Hheellluuuppp help help

[Big Dave]

I have a lot of clay in my soil. I have a want for Alabama Jumpers. They are a type of worm that eat and arreate clay soil. Here is the deal. I would love to find them in the wild. Since they are called Alabama Jumpers do they come from Alabama? They sell for $85 per 1000. Does anyone have knowledge on where to find them in the wild??? Anyone on here from Alabama that has experience with them. HELP!!! Thanks for any relplies

[sniper69]

This might have some info that would be helpful.
http://www.wormfarmfacts.com/Alabama-Jumper.html

[Big Dave]

Great article. Did not know they were Asian.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Feed them and they will come. Pile the organic matter deep and your local worms will populate in a hurry and do everything you need. Leaves, wood chips, hay, manure, whatever you can get your hands on. No need to import worms.

[farmerDale]

Originally Posted by Silvercreek Farmer

Feed them and they will come. Pile the organic matter deep and your local worms will populate in a hurry and do everything you need. Leaves, wood chips, hay, manure, whatever you can get your hands on. No need to import worms.

And don't till the life out of your soil either. As soon as we stopped tilling, the worms got thicker.

[Whisperwindkat]

Originally Posted by farmerDale

And don't till the life out of your soil either. As soon as we stopped tilling, the worms got thicker.

This. We now have so many worms. Pile on the good stuff and they will come. Blessings, Kat

[geo in mi]

An earthworm does not 'eat' the soil to get anything out of the soil itself, rather, it takes in the soil in order to get the bacteria and microorganisms that are living in the soil mixture. Those microorganisms themselves are feeding off the organic material they find in the soil. So, no organic material, no microorganisms. No microorganisms, no earthworms.....

So, you'll have to add organic materials somehow in order to get what you want--good, workable soil.......

You don't say how big the area is, so adding organic materials may or may not cost you an arm and a leg......but at least, they would eat those, too, in time........

geo

[ceresone]

When I read this, I'm reminded of another old gardener that was on here, name unmentionable, that said to never import a different worm than what you have in your garden, He said why, but I've forgotten

[Maura]

New worms will upset the natural balance of the soil and lessen the normal load of microorganisms. Plant something that is deep rooted. Lupine (probably won’t grow where you are). Rye is deep rooted and is an annual. Puts down great roots which will break up the soil, then stay there and decompose. Ask at your county extension office. Some plants have deep roots, but need good drainage, like buckwheat. Good drainage and heavy clay do not walk hand in hand.

[Harry Chickpea]

I think you might be expecting too much out of a worm. Carbon - especially charcoal - can lighten clay. Curiously, fire ants seem to help a little. The soil around their nests is looser, and they bring up sand from deep down to build their mounds.

[Declan]

To aerate my heavy clay virginia soil, all I need to do is plant tulips. Moles from 3 counties will make their way to them in a matter of days

My neighbors are all "I don't know why you don't do something about those moles?"

and my answer is "All God's Creatures Have a Place in the Choir" though I secretly am thinking "because I like that they aerate the hard soil for me while having an all you can eat grub buffet." Other than having trouble keeping bulbs for more than a few years, they don't bother me one bit.

[Shrek]

Alabama Jumper, Texas Red, Georgia Brown Nose are regional names of the Pheretima Hawayanus earthworm or similar species indigenous to the southern/ southeastern U/S.

They can be found at many southern live bait shops now as the red wriggler type bait of preference as they are normally a bit larger than other species of red earthworm.

Realistically whatever locally indigenous red earthworm you find in your region feeding on layered leave mold or aged manure piles in which the livestock wormer is no longer active should suffice for most home vermicomposting use.

Many older established local live bait sellers market indigenous red worms they initially wild harvested.

With currently over 28,000 species of "red wriggler" earthworm now identified, starting a small scale vermicomposting set up with a starter herd made up of a couple bait cups of the local red wriggler bait for $3 to $6 a cup is still an affordable way to learn to worm farm without a large cash outlay.

For what a 1000 worm biomass costs from some suppliers, you can afford to start and kill as you learn 20 starter bins of local bait worms with a biomass of about 100 worms and reach the 1000 count worm biomass within a year of successful worm farming and learning to container maintain worms.

An added advantage of purchasing bait shop red worms for composting or wild harvesting is that both avoid the shock of transportation during the small viable shipping windows.

If you mulch with a good leaf layer rich in foodstuff bacteria appealing to the earthworms in your area it will function as a natural worm lure making harvest of indigenous wild stock quite easy.

[Declan]

Originally Posted by Shrek

Alabama Jumper, Texas Red, Georgia Brown Nose are regional names of the Pheretima Hawayanus earthworm or similar species indigenous to the southern/ southeastern U/S.

They can be found at many southern live bait shops now as the red wriggler type bait of preference as they are normally a bit larger than other species of red earthworm.

Realistically whatever locally indigenous red earthworm you find in your region feeding on layered leave mold or aged manure piles in which the livestock wormer is no longer active should suffice for most home vermicomposting use.

Many older established local live bait sellers market indigenous red worms they initially wild harvested.

With currently over 28,000 species of "red wriggler" earthworm now identified, starting a small scale vermicomposting set up with a starter herd made up of a couple bait cups of the local red wriggler bait for $3 to $6 a cup is still an affordable way to learn to worm farm without a large cash outlay.

For what a 1000 worm biomass costs from some suppliers, you can afford to start and kill as you learn 20 starter bins of local bait worms with a biomass of about 100 worms and reach the 1000 count worm biomass within a year of successful worm farming and learning to container maintain worms.

An added advantage of purchasing bait shop red worms for composting or wild harvesting is that both avoid the shock of transportation during the small viable shipping windows.

If you mulch with a good leaf layer rich in foodstuff bacteria appealing to the earthworms in your area it will function as a natural worm lure making harvest of indigenous wild stock quite easy.

How do you keep the worms from freezing in the winter? I have wanted to start a worm compost set up, but there is no way I am bringing those things inside during the cold season. Do you just release them into the wild and start over in spring?

[pips]

heres what we do.we pour all our rabbit poop on garden in fall and winter december when we get a day with no snow we rake and cover with whatever we have old plywood plastic tarps ect weight it down somehow and wait till spring.we pull it all up.there are worms everywhere.they tear the red clay up around here.2 tills and its ready.a few more years and we hope to get it to 1 till a year or drag plow?

[poppy]

Originally Posted by Harry Chickpea

I think you might be expecting too much out of a worm. Carbon - especially charcoal - can lighten clay. Curiously, fire ants seem to help a little. The soil around their nests is looser, and they bring up sand from deep down to build their mounds.

Hey Harry, we don't have fire ants here. Any idea where I can buy some?

[poppy]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

I have a lot of clay in my soil. I have a want for Alabama Jumpers. They are a type of worm that eat and arreate clay soil. Here is the deal. I would love to find them in the wild. Since they are called Alabama Jumpers do they come from Alabama? They sell for $85 per 1000. Does anyone have knowledge on where to find them in the wild??? Anyone on here from Alabama that has experience with them. HELP!!! Thanks for any relplies

I'd be afraid after I bought them they'd jump all the way back to Alabama.

[poppy]

This article says the Alabama Jumper in invasive and harmful to the soil. You might want to do some more research and try a different worm.

"Not all foreign earthworms are destructive. Of the 5,000 species around the globe, only about 16 of the European and Asian varieties do the real damage. One of them is the night crawler (Lumbricus terrestris), a popular fish bait that can measure up to 15 to 20 centimeters (six to eight inches). Another is the Alabama jumper (Amynthas agrestis)—also known as the snake worm or crazy worm—an aggressive Asian worm that lives at high densities and can literally jump off the ground or out of a bait can, according to fishing lore. A voracious eater, it does the most harm to the soil."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...enude-forests/

[Muleman]

wow, You learn something everyday. I did not know any worm harmed the soil. I have always just heard positive things about worms? Any idea as to how they HARM it?

[poppy]

Originally Posted by Muleman

wow, You learn something everyday. I did not know any worm harmed the soil. I have always just heard positive things about worms? Any idea as to how they HARM it?

I think the article says something about them taking all the nutrients out of the soil, leaving none for plants or something like that.

[Big Dave]

This is why I come on here. Thanks this is all useful information.