners can see how their field ranks for earthworms, individual results can be compared as part of a national survey, and as a community, they can help improve the likelihood of benefiting from earthworm function in agriculture."

Earthworms Count: How Healthy is Your Soil? - Connecting Research

By Jeremy Lelean, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading Soil, from being an overlooked area of research, is now considered an area of vital interest in the solution to...Read More >

research.reading.ac.uk

More detailed info on the various types of worms in the soil:

https://media.ahdb.org.uk/media/Default/Imported%20Publication%20Docs/How%20to%20count%20earthworms.pdf

 

[YumYum]

I don't think I believe that. I can put a tarp down on crappy soil and check it later on there will be quite a few earthworms under the tarp while in the dry fertile areas there is none. Yes they eat orgainc matter but soil moisture is very important too if not the number one factor for them to travel in.

 

[Susan BBPM]

I don't think I believe that. I can put a tarp down on crappy soil and check it later on there will be quite a few earthworms under the tarp while in the dry fertile areas there is none. Yes they eat orgainc matter but soil moisture is very important too if not the number one factor for them to travel in.

The second link is from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. AHDB is a major funder of applied agricultural research and knowledge exchange (KE) in the UK. They provide independent insight and evidence to support farmers and, in turn, the reputation of the industry. So it's not just some old wive's tale. If you google it you'll find info on it from multiple research institutions.

Earthworms are an indicator of soil health, being impacted by pH, waterlogging, compaction, tillage, rotation, and organic matter management: A good presence of earthworms across the field means their benefits are likely to be widespread. High numbers of earthworms indicate the potential for significant benefits to plant productivity.

So for example, since we started our worm farm we find earthworms absolutely everywhere - all over our patio. They get into compost bags, under tubs etc. Our compost heaps are absolutely teaming with them. So in the space of a couple of years our property has literally millions of earth worms.

I know from planting and harvesting that our no dig beds are teaming with worms. We've created the conditions that allow them to thrive. But I've never dug down to make sure we have the right types of worm at every level of the soil.

I dug a new fence post in this spring in an area of lawn and saw very few worms whilst digging that hole. So despite huge population of worms on my property they aren't choosing to colonize parts of the garden where there isn't organic matter on the surface. I'd wager that if I tried to grow veg in that area we wouldn't get anywhere close to the results that we get in our no-dig beds . In other words, our actions to improve the soil have created a great worm habitat, and that means we have lots of worms working to imporove our soil and feed our plants.

I don't want to dig holes all over my beds - in a big field it's trivial. But it would be interesting to perhaps do it in one bed. A new bed - count the worms before I start, and each subsequent year. Not practical though because if you keep digging a hole in the same place you're killing the worms. There is equipment that can measure this by LISTENING to the ground - apparently they can detect worm activit though sound.