What no wigglie worms ?

[sarahkeast]

I have New Zealand flat worm.

Suspected it last year, this is my 3rd season of my own garden, and confirmed this spring. So no worms in my raised beds, or pretty much anywhere in the garden. There are other little wrigglies in the soil, but compost isnt getting taken down etc.

Anyone else dealt with this ? Any advice ? Garden is still productive, and chickens like the flat worms !

[fruitcake]

I've got NZ flat worms too and lots of earth worms - i dont nec think that you have no earthworms cos the flatworms have eaten them all but that the soil composition is a bit wonky. Having only recently made the discovery that I have flat worms i've been doing a fair bit of chatting to folks and some of them reckon that they settle into a kind of equilibrium. Have you watched 'farm for the future'? http://youtu.be/xShCEKL-mQ8 There is a bit shere she shows an old (the '80s - hardly that old) ploughing clip where they are followed by gulls and one from now where there are none because of the lack of micro-organisms and worms. I would be tempted to bring in some earthworms and do some mulching. Perhaps also build a wormery and get some wormcast on the go - i got my wormery worms (which are a specific type-mainly reds and dendras)) from wigglywigglers.co.uk and these guys http://www.green-way.org.uk/grow-your-o ... sting.html are really into their vermiculture.
I have been really gutted about the flat worms - remember and look out for the eggs too - they are particularly yeuch when you squash them. Am glad to hear your chickens like them - i had heard otherwise - another good reason to add to my reasons to have chickens list (OH doesn't want them and I'm not grown up/responsible enough yet to keep 'em)

[diggernotdreamer]

Yup, got flatworms here too, I was gutted when I found them, but more philosophical now, I don't think it is the end of the world like I first did. At first there were none, but now I have found hundreds of them. I think they like the fact I have enriched the soil with compost and increased worm populations, I find them in the compost. I mulch a lot, with newspaper and grass mowings everywhere so as I don't have to weed, if I look under the mulches, I find lots of black beetles, usually near a flatworm egg, I have not found that many juveniles so I suspect they are waiting for them to hatch out. I did an experiment and put some flatworm eggs, flatworms and beetles into a large tub with a ventilated lid and left them to it, several weeks later, turned it out, no flatworms but lots of beetles. My chickens eat them when I present them but my Muscovy ducks actively seek them out, the other ducks don't really bother with them. I am really careful about giving friends plant material now, lots of us here have them so not a problem but I rinse roots well and repot into commercial potting mixture, a commercial grower here keeps all his plants on metal shelves. They reckon here they are cyclical as well, so hopefully mine will poke off somewhere else soon. It is supposedly the very large worms that do the deep drilling that are most at risk as they are less plentiful and live in holes and can't move very fast. I agree with Fruitcake, maybe you need to be address your soil conditions. I put home made composts onto the soil in February or March and cover over with the paper and spoiled hay, straw or silage, I know a lot of people put it on in the autumn, I seem to have good integration of compost in spite of the flatworms,