Sawdust as fertilizer: are they effective?
Wood itself is not a fertilizer, since it contains 1-2% nitrogen, hemicellulose, cellulose, and lingin. But after some time, microorganisms appear on its surface, saturating the wood with substances necessary for plants. Sawdust that has been lying on the site for 3 years turns a little black, that is, it begins to turn into humus. The sawdust used should be of various shades of brown. They become like this only after 5-10 years.
You cannot add new clean sawdust to the soil to fertilize it. This is the most common mistake a gardener can make. Medium and fine sawdust, when added to the ground, greatly impoverishes it.
If you add sawdust to the soil in the fall, then by spring they remain in the same form, only they get wet, since they have preservatives - phenol resins.
At the same time, the resulting humus loosens the soil better, because of this it becomes breathable and absorbs moisture better. This composition contains more nutrients. That is, it creates an optimal environment for flowers and vegetables. The top layer of earth has almost no dense crust, that is, it can be loosened much less often. But sawdust has a significant drawback - it makes the soil acidic, so lime must be added to it.
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Mulching with small wood chips
This method is used to prevent weeds from growing, and water evaporates greatly from the ground. And to improve the soil structure.
Mulch the potatoes with sawdust, after hilling them, placing sawdust on the furrows. Wood shavings retain moisture between the rows and the ground does not overheat.
Cucumbers are often grown using small wood shavings. Coniferous shavings are used both to fertilize the soil in the form of compost and as biofuel. Compost is placed at the base of the bed and then thoroughly watered with slurry. Then soil is poured onto the garden bed. The shavings melting along with the manure perfectly warm the bed.
In addition, wood shavings are used to protect cucumbers from parasites. It is necessary to sprinkle each cucumber bush in a circle and water it thoroughly. After this, pests do not appear on the plants.
Wood shavings help raspberry roots not to dry out, this increases its yield and improves its taste. With this method, raspberries can not be replanted for 10 years, due to the fact that their roots do not dry out.
You can mulch almost all plants with wood shavings, not forgetting to add nitrogen fertilizers, since sawdust strongly draws nutrients from the ground.
Making compost from sawdust
If you add sawdust to compost, it becomes humus much faster. And such compost ripens faster, due to the fact that sawdust creates and maintains a higher temperature in the compost heap.
1 way to prepare compost:
- 10 l vegetable ash
- 200 kg fine wood chips
- 2.5 kg urea
- 50 liters of clean water
- 100 kg of household waste - peeling potatoes, carrots, etc., leaves, grass
Necessary dissolve urea in water and water compost from sawdust, grass, leaves.
2 way to prepare compost:
- 50 kg cow dung
- a drop of humate per 100 liters of clean water
- 200 kg oak sawdust shavings
- 100 freshly cut grass
- 30 kg of faeces and food waste
Method 3: fertilizing with fresh wood shavings is possible, but it must be enriched with mineral fertilizers or the shavings will absorb all the useful substances from the soil.
Compound:
- 30 g granulated superphosphate
- 1 bucket of sawdust of any tree species, except coniferous
- 10 g calcium chloride
- 40 g ammonium nitrate
- 120 g slaked lime, that is, lime mixed with water
- This compost is applied in 3 buckets per 1 square meter. meter
When creating compost, you need to mix it once every 6 months, due to the fact that the top layer can form a very dense crust that does not allow moisture to pass through. By mixing compost, you can greatly reduce the process of creating humus.
Use of sawdust on closed ground
It is optimal to mix sawdust with organic residues or manure. Then such soil warms up well at the beginning of the season, earthworms begin to multiply intensively in it, and overheating accelerates. It must be remembered that rotted wood shavings are added to rotted manure, and new sawdust is added to fresh manure, since wood shavings take nitrogen from the soil.
Add to greenhouse beds sawdust can be used in winter and autumn. It is best to combine sawdust with the rest of the compost components. The best way would be to add sawdust to the already prepared humus that has remained since the fall, adding a little manure and slaked lime to the sawdust.
It must be remembered that wood shavings and manure, which are added in the spring, must be fresh. The composition is covered with straw or leaves, then soil is poured on top, which is mixed with ash and fertilizers.
Sawdust is an excellent addition to compost; it retains moisture in the soil; such soil is looser. Sawdust makes the compost more durable. In addition, mulching with sawdust protects plants from weeds and pests. Wood shavings are also added to greenhouses when plants really need additional heat.
Proper mulching of strawberries with sawdust in the video:
Interesting information about the vegetable garden
