Jumper Starter Farm

18 Oct

(Insert your favorite state- Alabama, Texas, Carolina, Georgia) Jumpers are great for mixing and aerating garden soil.  The only commercially available earthworm that is suited for introducing directly to the soil.  Some soil types and raised beds with an abundance of organic matter can potentially support red worms and European NightCrawlers, but if you are dealing with sand, clay, or packed ground Jumpers are the only option.  With that said,  I still recommend raised beds or pit method to get your herd started rather than just cutting them loose.  If you want to populate your yard or garden start with a sweet spotand introduce them a handful or two at a time to other parts of your space.

Jumpers can also be raised in bins just like other species, and I have had a lot of success with this method.   Jumpers tolerate the Summer temps better than red worms but don’t handle sub 40F as well.  Keep in mind all earthworms are composters, will surface to feed and breed.  While earthworms share these characteristics, what makes them differ is their ability and need to tunnel, the range at which they operate, and temperature tolerance.

Jumper starter farm

I have included a couple of pictures of one of our Jumper Starter Farms.  This is designed to ship and gives you a healthy way to start and takes the guess work out of starting from scratch.  We take a sample of our beds (bedding and a few hundred worms of different sizes) to give you a solid start and something you can replicate as your population grows.  When you see small worms and larger ones it’s a good indicator that you have a healthy happy environment that your worms are reproducing in.  Depending on your needs and what you are trying to do, you will want to experiment and introduce worms in your soil to see which methods work best for you.   I would encourage you to focus on one spot and expand a handful or two of worms and bedding at a time when you see your worms growing and reproducing  from there.

Bin Raised Jumpers

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2 Responses to “Jumper Starter Farm”

  1. t quigly February 12, 2014 at 6:23 pm #

    approximately how many worms are in your Alabama Jumper starter kit?
    I am ‘commenting’ here as I see no telephone number or email address anywhere on your website.
    Thank you for your response: tquigly@gmail.com

    • Texas Red Worms March 3, 2014 at 1:24 am #

      It really depends on the size of the worms. They usually come in various sizes and range from a couple hundred to a few hundred. When I’m starting a new bin If I see babies and mature worms in the handful I pull of my starter that is what I’m looking for. A good starter (bedding that is supporting worms with various sizes will yield better results that raw worms with new bedding.)
      You can find my contact info by clicking “buy worms” or “about”.

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