If you have close to fifty (fifty something) flowerpots sitting in your 4 balcony pockets with fabulous plants and if you have resolved not to use chemical fertilizers, then raising earthworms in those pots is the best option.
Plants get carbon from air and nitrogen vitally required for body building needs to come from soil. There is a big headache for plants if soil underneath is frugal in supplying nitrogen. In wild environment, nitrogen keeps coming from decaying organic matter and the bacteria hanging on to the roots. If plants are to live in an urban balcony, nitrogen availability becomes an issue.
Normal wood decaying around roots may not be greatest philanthropist below the earth. You get nitrogen only once when you visit 300 times. It decays with its own sweet time. Leaves however are kind especially if earthworms are around to feed on them. The worm droppings are best nitrogen vendors. You get nitrogen once in only 30 visits. Wormway ® is Ten times better than WoodMall ®!
So where’s the beef Mac?
I have fifty pots & I begun raising earthworms in them this monsoon. Indian monsoon prediction failed as predicted .Some butterfly fluttering its wings without any notice served on Dr. Govarikar did the trick.
Rains arrived late. Our building compound was late in presenting worms to the weird worm collector who got up early morning and hunted for the worms that might be out on the limb to explore if dirt on other side of the hiding place was any greener. The novice collector was looking for healthy adults while young ones crawled underneath the soil. It wasn’t too late before he embarked on ‘Catch ‘em young’ campaign. His zeal was unbeatable even by the volunteers sitting in booths outside of National Democratic Convention.
Soon he got at least 10 worm lings and a couple of adults in each pot. He did not have any food supplied in the pots. By the time he realised the situation, most of the worms had escaped the brutal prison where food wasn’t supplied. The jailer had failed to notice their escape. He didn’t know that worms surfaced in night time, sniffed around to find nothing rotting in the neighbourhood and got frustrated further since the student Vermiculturist had flooded their hiding places by over watering the plants. They had to climb down the pot surfaces and hide underneath pots where good clean rot was found. Moreover they escaped the curious visitations of the student who poked the soil with anything sharp nearby to confirm their whereabouts. Of course life under the pots wasn’t too exciting especially when the student was away and no water sipped thru the soil. Ants were out hunting for fresh & dry worms. A spider who recently relocated near the pots prying on ants was the only solace who feasted on the ants.
“ It ain’t too easy being a worm ” some depressed worms were heard murmuring by ants. The murmur however fell on deaf ears of student who was busy surfing internet to find the cause of sudden exodus of his inmates.
Soon the student learnt to provide sumptuous ration of wet mud soaked leaves and the algae to pot residents. He learnt many things at the cost of early unfed heroes. Soon his early morning worm hunt in the drizzling monsoon stopped attracting lazy stares of the neighbours who had gotten used to ignoring his fast growing and profusely flowering plants in the midst of multiplying worms. His hunt ended as soon as he saw a worm any number of times he poked the soil any deeper all over in all the 50 pots. He was a proud trustee of 2000 something worms. Plants were happy since they got the food delivered at their feet.
Lessons from 3 months of Worm rearing in flowerpots
1. Worms are people too, they need to eat and sleep in damp soil.
2. Their droppings are a good food for roots of the plants but the droppings are only a consequence & not the aim of their living.
3. Their aim is to eat the decomposing stuff spilled around their neck’s reach. They reproduce all the time.
4. Confinement at Darkness frees their soul from the fear of predating ants & birds.
5. If I were a worm ( may not be a remote possibility ) I won’t venture the long distance treks across the dry land to get to the food. I would rather stay in a damp stinking place with lots of leaves to munch on.
6. Yes they like the stench. May be they can smell thru skin.
7. There is an interesting observation. They hate the fragrance. This observation is a result of a trial on literally hand picked subjects. The trial is single pot, open label, placebo-uncontrolled and retrospective.
8. Hold it there Mac , don’t reject this study just because you sit on Lancet Editorial board.
9. Our Vermiculturist Pro observed disproportionately high exodus of worms from a pot which was next to a flowering plant. The flowers were exhibited in plenty squandering the fragrance in surrounding wet air. Believe it or not. They just quit.
10. So, sauce good for humans is not good for worms !
11. Back to worm rearing : Big earthworms may not hang around too long even if plenty food there. Their willing souls may be leaving weak bodies.
12. Great place to stay for them is : In a pot soil covered with plenty rotting leaves , cool dampness without N,P,K nonsense around .Of course tender stares of onlookers are great aphrodisiacs.
This reportage is now discontinued till our Pro finds additional stuff to report.
Amen
