The Worms Have Landed

The earthworm cocoons I ordered from Gardens Alive arrived today in a cardboard box about the size of a new box of checks. I opened it up and found this: one of those small plastic take-out containers that might hold ketchup or soy sauce. There are fifty Lumbricus rubellus cocoons in here, each coated in (I have learned from reading the directions) a paper coating.

The instructions give you two options: plant them in the ground like seeds, or hatch them indoors. Hatching them indoors involves several steps--first they must be soaked overnight, then there are damp paper towels and plastic bags involved, and eventually they hatch and are ready to be released into the soil.

I am curious about the hatch rates of these cocoons, so I want to hatch them in a closed environment, but I want to simulate regular garden soil as much as possible. So I'll hatch them in a plastic bin filled with organic bagged potting soil. (I didn't want to use ordinary garden soil because it might already contain worm cocoons.)

More on this enterprise tomorrow...