The first thing we need to do is go back to the scientific names for each to get a better understanding.

Red Wigglers – Eisenia foetida

European nightcrawlers – Eisenia hortensis

You may have noticed that the first part of the scientific names for each is the same. The word Eisenia which refers to an earthworm genus was named after an American zoologist, Gustav A. Eisen who had assorted variations to his name.

So in fact they are of the same family tree!

Both the European nightcrawler and red wiggler originated from Europe with the red wiggler making an earlier appearance here in the United States.

Another interesting fact is that both worms, even though the red wiggler is also known as the tiger worm, have the same striped tiger like rings encircling the length of their bodies. They do differ in size as the European nightcrawler grows larger especially in thickness.

Just to explain a little more about the scientific name of each the word foetida is derived from the words foetid and fetid which are defined as; foul, foul-smelling, funky, noisome having an offensive odor; stinking. The red wiggler was named such as rough handling of this worm causes it to excrete a foul smelling liquid.

The word hortensis means belonging to a hottus, or garden hence why the word hortensis is used in the names of a number of plants.

Both worms can be used for worm composting as well as a variety of others which I will explain in more depth in another post.

Bruce

Both of the following plants are summer squash and were planted at the same time.  Keep in mind, I only did a comparison between summer squash plants in our garden, however worm tea results can be expected on all plants, even cut flowers in a vase will last longer!

The photo below is a plant that was planted as a seed with 5% worm castings added to the potting mix. Since then I have only planted in the garden and watered when needed.

Here pictured below is the summer squash I originally posted with the amazing root system at 6 days. It was planted as a seed with the same procedure as above. I have watered with a worm tea I made from worm castings twice in the past two weeks. This photo below was taken 14 days after my original photo showing the six day old seedling

Next week I will be adding concentrated worm tea from here as well as worm tea bags in different sizes. If you are interested in ordering in advance, feel free to leave a comment below, filling in your email (will not be displayed online) and I will get back with you with sizes and prices on both.

As far as my experiment with seeds with varying amounts of worm castings, we had a wash out, literally. I left the plants on my covered porch; however driving rains ruined this test. I will be restarting this test shortly… so stay tuned.

Bruce