How do Earthworms Help the Soil and Are They Important?

While you dig through your garden soil, you may see the presence of earthworms, or maybe not.  This is sure to have you wondering how do earthworms help the soil and whether they are important.

How Do Earthworms Help the Soil: The 10 Benefits of Earthworms

I guess you could say that earthworm populations are the worker bees of the soil.  They stay busy working and fertilizing the soil in many different ways. Let’s dig a little deeper and look at the top 10 benefits of earthworms. 

1. They Increase Soil Fertility and Soil Health

Earthworms play an important role in soil health and soil structure. They provide a natural fertilizer through earthworm castings and that’s just the beginning of the benefits of earthworms for your soil.

Some gardeners would say they are like having free farm help. Who doesn’t love free farm help?

2. How Do Earthworms Help the Soil? Earthworm Castings

Earthworm castings, or vermicast, is worm manure. Worm casts contain essential nutrients, minerals, microbes, and beneficial bacteria which are great for soil fertility and plant growth. This contribution of earthworms is known to be one of the best soil amendments that you can add to your garden soil.

3. How do Earthworms Help the Soil? By Increasing Beneficial Bacteria and Microbes

The earthworm’s digestive tract coats the worm castings with beneficial microbes, such as bacteria and enzymes. Soil organisms, such as beneficial bacteria and microbes, help to break down organic materials making essential nutrients available in the soil. 

4. Earthworm Activity Provides Nematode Control

Plant-parasitic nematodes are microscopic organisms that affect most crops.  Earthworms can reinforce a plant’s tolerance to parasites, enabling plants to grow despite the presence of root-knot nematodes. 

5. Earthworm Tunnels Improve Soil Drainage and Soil Aeration

As earthworms move their way through the soil they create tunnels. The vast networks of tunnels help improve soil drainage, soil aeration, and soil moisture. Earthworms are especially good at improving clay soil by increasing the amount of air between the tightly packed clay particles.

6. How do Earthworms Help the Soil? They Improve Soil Structure

Improving soil drainage and aeration helps to loosen the soil, improving the soil quality and structure. Earthworms move through the soil consuming and breaking down organic matter while mixing it into the soil.  Furthermore, the earthworm castings add a finer texture to the soil playing a vital role in improving soil structure.

7. They Encourage Plant Roots to Grow Deep 

Not only do the vertical burrows that earthworms create contribute to a better soil structure, they also encourage roots to grow deep and strong. The loose, nutrient-dense, fertile soil will have those plant roots reaching for more. 

8. Earthworm Populations Consume Organic Material

Making their way through the soil, earthworms consume organic matter and plant debris on the soil surface and throughout.  The natural activity of earthworms helps to break down matter into a usable form of essential nutrients for the plants and soil. In a pasture setting they can break down the thin layer of thatch that is often present after winter making a more productive spring pasture.

9. How do Earthworms Help the Soil? They Improve the Productivity of Garden Soil

With all those worm casts and improved soil health, your garden soil will be more productive giving you higher crop yields. You’ll have better drainage, less compaction, and higher nutrient availability for the growing season. 

10. They Play an Important Role in Repairing the Soil

Improving the soil structure by way of earthworms can help repair damaged soil. They will increase the microbes in the soil which will help with nutrient cycling and disease suppression. Earthworms can also break down and reduce the toxicity of certain chemicals in soil, including pesticides and petroleum.

Earthworm Activity Also Provides a Food Source

Earthworms are an important part of the food chain. They provide a food source for birds, frogs, and other important animals in the food chain. 

What Type of Soil Do Earthworms Like?

Earthworms prefer loamy, loose, moist soils. This type of soil will provide the perfect habitat for earthworms to thrive. Compared to sandy soils that lack organic matter, drain quickly, and tend to heat up quickly if not covered. 

How to Encourage Earthworm Populations

There are many things you can do to encourage earthworms into your garden soil.  Luckily, all of them are relatively simple. It’s all about creating the ideal conditions.

• Make Sure Your Soil Ph is Between 6.0-7.0
• Add Organic Material to the Original Soil and the Surface of the Soil
• Animal Manures Can Be Added 
• Green Manures like Grass Clippings
• Add Shredded Dead Leaves as Leaf Litter
• Leave Your Crop Stubble when Taking Old Crop Residue Out
• Use Crop Rotation in Your Garden

You May Need To Change Your Management Practices

Changing your management practices to create the ideal conditions may be all you need to do to attract any number of earthworms to your garden. Regulating the soil temperatures with mulch, reducing tillage, adding organic matter, reducing compacted soil, and not using herbicides or pesticides in the garden will increase your earthworm numbers in the garden. 

• Reduce the Use of Synthetic Fertilizers, Pesticides, and Fungicides
• Keep Your Soil Moist
• Make Sure You Have Good Drainage
• Reduce Soil Compaction
• Reduce Tilling
• Try to Avoid Extreme Conditions
• Keep Your Soil Covered to Regulate Temperatures

Should I Add Earthworms to My Garden Soil?

According to Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm, “Earthworms are probably the best healthy soil amendment you can introduce to a garden. They improve garden soil not only through soil aeration and loosening but also because they increase nitrogen levels in the soil. So, composting worms is a no-brainer!”

You can find everything you need at Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm to start adding red worms or other earthworm species to your garden, to your compost bin, or to start your vermicomposting journey. 

You can also check out our composting articles to learn more:

How to Introduce Earthworms

The best time to add earthworms is in the early morning or late evening. You can dump them on the soil’s surface or dig a shallow trench to place them in. Then, cover them with compost, soil, or organic mulch.

Transplant Pasture

Perhaps you have a pasture that has an abundance of earthworms.  You can transplant a small area of pasture soil with earthworms into your garden. Simply take a shovel full of pasture, dig a hole in the garden, and transplant the small area of pasture soil and earthworms into the hole. 

In Conclusion, How Do Earthworms Help the Soil?

As you can see, there are tons of benefits to having earthworms in your garden soil.  If you don’t have any, slowly working your way in changing your management practices and creating the right environment for earthworms will surely benefit your garden soil and invite the earthworms.

Happy Homesteading & Gardening,

Jenny @ The GrahamStead Family Farm

Jenny and her family have been homesteading for more than two decades. They currently live on a 10-acre farm in Northeast Florida, which they built from the ground up, nine years ago.

On their farm, they grow 100% of their meat and most of their vegetables. With a small herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle, pastured poultry, sheep, and seasonal pigs, they not only meet their family’s meat needs but also sell their surplus to the local community. They are dedicated to sustainable practices like making compost, seed saving, and processing much of their garden and animal harvests at home. You can find Jenny wandering through her garden, making herbal tinctures, preserving food, making bone broth, and one of Jenny’s favorite hobbies, tanning all types of hides.

Sources: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/06/050608065918.htm

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-10/Earthworms.pdf