Improving Soil And Fighting Bacteria

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Soils vary, but they all need proper care. Improving the soil, its periodic and timely disinfection, as well as the fight against harmful bacteria are extremely important measures that contribute to obtaining a good and abundant harvest in the future. And these events definitely should not be neglected

Garbage harm on the site

As a rule, if you carefully handle the land and alternate planting crops, it will be able to cope with harmful bacteria and various toxic substances on its own.

With the decay of stems, leaves and roots, as well as with their subsequent decay, numerous toxic compounds are always formed. In healthy soil, all processes proceed as usual, however, if the volume of plant mass grows significantly and the land cannot completely process it, difficulties will inevitably arise.

During the removal and pruning of shrubs, cutting off excess branches and uprooting trees, all chips, roots, twigs and other residues should be promptly removed from the site.

Among other things, fumes and dust easily settle in the soil. Do not forget about exhaust gases and far from useful emissions from various enterprises.

Fight bacteria

If the same plants get sick all the time and the annual spraying of damaged leaves and stems is ineffective, it is highly likely that the source of the infection is in the ground. If you protect the seeds from infection, then the plants will grow healthy.

The simplest means of disinfecting seeds is potassium permanganate powder dissolved in water (1 g per 100 ml of water). The prepared seeds are soaked in this composition for half an hour, after which they are thoroughly washed with clean water. Such a solution is also prepared: the well-known copper sulfate (1 g), a little boric acid (0.2 g) and potassium permanganate (1 g) are diluted in a liter of water.

How to safely disinfect soil

Deep moldboard plowing is the most ancient and well-known method. Such plowing is characterized by the overturning of the soil layers. However, this method is appropriate to apply once every few years.

You can simply plow the area with a plow - all pathogenic bacteria living in the upper soil layer and feeling great there in the absence of light and lack of air will quickly find their death.

There is another very effective and fairly simple way. It is well known that manure compost in large doses has the ability to inhibit bacteria and harmful fungi. This is due to the fact that, in addition to nutrients, it also contains useful so-called natural antibiotics. Therefore, this option should not be ignored.

Heat treatment of soil

This method can be safely attributed to the most radical. In the old days, stubble burning was considered heat treatment. It is impossible to argue with the fact that under the influence of fire, the earth is perfectly sterilized, and not only the seeds of weeds die in it, but also harmful bacteria along with various pests.

And this method is considered radical because, along with bacteria and annoying pests, beneficial insects and bacteria also often die. Of course, beneficial bacteria can recover much faster than harmful bacteria, but this fact should not be written off. And even more so, it is inappropriate to use heat treatment of the land for preventive purposes. It is allowed to be carried out only in especially neglected cases.

Basically, the need for heat treatment arises from the ground in greenhouses. To carry out such processing, the ground is first covered with a thin layer of straw, and then the straw is set on fire. Observance of safety measures is especially important.

Fighting soil acidity

Such control helps not only improve the soil, but also significantly reduce the number of weeds preferring an acidic environment.

Ordinary lime is added to the soil, depending on the degree of its acidity. With a pronounced acid reaction, it is necessary to add chalk or lime flour in an amount of 650 - 800 g per square meter (when using quicklime or burnt lime - 400 - 500 g). In the case of a weakly acidic reaction, respectively, 200-250 g (or 150-200 g) are added per square meter.

It helps well in reducing the acidity of soils and ordinary ash, applied on soils with weak acidity in an amount not exceeding 100 - 200 g per square meter, and on soils with strong acidity, more of it will be required - up to 400 - 500 g.

For information: one ten-liter bucket holds 5 kg of ash or 6 kg of lime.