Why is the earth like stone? How to make the soil fertile - simple tips

ONE OF THE CONDITIONS good health of plants, and therefore a high yield of vegetables - fertile soil. And if the land on the site is poor, it must certainly be made rich. It just takes more than one year.

However, using old and modern methods, you can quickly create ideal soil: loose, well-retaining water, saturated with nutrients, many beneficial organisms, not clogged with weeds and plant debris.

THE OLDEST WAY improve the balance of moisture and air, as well as replenish the supply of nitrogen and biologically active substances in the soil - add rotted manure, peat or compost. But the shortage and high price of traditional organics hinder its widespread use. In addition, manure, especially fresh manure, is a source of pathogens and weeds, and peat must be neutralized with lime and thoroughly mixed with the soil: delicate roots react poorly to excess acidity and, with insufficient watering, die, crushed by lumps of peat. Therefore, manure, peat and compost are usually added to holes or furrows before planting seedlings or sowing seeds, only locally improving the fertility of the area.

FERTILITY OF THE WHOLE BED or a vegetable garden can be increased with the help of green manure - plants specially sown for embedding into the soil. Cold-resistant crops - rye (cut after 25-35 days at a plant height of 15-20 cm), oats, rapeseed, mustard, oilseed radish, rapeseed, pelyushka (after 1.5-2 months, at the time of mass flowering), winter vetch and The spring crop is sown as soon as the soil has ripened after the snow melts, or in mid-August - in the beds vacated after harvesting. Amaranth, seradella, annual lupine, and calendula are placed in the garden bed when the soil warms up to 10°. Green manure is planted into the soil to a depth of a maximum of 15 cm.

To increase the thickness of the root layer in the garden bed, I recommend alternating the sowing of dicotyledonous (with a tap root) and monocotyledonous (with superficial, fibrous roots) plants over time: the roots form a capillary network through which moisture can pass deep and accumulate in the soil.

SAVE mulch helps to retain moisture in the soil without compacting it and protecting it from erosion, overheating or hypothermia, a layer of plant material 3-5 cm thick. Mown grass, cut stems of lupine, sweet clover, nettle, hay, straw, fire flax, weathered sawdust, buckwheat and sunflower seed husks, remains of corn stalks and cobs, fallen leaves, paper shavings, shredded bark. However, these materials are mainly composed of cellulose, and the bacteria that feed on it steal nitrogen from the plants. In addition, harmful microorganisms overwinter on mulching plant debris. Mulch also prevents the soil from warming up in the spring, the uniform sowing of seeds, especially small ones, and the uniform emergence of not only weeds, but also cultivated plants. That is why it is recommended to remove mulch from the beds in the spring. The peasants, since they did not have modern technology, staged fires - they set fire to the stubble. Today this technique is prohibited, since it has been established that fire not only threatens rural houses, but also reduces the content of available nitrogen and destroys beneficial microflora and fauna in a 5-centimeter layer of soil.

MORE EFFECTIVE treating the surface of the beds with a biodestructor - a preparation that contains a complex of soil cellulose- and lignin-destroying, nitrogen-fixing, lactic acid and other beneficial microorganisms. The biodestructor accelerates the decomposition of plant residues, making the soil looser. Beneficial microflora accumulates nitrogen in the soil, converts poorly digestible soil phosphorus and potassium into accessible compounds, and enhances the formation of active humus. They suppress the development of pathogenic fungi, bacteria, nematodes, stimulate the development of beneficial soil microflora, plant growth and their resistance to stress, protecting the garden from infections. The addition of humates to the biodestructor will enhance the effect of creating “healthy soil”.

Although biodestructors make it possible to reduce the dose of fertilizers, without the latter it will still not be possible to make the soil fertile.

We add large doses (6-9 g/sq. m) of the missing nutrients in the fall (for the main treatment of the area). In the spring, we need starting doses of fertilizers, which we apply simultaneously with loosening the soil. I advise you to give preference to granular and soluble fertilizers, including those with microelements. You won’t be able to cover them evenly with a shovel, and the work is hard. In a small garden bed, I recommend using a hand-held loosening tool. If an area of ​​more than one hundred square meters is being cultivated, electric and gasoline cultivators will provide high-quality processing.

BY COMBINING THE ABOVE, YOU CAN RETURN FERTILITY TO THE BEDS IN “FIVE STEPS.”

1 . In the spring, we fill the “bare” beds with starter fertilizer and fill them with green manure, and water the mulched ones with a biodestructor.

2 . At the appropriate time, we cover the plant mass while simultaneously cultivating the soil.

3 . After a week, we water it with a biodestructor, fill the furrows and holes with humus or compost and sow the seeds.

4 . When the shoots sprout, we loosen the row spacing, apply the microbiological preparation again, and mulch the beds.

5 . After harvesting, we sow or loosen green manure, apply basic fertilizer, cover the beds with mulch and water with biodestructor and humates.

Happy owners of dacha acres know well that it is impossible to obtain rich land on a plot without effort. This requires a lot of work. But before you begin the transformation, it is important to determine its initial state. This determines which additives to use and in what quantities. How to make the soil loose and fertile will be discussed in our article.

How to make the soil loose and fertile

Ideally, the natural soil from the site can be taken to an agricultural laboratory, where a full analysis will be done. Its results will show exactly how to optimize the soil in your garden. Unfortunately, such testing is not available to most owners. No problem! Some characteristics can be determined independently, for example, mechanical composition. It is responsible for air and moisture content. You can recognize it yourself if you moisten a small amount of earth with water and form a ball out of it. As a result:

• the figurine crumbles, which means the soil is sandy;
• the ball can be rolled into a cord and formed into a ring - the soil is considered clayey.

In the first case, additives are needed to retain moisture. You can loosen heavy soil using coarse sand or bottom peat. Any type of soil will need nutritional supplements; the best ones are organic fertilizers.

Fertilization with manure

Animal waste products contain a full range of substances necessary for plants. This is why adding organic fertilizers makes the soil fertile. Any type of manure – cow, pig or horse – is applied to garden and garden crops. Attention! It is important to follow these rules:

1. Fresh fertilizers can only be applied in the fall to empty areas, where there are no plantings, for example, in a vegetable garden. Manure in this form is an aggressive substance that is dangerous for plants. Therefore, it must be added to the soil in advance, 5–6 months before planting. During this time, it will be converted to a safe state, and nutrients will become available to plants. The additive not only serves as a top dressing, but also acts as a leavening agent for the garden soil.
2. Rotted fertilizers can be used in the spring, during planting.

• horse – 5–6 kg;
• cow - 4–5 kg.

The amount of rotted manure is reduced by half. Pig manure is not recommended to be applied fresh, even in the fall, due to the high content of aggressive nitrogen in ammonia form. The fertilizer must be kept for at least a year until it completely rots. It is better to mix it with horse or cow milk or put it in compost.

Mulching with grass clippings

Can be used from early spring to late autumn. This type of soil fertilization is classified as MDU - slow-acting fertilizers. The use of mulch allows you to:

1. Make the soil loose and soft in the garden and garden.
2. Retain moisture by reducing evaporation.
3. Provide constant feeding thanks to the gradual decomposition of the mulch.

Grass clippings are an effective loosening agent for heavy clay soils.

Planting plants with long roots

Proponents of organic farming recommend improving soil quality with the help of green manure. Plants are sown whose roots contain nodule bacteria that capture and fix nitrogen from the air. Thus, a natural, environmentally friendly fertilizer is obtained. Thanks to the powerful root system, green manure makes the soil crumbly and aerates it. This is especially important for heavy or peaty soils. To improve the structure and fertility of the soil, leguminous plants are most often used, for example, lupine, peas, alfalfa, vetch or beans. Even if your site has fertile soil, it needs to be improved periodically. To make the chernozem loose, it is also sown with green manure. This is more environmentally friendly than adding bulk additives and digging.

Green manure

Improving the soil is not a one-time event. You need to maintain optimal condition regularly. To do this, it is not necessary to purchase expensive fertilizers. You can use plant material that is available at each site:

• mowed lawn grass;
• weeded weeds;
• clipped shoots;
• wilted flowers, etc.

It's essentially garden waste, but can be turned into an effective fertilizer. Experienced gardeners offer useful tips on preparing green fertilizers. Here is one of them:

• a large capacity container, for example a barrel, is filled two-thirds with crushed plant residues;
• fill with water to the top;
• leave for a week and a half, stirring daily.

Before feeding, the resulting concentrated solution is filtered and diluted in a ratio of 1:10.

other methods

To improve the structure of heavy soil, the easiest way is to use coarse-grained washed river sand. To make light soil from medium loam, you will need 21 kg/m2. This is about one and a half buckets with a volume of 10 liters. The sand is evenly distributed over the surface and dug to a depth of 20–25 cm, to the full bayonet of a shovel. When preparing a plant mixture for seedlings, sand is almost always used. It is mixed with peat and compost to obtain a light nutrient substrate. Fertilizers that contain calcium are good leavening agents:

• slaked lime;
• dolomite flour;
• ash.

They are added to acidic soils to neutralize the pH level. Sometimes soil optimization on a site is a lengthy and costly process. It’s easier to take fertile soil from manufacturers who mix all the necessary components in advance.

Whether to improve the soil on the site yourself or add a ready-made mixture is up to everyone to decide for themselves. It depends on your financial capabilities and the amount of work.

The type and composition of soils directly affect the quality and quantity of the harvest, the decorativeness of plants, and their health. To make the soil loose and fertile, you need to fertilize it annually and mulch the beds throughout the growing season. But first you need to determine what the soil composition is in the garden. This will help you accurately select the type of nutrient mixtures, mulch, and then turn heavy soil into soft one.

The need to determine the type and composition of soils

Soil fertility is the key to good growth and good health of plants, from which in the future it will be possible to harvest a good harvest or, in the case of decorative ones, to obtain lush flowering and dense greenery. Fertilizers acting as leavening agents will help enrich the soil and make it air- and water-permeable. To choose the right type of the latter, you need to determine the type of soil and its composition. There are two ways to solve the problem:

1. Take some soil to the agricultural laboratory.
2. Study the mechanical composition yourself.

The first method gives an error-free result, but is not available everywhere and is expensive. The second will not answer questions about the deficiency or excess of macro- and micronutrients, but it will allow you to determine the structure of the soil. The earth is moistened with water and a ball is formed from it. If the figure crumbles, the soil is light; if it is possible to form something like a cord, even “twist it into a ring,” it is heavy.

How and how to improve the looseness and fertility of heavy soil

To ensure an air- and water-permeable soil structure, organic matter is used. It is more accessible not only in price: you can prepare it yourself, compost manure if you have animals, sow green fertilizers, make mulch from mowed grass.

Sand

Natural leavening agent. To improve the soil structure, coarse river sand is added at the rate of 20 kg per 1 m2 of loam. It is distributed in an even layer over the surface of the beds, and then dug up to the depth of the spade bayonet, which is 20-25 cm. If the soil is alkaline, you can add peat. The latter acidifies the soil - use it with caution.

For your information!

If the soil is infertile, additional humus is added, since a high sand content will make the soil even poorer.

Green manure

Green fertilizer is an important component in improving and maintaining the looseness and fertility of the soil. Proponents of organic farming provide these indicators through sowing. The latter are legumes (lupine, vetch, peas, alfalfa). On their powerful roots there are nodule bacteria that concentrate nitrogen, capturing and binding it from the air. Thanks to the power of the root system, the soil is not only enriched with important macronutrients, but also becomes loose and well aerated.

Manure

Organic matter in the form of the results of the vital activity of farm animals is the source of all macroelements necessary for plant development: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. Manure restores fertility. In the garden, they mainly use cow's milk, since it is less aggressive compared to pork, in which the concentration of nitrogen is even higher. It is best to apply rotted manure at the rate of 2 kg/m2. This can be done in the fall before digging, as well as before spring sowing.

For your information!

Fresh manure contains a high concentration of nitrogen - it can burn the plantings. Only experienced farmers use it when preparing soil for the next season (5 months before field work).

Grass clippings for mulching

A type of slow-release fertilizer. On heavy soils it is used from early summer to late autumn: when used in spring, the beds will slowly warm up and will not have time to dry out before sowing. The goals that a gardener can achieve with this method.

We got our own piece of land more than twenty years ago. My parents got it. It was a former collective farm field, plowed up and down for many years. The first summer it was a sad sight: blocks of earth, turned up by a plow and hard as stone, thickets of weeds.

How to approach this, what to do?
But as they say: “The eyes are afraid, but the hands are doing.”

I had to dig up clods of earth with shovels and uproot weeds. The first year we had to make do with just planting potatoes. No water, no proper care, and so is the harvest. In the fall, the first seedlings were planted and a berry garden was established. There was no experience, they planted it anyhow, and subsequently a lot had to be redone (oh, what would have been the current experience, but at that time, how much effort and labor could have been saved!).

Over time, our site has changed, tasted the first fruits of their labor. Mom’s caring hands literally passed every grain of earth through her; there was not a single empty place, everything around was planted. Mother's viburnum is still growing, blooming profusely in the spring and abundantly strewn with clusters of berries in the fall. Gradually, I also developed an interest in the land, apparently this was passed on from my mother. I was working in the north at the time and was only at home for two weeks, but I tried to spend any free time in the garden.

But my mother passed away. I had to gradually master the wisdom of growing seedlings and caring for plants. I hit a lot of bumps before things started to work out. Experience gradually came, but the feeling of dissatisfaction did not leave me; too much effort was required to get results. There must be some way to avoid spending so much effort to get a harvest. And, it seemed, he was found (as it turned out later, a dead end).

I came across the brochure “Vegetable growing in narrow beds, the method of D. Mittleider.” After reading it, I said to myself: “This is what you need.” Only one and a half hundred square meters of land, of which only a third is cultivated, to provide a family of four with vegetables. I waited impatiently for spring, made beds (45 cm wide, one meter paths), applied mineral fertilizers as indicated, planted seedlings, and sowed seeds. Every week I applied a portion of fertilizer according to the calculations. The harvest turned out to be good. Next year it will be good again. “This is how you need it!” - I thought. But in the third year I feel: something is wrong.

The earth became chalky and turned to dust, the slightest lack of moisture - and it became like a stone, we had to constantly water it, but the earth refused to accept water. The constant application of mineral water caused the soil to become acidic, and large amounts of lime had to be added. Earthworms began to leave the beds. I persistently continued to work according to Mittleider. The earth was dying...

But as they say: “There would be no happiness, but misfortune would help.” Spring 2003, heart attack, work on the ground is out of the question - doctors forbade it. But how can you be separated from your favorite garden? I decided: “I won’t give up!” But that was not the case, I picked up a shovel, dug about a meter and that’s it. I had to plant and sow in undug beds; I just sprinkled humus on top.

It was during this difficult time that I came across Nikolai Kurdyumov’s book “The Smart Garden and the Tricky Vegetable Garden.” I read it and thought: “What the hell is it, I have nothing to lose, maybe it will work out.” And I got down to business.

Well, of course, in the first year, not everything worked out as it should, but “trouble began.” I stopped digging (I wasn’t able to do it anyway), I just loosened it, mulched the soil as much as possible, and began using EM preparations, first Baikal, and then Siyanie.

On the paths that I had previously scraped to a shine, I allowed grass to grow. As it grew, I mowed it down and used it as mulch. “Weeds” were also used, and they turned from enemies into helpers. Their roots penetrate to such depths, take them out and leave behind a lot of nutrients that it would be stupid not to use this to your advantage.

As soon as the opportunity arose, I sowed green manure, whose roots replaced my shovel, and the green mass after pruning served as shelter from the scorching sun, and as it decomposed, also as food for the next generation of plants.

The beds were never empty, perhaps in early spring. The abundance of organic matter has attracted a lot of earthworms, and now the main job of improving the soil lies with them.

Wild herbs also appeared on my site: yarrow, celandine, sweet clover, knotweed. Once I prepared an infusion of nettles, used it, and scattered the remains around the area. Now I have my own nettle growing in several places, I cut it in one place for infusion, next time in another, lo and behold, it has already grown back.

There was even a place for wormwood, I scattered the branches over the cabbage, you don’t like the cruciferous flea beetle, and even the white flea beetle doesn’t like it, but the infusion helps against many pests. And the problems with pests turned out to be solvable.

Healthy, strong plants can fend for themselves. By the way, I began to notice that many insects, which we consider pests, prefer to settle on weeds, if they exist.

In a greenhouse, for example, if garden sow thistle (a thorny plant) grows, then the aphids do not touch my cucumbers. In the thick grass there is a place to hide for my assistants - predatory insects. Lizards and frogs moved in with me. Are pesticides really needed after this?

Gradually the earth began to come to life and it became clear that you can work on the land without extra effort. For six years my land has not known what a shovel is, and every year it gets better and better. Plants hardly get sick, there are fewer and fewer “pests and weeds”, and working in the garden is just a pleasure.

Ildus Khannanov, Ufa

To print

Elena Dorokhova November 21, 2014 | 8913

The soil should have high fertility, be loose, moisture-absorbing, breathable; it should be able to sufficiently provide plants with nutrients, moisture and air if we take care of it.

Optimal acidity

How to adjust acidity? Often we ourselves increase the acidity of the soil by using mineral fertilizers more often than organic ones. With the harvest, nutrients (calcium and magnesium) that inhibit acidification leave the soil. By plowing the soil too deeply or digging it up, we accelerate the leaching of useful substances.

There is a way out - to produce lime. But before that, you should determine the acidity level. For deoxidation, substances containing calcium are needed - ground limestone, chalk, dolomite flour. I do not recommend using calcium oxide and hydroxide CaO and Ca(OH) 2.

I prefer to use dolomite flour, which also contains magnesium. It is useful to add boron compounds (in the form of borax or boric acid) to it. For 2 kg of flour, take 4 tsp. boric acid or 6 tsp. Boers. Of all the microelements, boron has the most active effect on plant development and crop quality.

Be sure to incorporate limestone or dolomite flour into the soil. And the finer it is ground, the faster it interacts with the soil. Liming should be carried out every two to three years, preferably in the fall. Acidic sandy loam or loamy soils require the application of deoxidizing substances from 200 to 400 g/sq.m, medium and heavy loamy soils - from 300 to 600 g/sq.m.

Does ash help reduce acidity? If you simply scatter ash across the field, a crust will form that is harmful to plants and microflora. Ash must be embedded in the soil to a depth of 8-10 cm. It should not be applied to recently limed soils, as this will increase their acidity. Ash dose – 100-150 g/sq.m. m. Its effect lasts two to four years.

Ash infusion can be used as a universal fertilizer. Wood ash contains from 40 to 75% calcium, up to 13% potassium, and up to 7% phosphorus. Buckwheat and sunflower ash contain 35–36% potassium.

During the summer, you can alternate feeding with organic fertilizers and ash. Depending on the season, mineral fertilizers can be added to the ash infusion. In April-June - nitrogen or complex fertilizer (20-30 g/10 l), in July-August - potassium monophosphate (20-30 g/10 l).

Dry ash or its infusion are good in the fight against pests and garden diseases: leaf-eating caterpillars, sawflies, cutworms, leaf rollers, and powdery mildew. After rain, potato seedlings are dusted with ash (only before flowering), repelling the Colorado potato beetle. It also helps protect the garden from slugs. Ash combines well with chemicals and herbal infusions and is an excellent foliar feeding. To prepare the infusion, pour 1/3 of a bucket of ash with hot water and leave for two days, then strain. Spray the plants two to three times per season.

How to increase fertility?

Of course, first of all you should add ash, manure, compost, and vermicompost. You can carry out crop rotation, changing plants every year. In addition, green manure - white mustard, rye, sunflower, oats, wheat - have a beneficial effect on restoring soil fertility. They contain large amounts of nitrogen, starch and protein. Crops must be dense. Calendula, marigolds, nettles, shepherd's purse, wormwood, and garlic are good for healing the soil. Some gardeners practice mixed plantings. Very good neighbor plants: basil, rosemary, marigold, alyssum, thyme, chamomile.

What does it mean to "grow" soil?

In a few years, you can “grow” a layer of soil up to 30 cm on your plots. To do this, you need to return more organic matter to it than is removed from it. Grass, leaves, sawdust, straw will gradually decompose under the plants. It is useful to introduce a “microbial soil starter”: microbiological preparations (Baikal EM-1, Vozrozhdenie, Siyanie), spores of saprophytic fungi (biological preparations Trichodermin, Mycoplanta or mushroom extract), earthworms.

Unfortunately, we often ourselves contribute to the destruction of beneficial bacteria. The upper layer of 8-10 cm contains aerobic bacteria that need oxygen, and below are anaerobic bacteria that develop well without it. By digging up the soil, we change the layers, thereby destroying beneficial bacteria. Therefore, we throw the shovel aside and switch to the Fokin flat cutter. Protect the “creators” of humus: soil aerobic microbes, fungi and soil animals, especially earthworms.

How to do it right? Green manure is mowed before flowering, leaving the roots in the ground. They loosen the deep layers of the subsoil, improve water and air conditions. Dry the grass clippings before planting them in the soil. But cover only part of the grass; the rest can be added to compost, used for mulching or preparing green manure.

Spare technology. If there is little land and you need to start sowing early in the spring, you can plant spring crops in the fall. During August-October, sometimes the “tops” of the leaf mass (20-40 cm) and roots 30 cm long grow. Cooling of the air and soil leads to the death of plants. Substances that cleanse the soil are released from their biomass. Using this simple adaptation principle, you can feed the soil and clear it of pests. Over the winter, the organic matter of the root and leaf mass of green manure will completely rot, and in the spring (April-May) it will be possible to start planting. The root and leaf mass, “burning” in the soil, releases heat, moisture accumulates in it, worms and beneficial microflora settle in. There is no need to dig this layer of soil; it is already loose.