2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The straw that remains in the fields after harvesting crops is a great help in our garden plots. The scope of its application is practically unlimited: it is an excellent fertilizer, and a replacement for soil, and a means for mulching soil. We will look at how to use straw in the country in this article
The first way to use is mulching. What does mulching give us and why should we do it at all?
Mulching is a surface covered soil with mulching materials (straw, dry grass, leaves, etc.). If this operation is carried out correctly, the earth becomes loose, light, and dries up less in summer.
What are the pros and cons of straw mulching?
Let's start with the pros: a dense crust does not form on the soil under the layer of mulching material, watering is required for plants less often, since straw prevents moisture evaporation from the surface, through a layer of mulch equal to 5 cm, annual weeds do not break through, that is, the overgrowth of the site, the soil is significantly reduced does not require loosening, no splashing of water occurs during watering, which excludes its ingress on leaves and fruits, and mulch also protects the root system of plants from overheating and frost.
The only negative is that this type of mulching reduces the amount of nitrogen in the soil, the plants will not have enough of this substance for full development and nitrogen starvation may begin. To avoid this, it is enough to feed the soil with nitrogenous fertilizers.
The best time for straw mulching is spring. The peculiarity of straw is that it takes a lot of time to rot, so it is better to use it for mulching those plants that can be planted in cool soil. For example, potatoes, strawberries, cabbage, onions, and so on. Cucumbers should be mulched with straw after the soil has warmed up enough.
How to mulch? Spread the straw in an even layer, about 15 centimeters thick, in the places we need, around bushes and plants. Why is the layer so thick? The straw itself is voluminous and after a couple of days, when it cakes, the layer will be no more than 4-5 centimeters.
Growing potatoes in straw
Recently, this method has become more and more common. Why? First, growing potatoes this way is easy. Secondly, the potato harvest will definitely be good. Thirdly, the potatoes will not need watering, while their roots-tubers will constantly be in comfortable conditions for them. Fourthly, you can forget about weeds and the Colorado potato beetle, since it is difficult for weeds to break through a layer of straw, both various weeds and insects buried in the soil.
How to plant potatoes under straw? A pre-prepared bed (more precisely, a pre-designated place, since the place where we will plant potatoes does not require either loosening or digging) we cover with a layer of peat. The layer thickness should be 15-20 centimeters. After that, we spread the seed potatoes on the "soil" as we like: in rows, staggered, diagonally … And fill it all with a thick layer of straw. After that we carefully compact the straw, add more fresh straw, and so on until the compacted layer of straw reaches a thickness of 25-30 centimeters.
That's it, the potatoes are planted. It remains only to observe the garden, waiting first for shoots, then for the harvest. If the summer is very dry, then the garden will need to be watered 1-2 times per season.
In August-September, when it's time to harvest, you need to carefully remove the mulch layer and collect the potatoes. The crop grown in this way is usually quite abundant, all tubers are even, smooth, beautiful.
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