Mulching is the surface covering of the soil of the garden and the garden with mulch, which can be crushed bark, needles of needles, sawdust and other natural materials. This agrotechnical technique avoids many health problems of cultivated plants on the ground and in the greenhouse. The use of sawdust as mulch leads to amazing results in the development of the plant, but only subject to certain rules.
Properties of wood chips and shavings
Sawdust mulch is suitable for use on all types of soils.
What is this material good for:
- It does not release moisture from the ground, thereby helping to maintain water balance in the dry season and in hot places.
- Prevents weeds from germinating. This is one of the main reasons for using wood waste as a mulching powder.
- Fresh sawdust is used as a litter under the berries - the smell of a tree repels some pests from the fruits, and a small sliver keeps the strawberries and strawberries clean.
- Mulching the soil allows the roots of some plants to survive the winter period.
- Sawdust serves as fertilizer. True, for this you need to fulfill some conditions.
It is worth noting that mulching with sawdust cannot be made in the form in which they are. The fact is that wood does not saturate the soil with useful substances, but, on the contrary, stretches them like a sponge. Sawdust material becomes useful if it is added to the main mixture for fertilizer or kept for a year or two in a compost heap. At this time, bacteria settle on the surface of the chips, which saturate the wood with useful trace elements released during decay and reproduction of microflora.
What are the benefits and possible harm?
Opil is often used by gardeners to improve the quality of life of plants, but not always a person knows about the true benefits of taking and is unable to accurately assess its harm. Nevertheless, in most cases, a positive effect is obtained from their use.
Advantages of sawdust:
- With proper preparation, an excellent humus is obtained, similar in properties to traditional manure, which costs, as you know, a lot.
- Sawdust scattered on the paths in the garden prevents the spread of weeds.
- They retain moisture in the soil, especially spring. To do this, the earth must be mulched in the fall.
- Contribute to natural aeration of the soil a few years after use.
- Coniferous shavings and slivers practically do not tolerate pathogenic microbes, which eliminates the risk of plant infection.
Wood waste harm
- Pure sawdust is not a fertilizer. They absorb minerals from the soil, and the soil is depleted. Nitrogen, which is necessary for the life of the microorganism, is drawn from the fertile layer.
- Fresh sawdust oxidizes the soil.
- The use of sawdust of unknown origin can lead to infection of plants with diseases. To eliminate this risk, one should not take material from dubious sources.
Which sawdust to apply
Shavings of different trees are not suitable for all plants:
- Deciduous tree waste, other than oak, is good for crops.
- Conifers saturate the soil with acid, therefore they are accepted only by lovers of such an environment - tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and others.
Some fertilizer recipes
Pure sawdust in its pure form is used only for falling asleep paths in order to retain moisture and stop the development of weeds. In other cases, the preparation of raw materials is required.
To sawdust in the garden become useful, they need to rot. For the right condition, they will have to lie down for at least 10 years in a heap, while the bacteria process the wood into a useful substrate. You can speed up the process - you need to make compost from sawdust.In combination with manure and additional additives, the fertilizer ripens faster due to thermoregulation in the desired range and maintaining a sufficient level of humidity.
We offer several recipes for the preparation of fertilizers from sawdust, which are used by gardeners throughout the country. It is recommended to bookmark it from the beginning of summer as the necessary material arrives.
Recipe 1: Wood and Ash
Stack:
- Wood sawdust - 200 kg;
- Urea rich in nitrogen (up to 47%) - 2.5 kg per heap;
- Ash necessary for soil alkalization - 10 kg;
- Water - 50 liters;
- Grass, food waste and effluents - up to 100 kg.
Shavings and grass are laid in layers, ash is added and a “pie” of urea dissolved in water is added. You can cover the pile with a film of polyethylene, but small pores should remain on the surface: so the temperature and humidity level will be optimal, and oxygen access will be preserved.
Recipe 2: Organic Enriched
For sparse soil requiring a significant dose of fertilizer, prepare such compost from sawdust:
- Wood waste - 200 kg;
- Cow dung - 50 kg;
- Freshly cut grass - 100 kg;
- Organic waste (food, feces) - 30 kg;
- Humates - 1 drop per 100 liters of water (no more).
When this fertilizer matures, a significant amount of nitrogen is released.
Fresh sawdust fertilizer
As already mentioned, fresh sawdust does not bring soil benefit as fertilizer for the garden. If you have not done composting in advance, and you need to saturate the soil, use a sawdust mixture with such additives on a bucket of chips:
- Ammonium nitrate - 40 g;
- Granular superphosphate - 30 g;
- Slaked lime - 120 g (glass);
- Calcium Chloride - 10 g.
The mixture needs to be insisted 2 weeks. To do this, spread polyethylene on the street and sprinkle ingredients on it.
Mix, leave to highlight the necessary elements and conduct chemical reactions. After that, add the resulting mixture to the soil when digging the beds. The earth will receive a sufficient dose of ammonia, the acid-base balance of the soil is leveled, the selection of nutrients will occur immediately after the first watering. Soil should be fertilized in the amount of 2-3 buckets per 1 square meter of land. This procedure contributes to the natural loosening of the soil.
Mulching by the rules
Sawdust in the country is useful not only to speed up the composting process, but also for winter shelter of plants, their fertilizer and protection from pests.
Prepared sawdust as a mulch is good to use in the first half of summer, when seedlings and plants only gain strength, need protection from weeds, soil moisture loss and disease attacks. Already by mid-summer, there will be no obvious trace of dusting - rains and worms will mix it with the ground.
Mostly, fertilizer-rich sawdust is lined in walkways. This must be done between the beds with tomatoes, potato rows and other plants.
It is better to sprinkle cucumber bushes with a substrate around the perimeter of the stem. This is necessary to protect the juicy fetus from sucking parasites. Slightly rotted sawdust can be used to build up beds in the garden: wood waste is poured into the base, abundantly watered with manure. On top of this, lay the ground and plant a plant. The active layer wanders intensively, heat is released, which heats cucumber, squash and pumpkin seedlings and young plants.
Other vegetables grown in the garden - onions, carrots, beets, garlic, turnips - also need a protective powder. It must be done after a pick, when the plantings are thinned and reached a height of 5–7 cm, for them a layer of sawdust is lined 3-4 cm.
Raspberries are one of the main lovers of mulching in the garden. It is necessary to preserve the soil moisture needed to set berries. Prepared sawdust is abundantly poured under the bushes.
Strawberries and strawberries
Is it possible to mulch strawberries with sawdust? The answer is unequivocal - you need, just like strawberries.This procedure is useful for berries:
- Opil maintains a moisture balance in the soil.
- Delicate fruits remain clean without touching the ground.
- Slugs and snails do not crawl onto the berries.
For mulching, clean sawdust without impurities is needed, but before the procedure it is important to saturate the soil with minerals and fertilize well to prevent depletion of the fertile layer. The material used can be mixed with urea in the above proportions.
Moisten the sawdust and spread it under the bushes, under each twig and between the stems. The layer thickness should be 5-7 cm. This work is presented in the video.
Filling is done when the seedlings have already taken root and gained a height of more than 7 cm. Mulching strawberries with sawdust for the winter will help the perennial plant better survive the cold and keep the root system intact.
How to cover roses
Gardeners say: “Rose is a child of manure,” because sawdust is necessary for her as fertilizer, but they are not suitable as a protective layer. Such a mulch does not have sufficient heat-holding characteristics.
Shelter of roses with sawdust can be used for wintering only in combination with other, more effective materials. The expert will talk about this in detail in the video.
Sawdust for seedlings
Tomatoes and other seedlings now more often appear in the garden not as seeds, but as ready-made seedlings. They can also be removed in small wood waste - such an environment is more favorable for tender seed than soil.
How to organize the process:
- In a flat container, moistened small chips are poured.
- Seeds are planted, generously poured with fertilizer, because there is nothing nutritious in sawdust.
- They cover it with foil, make holes for air and expose it to the sun.
- When sprouts appeared, soil is poured on top so that the plant gets used to it.
Then, as they grow, seedlings are transferred to a separate pot already with country soil.
The advantage of seed germination in wood material is a loose environment, which allows the root system of seedlings to develop intensively, but only if there is a sufficient supply of nutrients.