A question about worms

[rary]

When talking to a friend he mentioned that he didn't have any worms in his soil, he stays near the coast and his soil is very light, also when he had been talking to a farmer about this he was told that even though they apply manure or seaweed to the soil for growing potatoes there are no worms in the ground, is this normal for coastal areas, they have grown potatoes in the same fields for years

[veggiechicken]

I thought you had flat worms up your way, rary?

[burnie]

Not as many worms here on the east coast compared to the midlands of England, I used to get Brandlings in my compost "doon sooth" very few up here.
Mind if the farmer practised a bit of crop rotation instead of growing the same crop it might help.

[Baldy]

Plenty of worms in my soil and my compost bins - about 1 m ile from the sea.
I doubt coastal / non-coastal is very important to the wriggly ones - much more about the soil type / organic makeup etc

[veggiechicken]

I thought you had flat worms up your way, rary?

My point being that they eat earthworms so if you're in a flatworm area, whatever the soil type, you're unlikely to find many earthworms.

[bario1]

^^^ yep, i can vouch for that! ^^^

[rary]

I thought you had flat worms up your way, rary?

The friend in question VC stays 8 or 9 miles from me and he has set traps for flat worms but never found any

[veggiechicken]

How do you trap a flat worm???

Just curious

[rary]

Not as many worms here on the east coast compared to the midlands of England, I used to get Brandlings in my compost "doon sooth" very few up here.
Mind if the farmer practised a bit of crop rotation instead of growing the same crop it might help.

So burnie do you think that would indicate its as Baldy says soil type could be the cause of a derth of worms, as for crop rotation, having past potato fields in areas like West Kilbride and Girvin which are the areas that are the main producers of Ayrshire potatoes they seem to use the same fields year after year, though I could be wrong

It has taken quite a while to get this down due to adverts for mulberry bushes, which rather than encouraging me to purchase, puts me off