Use of sawdust in the garden. Preparation for mulching
Almost all gardeners are inclined to believe that it is a valuable component for nourishing the soil. However, it is quite expensive, so many people use sawdust as fertilizer. If they are applied correctly, the soil will be enriched with the necessary substances, due to which it will be possible to obtain a rich harvest.
Benefits of sawdust
Sawdust is an organic material that periodically appears in almost every yard during the preparation of firewood for the winter. Especially those involved in construction work have a large amount of this fertilizer. In addition, this material can be purchased and is inexpensive. Some businesses even take sawdust to landfills, so you can find some here too.
The use of such material in agriculture is very large. Some gardeners put it in compost, others use it in the process of forming beds and grow seedlings on it. However, this natural fertilizer must be carefully prepared before use. But first things first.
Effect on soil
If the soil is enriched with loosening organic substances, it will absorb moisture well, due to which the plants in the garden will develop well. In addition, a crust does not form on its surface after rain, so loosening the soil is not required as often. However, only rotted or at least half-rotted sawdust has such properties. They have a brownish tint. The longer they overheat, the darker their color will be.
It is necessary to understand that re-melting sawdust is a very long process. In the fresh air it can last about 10 years or more. Therefore, this material is rarely used independently. It is usually added to the compost heap along with manure.
Advice
Due to the fact that pine sawdust can acidify the soil, it is recommended to additionally enrich the soil with limestone when using it.
Mulching with sawdust
Sawdust can also be used as a mulching material. To do this, it is better to use rotted, semi-rotted or even fresh materials. They are spread in a layer of 3-5 cm. This mulch can be used in raspberry fields or on vegetable beds. Fresh sawdust must be prepared before use. To do this, you need to take the film and lay it in an area illuminated by the sun.
After this, you should pour sawdust (3 buckets each), 200 g of urea on top, and then thoroughly moisten them with water. This must be continued until all the sawdust is gone. You also need to cover the product with film on top, pressing it down with stones. After about 2 weeks, you can use sawdust as fertilizer.
But there is one caveat: such fertilizers can only be used in the first half of summer, when water from the soil quickly evaporates. Already in the second half there will be no trace left of the mulch, since it will be well loosened by the worms, so it will be completely mixed with the soil. If it is used in the second half of summer, when the rainy season begins, then due to the layer of wood fertilizer, moisture will not be able to evaporate, which can affect the condition of the plants.
Use in greenhouses
Sawdust as a fertilizer for greenhouses and hotbeds is absolutely irreplaceable. It is very useful to mix them with both manure and plant residues. This will help the soil to warm up much faster, so seed germination will also begin earlier. But you need to understand that fresh sawdust can only be used if fresh manure is used. If you take rotted manure or do without it at all, then in this case it is recommended to use only rotted sawdust.
They can be added to greenhouse or hothouse beds both in the fall and in the spring. The most favorable option is as follows: in the fall it is necessary to lay a layer of straw, leaves, and grass. During the winter, all these tops will rot, so a sufficient amount of nutritional components for plants is formed. In the spring, you can also lay manure and sawdust. Use a pitchfork to thoroughly loosen the soil so that both layers are properly mixed. After this, it is necessary to lay another layer of straw, on top of which is soil mixed with ash and mineral fertilizers.
Advice
In order for the soil in a greenhouse or greenhouse to warm up better, it is necessary to pour boiling water over the ridges and cover them with plastic film on top.
Many summer residents add sawdust to their compost. Most often they are mixed with manure. However, such compost cannot be used immediately. It should be left for about a year. That is, it is advisable to prepare compost in the spring so that it is ready for use next year. If necessary, you can slightly moisten the created mixture. In this case, there should be little water, otherwise useful substances may be washed out of the compost. If there is no manure, you can mix it with sawdust. It is also recommended to add and to the resulting mixture.
You can use sawdust as fertilizer in compost only if the mixture rots. So it will contain more nutritional components. To speed up this process, you can add slurry or kitchen waste to it at the initial stage. It will also be nice if soil is added to the compost. However, its quantity should be moderate: approximately 2-3 buckets per cubic meter of sawdust. Due to this, earthworms will multiply, contributing to the rapid rotting of the wood.
Fertilizer for strawberries and wild strawberries
Sawdust is also good for strawberries. In addition, if you use them as a mulching material, the berries will not touch the ground, which will reduce fruit loss from rot. In winter, such materials will prevent the plant roots from freezing. It is advisable to take only fresh material that has been treated with urea. It is best that it be obtained from coniferous trees. Oak sawdust will not work.
But walnut or birch sawdust can be used to raise ridges that are located in low places. To do this, you need to dig a trench around the ridges. Using the excavated soil, it is necessary to form ridges, and sawdust should be poured into the trenches. Thanks to such a simple manipulation, it will be possible to avoid drying out the beds even during dry periods. Fertilizing the soil with sawdust will also help prevent weeds from growing on it. In addition, over time they will rot, due to which the soil will become lush and fertile.
Substrate for seed germination
Many people are interested in whether sawdust can be used as an independent soil? As you know, there are two technologies by which seeds are germinated. Some plant them directly into the soil, while others place them first in old sawdust. After all, they are an ideal soil for a short period of time. Due to their loose structure, intensive development of the root system occurs. And then the seedlings can be transplanted completely “painlessly” for it. However, sawdust alone does not contain the necessary amount of nutrients for plants, so if you leave them in such soil for the entire growing season, they may dry out completely.
Algorithm for planting plants in sawdust
- Take a flat, shallow container that must be filled with wet sawdust in advance.
- The seeds should be placed at a short distance from each other, which are again covered with fertilizer on top.
- Containers should be placed in slightly opened plastic bags. You can also cover them on top with cling film, making several holes on its surface. Then the boxes should be taken to a warm place, preferably well lit.
- After the first shoots appear, you can remove the plastic bags. Fertile soil should be sprinkled on top so that the plants get used to the ground.
- Plants are planted in separate containers no earlier than the appearance of the first leaf.
- Fertilizing the soil with sawdust should also occur before planting seedlings in the garden.
Sawdust for potato growth
Sawdust - with which you can get an early harvest of vegetables. To do this, you need to buy light-sprouted early potato tubers in advance, as well as several deep boxes. They should be filled with rotted sawdust. About two weeks before planting the tubers in the soil, they must be placed in these boxes, and sprinkled with chopped wood on top. It is important that the substrate is not too dry or too wet. After two weeks, you can begin planting the tubers in the beds. After planting potatoes, it is recommended to cover the entire area with straw to prevent the tubers from freezing. You can speed up the harvest by several weeks.
Thus, sawdust is an indispensable fertilizer that has recently been used by many summer residents. Its advantages are its low cost and ease of use. At the same time, such materials can be used for different purposes: for mulching, insulation, soil fertilization.
However, it must be taken into account that each of these processes is carried out using a specific technology. Therefore, you should under no circumstances begin to implement them without familiarizing yourself with these technologies. This can cause large amounts of crop loss.
Fertilizer is not only specially synthesized chemicals. To replenish the soil when growing crops, you can use waste from various industries.
It can also be sawdust - as a fertilizer, it can be used both in the greenhouse and in the fields. This option is a simple and cheap soil recharge.
1 How do wood shavings affect the soil?
D Wood chips are a natural organic material in which, even in the form of sawdust, useful elements still remain. When they rot, they release carbon, which has a beneficial effect on microflora.
Mixed with the soil, sawdust makes it looser and lighter, improves air permeability, and at the same time does not retain moisture. As a result, the soil becomes more like peat. It will be easier for the root system of crops to develop in it.
This is primarily useful for the following areas:
“tired” lands that were actively used for growing any crops (even if the cultivation was carried out according to all the rules, with the sowing of green manure);
soils with poor fertility.
After adding shavings, the soil is less susceptible to drying out, and in dry weather a crust does not form on its surface.
1.1 Pros and cons of application
This fertilizer material has the following advantages:
cheap and easy to obtain (sawdust can beliterally for pennies you can buy it in any woodworking shop,or even pick it up for free if you need a small quantity);
P ease of use;
improving the condition of poor soil, simplifying the development of the root system;
loosening the soil.
There are also disadvantages:
“fresh” sawdust oxidizing t soil, so apply their necessary in moderate quantities, only after preliminary preparation (about preparation - below);
wood shavings are not a “main” fertilizer - they are only an auxiliary material for the soil.
1.2 Using sawdust in the garden (video)
1.3 For what crops can it be used?
The sawdust composition can be used for any type of planting:
agricultural crops grown in fields.
“garden” crops, from potatoes to strawberries;
trees (fruit, berry);
Use this fertilizer possible both outdoors (in the garden, field, garden), and in greenhouses and hotbeds.
This method of fertilization is practically not used in the fields, and if it is used, it is infrequently, rather as an exception. Crops grown in large volumes are usually fertilized with specialized preparations. And sawdust is rather one of the folk remedies, from the “arsenal” of amateur gardeners.
2 What sawdust is suitable for fertilizer?
Before using sawdust fertilizer, it is worth remembering the basic rules:
Pine shavings are not suitable. Pine (and other conifers) contain resin, which slows down the process of wood decomposition. This means that all the benefits of the application will come to naught.
“Fresh” sawdust should be used with extreme caution (so as not to overdo it with the quantity), and it is better not to use it separately at all. The reason is that fresh wood will oxidize the soil.
The decomposition of wood in the ground helps reduce the amount of nitrogen in it. Therefore, crops that will grow on it may experience a deficiency of this element.
If the shavings were stored near/under thickets of weeds, they can be used as fertilizer only after treatment by hot composting. To do this, you need to pour hot water over the sawdust (hotter than 60 degrees), quickly cover it with polyethylene and leave it for several days.
The following conclusion can be drawn: the following are suitable for safe use:
Sawdust from non-coniferous trees.
Rotted wood shavings (which have been left in the fresh air for as long as possible, ideally at least a year). Its color will be darker than fresh ones. The darker the better (that is, the longer they last, the better).
Mixing with other types of fertilizers.
2.1 What can you mix with?
It was mentioned above that sawdust is best used by applying it together with something else, making a mixture. "Recipes" can be like this:
-
2.2 Use as mulching material
P use sawdust Can be used as mulch- this is true for any plants in the garden.
This is done in early summer (no later than June). The entire plot of land (on which crops will grow) is covered with a layer of sawdust, 2-3 cm thick. Such preparation will prevent the appearance of weeds, make the soil looser, and help retain moisture in the soil.
After harvesting, the soil needs to be dug up. At the same time, the sawdust will be mixed with the soil, and next year it will turn into fertilizer for the next plantings.To neutralize soil oxidation (from “clean” wood chips in it), it is recommended to sprinkle it with lime flour.
WITH You should not use too much sawdust for mulching. At the end of the season, after digging up the area, they should not remain on the surface. Otherwise, next spring they will only be a hindrance: they will prevent the soil from freezing.
WITH The preparation process looks like this:
A plastic film is spread on the ground.
3 buckets of sawdust are poured out.
200 grams of urea are mixed with the shavings.
The mixture is moistened with 10 liters of water.
The process is repeated until the required amount of fertilizer is obtained.
The mixture is covered with a film, the more airtight the better.
The fertilizer will be ready in 10-14 days.
2.3 Application in greenhouses/greenhouses
P When preparing soil for greenhouses/greenhouses, it is important to use shavings so that the soil maintains its temperature more stable.
It should be mixed with horse manure, finely ground leaves and grass. Moreover, if the manure is taken fresh, then the sawdust must be fresh. And vice versa: if the manure is rotted, sawdust should also be taken that is already rotted.
2.4 About the benefits and rules of use (video)
2.5 Application on beds
AND using sawdust as fertilizer, maximum efficiency can be achieved when growing strawberries (strawberries)and potatoes. They will also be useful in gardens located in lowlands.
To protect the planting from drought and weeds, shavings can be used not directly under the plant, but nearby. To do this, furrows (25 cm deep) are dug along the bed, into which sawdust is poured. They will play the role of a kind of barrier that will not allow weeds to enter the plant and will not release water. Having rotted, the wood shavings will release useful elements into the soil, and a year or two after burial they will also turn into fertilizer.
The most effective way to use sawdust in garden beds is as follows:
The top layer of soil is removed.
A mixture of urea and shavings is placed in the hole (as mentioned above: 200 grams of urea per 3 buckets of shavings).
Cut grass/hay is placed on top.
The furrow is buried.
- Harm from wood waste
- What sawdust should I use?
- Several fertilizer recipes
- Recipe 1: Wood and Ash
- Fresh sawdust fertilizer
- Mulching according to the rules
- Strawberries and wild strawberries
- How to cover roses
- Sawdust for seedlings
Mulching is the surface covering of garden soil with mulch, which can be crushed bark, pine needles, sawdust and other natural materials. This agrotechnical technique allows you to avoid many problems with the health of cultivated plants on the ground and in the greenhouse. Using sawdust as mulch leads to amazing results in plant development, but only if certain rules are followed.
Properties of wood chips and shavings
Sawdust mulch is suitable for use on all types of soil.
What's good about this material:
- It does not release moisture from the ground, thereby helping to maintain the balance of water during dry periods and in hot areas.
- Prevents weeds from germinating. This is one of the main reasons for using wood waste as mulch.
- Fresh sawdust is used as bedding for berries - the smell of the tree repels some pests from the fruit, and small chips keep strawberries and wild strawberries clean.
- Mulching the soil allows the roots of some plants to survive the winter.
- Wood chips serve as fertilizer. True, for this you need to fulfill some conditions.
It is worth noting that mulching with sawdust cannot be done in the form in which it is. The fact is that wood does not saturate the soil with useful substances, but, on the contrary, draws them out, like a sponge. Sawdust material becomes useful if it is added to basic fertilizer mixtures or kept for a year or two in a compost heap. At this time, bacteria settle on the surface of the chips, which saturate the wood with useful microelements released during rotting and proliferation of microflora.
What are the benefits and possible harm?
Sawdust is often used by gardeners to improve the quality of life of plants, but people do not always know about the true benefits of the intake and are unable to accurately assess its harm. However, in most cases, there is still a positive effect from their use.
Advantages of sawdust:
- With proper preparation, you get excellent humus, similar in properties to traditional manure, which, as you know, costs a lot.
- Sawdust scattered on paths in the garden prevents the spread of weeds.
- Retain moisture in the soil, especially in spring. To do this, you need to mulch the ground in the fall.
- Promote natural soil aeration several years after use.
- Coniferous shavings and wood chips practically do not tolerate pathogenic microbes, which eliminates the risk of plant infection.
Harm from wood waste
- Sawdust in its pure form is not a fertilizer. They absorb minerals from the soil, and the soil becomes depleted. Nitrogen, necessary for the life of microorganisms, is drawn from the fertile layer.
- Fresh sawdust oxidizes the soil.
- The use of sawdust of unknown origin can lead to infection of plants with diseases. To eliminate this risk, you should not take material from questionable sources.
What sawdust should I use?
Wood shavings from different trees are not suitable for all plants:
- Waste from deciduous trees, except oak, is good for crops.
- Coniferous species saturate the soil with acid, therefore they are accepted only by lovers of such an environment - tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and others.
Several fertilizer recipes
Sawdust in its pure form is used only for filling paths in order to retain moisture and stop the development of weeds. In other cases, preparation of raw materials is required.
For sawdust in the garden to become useful, it needs to rot.. To achieve the required condition, they will have to lie in a pile for at least 10 years while bacteria process the wood into a useful substrate. You can speed up the process by making compost from sawdust. In combination with manure and additional additives, the fertilizer matures faster due to thermoregulation in the desired range and maintaining a sufficient level of moisture.
We offer several recipes for preparing fertilizer from sawdust, which is used by gardeners throughout the country. It is recommended to bookmark from the beginning of summer as the necessary material becomes available.
Recipe 1: Wood and Ash
Stack:
- Wood sawdust – 200 kg;
- Urea, rich in nitrogen (up to 47%) – 2.5 kg per heap;
- Ash required to alkalize the soil – 10 kg;
- Water – 50 liters;
- Grass, food waste and sewage – up to 100 kg.
The shavings and grass are laid in layers, ash is added and the “pie” is filled with urea dissolved in water. You can cover the pile with polyethylene film, but small pores should remain on the surface: this way the temperature and humidity level will be optimal, and oxygen access will remain.
Recipe 2: Organically Enriched
For poor soil that requires a significant dose of fertilizer, prepare the following compost from sawdust:
- Wood waste – 200 kg;
- Cow dung – 50 kg;
- Fresh cut grass – 100 kg;
- Organic waste (food, feces) – 30 kg;
- Humates – 1 drop per 100 liters of water (no more).
When this fertilizer ripens, a significant amount of nitrogen is released.
Fresh sawdust fertilizer
As already mentioned, fresh sawdust does not benefit the soil as a fertilizer for the garden. If you have not done composting in advance, but it is necessary to saturate the soil, use a sawdust mixture with the following additives on a bucket of wood chips:
- Ammonium nitrate – 40 g;
- Granulated superphosphate – 30 g;
- Slaked lime – 120 g (glass);
- Calcium chloride – 10 g.
The mixture needs to be infused for 2 weeks. To do this, spread plastic outside and scatter the ingredients on it.
Mix and leave to release the necessary elements and carry out chemical reactions. After this, add the resulting mixture to the soil when digging the beds. The soil will receive a sufficient dose of ammonia, the acid-base balance of the soil will be leveled, and the release of useful substances will occur immediately after the first watering. The soil should be fertilized in the amount of 2-3 buckets per 1 square meter of land. This procedure promotes natural loosening of the soil.
Mulching according to the rules
Sawdust at the dacha is useful not only for speeding up the composting process, but also for winter shelter for plants, fertilizing them and protecting them from pests.
It is good to use prepared sawdust as mulch in the first half of summer, when seedlings and plants are just gaining strength and need protection from weeds, loss of soil moisture and disease attacks. By mid-summer, there will be no obvious trace left of the powder - it will be mixed with the soil by rain and worms.
Basically, sawdust saturated with fertilizers is lined in the passages. This must be done between beds with tomatoes, potato rows and other plants.
Other vegetables grown in the garden - onions, carrots, beets, garlic, turnips - also need protective powder. It needs to be done after picking, when the plantings are thinned out and have reached a height of 5–7 cm, they are covered with a layer of sawdust of 3–4 cm.
Raspberries are one of the main lovers of mulching in the garden. It is necessary to preserve the soil moisture necessary for setting berries. Prepared sawdust is generously poured under the bushes.
Strawberries and wild strawberries
Is it possible to mulch strawberries with sawdust? The answer is clear - you need it, just like strawberries. This procedure is useful for berries:
- Sawdust maintains the moisture balance in the soil.
- Tender fruits remain clean without touching the ground.
- Slugs and snails do not crawl onto the berries.
For mulching, you need clean sawdust without impurities, but before the procedure it is important to saturate the soil with minerals and fertilize it well to prevent depletion of the fertile layer. The material used can be mixed with urea in the above proportions.
The sawdust is moistened and laid out under the bushes, under each branch and between the stems. The layer thickness should be 5–7 cm. This work is presented in the video.
Backfilling is done when the seedlings have already taken root and gained a height of more than 7 cm. Mulching strawberries with sawdust for the winter will help the perennial plant to better survive the cold and maintain the integrity of the root system.
How to cover roses
Gardeners say: “A rose is a child of manure,” because sawdust is necessary for it as fertilizer, but it is not suitable as a protective layer. Such mulch does not have sufficient heat-retaining properties.
Covering roses with sawdust can only be used for wintering in combination with other, more effective materials. The expert will talk about this in detail in the video.
Sawdust for seedlings
Tomatoes and other seedlings now more often appear in the garden not as seeds, but as ready-made shoots. They can also be bred in small wood waste - such an environment is more favorable for the delicate seed than soil.
How to organize the process correctly:
- Moistened small shavings are poured into a flat container.
- They plant the seeds and generously fill them with fertilizer, since there is nothing nutritious in the sawdust.
- Cover with film, make holes for air and expose to the sun.
- When sprouts appear, soil is poured on top so that the plant gets used to it.
Then, as they grow, the seedlings are transferred to a separate pot with garden soil.
The advantage of germinating seeds in woody material is a loose environment, which allows the root system of seedlings to intensively develop, but only if there is a sufficient supply of nutrients.
Despite the fact that sawdust is inherently waste, it can be usefully used in a lot of cases. Based on sawdust, a new material was even invented that is 4 times harder than ice and has resistance to concrete explosion.
The main advantage of sawdust over other fertilizers is that they are much cheaper (and some enterprises even throw them away). By adding sawdust to the soil, we make it looser, more water- and air-permeable, and prevent the formation of a “crust”. However, the sawdust must first be reheated, for which it is added to the compost heap. And so that the sawdust does not acidify the soil, they will also have to be limed. This wood material is successfully used for mulching, both rotted and fresh. It is useful to lay a layer of several centimeters under fruit and vegetable bushes, for example, raspberries. It is better to keep fresh sawdust “under pressure” for several weeks in advance. To do this, pour 3 buckets of sawdust, about 200 g of urea and 10 liters of water onto a sheet of waterproof film. Cover with the same piece of film, press down and leave to ripen. Fertilizer is applied in the first half of summer. Adding sawdust speeds up the processing of manure and plant tops into compost. The latter results in higher quality. Sawdust is good for mulching strawberry and strawberry beds, as it prevents the fruits from touching the ground and becoming infected with gray rot. Pine waste can repel weevils. If, during the formation of ridges, sawdust is poured between them, then we can:- avoid drying out the ridge;
- after the rain, do not “knead the mud”, but calmly walk through the sawdust;
- reduce weed germination;
- raise the bed as necessary;
- Subsequently, the rotted sawdust will become fertilizer.
If you let potato tubers lie in sawdust before planting, you can get an early harvest from them. To do this, potatoes with developed eyes that have been in the sun are placed in a box with rotten, damp sawdust for about 2 weeks. When the sprouts grow to 8 cm, transplant the tubers into the ground. If you don’t want to bother with reheating or forming a compost heap, the sawdust can simply be treated with any fertilizer with a high nitrogen content (about 20 g per 1 kg of waste). We apply this mixture to the ridges in the fall or spring, mixing with manure. Even if you added ordinary sawdust to the soil, the soil did not deteriorate at all. In a year they will rot and release all the nutrients to the soil the next season. Try feeding the plants in this area with saltpeter. Sawdust can be poured into the country toilet along with Baikal bacteria and/or peat. This helps eliminate unpleasant odors and reduce and recycle the contents of the cesspool. Sawdust is also an excellent medium for the mycelium of mushrooms, in particular oyster mushrooms. Many summer residents use wood waste in the form of bedding for keeping animals.
Let's summarize: sawdust is a very useful material for any summer resident and gardener. The main thing is to know how to use them correctly, prepare them and process them in the ground.
After cutting down trees, sawing wood or construction work, sawdust always remains. Many, due to ignorance, simply throw them away or burn them, depriving themselves of very useful material. Where and how sawdust is used can be read in detail in this article.
What are sawdust used for?
This, in fact, waste can be used for the following purposes:
- To add looseness to the soil.
- Fertilizer as a component of compost.
- Mulching of garden crops.
- Insulation in the cold season for heat-loving plants.
- Covering material for paths.
- Storing vegetables and fruits.
- Growing seedlings and mushrooms.
- In decorating.
- Construction works.
It’s just important to remember that there are different types of sawdust. Some may not be suitable for specific purposes. For example, pine sawdust is not suitable for fertilizers and working with soil. But birch, linden, fruit tree, and maple sawdust are universal.
Garden work
In order to use sawdust on your site, you need to know all its features. Because if used incorrectly and in its pure form, they may not only fail to give the expected effect, but also cause harm.
Fertilizer for beds
In order for sawdust to serve as a fertilizer, it must be mixed with minerals. There are two good reasons for this:
- Sawdust in its pure form makes the soil acidic.
- Nitrogen, which is so necessary for most plants, is removed from the soil.
To avoid such problems, making compost is a great option. Two cooking methods:
- Fast way: with air access. Can be used after 1-2 months.
- Long-term method: with limited air access. Such raw materials will be ready in 4-6 months.
And now more about these methods
Instant compost
There are three varieties, depending on the constituent components:
- Sawdust-mineral. To prepare it, you need to adhere to the proportion: for 5 kg of sawdust (in 1 10 liter bucket - 1 kg of sawdust) take 125 g of urea, 40 g of superphosphate and 75 g of potassium sulfate. Dissolve mineral fertilizers in water, pour over the sawdust, which is placed in the prepared hole. Mix everything thoroughly for better air access. Leave for a month, or better yet, two. Stirring occasionally.
- Sawdust-organic. In this option, you need to add chicken droppings or manure to the sawdust. With manure, the proportion of sawdust is 1:1 (by weight), and litter should be taken in half as much. Mix all. Leave to ferment, fluffing and stirring occasionally with a pitchfork.
- Sawdust-mixed. In this case, compost is prepared as in the first option - with mineral fertilizers. They stand for a month, and sawdust with organic matter is placed on top. Leave for another month, stirring regularly, and the fertilizer is ready for use.
Important to remember! No compaction or pressing. Looseness and free access of air are the main rules of this compost.
If you can keep this compost longer (3-4 months), then you can get excellent fertilizer. Having made a bookmark in the spring, in the fall you will get an excellent mixture for digging up the soil.
Long-rotting compost
You need to dig a hole about 50 cm deep. Throw into it crushed unnecessary organic waste from the garden and home (branches, leaves, grass, peels of vegetables and fruits, tops from carrots and beets, tomato stems, sawdust, manure, food waste) everything compact thoroughly. It is best to do this by pouring in small layers, pouring each layer with several shovels of soil. Pour nitrophoska solution at the rate of 100 g per bucket of water, gradually filling and compacting the hole. Cover everything with plastic wrap. To block air access. Keep for 4-6 months. High humidity and a temperature of at least 20°C are excellent conditions for good compost.
Remember: the longer the compost rots in the pit, the better it turns out. And even after 2-3 years, it will be an excellent fertilizer, better than a young one.
Growing seedlings and germinating seeds.
By mixing sawdust with soil (rotted or pre-treated with urea, ash or chalk), you can get excellent soil for growing seedlings of peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, and cucumbers.
But ordinary sawdust is suitable for germinating seeds. Pour a thin layer of these small pieces of wood, spread out the seeds, and cover with a thin layer of sawdust. Pour over and cover with plastic wrap. Leave in a warm place for germination. When shoots appear, remove the film and lightly sprinkle the sawdust with earth. When the first true leaf appears, the plants are planted in separate containers with fertile soil.
Mushrooms on sawdust
You can grow oyster mushrooms on sawdust from deciduous trees. But the growing technology is not as primitive as it seems. You need to properly prepare the sawdust: mix it with hay, bran, and mineral components. Simmer the bran itself in hot water to remove the microorganisms that live in it. Sow living mycelium into a moist substrate. Maintain high humidity and temperature from 8°C to 28°C.
Warm beds
A feature of these beds is the faster ripening of vegetables, since heating from below makes it possible to plant crops earlier than usual, and the ripening time with constant heat is reduced. Plants in such areas are less susceptible to disease and it is difficult for pests to get to them.
You can make a garden bed like this:
- Dig a hole, 25-30 cm deep, at the site of the future bed.
- Protect the edges with sides so that the bed does not fall apart.
- Place everything in layers, at least 10 cm thick.
- At the bottom there is a drainage layer of coarse branches and organic waste.
- Pour in sawdust and pour urea solution over it.
- Place a layer of whatever is on the site on top: straw, grass, leaves, chopped corn stalks, weeds, manure. The thickness of this layer is 15 cm.
- Sprinkle each layer with hot water or a solution of manure or chicken droppings.
- Cover with plastic wrap to reheat (for a week or 10 days).
- After the temperature begins to decrease, open the film and lay out a layer of soil (12-15 cm).
After such procedures, the bed is ready for planting vegetable crops.
You can use sawdust not only in the garden. They will also find work in the garden and flower beds.
Using sawdust in the garden
Shredded wood is an excellent insulation material for plants that are difficult to tolerate cold. Young seedlings also need insulation for the winter.
Sawdust insulation
If you use sawdust as insulation, you need to remember that they cannot be left in the open air. They get wet, freeze, rot and destroy the plants. It is better to fill polyethylene bags with sawdust and cover seedlings or bushes with them. You can also do this: cover bent branches, vines or vines with sawdust. Then cover the top with film and secure the edges. But such insulation must be done before frost, so as not to create a shelter for rodents.
Mulching
For this purpose, you cannot use fresh sawdust. They need to be prepared: mixed with ash, poured with urea solution and allowed to brew for two weeks. Such sawdust can already be poured under the plants. The layer thickness is no more than 4 cm. Strawberries, raspberries, strawberries, and garlic like this mulching. It is better to add this product in the spring. It is better not to do such manipulations in the middle of summer. For garden crops, mulching should be carried out along the perimeter of the crown. Fertilize and water on top of the mulch.
From a practical point of view, such paths have proven themselves well in both dry and rainy weather. The likelihood of getting dirty is reduced to a minimum. And the dense layer does not allow weeds to break through.
Using sawdust for decorative purposes
Stuffing for crafts
Well-dried sawdust can be used as a filler for stuffed animals in the country, summer pillows on the terrace, decorative and soft toys.
Colored sawdust
Crushed wood can be easily painted with gouache solution. After drying, you can make applications from it, gluing it onto cardboard to create a picture. A soft decorative rug will appear on the floor or path.
Other Applications
Harvest storage
