I tried growing fresh ginger a few times in dirt (often after letting it dry up for a few hours. usually a few seconds in worms start trying to decompose it and I find many univited guests munching kn kt. How the hell do farmers get these roots not worm infested?
In: Biology
Earthworms have food preferences…they’re pickier than you might think. What exactly they want to eat when is a topic of active research (http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8694000/8694377.stm) but they generally appear to prefer dead stuff to live stuff, to the point that scientists were surprised when they found out they will eat live seeds & plants.
So if you stick dead ginger in your soil the worms will go to town (there are Reddits about earthworm husbandry, have a ball). But a live growing ginger root (or a potato) seems to be less appealing unless they don’t have anything else around that they like better.
I imagine it’s also a lot harder for them to eat a living root with intact skin, since earthworms don’t have teeth and a living root has it’s own defense mechanisms to decay so the worm doesn’t have anything to breach the surface.
Ginger and potatoes are poisonous. Ginger is bitter because your body recognizes the toxins in it, but our livers are adapted well enough to them that they can filter them out and turn them into something less hazardous. Raw potatoes contain neurotoxins in their flesh. It’s not enough to cause us trouble unless eaten in excess and it denatures when you cook them, but they’re there.
Basically, the toxins in potatoes and ginger aren’t in high enough concentrations to hurt us, but they’re more than enough to cause trouble for a little worm trying to get a meal underground. So they avoid them.
I grow potatoes for personal consumption but also sell excesses if the harvest was good. Most bad potatoes are either rot or diseases, but it is also possible for potatoes to be damaged by slimes, mole crickets or cockchafer beetle larvae. Some weeds like elymus repens (couch grass) grow their roots through tubers. Earthworms don’t eat potatoes, but sometimes I find them inside an already decaying potato after something else damaged it and caused it to rot, same with woodlouse.
Damaged potatoes have unappealing appearance and also don’t store well. Selling these is nigh impossible, probably only for livestock feed. My guess is that farmers sort their potatoes and only sell good ones (I do sort as well), so chances to find bad potatoes in a grocery store are low.
Farmers use various methods to prevent worm infestations, such as crop rotation, pesticides, and careful harvesting techniques. Additionally, the roots are often thoroughly cleaned and stored in controlled environments before being sold in grocery stores.
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