Following on from my earlier observation that the leeks I dug up were all
associated with large numbers of earthworms (Lubricus terrestris) which are
apparently considered impossible to farm. This got me wondering whether
there is a potential method here: anyone who grows leeks inevitably ends up
with lots of waste material, so when I cleared out the last part of a row I
kept the trimmings and I have buried them in a hole 50cm x 50cm x 10cm,
covered them over and put a bucket on top. I counted 11 worms of various
sizes (I should have weighed them really, but time was not on my side). Of
course this might be simply down to the presence of plant matter so I will
do a comparison nearby with whatever else I have to hand (probably comfrey
leaves) and another one with well rotted compost. I'll leave them for a
couple of months, then dig them up and see what differences there are (and
this time I will weigh the results). If there is a difference I will redo
the trial in a more systematic method. I must reread Darwin's monograph on
the earthworm...
Comments