Earthworms and Brassicas

[roadrunner]

I keep hearing on various gardening vlogs and on videos dealing with building soil that earthworms love brassicas. Is this true? If so, what is it that they love about brassicas?

 

[Tetters]

I reckon you must be looking at all the wrong vlogs roadrunner Of course you might mean caterpillars - the caterpillars that result from the cabbage white butterfly will devour your crop very quickly.
Maybe in America you call these worms?

 

[roadrunner]

For the record, I really hate when people refer to caterpillars as worms -- it's one of my many pet peeves.

The videos I've heard about this, they were definitely talking about earthworms. It's always on videos dealing with Regenerative Agriculture/Farming, much of which talks about the importance of having plants in the ground to build soil. They are usually very long videos and once in a while I'll hear them mention how earthworms love brassicas; I've also heard this somewhere else, but can't remember.

I can't find anything when I search....

P.S. I don't understand why people have such problems with caterpillar damage to their brassicas or any other type plant. All the caterpillar damage I've had was very minor and never hurt the plant.

 

[Tetters]

All I understand is that if we don`t protect against cabbage whites, we don`t get cabbage for dinner .... not only that they spue up sick - green stuff they collect from insecticides and herbicides, and we are next to a farmers field where there is always a chance of these awful poisons drifting over in the breeze......oh yes, and they poo all over the place as well.

If we hear anything else about what worms like, we`ll let you know

 

[marlingardener]

In my experience, earthworms like friable soil rich in nutrients (which they add to with their castings.) If your soil is healthy, you have earthworms. If not, not.
About those cabbage worms--darn them! I have to protect our broccoli from them with an organic powder and still have to immerse the harvested head in salt water to make any lurkers float to the top. I don't like those caterpillars!

 

[roadrunner]

In my experience, earthworms like friable soil rich in nutrients (which they add to with their castings.) If your soil is healthy, you have earthworms. If not, not.
About those cabbage worms--darn them! I have to protect our broccoli from them with an organic powder and still have to immerse the harvested head in salt water to make any lurkers float to the top. I don't like those caterpillars!

I'm not worried about attracting earthworms, I have plenty. I'm just curious why they love brassicas (if that's even true).

As for cabbage eaters, I've never had a problem and I do grow plenty of brassicas every winter. Biodiversity keeps all bad things in check.

 

[LouisMinh]

I can confirm that earthworms do love brassicas when they are in-ground, on contrary it's not good to add in the worm bin. I think part of the reason why, is that brassicas produce a lot of root exudates, therefore the soil around them is high in microbial activity, another worm food. I always see a bunch of worms under the old leaves of my nappa cabbage patch, not so much other crops. Hope that helps!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Possibly they love the vicinity of brassicas, they like to live places brassicas do well. They both have the same sort of ideal soil requirements, rich in rotted organic material basically. I have never noticed them damaging brassicas and would be surprised if they did, living plants are not attractive to them that way.