June 1996
Nightcrawlers Help Farmers Till Orchards
A visiting Swedish scientist and researchers at UCD and UC Santa Cruz have confirmed that foot-long nightcrawlers (also known as fish bait or Lumbricus terrestris) move and decompose mown cover crops more rapidly than other earthworms commonly found in orchards. Birgitta R„mert of the Swedish University of Agricultural Science in Uppsala, in close collaboration with Robert Bugg of the UCD-based UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, Alison Berry and Robert McGuinn of the UCD Environmental Horticulture Department, and Matt Werner of the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at UCSC, introduced nightcrawlers to the Winters walnut orchard of Russell Lester. "The nightcrawlers are able to move the mown cover crop into their eight-foot deep burrows and decompose it more rapidly than the resident earthworms," according to Bugg. "This work is significant particularly for farmers who are trying to reduce tillage in their orchards." Bugg noted that the researchers were pleased to be able to formally demonstrate in the field what has been shown in the lab and observed in orchards. [Field sampling and statistical analyses are complete, and a manuscript is now in preparation for submission to Soil Biology And Biochemistry.]
Media Contacts:
Lyra Halprin, (530) 752-8664, lhalprin@ucdavis.edu
