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Let's talk about worms

So I have this Utricularia reneformis that I picked up earlier last year that came in a 4" pot. It was fairly well filling the pot when it arrived and over time I would tip it and pop the "root ball" out to look at the traps and the progression of growth. About half a year ago I noticed, during one of my inspections, a tiny night crawler. He was maybe 2/3"long and a millimeter or so in girth. So short story long, I left him/her in there doing what earthworms do until recently I repotted the bladderwort and saw my little slimy pet population has doubled in size and number.

So I'm sure their constant tunneling is aerating quite nicely and the plant material below ground looked quite healthy. There is not much to look at above ground for leaves though, with it keeping an average of three leaves at any given time. The holes in the sphagnum moss where the worms surely come up at night to vent through are certainly apparent!

Am I going to regret leaving these guys in there? Now that there is two there will surely be hundreds right? Anyone up for some trout fishing?









 
Earthworm castings are extremely rich fertilizer, it may well end up killing your plant as the acidic sphagnous soil gets turned into more neutral "farm-worthy" soil.
 
I second hcarlton, worms are no good for CPs because they add nutrients to the soil. I would repot the plant and try to remove all the worms.
 
I have had worms in my pots for years , they never caused any trouble. You probably did more damage pulling the plant in and out of the pot than the worms ever would.
 
Maybe the kind of worm makes a difference?
 
I have been flushing the pot regularly so maybe that has been helping the nitrogen down? The plant itself seems as healthy and "meaty" as ever when I repotted it. Also I am wondering if maybe the little baby worm-spawn are small enough to be caught by the traps?
 
Well if you see worm casings on the soil, it means the worms are probably up to no good because that means they are enriching the soil, but if half a year has gone by it might be okay. If you see a sudden decline in your plants for no reason, my first guess would be the worms though.
 
Yeah, I hate to have such a cool plant as an unwilling test subject on this one. Frankly as wet as I have kept it I am surprised that they can live at all. I must not be very observant and they are peeking through the sphagnum a lot more than I thought. If the plant declines you can bet there will be a repotting and worm hunt.
 
In my aquarium keeping days, I fed earthworms to Cichlids. Not all were eaten and they found their way into the gravel. They did not drown when in the gravel.
 
  • #10
I have had worms in my pots for years , they never caused any trouble. You probably did more damage pulling the plant in and out of the pot than the worms ever would.

+1
All this fuss and speculation and worry over nothing. It's like fretting over fungus gnats and the like: pointless.
 
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  • #11
Several years ago, I had a severe infestation of some species of earthworm. I had never had this problem before and I guess they arrived with some trade plants. Anyway, I noticed a layer of worm castings on all of my pots and coming out the drain holes. Earthworms were visible under the pots. All of my VFTs began to decline and die (probably from the increased nutrients in the worm castings). The Sarracenia did not seem to be affected. I needed to do something.

I read that some suggested using an imidacloprid/cyfluthrin mix. This is the active ingredient in Bayer Advanced concentrate.
http://www.bayeradvanced.com/rose-flower-care/products/dual-action-rose-flower-insect-killer

So, I decided to experiment
Experiment #1: I put a few worms in a dish and added diluted (1 tbs/gal) Bayer Advanced concentrate. In about 15 min all worms were
dead.
Experiment #2: I top drenched a few pots of VFTs, D. capensis, and S. minor with diluted Bayer Advanced until it ran out the bottom holes. The next day I checked for live worms. There were a few still alive. I watched the plants for the next 2 weeks and noticed no adverse effect on the plants. I then drenched all of my pots.

It is now several years later and I occasionally get a few worms in the pots, so I drench those pots once a year. These treatments have not damaged any of my CPs.

This species/genus of earthworm was not good for my plants and I needed to get them under control. Other types of earthworm might be benign.
 
  • #12
How ironic, today of all days I found a baby earthworm in a Nepenthes pot.... I don't want to take the risk of him being in there, so I moved him to a pot where the plants would benefit.
 
  • #13
How ironic, today of all days I found a baby earthworm in a Nepenthes pot.... I don't want to take the risk of him being in there, so I moved him to a pot where the plants would benefit.

Is it fine to just remove worms as you see them? Because I was under the assumption that if there is one worm, there will be more unless you introduced some to a pot through a new plant.
 
  • #14
Worms don't add nutrients or anything else to the soil in a pot. They convert what's already there.
 
  • #17
I read that some suggested using an imidacloprid/cyfluthrin mix. This is the active ingredient in Bayer Advanced concentrate.
It is now several years later and I occasionally get a few worms in the pots, so I drench those pots once a year. These treatments have not damaged any of my CPs.

This species/genus of earthworm was not good for my plants and I needed to get them under control. Other types of earthworm might be benign.

I've had adverse reaction with Cephalotus using this pesticide as a soil drench (Pink Hibiscus Mealybug infestation). Spraying seems safe.

Fisherman friends of mine use "earthworm callers" to gather nightcrawlers for bait. Simply electrify the ground and the irritation from the electricity drives the nightcrawlers out.

Here are some instructions.
http://www.ehow.com/how_6565579_make-electric-worm-probe.html

One friend had a hand crank 120v generator out of a field telephone (surplus via Edmund's Scientific) that he used as the power source. It worked great.

I don't see why the same principle couldn't be used on pots.
 
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  • #19
Worms don't add nutrients or anything else to the soil in a pot. They convert what's already there.
That is the point, isn't it. The worms ingest peat and other organic material, digest it, and excrete it.

Many of us repot our CPs in new soil media ever couple of years as the organic component decays over time and the soil becomes progressively more nutrient rich. Earthworm digestion greatly accelerates this process. USDA tests have shown that earthworm castings contain about 8 times the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as does the soil from which the castings started.

If you like your earthworms, simply repot your plants into new soil media more frequently.
 
  • #20
I'm sorry Bob but your post is a little skewed and misleading.
1. As you state the worms ingest peat, digest it and then excrete the waste.
However they add nothing to it, the nutrients have to there in the first place.
2. I am aware that many re-pot their CPs after a couple of years and am amazed it's because the medium has become nutrient rich. Who is adding these nutrients? Our plants are adapted to grow in nutrient poor soils and that is what we use to cultivate them. As the plant grows it uses nutrients supplemented by prey then every autumn / winter the temperate plants die back and we remove the dead growth thereby removing nutrients. I would be very interested to see any test results you may have. One reason being that I have some plants that have been in the same compost for a considerable time ( over 25 years) , the peat doesn't appear to have broken down and they don't appear to be suffering at all.
3. Your inclusion of USDA tests is misleading in the way you state the result. The worm castings may well contain the chemicals quoted but that would because the soil it was originally taken from has been reduced by x8, as in my point 1 they have added nothing which is not the impression you give. If the compost in my pots shrank to an eighth the original then I think I'd be re-potting too.
4.In your first post your guess is that your plants are suffering from the increased nutrients from the worm castings. You do not mention repotting after treatment of the worm infestation so am I to assume that the rotting bodies of all these worms didn't add nutrients? If it did it doesn't appear to have harmed the plants.

Now I'll sit back and await the deluge
 
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