Worms in containers

[paradoxlost]

I use worms


BUT



for people who use worms they tend to forget something.



Watering.


When people are growing cannabis they are worried about over watering their plants. Which makes sense. This could kill them. So they under water. Or get into wet/dry cycles. And than they want to grow organically.



When you're growing organically, you are not only watering the cannabis plant. You are also watering the bacteria. Active populations need additional water. So its



Cannabis water needs + bacteria water needs = total water you should be watering.



This goes even higher with worms. Worms are not dry tolerant. The persist in place where the top 2 soil horizons don't get dry. Aka forests, grasslands, in udic climate regimes or wet microclimates. I've seen people buy hundreds of dollars worth of worms, but them into pots, than a month later they are like wtf, where did all my worms go? Why aren't they reproducing?


Well you let your pots get under field capacity for like 2 days. All the worms died. You need to keep your pots wet if you want to have worms in your pots. Honestly, it would be smart to ALWAYS bubble/oxygenate your water before watering if you are running organic.

 

[bigbadbiddy]

I think the canary in the coal mine thing is great with regards to worms.


In my previous grow I had put them into my 5 gal smart pots for flower with my faulty soil mix using those messed up buckwheat hulls that caused a cascade of issues.


The worms all fled. Gradually at first but eventually there were close to none left in the pots. I started with 15-20 per pot initially...


This time around (with my new soil mix in which I replaced the buckwheat hulls with classic perlite), I have about as many worms in my 1 gal pots for veg. And so far, 1 week in, not one has tried to escape the pots.
This is even more impressive (to me anyway), considering that I way overdid it on cutting my soil mix further with perlite for the veglings. I think in some of the pots I have the soil mix which consists of roughly 1/3rd of perlite, further cut 50-50 (soilmix-perlite).
I did that because the soil looked very composted/compacted after composting in bins for over a month before planting. Felt too dense/compact/heavy so I stretched it further with perlite.
So far the plants don't mind and I expect they wont, it will just mean I need to put them into richer soil in 5 gal pots sooner than had I not further cut it with more perlite (or so I assume/believe/hope ).


Anyway, long story short, in some of those 1 gal containers, there is close to 50% perlite and 50% soil mix (with 1/3rd perlite). And the worms still don't seem to mind.
I was fully prepared for some of them to bite the dust but so far, I haven't found a single dead worm on the tarp below the pots.


Combined with how fast they multiply and happy they look in the soil bins, I take their behavior and multiplication as a sign of my soil being healthy - and so are the plants.

 

[illumin8100]

Man i don't know where i acquired pot worms (little white ones) but i can tell you that they def increase yield. The one plant i noticed them in has prob a 200% bigger yield than my other widow of the same variety. Could just be genetics because they were from seed but still.... Funny too because this plant I'm talking about had me worried at first because her stem was the smallest of the bunch but she, by far packed the most weight.... Swear to god, I'm going to have almost 10 oz from a 2 x 3 320 hlg quantum board... All ocean grown TLO. Buds are unreal.

 

[PaulieWaulie]

I just dealt with pot worms myself, they like conditions of excessive nutrients, low ph, and wet conditions. I got it after loading up my bin with lots of food and coffee grinds. Now that I have backed off feedings, and let the bins dry out a bit, I see their population has gone done some. So maybe it is not the worms themselves that are helping but the conditions of the compost/castings that they enjoy so much, your plants enjoy as well.

Also they are always there, and show up when conditions are right. And then dissapear, kind of like soil mites! I always wonder where they go, cause they are pretty big, and crawl around in the hundreds, and then when I harvest castings I can't find a dam single one.

 

[illumin8100]

I just dealt with pot worms myself, they like conditions of excessive nutrients, low ph, and wet conditions. I got it after loading up my bin with lots of food and coffee grinds. Now that I have backed off feedings, and let the bins dry out a bit, I see their population has gone done some. So maybe it is not the worms themselves that are helping but the conditions of the compost/castings that they enjoy so much, your plants enjoy as well.

Also they are always there, and show up when conditions are right. And then dissapear, kind of like soil mites! I always wonder where they go, cause they are pretty big, and crawl around in the hundreds, and then when I harvest castings I can't find a dam single one.

Yeah at first when i noticed them it was sort of trippy because there were a lot of them. I noticed them after i noticed spring tails, and right after i noticed them.... That plant just swelled immensely.

 

[DTOM420]

Yeah at first when i noticed them it was sort of trippy because there were a lot of them. I noticed them after i noticed spring tails, and right after i noticed them.... That plant just swelled immensely.

Is it possible that these weren’t worms but, rather, springtail larvae? That wound explain why PaulieWaulie could never find one later - they’d have hatched and left.

 

[illumin8100]

Is it possible that these weren’t worms but, rather, springtail larvae? That wound explain why PaulieWaulie could never find one later - they’d have hatched and left.

I am almost 100% positive they are pot worms based on how they look. Plus my other plants had springtails but no worms...or at least from what i noticed. Can't wait to till my mix my soil again. Hopefully the pop. of worms will find themselves into both containers. I'm also going from 3 5 gal plants to two 10 gal.

 

[caliprop215]

I put about 50 Euro Earth worms in my 100 gallon holes. They multiplied alot. I scoop a shovel and see 3 to 5 worms.they don't go into the native soil as long as there is food. They airate the soil and shit out nitrogen.

Why wouldnt u put worms? Most soil has worms in it why would we not replicate that.?

I need to get red Wiggler's now also since they stay on top layer of soil 6 inches to a foot and eat the cover crops. The euro worms go deeper and airate soil up to few feet

 

[PaulieWaulie]

I just witnessed springtails for the first time. Under a 60X microscope those things were trippy as fuck. Look like white little gummy bears with 10 legs. I had a sprouted Seed Tea with about 1 cup of barley in it and that formed a topdressing layer of sorts which I am finding lots of regular worms, pot worms, springtails and soil mites in.At first I was worried and did a quick search but after some reading my stance is that It's just a sign of lots of food, seeing all these arthropods, and they are not harmful, just part of the soil food web, and they show up when their population can be sustained by amount of bacteria/fungi/decaying matter available

 

[St. Phatty]

I prefer the kind of worms that don't turn into flies.

 

[PaulieWaulie]

Yes, I draw the line at airborne too, they must stay in the pot. first rule of organic growing


which ones become airborne? not any of the ones I mentioned right ?

I prefer the kind of worms that don't turn into flies.