Thought I would show the Alabama Jumpers at play since these worms are so strong and wiggle so fast they actually jump!
The Alabama Jumper has two main beneficial components. First, it is an excellent composting earthworm for your garden or lawn areas even in hard packed clay and sandy soils. They burrow deep, aerating the soil coming to the surface to eat and leave worm castings on the surface areas.
Alabama Jumpers also make an excellent fishing worm. With their tough exterior skin permitting them to burrow through the toughest terrains, they remain on the hook better than most fishing worms, including the European Nightcrawlers.
Well onto the humorous video, enjoy…
Bruce
Hi Bruce,
I sent in a registration form for the forum, but while I’m waiting for approval, I wanted to try to get an answer to my most important question.
I live in central SC. I believe you said that you were also an SC resident, so you know we have temperatures from 5 degrees F to 105 degrees F (or even worse). I want to raise Alabama jumpers for my garden and to sell to gardeners. For these, I’m not worried about compost. I’ve got plenty of leaf mould to feed them. My primary object is to propagate worms.
THE question: Can Amynthas gracilus (or Amynthas gracilis –which is current?) be raised in a bin? I see that you’re experimenting now and hope that you have an answer even if you don’t have enough for an article yet.
Alternative: I have an enclosed building with a concrete floor and I could partition part of it off for temperature control. Could a working height wooden box with an open (or not open) top be enough better than a bin to make it worth the trouble?
And of course, if I get a “yes” to either of the above questions, I’ll want all the knowledge I can get as to “how.”
Right now we’re experimenting with redworms, but as the time grows closer to purchase some jumpers, my wife and I would love to visit you and/or your friend to see your procedures in action (and just visit a little).
Thanks,
Jim
Hey Jim,
Welcome. I just approved your registration this morning for the Worm Expert discussion forum.
Yes one can raise Alabama Jumpers in a controlled environment as I have been doing for the past year. There is much to learn about this worm as of yet since it is much different than other worms most raise today. If all holds true, my latest batch of cocoons beginning to hatch should yield 17,500 to 20,000 Alabama Jumpers. It is a process and much more work to raise these worms compared to others when raising them for reproduction purposes.
Leaves are not the way to manipulate reproduction in these worms and are not what I use to raise them. I mix different products including a grain which I grow and feed them.
You will want bins to grow these worms, specially sized depending on number of worms and stage of the worms. Many reasons for this that we have found and I am logging as I go along. In fact I now have the Alabama Jumpers growth rate at an average of 23% to 24% increase weekly once they reach a certain size… approx. 1″ in length. This is why I started playing around with different food mixes for my other worms and now have had some similar results with red wigglers, African and European nightcrawler worms to date with a different food mix.
As you probably know the farms which grow them outside on their land down south were hit hard from the past extreme cold winter. Hence I took a beating and sold off more than I should have but have a population rebounding right now.
So in short, yes you can raise them in SC. In fact if you have the time and patience, it is an amazing worm which has learned to adapt to harsh conditions for survival purposes. The Alabama Jumpers have become a favorite worm of mine, right along with the African nightcrawler which I have always been impressed with.
Bruce