A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Learn how improving your soil can lead to a better looking lawn
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andy10917
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A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by andy10917 » August 7th, 2018, 12:07 pm

Those of you who've been around here for a while know that when I do a soil test interpretation, I'm highly-likely to jump onto one topic first and foremost in the write-up: your OM% and what you should be doing about it. Some of you also know that every Winter I spend time looking over the multi-year soil test results seeing to what degree members implement different parts of the recommendations we make.

The area with the lowest degree of implementation is supplementation of organic matter. Looking over the change in OM% and the amount of discussion around it, less than 10% of members make any meaningful effort to increase OM (organic matter) over a 2-3 year period.

Why? I think it's related to several factors:

(1) Nobody writes about it, so people think it's optional and a nice-to-have, but not important.

(2) It doesn't fit with our go-to-the-big-box-store-and-grab-a-bag mentality.

(3) It takes longer than our attention span permits to work. Geez, these days we get "how did I fail" notes when herbicides take more than three days to work - how can I expect people to focus on something for multiple years?

(4) It's not sexy, and it's work to do it regularly.

(5) Dad didn't do it, and his lawn was OK.

Here's my list of OM% values and ranges:
0%-1%: Horrible. Dead soil.
1%-2%: Poor. Struggling/stressed soil.
2%-3%: Mediocre.
3%-4%: Tolerable.
4%-5%: OK, but room for improvement.
5%-up: Good. Healthy soil and processes.

Well, just like the farmers are finding out, soils are becoming deserts. We and the farmers pour on pre-digested, junk-food synthetics that don't require the microherd and larger members (like earthworms) to process it. Guess what happens? You're no longer providing food to those microherd-and-bigger elements, and they starve and/or don't reproduce. As they die off, the interactions between earthworms and soil bacteria and fungi stop, and then the interactions between the bacteria/fungi and the grass plants stop. Now the soil is 100% dependent on the boom/bust cycle of synthetic feedings. This causes stress and we all know what that all leads to.

I'm linking to a popular-press article that discusses an scientific study and the study itself. It points to heading toward a complete breakdown of soil and farming coming as earthworm populations have fallen by an average of 80% in soils managed (mismanaged?) by current practices.

Another article linked to mentions that soils can be turned around to better earthworm and microherd levels "in years, not decades" with attention, and that lines up with my experience -- when I began supplementing OM regularly, I went from hardly ever seeing an earthworm to earthworms coming out of the soil and fleeing in numbers when I would do something as innocuous as pulling a weed or putting a shovel into the soil -- in two years. With the improvement in the microherd, a couple of inches of mulched leaves disappears in as little as a week. Beneficial fungi eat the higher-Lignin sawdust far faster. Although some of the credit goes to Serenade, the incidence of disease-causing fungi has completely halted. The soil half-manages itself. PS: when you drive Carbon out of the soil by soil disturbance and other poor practices, what happens to it? It is released as the very same CO2 that is implicated in climate change problems.

The Coming Worm Apocalypse
Soil Systems Study
Carbon Farming Article

Riverpilot
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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by Riverpilot » August 7th, 2018, 4:34 pm

I know I've failed miserably so far in adding OM to my lawn. My city has a local compost to get everything from and I've used it on my front lawn several times, with nothing on my back.

However this year I've been out of town quite a bit, so I had a company come in and put compost down everywhere. Unfortunately the compost used from the city this year must not have been "ready" to use. Had plenty of weed seeds, and other bad happenings occur. Hence, now I need to decide if that was a one off this year, or if the city isn't doing a very good job turning everything over...

Pretty sure I'll just use peat moss from this point on, along with soil conditioner, serenade, etc... $$$$ but having a great lawn is important to me.

I know I don't have as many worms as I'd like... robins know it as well. :)

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andy10917
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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by andy10917 » August 7th, 2018, 5:30 pm

Not looking for any "blame" here - this is a decidedly un-sexy topic even for lawn stuff, but folks have to understand that un-sexy doesn't mean unimportant. And on a macro scale, holy moly the numbers are huge.

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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by greenrebellion » August 23rd, 2018, 7:34 am

I think #4 is the big one for me, its a lot of work to spread a meaningful amount of peat moss / compost / other materials and the results of said effort are measured in years, not months.

That said, now that my front yard has passed its one year mark, I'd like to start getting aggressive with Milorganite next spring/early summer. I have high PH and so the combination of the iron + organic matter improvements that Milorganite can bring is compelling. Probably going to try 2x bag rate weekly in spring and see if my soil can digest all of that.

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andy10917
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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by andy10917 » August 23rd, 2018, 8:53 am

I'd really like to see a few folks document the changes in earthworms, the speed that Milorganite/BSF/etc gets processed, and Fall leaves disappear when OM gets supplemented regularly.


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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by ctrav » August 23rd, 2018, 9:00 am

I look forward to my test results and moving forward with improving my soil. Thanks for the well written and insightful post!

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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by kbgfarmer » August 23rd, 2018, 12:01 pm

I no longer live at my old house nor do I have a recent soil test after last years season but I can vouch anecdotally that I have seen my earthworm population increase in that soil. When the house was built and before I knew anything about lawns and soil I remember thinking why there weren't any earthworms around. I grew up in an older house as a kid and it was full of earthworms. My dad didn't care (too lazy) to bag grass or rake leaves so I guess he inadvertently was increasing the om. Haven't received an interpretation of my new soil test but looks like I have very good om numbers in my backyard which makes sense since it is old growth forest with I'm sure years and years and tons and tons of decayed leaves in it. We know om numbers can increase but is the converse true? Do they decrease if the om isn't continually replenished? I plan to mulch mow but was just wondering. 'Y front om values suck so maybe I'll transfer tons of leaves to the front and mulch them in. That is if and when I ever have a yard after 15 inches of rain fell and washed away everything.

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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by kbgfarmer » August 23rd, 2018, 12:01 pm

I no longer live at my old house nor do I have a recent soil test after last years season but I can vouch anecdotally that I have seen my earthworm population increase in that soil. When the house was built and before I knew anything about lawns and soil I remember thinking why there weren't any earthworms around. I grew up in an older house as a kid and it was full of earthworms. My dad didn't care (too lazy) to bag grass or rake leaves so I guess he inadvertently was increasing the om. Haven't received an interpretation of my new soil test but looks like I have very good om numbers in my backyard which makes sense since it is old growth forest with I'm sure years and years and tons and tons of decayed leaves in it. We know om numbers can increase but is the converse true? Do they decrease if the om isn't continually replenished? I plan to mulch mow but was just wondering. 'Y front om values suck so maybe I'll transfer tons of leaves to the front and mulch them in. That is if and when I ever have a yard after 15 inches of rain fell and washed away everything.

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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by jobryant » August 23rd, 2018, 5:28 pm

'Soils are becoming deserts' hit home for me because I'm in Phoenix. My OM was about 1.5% and I'm pretty sure I've never seen a worm in my yard. Maybe a couple after a good rain. I'm excited to start applying some peat moss to see how it improves things.

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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by Ogden » September 22nd, 2018, 8:05 pm

As I’ve investigated more native plants, I learned that most earthworms aren’t actually native to North America. We lost ours during one of our past ice ages, so what we see today are European or possibly Asian varieties.

Many of our plants, particularly in forested areas, adapted to thrive in with heavy layers of decaying and decomposing materials. As earthworms move further into forested areas, some native plants are struggling because the worms efficiently remove these thick layers and change the way nutrients are cycled in the soil.

Not necessarily applicable to this topic, or the forum as our common turf grasses are not native either and clearly like worms, but I thought it was cool info.

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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by Masbustelo » September 22nd, 2018, 8:49 pm

Would it be recommended to apply compost twice a year? What might be considered best practice? It is not expensive where I live. I have 3000K so I can put it down in a day or two.

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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by EddieN26 » April 18th, 2019, 3:12 pm

To bump up Masbustelo's question, how often throughout a year is applying compost to one's yard considered the "Best" practice? I'm definitely looking forward to naturally increasing the herd in my lawn, in will put in as much work needed to do so. I wonder if adding compost once a year, on top of regular feedings of organic fertilizers would be the most beneficial and optimum use of time before seeing negligible returns with additional applications of compost. What would you recommend Andy? Like I said if more is better in this case, and there is no such thing as too much, I don't mind putting in the work at all to reap the rewards.

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andy10917
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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by andy10917 » April 18th, 2019, 8:09 pm

I have 3000K so I can put it down in a day or two.
Really? 3000K is 69 acres - you'd better get to working early to be done is a day or two... :shock:

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andy10917
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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by andy10917 » April 18th, 2019, 9:48 pm

What would you recommend Andy? Like I said if more is better in this case, and there is no such thing as too much, I don't mind putting in the work at all to reap the rewards.
First, I'd recommend patience - building a soil takes serious time. It didn't get the way it is in a year, so it is not going to be fixed in a year.

Secondly, I don't think the question has a simple timeframe. You can only add compost as often as the soil will handle it. "Too much" is when you pour it without concern for what is already there. When it's gone, more can be added. And that is controlled by the amount of water available, the soil structure, the health of the microherd, and probably several other factors. It's actually very simple - apply it at the rate that it can be consumed.

That all said, I have seen exactly one Member concentrate so keenly on the application of OM that there were effects that weren't 100% positive, in over a decade of doing this. That member was JGLONGISAND, and can execute a plan like no one else.

So, there answer is your eyes and the space between your ears - observe and apply whenever the soil shows you it is ready for more...

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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by EddieN26 » April 18th, 2019, 10:34 pm

Sounds advice as always good sir. Thank you for your wisdom. That's exactly what I needed to hear!

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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by Ruxie88 » April 19th, 2019, 7:55 am

I've been in my house for almost 2-years, but didn't start educating myself on proper lawn care until last summer. I applied compost last fall, mulched leaves and noticed a lot more worm casting mounds this spring. I applied 22 bales of peat moss going on 2-weeks ago. I was worried I applied too much and kept spreading it with a broom for a few days. As of today, you can hardly see any of the peat. Compared to other lawns in the neighborhood, my yard greened up and thickened quickly coming out of winter.

I can fortunately get compost for free, so I'm planning to spread some of that toward the end of May with sand mixed in starting to level the yard.

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » April 19th, 2019, 8:18 am

On over an acre with relatively few trees it's a long, long battle. I've made some progress over the last several years. My worm population is booming!

I mulch everything. A blade of grass and leaf have never left the yard. Every single time we go to the store we get all the used coffee grounds they have and they get tossed out.

I just bought a stihl br600. I may be able to blow additional leaves out of the treeline into my property, but that feels like a drop in the bucket.

To do it right I'd really need a top dressing machine and copious amounts of free OM. The local farmers might be able to give me the leftover OM in the combine from harvesting.

It's a much larger logistical challenge with my area.

I keep on keeping on....

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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by Ruxie88 » April 19th, 2019, 11:13 am

HoosierLawnGnome wrote:
April 19th, 2019, 8:18 am
On over an acre with relatively few trees it's a long, long battle. I've made some progress over the last several years. My worm population is booming!

I keep on keeping on....
If my math is right comparing to my 4000 sqft lawn, it will cost you approximately $3300 to spread peat on 1.5 acres :shock:

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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by Oldschool » April 19th, 2019, 6:32 pm

I have lots of trees, a good OM of 6+, worms up the ying yang and drop peat moss twice a year. Haven’t done the sawdust yet but hopefully this year. I don't want to lose the OM I have and would love to increase it.

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Re: A "Worm Apocalypse"? Really?

Post by Fullheadofturf1234 » April 19th, 2019, 8:53 pm

Felt bad today, worms came out during the rain and tried to escape directly into the garage of all places... crossed my bifen barrier... oh well. I pick em up and give due respect by returning to the lawn.

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