I don't know about your garden, but the burrowing earthworms in my garden are pretty spread out. It'd be like letting a horse randomly fertilize a field on a farm; some of the manure would fall where the plants will be, but a lot won't.

The reason I use worms (red wigglers, etc.) is to speed up the composting process. I can then make sure the vermicompost/castings goes directly to the plants that need it.

Andrew

As I understand it, the 'quality' of the castings is only as good as what goes in the other end; the reds and tigers are near to surface feeders which make them easier to handle in captivity as far as feeding, harvesting etc and if kept happy, reproduce more, more often than the lower feeders. I always 'bait' my back garden to keep up my breeding & the inside "working" stock, with a few handfuls of 'cooled' fairly wet horse manure straight onto the earth under black pots or pieces of carpet. I don't bother sorting the reds from the tigers, as they're quite happy to co-habitate, unless for bait as it seems the fish prefer the reds, but I do generally like to have a decent attempt at sorting out the mature worms(with the saddle)as they seem to reproduce better without the kids around, and they eat more in less time.

Hi samsea,

The red wiggler isn't any better or worse for making castings than other types of worms. Because they live in litter and more on the surface of the soil, they are better candidates for captivity indoors at room temperature than many other types of worms that make burrows and prefer to live in the ground.

If you want to utilize your garden worms and increase their numbers, you can bypass the worm bin and put worm towers directly in your garden. Put the food waste in the tubes and the worms feed on it and spread it around in your garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: Worm Tower