He Plants Earthworms Along With Row Crops

He Plants Earthworms Along with Row Crops CROPS Miscellaneous 15-5-30 Indiana farmer Ed Slayton is convinced that by seeding 10,000 earthworms on an 80-acre field he will eventually increase the soil's water infiltration and organic matter content enough to boost yields significantly. "Earthworms increase crop yields by burrowing to improve the soil's water in-take. They also speed up the process of converting nitrogen from crop residue. I've been told that $6.25 worth of earthworms per acre have as much value as 100 lbs. of potash per acre and that they will eventually reduce the need for nitrogen," says Slayton, who first began "planting" earthworms two years ago. "I switched from continuous corn using conventional tillage and insecticides - both of which had killed off the worms -to a no-till corn-soybean rotation. I decided to add worms to the fields because earthworm populations were extremely low and all of the surrounding fields were under conventional tillage so there was no place for them to come in from." The addition of 125 earthworms per acre may not sound like much, but Slayton says he has been told by experts that's it's an adequate starting population because the worms multiply fast. Slayton "planted" earthworms on one 80-acre field two years ago and on another 80-acre field last spring. The first year he bought 10,000 earthworms from a wholesale bait club at 41/2 cents apiece. The worms came in 1-ft. sq. styrofoam containers, 1,000 per container. He used five people to do the job, some walking and others driving ATVs or pickups, depositing the worms in standing corn stalks in spring before planting. It took about 2 1/2 hours to cover 80 acres with worms. "We dropped them in bunches of five or six so they could find each other t& breed," says Slayton. Dr. Ed Berry, who's in charge of earth-worm research at USDA's National Soil Tilth Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, is doing an extensive study of earthworm types and populations to learn about trends in distribution and to study the conditions which may favor their increase. "There's no question earthworms help break down residue and help increase water infiltration. The problem is developing an effective technique for introducing them." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ed Slayton, 8490 N. 350 W., W. Lafayette, Ind. 47906 (ph 317 463-0154)

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