2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
How right were the ancients when they said that in any plant, substance, phenomenon there are two principles at the same time: good and bad, good and evil, vitamins and poison. By the way, such duality is also characteristic of man, as one of the phenomena of life. This fact must be taken into account when we wholeheartedly strive to feed summer cottages so that vegetables grow strong, healthy, beautiful and tasty. Having gone through with the amount of fertilizer or forgetting to take into account some of the qualities of helpers, you can harm the plants and be left without a crop
Bad experience
I have always loved growing winter garlic most of all vegetables. You will hide strong teeth in the soil in late autumn, a week before stable frosts, and in the spring you will rejoice at the friendly shoots of narrow pointed leaves. A minimum of hassle and attention, and it's so nice to add your own garlic to a summer salad.
Once I decided to pay more attention to the garlic and mulched it for the winter with a generous layer of fresh sawdust, the mountains of which lay unclaimed at the sawmill near the outskirts of the village. Arriving in the spring, I did not see the friendly shoots of garlic. Two or three pitiful blades of grass stuck out in a beautifully mulched bed.
What versions did I not go through in my head: maybe someone ate my cloves? But they were in their places, but they just did not want to release their leaves into the light of day. All other versions also turned out to be far-fetched. I realized the reason much later, when I came across a description of the qualities inherent in fresh sawdust.
Vital nitrogen
The chemical element "nitrogen" is the most important component of the diet for plants, without which life leaves their "body". But, "What is the connection between nitrogen and fresh sawdust?" - exclaims a surprised grower.
It turns out that such a connection exists. All natural and man-made waste that is in the soil or on its surface is processed by soil bacteria. Thanks to their heroic and tireless work, our Earth retains its miraculous beauty and purity. Wood sawdust is nothing more than such waste. Here bacteria and a friendly crowd pounce on their processing.
It would seem that there is nothing wrong with that? Let them process them for their health and for our benefit. The trick is that, while processing fresh sawdust, bacteria simultaneously suck nitrogen from the fertile soil, thereby depriving the plant of the main food product.
One should not urgently refuse the help of sawdust. Knowing about their insidious quality, you just need
enhance nitrogen fertilization the soil where we have resorted to fresh sawdust.
Increased resin content
I want to emphasize that the conversation is about
fresh sawdust … If fresh sawdust is pretreated, then they will become faithful helpers in the struggle for a high yield.
The second negative quality of fresh sawdust is the high content of various resins. If you overdo it with the amount of sawdust introduced into the soil, then the resins will begin to destroy the reproductive layer of the soil, poisoning it for future plants. Therefore, for fertilization, it is better to use rotten sawdust, and not just come out from under the saw.
Composting sawdust
So that sawdust does not become enemies, but helps to increase the quantity and improve the quality of vegetables, it is necessary to turn fresh sawdust into high-quality and safe compost. What needs to be done to make the enemy a friend:
• When forming a compost heap from fresh sawdust, it is necessary to alternate a layer of grass with a layer of sawdust, generously poured with a solution of urea, so that
enrich sawdust with nitrogen
• Cover the prepared compost heap with an airtight polyethylene dome.
• Once every two weeks we remove the sealed dome and carefully shovel the layers, enriching them with oxygen.
• The readiness of the compost is determined by the blackening of the sawdust. After that, they can be safely added to the soil or mulched with compost from planting sawdust.
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