Lately I have been keeping an eye on the Alabama Jumpers and temperatures that seem to affect them.
After a week of a number of rainy days and the rain being cold as temperatures only in the 40′s and 50′s while raining, the worms are doing well.
I pulled back the hay and decomposing materials and carefully used a pitchfork to turn the top few inches of the clay and sand mix. The Alabama Jumpers were right there doing fine and active!
When I ran a temperature test of the soil it ranged from 54 to 56 degrees Fahrenheit.
Since there are no hard facts or statistics on Alabama Jumpers as compared to other red worms, I figured I would keep an eye on these guys and monitor them. I will keep a record of my findings here on the blog. Be sure to bookmark or sign up for the Worm Composting Newsletter to keep abreast of the latest updates!
Alabama Jumpers are available from Organic Worm Farm and are great for clay and sandy soils.
Be sure to drop buy The Worm Expert new discussion forum and join us. Introduce yourself while you are there!
Bruce Galle
What are this Alabama Jumper look a like?
Alabama Jumpers are a little rounder than the nightcrawlers and have a tougher skin. The rings on an Alabama Jumper also protrude more than the other worms. To give you an idea, try viewing the worm comparison video we setup on our blog
Hi, just want to know what are the best materials to put in a bin for the alabama jumpers. Want to get it set up before I buy a whole bunch!! Thanks,
David Agee
Here in Fla, there is only inert sand unless you go to a materials sales operaton. What shuld be mixed with the sand for the jumpers to thrive. I am raising reds right now,using bagged top soil, and only feed them chicken starter/grower mash, and they seem to be doing real good. Will tht also work for the jumpers?
i live in east ky and have found an abundance of these jumping worms.they are so plentiful there are castings on the ground.i have some in a bin they are doing fine on laying mast grass peat moss and leaves. i have been giving them some material from my reds they finish it up nicely.
Alabama Jumpers are not really what you would call “Composting Worms”. All the above descriptions on them are dead on accurate, but these worms are deep burrowers, and are best used in soils that are a bit on the sandier side. I plan to use them in my vegetable garden this next Spring, but my composting work is done exclusively by Red Wigglers (i.e. Eisenia fetida).
Rich
Actually the Alabama Jumpers make an excellent composting worm for vegetable scraps, damp shredded cardboard… I originally raised them this way although my nature they are more of a top feeder, coming to the surface during the night time to feed and burrowing back down during daylight hours.
You are correct they are deep burrowers in a natural environment however for breeding and growing out we use bins which are filled with just 3 1/2 to 4 inches of bedding material. Hence they do not need to burrow deep and in fact basically tend to stay towards the surface if conditions are right in a natural environment, i.e. temperature, food source, dampness…
As for sandier soils they do well but will do just as good in a variety of mixes. They prefer a hard packed soil such as clay or undisturbed, packed rich top soil… We have found them surviving in a variety of different soil compositions from the deep south up through northern New England!
The red wigglers also make an excellent composting worm however on our farm we raise four types of worms. In fact we are the only worm farm we have found that actually grows the Alabama Jumpers in a controlled environment year round in the United States, let alone raises four types of worms on a single worm farm! I know of one other worm farmer in Australia that also raises them in a similar controlled environment as we do.
Bruce