Worms are your pot plants worst nightmare
Who would have thought that a pot plant would suffer from compost worm infestation?
Everywhere you read that worm castings are the best thing for fertilising your plants, this is no lie. But the very maker of your valuable worm castings can mean a slow growth rate for your plants in pots.
The job of worms is to eat organic matter and break it down into smaller and more usable elements. When you use a good quality potting mix, it is generally made of 100% organic matter that is mixed in such a way to retain enough water to keep your plant happy while draining freely enough to allow the roots to breathe.
Worm castings are a great source of nutrients of plants, the mix of organic elements slowly fertilises plants and is great to use in potted plants which can only access the nutrients that you give them.
Combining the makers of this magic ingredient with your fabulous pot plants is a recipe for disaster. Worms eat organic matter (read potting mix) and deposit worm castings (read heavy soil). By having a population of worms living in your pots, they eat all the fine material in the potting mix and leave behind a heavy soil that is prone to water logging and poor drainage which will cause your plants to suffer.
Ensure that you don’t get worms into your pots, you should remove any worms from the castings you place in. Also by removing any visible eggs from the castings you will reduce the birth rate of worms in your pots.
If you’ve got a plant that’s infested with worms you should soak the plant in water, remove the plant from the pot and discard the potting mix to the garden where the worms will be appreciated. Re-pot the plant in fresh potting mix and add worm free castings.
Learn more about Compost Worms
Tags: wormcastings, worms, compost worms, worm eggs
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Worms are beneficial to the garden, but they must be in the right area. You are right that we don’t want them in our pots and containers. I appreciate the advice you gave on what to do if you have an infestation of them in a plant. Great advice!
worms are all the rage in the UK - for composting!
I disagree, I actually add worms to all my pots. Digging through the soul they help air and water move more freely and the soil is always light and crumbly.
In pots without worms, the soil gets often compacted and cristalised fertiliser on the top surface. Perhaps its is your soil but here in the UK I would always recommend using one or two earthworms in your pots.