Module 2:

2.2 Examples of Performance Standards

2.2.7 Earthworm casts

These can be unsightly, cause a muddy surface, reduce playing quality and smother desirable grasses.

However, they are very beneficial for the rootzone in breaking down organic matter, making nutrients available to plants, improving soil biodiversity and soil quality, creating pores for encouraging root growth, reducing surface ponding and improving drainage through the soil profile.

So, both benefits and disadvantages which need to be balanced to determine what might be an acceptable concentration of surface casts for the desired pitch quality.

Picture of earthworm casts

  Consider the following question:

1. During a mild and wet autumn or spring, when earthworm activity is usually at its highest, how much of your pitch do you think might typically be covered with earthworm casts?

Assessing earthworm cast coverage

Count the number of grids within the quadrat that have earthworm casts present. Each square represents 1% of the total.

For each location throw the quadrat in 3 different positions and record each value.

An earthworm cast might be present over live ground cover, dead or decaying vegetation as well as a bare area. So, earthworm casting does not from part of the overall 100% of ground cover but is rather a supplement to it.

Note 1: Some assessment systems might record earthworm casting as being bare area].

Note 2: If, for example, the earthworm cast is brushed away, it might leave a patch that consists of just live ground cover, and this is what should also have been recorded.

For each location throw the quadrat in 3 different positions and record each value.

Another approach is to count the actual number of earthworm casts within a quadrat and then determine the grade quality depending on how few (for higher quality pitches) or how many (for lower quality pitches) are counted. For now though we will just use the percentage values for area covered by the casts.