Additional comments

For a more precise assessment of the soils, this earthworms` evaluation can be complemented with other tests.

For example the Soil Carbon Project, apart from providing these same factsheets to assess the presence of worms, complements this soil examination with the revision of the soil physical properties through the Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS).



For more info see Soil Carbon Project, section on Soil Health Testing.



GREATsoils programme covers all of the work that AHDB does on soils, including different ways to assess soils and also provides information on a range of soil management approaches.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is a statutory levy-board and its work is funded by farmers, growers and others in the supply chain.

Additional information

The first factsheet helps farmers to sample the soil and identify the different types of worms. This is very important because each kind plays a different role. For example the so-called endogeic, which are the topsoil worms, are important for the nutrient and carbon cycle, while the anecic are experts in deep burrowing, improving aeration and root development.



Once the soil samples are taken, and the soil fauna in the samples is classified and counted, the second factsheet comes into play. In this sheet, we can note down the results for each soil pit and get the evaluation of the soil, indicated by a colour code. Green means that there is a good presence of worms. Yellow indicates that despite having some earthworm population, this soil is below optimal and could be improved. In this case is advisable to look for potential issues, specially on those areas where there are less earthworms. Finally, red indicates that your soils are not in good condition, and are not healthy. The bad physical and/or chemical properties of the soil are hindering the development of the earthworm population.