September 15, 2009
Manure Chard Challenge – Another One Bites The Dust!
I hate to be a real ‘Debbie Downer’ today, but I figured I was on a roll with the bummer news, so it wouldn’t hurt to tell you about another experiment gone ‘bye bye’!
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All joking aside, as many of you know all too well, in the past I’ve had a bad habit of simply never writing again about various experiments that have gone awry – not because I was trying to hide my failures or anything like that (I openly admit that I’m a walking disaster zone – haha), but simply because I get focused on other (more positive) things and/or don’t really have the time.
Long-winded explanations aside, what I’m trying to say here is that my intention moving forward, is to keep everyone posted on any and all experiments and “challenges” that I start up, since I know the failures are just as important to learn from (if not more so) than the winners!
So yeah…on to the ‘Manure Chard Challenge‘
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The results of this one are actually very interesting to me! As I alluded to in my recent potato box meltdown post, I am really starting to suspect that the presence of high numbers of composting worms in a grow bed can potentially cause problems for developing plants.
Now let me clarify here – what I mean is that when the plants roots are located ENTIRELY within the confines of a worm bed there can be issues. My trench and vermi-mulch systems are different because much of each plant’s root system is actually located in the ‘regular’ soil itself (where Red Worms do not reign supreme by any means). The one potential exception seems to be my ‘laundry-line bean gardens‘, but the fact that I added LOTS of inert peat moss (where the densities of worms are likely lower) to those boxes probably helps to explain that.
So what happened with the chard experiment?
As mentioned in my last chard challenge update, plant germination success and just growth in general have clearly been better in the ‘manure-only’ bucket. Close to the end, I had two very sad looking seedlings in the worm bucket and six healthy looking seedlings in the manure bucket – so there was obviously something going wrong here!
In a rather funny twist, when I dumped both buckets out to see how things were looking with the manure in each bin (and to determine the status of the worm population in the worm bin), I discovered that a handful of worms had somehow managed to get into the manure-only treatment!
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I’m impressed – these buckets were up on pedestals and separated from one another, so I’m really not sure how this happened. I can pretty much guarantee that the material was completely worm-free to begin with as well. I do seem to recall some rainy weather closer to the beginning of the experiment – so maybe some adventurous escapees from the other bucket managed to sniff out and discover the virgin territory of the no-worm bin. Who knows?!
Another interesting observation was the fact that even though both buckets received the same amount of water, the contents of the worm bin appeared to be much wetter and compacted. This is of course not too surprising since the worms were obviously converting the manure into a material (castings) with a smaller particle size, and likely a greater potential for water retention. I can’t help but wonder if this extra sogginess contributed to the issues with the seedlings (just as I wonder if this was one of the main issues in the potato boxes). The material in the manure bucket looked moist but had much more of a porous (ie great aeration) look about it – probably much better for the roots!
I didn’t actually quantity the population of worms in the worm bucket, but it did look as though it contained at least the original 1/4 lb (if not more) – I know some of the worms left the system initially, but I’m sure there have been plenty of little worms that have grown up etc during the course of the experiment.
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Anyway – all in all, another interesting set of findings! Later in the week I am going to be writing about some results on the other end of the spectrum – i.e. from systems where the plants have appeared to reign supreme (and the worms have suffered as a result).
Stay tuned!
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Worm Composting Potato Tower – Wrap-Up
Back to the drawing board!
Some of you may have seen the “writing on the wall” (literally and figuratively) if you’ve been following the comments section on my previous vermicomposting potato tower post. As I alluded to there, things kinda went downhill for my potato plants shortly after writing my update.
I think a big part of the problem stemmed from the fact that I added a LOT of manure (and very little straw) all at once to the boxes shortly after adding the second level on my ‘towers’. I think it was, in essence, the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’. In hindsight however, I can now see that problems must have been brewing beneath the surface for some time now.
Interestingly enough, the worms in these systems have been doing extremely well! In fact, I’ve actually been harvesting worms for customers from these boxes recently since the worm densities are higher than in many of my other beds! I’ve certainly come across some potatoes in the material as well – but nothing remotely like the huge crop I had hoped for.
What’s funny, and just a tad ironic, is the fact that I found a HUGE red potato (bearing an uncanny resemblance to a human heart, I might add – haha) in my corn patch! You may recall that I allowed a few leftover potatoes (from last year) to grow in the bed even though my main focus was on the corn and beans planted there this year. I have not really searched for any more potatoes in this bed (and this jumbo spud was actually found by accident), but I have little doubt that the results will be more impressive than in my potato boxes!
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So what went wrong, anyway?
For starters, I am definitely getting the impression that an abundance of composting worms living in the root zone of developing plants can indeed create issues (have seen evidence in some of my other experimental systems). I’m starting to think that it is pretty tough to get the best of both worlds (i.e. big healthy plants, plus big healthy population of Red Worms). I’ll be writing more about this in an upcoming post as well (inspired by some interesting observations from my trench and vermi-mulching efforts this year), since it is certainly a significant finding.
Also, as others have suggested (via comments), wet manure probably also isn’t exactly the ultimate medium for growing potatoes – even if the worms are busily converting it into worm castings. Perhaps if I had mixed in more straw I would have been ok – hard to say for sure.
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As per usual, I am very happy that I decided to try this out – not only did I end up with an abundance of marketable worms, but it’s been yet another valuable learning experience! I definitely haven’t closed the door completely on some variation of this concept either! Next year I will definitely give it another shot to see if I can make it work. I think that rather than starting with wet material containing lots of worms, I will use a more mature compost material (the stuff I often refer to as ‘compost ecosystem’), and won’t actually add any manure either. I won’t likely end up with as many worms, but I have little doubt that the potatoes will do much better!
We shall see!
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Previous Worm Composting Potato Box Posts
Worm Bed Potato Gardens
Worm Bed Potato Gardens – Update
Worm Composting Potato Tower – Update