What fertilizers are applied to the soil in the fall in the garden? When to fertilize the soil How to properly fertilize the soil in the garden

I live in the village. I moved from the city to the countryside and for the fourth year now I have been mastering the charms and difficulties of village life. Now spring has come, and the main thing we have is a vegetable garden. Urban fashionable conversations on topics such as manure is so useful and whether to replace it with green manure are not conducted in our village. There is manure - there will be a harvest.

country classic

All the latest technologies for cultivating the land are not for our villagers. Here they acted and act in the old fashioned way.

From fertilizers - only manure.

In autumn, after harvesting, they plow the ground on a horse or walk-behind tractor and spread manure on top. In the spring, manure is scattered again and plowed again. No crop rotation. Potatoes for years in the same field, in the beds are always the same garlic, cabbage, onions, beets and carrots.

In the greenhouse - cucumbers with tomatoes. When summer residents appeared and along with them black spandbond-lutrasil, the villagers began to use it - to plant strawberries on it. Apple trees are never fed or watered. Raspberries and currants are also not particularly worried. And everything grows and bears fruit. True, every year is different. But it is written off on the nature and weather.

The next door neighbor

One of my neighbors, a summer resident from the regional center, has vast experience in dealing with the land. Her garden is a picture: not a single extra blade of grass in the beds, and the paths between them are trampled down as if they were specially compacted. In greenhouses - thickets of cucumbers and tomatoes. Strawberries are the sea, zucchini are giants, onions are the size of an orange. The reason is increased nutrition. Literally everything is used here: manure, grass infusion, and chemical fertilizers. Now, in April, a neighbor from morning to evening with a shovel is intensively digging up all the beds.

garden experiment

My other neighbor, a resident of the capital, loves experiments. One day she was planting potatoes in straw. Alas, that summer there was an invasion of water rats and shrews - they ate everything. But the pumpkins last summer were a success. The experiment is as follows: they mowed the grass and left it, put several layers of newspaper on top, then a couple of buckets of earth, make holes and plant a pumpkin seed.

I love high beds. I made them as follows: I dig a groove 30 cm deep, put branches, old boards, rags, grass, ash, a little earth on top and cover everything with spandbond. Tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, physalis grow well.

Fertilizer with manure - bet on organic matter

However, whatever the beds and experiments, the earth still "wants to eat" in order to please us with a good harvest. In our village, they remember the old saying: "The earth is mother, and manure is father." Therefore, I also trust the classics. Forget about chemical fertilizers and focus on manure. The introduction of manure has little effect on the effectiveness of nitrogen fertilizer, but phosphorus and potash fertilizers weaken against the background of manure. You should always choose one thing, the earth does not need excesses.

Manure is a complete organic fertilizer, contains all the nutrients necessary for the plant and is a very effective remedy.

What is valuable in it? Magnesium and calcium reduce soil acidity. Microorganisms increase biological activity. Potassium and phosphorus are found in manure in a form available to plants. Manure nitrogen remains in the soil for a long time. From manure, a large amount of carbon dioxide is released into the soil, which is needed for photosynthesis and heat transfer.

Sometimes it is difficult to apply the exact amount of manure to the soil. In this case, I have a cheat sheet, I share:

The 10 liter bucket contains:

8 kg of fresh horse manure,
5 kg of manure on a bed of sawdust,
9 kg fresh cow manure
5 kg of bird droppings,
7 kg of humus,
12 kg of slurry.

What kind of manure can fertilize the garden

Horse dung- the best. Great for greenhouses and greenhouses. Already a week after laying in the greenhouse, its temperature rises to 60 °. It lasts for more than a month, and then drops to 30 °.

rabbit dung practically in no way inferior to the horse. But this is a rarer option, we have few rabbit farms.

Goat and sheep manure is also an excellent material for biological heating in early spring.

cow dung- warms up only to 50 ° and cools down after a week.

Pig manure - similar in quality to cow manure, it is better to use both of them for later greenhouses and greenhouses when the sun comes up.

bird droppings- effective, but use in excessive amounts can damage both the aerial parts and the roots of plants. From bird droppings, goose and duck droppings act more gently.

Assorted from different types of manure- welcome.

Dunginstruction

Manure is stored in dense piles without oxygen access and loose heaps with air access. The first option, I think, is better. So all its useful properties are better preserved. The term of overheating of manure is up to six months.

I defend the liquid manure mass before use. Then I put the solid sediment into the soil, and dilute the remaining liquid with water 5-6 times and water the plants with it. It is mainly a nitrogen-potassium fertilizer. It goes very well with cabbage and root crops. Just make sure the plants are well watered first. They love such top dressing and fruit and berry crops. It can even be sprayed on plants with powdery mildew.

How and how much to apply manure

Name culture	The amount of manure, kg / m 2	Timing of fertilization
strawberries	100	1 time in 3 years
Onion, cabbage, garlic	40-60	Annually in spring or autumn
Carrots, potatoes, beets	40	Annually in spring or autumn
cucumbers	60-80	Every year in autumn
Tomatoes	40-50	Annually in spring or autumn
Currant, raspberry, gooseberry	layer up to 5 cm thick	Every year in autumn
Apples, plums, cherries	Up to 30 kg per tree	In autumn with an interval of 2-3 years

Making manure in the garden and in the garden - sharing experience

The worms are roaring - the earth is resting!

In autumn I buy a fresh manure machine. I make a litter of straw and grass, I put the brought manure on it. I put cabbage leaves, carrot tops, etc. on this pile. I periodically water a bunch, I cook food for earthworms. Please note: fresh cattle manure should lie for at least six months, rabbit manure - two to three weeks, and pig manure - a year and a half.

In spring and summer, I also periodically water a bunch. In July-August, I populate with earthworms, which I dig out on the site or take from the heap of the previous year. Worms are the best doctors, cooks and tasters of the earth in the world. There are California worms, they are more efficient, but too capricious - they need a certain temperature.

When I harvest tomatoes, cabbage, peppers and other vegetables, I do not uproot them, but cut them down with a shovel or an ax: there are a lot of earthworms on the roots. In autumn, they begin their breeding season.

So, the preparatory work is over, now we begin to prepare the soil for the new season. Consider this on the example of winter garlic. When and how to plant winter garlic, they wrote more than once. But what to do then?

Taking into account our climate, I harvest garlic on July 15-20. I dig the vacated area onto the bayonet of a shovel. I throw the earth on the side of the road - it turns out a trench. In this trench I lay the green mass of grass, straw. I strongly trample down with my feet and bring in the compost along with earthworms taken from the heap of the previous year. Compost rate - 20 kg per 1 sq. m, as recommended by scientists.

I fill the trench with earth, and in the next one I again lay grass, straw, I bring in compost. That's it: the plot has been dug up and fertilized. Now I take a rake and all the harrow. I water the soil well. After 2-3 days again harrowed soil so that there is no crust. Now the plot will rest. Depending on weather conditions, I water it again after 10-12 days. Then the harrow, destroying the crust and the weeds that have appeared, I give air access to the ground.

We are publishing two more chapters from the book by Pavel Trannua "Encyclopedia of a fruitful garden on reasonable soil" (of course, with the permission of the author).

Chlorine

Curious element. We study it at school as a poisonous gas, but it is present in every living being!

Probably, from the fact that all plants came out of sea water, they still contain a share of chlorine, about 0.1% (0.2% in animal meat, or twice as much).

The soil more than covers the needs of plants when the usual circulation of substances takes place in it with the participation of animals and their droppings.

Manure contains the prescribed proportion of chlorine, like ash.

But people who abuse salty foods, eating a matchbox of table salt a day as part of various sauces, cheese, cookies, are able to poison plants with chlorine through fecal compost.

Just count: a person produces about a liter of urine a day, and a box of salt is dissolved in it (chlorine is excreted from the body mainly with urine)!

So, you see, there is a pack of salt in the compost, then the second ... The first to suffer are crops that tolerate high chlorine content worst of all, among garden plants it is potatoes.

Fecal compost is applied to the beds only in autumn, so that chlorine is washed out with melt water, and at the same time it should be dug in as evenly as possible.

The chlorine ion is negatively charged, therefore it is poorly retained by clay soil and is strongly washed out by rains. For this reason, with a flushing water regime, the soil can rather quickly be freed from excessive amounts of chlorine introduced with fertilizers. With sodium, things are more complicated.

Fertilize in spring or fall?

With experience, you confidently conclude that in all respects it is preferable to fertilize in the fall.

There is, perhaps, not a single serious reason in favor of spring fertilizer, except for the “human factor”: the intractable habit of doing everything at the last second.

Soluble nitrogen will be washed out by melt water, you will say again.

The studies and calculations of farmers have already found out everything for a long time: the PPK retains almost everything from the applied nitrogen and potassium fertilizers.

On clayey, well-humused soil, about 10% of the introduced nitrogen is washed out by melt water, and 90% remains. No more than 30% is washed out on the sand, and 70% of the applied fertilizer remains.

And this is in areas with a leaching water regime, on black soil there are even less winter losses, it is generally strange to hear horror stories about some kind of nitrogen leaching there.

If we talk about cultivated garden soils, where limestone or ash (a source of calcium), compost or manure (organic matter, a source of humus) were added, then on most loamy soils of the Middle Strip - soddy-podzolic, gray forest, floodplain - we can take the average loss from winter-spring leaching of fertilizers applied in autumn, no more than 10-15%. On sandy soils - no more than 15-25%. Well, on almost clean sands, podzols, manure or carbamide introduced will lose about 30% of nitrogen.

No matter how clean your sand may seem, it still has a “dregs”, a clay part, which is revealed when it is shaken in a jar of water. This turbidity also retains nitrogen.

She also nourishes the plants planted there with everything necessary. A little fertility, but there is. And it must be raised, and not be afraid to fertilize.

In horticulture, floriculture, and even more so in fruit growing, professionals take these relatively small losses for the sake of an incomparably greater gain from autumn fertilizer.

An experienced grower knows how unpredictable seeding can be from freshly applied fertilizer. Sometimes the fertilizer introduced just before planting turns out to be so “caustic” (by-products in high concentrations) that it undermines the power of sowing.

The behavior of plants on freshly fertilized soil is unpredictable: sometimes they stick, and sometimes they don’t like something.

Fertilizer that has settled down, “calmed down” in the soil, is much more reliable.

In such cases, they say “the fertilizer has been assimilated by the soil” - it has not disappeared, but stabilized in it, its beneficial substance has become part of the soil colloids: now it does not burn the roots, it cannot cause poisoning of the plant by quickly drawing in too large a dose.

In crop production, there is no need to rush. Plants are accustomed to a very slow life, and you should adapt to it.

What else benefits from early fertilization apart from reliability? What about you, not enough?

Reliability is already a very big win. It, like a premium on an insurance policy, by itself covers small losses in the early spring washout: do not forget that crop production is a very unpredictable and risky business for those who neglect calculated steps.

Reliability in crop production is expensive. And there are additional rewards.

Let's list them:

during the autumn application, a possible excess of chlorine is washed out of the fertilizers (toilet waste is in the first place here: if they are used as a “guarantor of the preservation of the predominance of nitrogen in the ratio N: P: K in the soil”, which is very important, then they should be introduced mainly in the pre-spring period);
the land fertilized since autumn allows for extremely early sowing immediately after snowmelt, without digging, of the following crops: black onions, lettuce, celery, parsley, carrots and beets - all this under a film: in early April, the earth is wet and does not dig, it inconvenient to mix with fertilizers; if desired, such land can be sown in the March thaws;
a number of vegetable crops - cabbage: white cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi and with them ordinary turnips are planted with seedlings under caps or under lutrasil tunnels as early as possible, in April, in order to be in time before cruciferous flea attacks, into wet ground, fully prepared in advance since autumn;
in low damp places, potato tubers are planted by laying out along the surface along a line (without pits) with immediate hilling with a chopper - this method, if used, is also used, then on the soil fully prepared in advance from autumn; for potatoes, the abundance of moisture in the soil is very important during the beginning of germination of tubers;
during autumn digging, the earth in spring during crops is much cleaner from weeds than if it is not touched in autumn: it happens that in May people dig up a thick green carpet, sowing something on such beds is obviously getting a weak harvest;
in the spring, it’s generally more pleasant to work in the garden, when your land is at least in the garden, at least in most of the beds is already completely ready (after all, there are so many things to do on the site!) - and now you just need to “come up and stick a few onion bulbs on the greens from the edge ". How it makes life on the estate easier when you don't have to hurry forever;
all root crops and potatoes need organics that have fully matured as much as possible: if decomposed compost or manure humus is given under them, then it is still better to do this in the fall, thoroughly mixing it with the soil in order to “soften” the organics even more;
garlic should immediately take root in October in fertilized soil, the start is very important for all crops, garlic should immediately “feel the roots of an abundant environment”, so it is too late to fertilize it in the spring; therefore, so that the soil has time to settle, the garlic bed is fertilized even earlier, from summer;
simultaneously with organic fertilizers, limestone materials are also brought in for digging (so as not to dig once again), and they are brought in only in the fall.

The list shows how many vegetable crops actually require advance soil preparation from the fall.

These are early starter crops, where their cold hardiness allows much better use of precious soil moisture.

It is advisable to sow and plant them before the May holidays. Many gardeners can only start with a shovel to the ground in May, when it is already too dry and becomes even drier before our eyes every day.

There remains a very small group of heat-loving crops of open ground: cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin, sunflower, corn, beans - they are all “tilled”, i.e. they are very easy to protect from weeds with a chopper, they all love an abundance of nitrogen, under them everything is possible slowly continue to fertilize all spring until mid-May (manure or waste
toilet), leaving 1-2 weeks before planting for the absorption of fertilizer: this is enough for them.

But even under them, the seat can be fertilized in the fall.

When the land as a whole has been fertilized since autumn, then in the spring nothing prevents us from adding something “forgotten” to it for loosening.

Autumn is a loose concept. Someone will decide that it means the time before winter itself. No, the earlier you start fertilizing, the better for the absorption of fertilizers and self-purification of the soil. It is wiser, after all, not to fertilize the entire garden at once, but as the beds are released, back in August, and to carry out the main work in September. This is real, because onions and garlic are harvested early, potatoes - also in August, cucumbers and pumpkins - in the first half of September ... Well, cabbage and root crops remain until frost, there's nothing to be done.

Book in the Labyrinth

Pavel Trannua's book "Encyclopedia of a fruitful garden on reasonable soil" can be purchased at the Labyrinth online store, you can also look at spreads and reviews of it there.

A good harvest can only be obtained on good land, and in order for the land to be good, it must be fertilized. When is the best time to fertilize- spring or autumn? Timing the application of fertilizer to the soil is of great importance. Many agronomists believe that those who fertilize the land with manure taken out in winter make a big mistake. The benefit is minimal. Fertilize the soil in spring, leaving the manure to lie for a month and a half before plowing. In this case, the fertilizer efficiency will almost double. The varieties, terms of application to the soil and the effectiveness of various types of fertilizers will be discussed in this article.

All fertilizers are divided into 3 main groups: organic, mineral and organo-mineral fertilizers.

organic fertilizers

They, in turn, are also divided into 2 groups: animal origin and vegetable origin. Vegetable fertilizers include composts and peat, and animals include manure and bird droppings. When fertilizing with organic substances, the structure of the soil is significantly improved and this contributes to the reproduction of living organisms that benefit both the soil itself and plants. There are some disadvantages - an imbalance of nutrients can occur, weed seeds can come across in such a fertilizer, and organic matter can cause plant diseases and attract toxic substances.

If you decide to use organic fertilizers, then it is better to use compost. It is prepared quite simply: on an area of \u200b\u200babout 10 square meters. meters, straw 15 cm thick is laid out, then a layer of manure - 20 cm, a layer of peat - 15-20 cm. Phosphorite flour and lime are poured on top, mixed in a 1: 1 ratio. For 1 sq. meter should be poured 50-60 grams of the mixture. A layer of manure 15-20 thick is again covered from above. All layers are covered with a thin layer of soil and kept for 7-8 months.

With regard to fertilizing with manure, in our time the number of cattle has been greatly reduced, and therefore we have to look for an alternative. As plant products for fertilizer, you can use everything that grows and rots: cut grass, fallen leaves, tops and weeds, etc.

It is impossible to fertilize the land with fresh manure. Getting into warm and humid soil, such fertilizer begins to actively decompose and release heat and gases, so the crop can simply “burn out”. Fresh manure is used only for feeding mature plants, diluting it with water and watering the aisles. You can also use dried manure, pouring it in a thin layer between the rows.

It is better to use manure if it has lain for at least a year - during this time it decomposes and turns into humus. It is worth remembering that in its pure form, manure and chicken manure rot worse, so it is better to dilute these animal waste products with straw, foliage, sawdust and even shredded waste paper (it is better to take paper without printing ink).
IN organic fertilizer, as is known, a smaller part of nitrogen is in a soluble form, and a large part is part of insoluble organic compounds. When compost hits the soil, myriads of soil dwellers pounce on it, eating, decomposing, and transforming it. As a result of the activity of microorganisms, insoluble nitrogen gradually turns into a soluble form, which was shown by the analyzes: immediately after the introduction of compost into the soil, the content of soluble nitrogen begins to rise steadily. And then it all depends on the growth rate of the aerial parts of plants. In potatoes, this process is so intense that it “eats away” all the nitrogen prepared for it by soil organisms, therefore, under potatoes, the content of available nitrogen in the soil remains low until early August and begins to rise only when the potato tops stop their violent growth. On carrots, where haulm growth is slow at first, the nitrogen content was quite high until mid-July, and then decreased in line with increased leaf growth.

When fertilizing in autumn plant nutrients are part of the soil organo-mineral complex, and the whole next season the plant lives due to the gradual disintegration of this complex and the release of available nutrients. The speed of this process depends on the activity of microflora, which is determined by external conditions: soil moisture, temperature, looseness, and so on.

In addition, organic fertilizer serves as a source of substances necessary for the formation of humus for soil microorganisms. When applied in autumn, organic fertilizer decomposes more slowly, and the process of its incorporation into humus is more intensive and contributes to increasing soil fertility to a greater extent. If you regularly add compost or manure to the soil in the fall, you can create real black soil in your garden. When applied in spring, organic fertilizer decomposes faster and better supplies plants with soluble nutrients. This is important for plants, since spring and early summer are the period of their active growth, requiring abundant nutrition. Thus, autumn organic fertilizer contributes more to soil fertility, and spring - to plant nutrition. Both are important.

It goes without saying that this is the solution: we apply compost or manure in the fall, and in spring and summer we feed the plants with liquid fertilizers, which are easy to make: mullein infusion, fermented nettle infusion or any weeds. To enrich these nitrogen-rich infusions with phosphorus and potassium, bone or phosphate rock and ash are added to them. Another option is to apply most or even half of the compost in the fall, and the rest in the spring.

You can use green top dressing. The main raw materials are ordinary grass, weeds. The green mass is finely chopped, put in a large container and poured with warm water (10 liters of water per 2 kilograms of grass). All this should be fermented for 2 - 3 days, after which you need to stir and strain the solution. Then they feed the plants with the calculation of 3 - 4 liters per 1 square meter. It is necessary to perform the procedure 2 - 3 times with an interval of a week. This solution is useful for vegetable and berry crops, it not only nourishes them, but also protects them from pests and diseases.

Mineral fertilizers

These chemicals should be used carefully and strictly according to the norm. Usually gardeners and gardeners use nitrogen, potash, manganese, lime and other types of such fertilizers. The most common nitrogen fertilizers include saltpeter, urea, ammonia water and ammonia. Nitrogen fertilizers are applied twice a year - the first time around mid-April, and the second time - in mid-November. The way they are applied is the same in both seasons - fertilizers are scattered by hand, and then the land is cultivated. It is better if the earth is moist at the same time.
Potash fertilizers also significantly increase yields. Usually, potassium in the soil is in a hard-to-reach form, so the need for plants in it is great. It is better to apply potash fertilizers in the autumn period along with manure before the main cultivation of the land.

Phosphate fertilizers are also important for plants. Without this element, the formation of chlorophyll in plants is impossible, therefore, the application of such fertilizers not only increases the yield, but also improves the quality of plant products. Phosphorus fertilizers are scattered on the surface of the soil, and then they dig it up to a depth of about 20 centimeters.

WITH mineral fertilizer we get the following picture. Immediately after the application, a sharp jump in the content of soluble nitrogen was observed: it increased by 5-6 times compared to the initial level and remained at a high level approximately until mid-July. Analyzes showed that at some point there was three times more soluble nitrogen in the soil than was applied with mineral fertilizer. This phenomenon is explained by the fact that mineral fertilizer stimulates the decomposition of soil organic matter and accelerates the release of soluble nitrogen from it. The decay of humus under the influence of mineral fertilizers is a phenomenon that has even received a special name: the priming effect. But in the middle of summer, the peak is replaced by a sharp drop, and the content of soluble nitrogen in both cases - with organic and mineral fertilizers - becomes the same.

It is not difficult to guess what consequences this has for plants. On mineral fertilizers, they grow more intensively, develop abundant leaf mass and give a correspondingly higher yield, although this applies to different crops to a different extent: spinach and potatoes yielded significantly higher yields on mineral fertilizers than on compost, while beans and carrots turned out to be less dependent on nitrogen.

However, when studying the quality of the crop, the advantage turned out to be on the side organic fertilizer. This was manifested in a lower nitrate content, and most importantly, in a significant reduction in storage losses. Both potatoes and carrots grown on organic fertilizers were less affected by fungal diseases.

Mineral fertilizers do not increase soil fertility, but rather destroy it. They can be used for top dressing, but only in very moderate doses so as not to cause excessive growth of leaves and not disrupt the activity of soil microflora. Moreover, it is worth applying mineral fertilizers only if organic fertilizers are applied in the autumn, since the soil with a high content of organic matter partially removes the negative impact of mineral fertilizers.

Organo-mineral fertilizers

They are humic compositions of mineral and organic substances. Each drug is used according to an individual scheme, but there are general rules. For open soil, spraying is used, and for closed soil, surface irrigation, drip irrigation, sprinkling and manual spraying on the leaves. For seed treatment, 300-700 ml of fertilizers are used per ton of seeds, for foliar feeding - 200-400 mm per 1 hectare of crops, for spraying - 5-10 ml per 10 liters of water, and for drip irrigation - 20-40 ml per 1000 liters of water for irrigation.

Separately, it is worth mentioning plants that improve the soil. These include rape, oil radish, rapeseed, turnip and others. Until recently, only lupine was used to improve the soil, which enriched the earth with nitrogenous mineral fertilizers, but recently other equally useful and effective plants have become known.

For example, after harvesting, you can sow a plot with rape, which, before the onset of frost, will have time to sprout and grow to a plant with 6-8 leaves in a rosette. In early spring, after the snow has melted, it will begin to grow intensively and should be plowed into the soil before the beginning of May. After that, the earth will be enriched with mineral and organic substances and improve the structure. In addition, the rapeseed contains a large amount of phytoncides, which destroy pathogens in the soil.

If there is a possibility of non-use of the land plot for a whole year, then it can be sown with oil radish. In this case, the soil will receive the necessary norm of nutrients, and there will be much less weeds. Approximately 70 grams of radish seeds go to one hundred square meters of land. For uniform sowing, it is better to mix the seeds with river sand.

And a little more about how to properly prepare and fertilize the soil with manure.

We have already considered in detail how to properly fertilize with chicken manure, now more about manure. Good quality manure is obtained where it is stored in stalls under livestock, trampled down daily, covered with a new layer of straw. During the daily removal of manure, it is accumulated in large manure storages, where it must be shifted for better preservation with peat or earth. It is also useful in cases of daily removal of manure to add to the bedding or put into the gutters of the stables for each head of livestock about 1.5 kg of peat, which, on the one hand, achieves air purification, and on the other hand, preserves slurry containing the main nutrients substances for plants. When manure is covered and layered with earth and peat, all nitrogen. Manure, when preserved in this way, usually acts strongly and quickly. Re-layering of manure with earth is done every 60-90 cm, and a layer of earth of 7-9 cm is superimposed. The richer in humus the earth, the better. A layer of manure of 60-90 cm is again superimposed on this earth, which is again covered in the same way with earth. Manure is always trampled down. The bottom of the manure storage is usually laid out with straw, a layer of 60 cm thick. The straw must be trampled down. The manure storage itself is usually chosen at a high place so that side waters do not flow into it. The slurry water flowing out of the manure storage should be collected in special tanks, and the same slurry must be watered from above with manure. Manure heaps should not be made higher than 2.5 m, because the lower layers of manure are too compacted and heated. by digging too deep into the soil. The more superficially the fertilizer is applied, the better, the faster and more accurate its action. The best thing is to fertilize with manure to the depth of one shovel. If the fertilizer is applied to the soil at a depth of 40 to 50 cm or more, as is unfortunately very often done when planting trees, then oxygen does not have sufficient access, and therefore the fertilizer cannot properly decompose and produce the proper effect on the tree. . Practice has often proved to us that a fertilizer applied too deeply, after a few years, was found in the soil in the same form as when it was applied to the soil, and, consequently, absolutely no benefit came from it.

If you fertilize with manure in the summer, then the fertilizer is always folded into small piles, broken up and plowed as soon as possible. The incorporation of manure should be the finer the heavier the soil. The decomposition of manure is accelerated if, on the fifth or sixth day after ploughing, it is again plowed to the surface and well mixed with the soil. In most cases, it is also beneficial to roll the soil with a heavy roller after fertilizing with manure, since in this case the manure is pressed down to the ground, which ensures its uniform decomposition and causes the rapid germination of weeds, which must be immediately destroyed.
When cultivating cabbage, strawberries and other plants, it is best to use humus from hotbeds or completely decomposed manure, because fresh manure contains a lot of weed seeds and insects easily start up. Under the cover of humus, moisture is preserved in the ridges, in addition, rains and water during irrigation wash out all the nutritious juices from the humus into the soil, thus, in one step, both fertilizer and moistening of the ridges are achieved. Putting humus should be a layer of about 5 cm thick, and the plants themselves should not touch the manure, otherwise they may rot. Strawberries should be fertilized with manure especially carefully - so that manure does not get into the core of the bush. Instead of humus, other substances are often used, such as chopped straw, chaff, moss, sawdust, etc.

When buried in the soil, both straw and other materials listed here can also serve as fertilizer, but they rot too slowly and, compared with humus, are too poor in nutrients. On calcareous and sandy soils that are too light in color, covering the ridges with humus is necessary to change their color so that the heating of the soil occurs more evenly. On dense clayey and light sandy soils, crushed peat can be used with complete success for surface fertilization. In autumn, peat, which has served and completely weathered, is dug into the soil when hoeing and in the first case loosens dense, heavy soil, and in the second it makes light, sandy soil more coherent.

Green manure

Natural organic matter (manure, litter) is not available to everyone, and it costs a lot of money. In the fight against weeds, like a thousand years ago, you have to wave a hoe and crawl on your knees. If the summer is humid, various diseases overcome the potato, and as a result, in the autumn and winter, it becomes necessary to repeatedly sort the crop in order to remove diseased tubers.

Indeed, a lot of labor and money goes to the dacha (subsidiary) farming. Is it possible to alleviate the financial and physical burden that falls on the owner of a garden or a summer cottage?

Yes, you can. Let's start with the fact that in the old days they avoided using fresh manure for potatoes. It was believed that the tubers from it become tasteless and watery. From the diseases accumulated in the soil, they were released using the fruit change. Of course, having several acres of land (each with an area of 1.1 hectares), it was possible to organize a three- or seven-field crop rotation. Today, on six acres, this is a rather difficult task. But still, the people do not despair - one sows barley, the second winter rye, and the third dreams of growing peas together with potatoes.

CROSS-FLOWER CROPS
The best option is to sow cruciferous crops as a green manure, consisting of a mixture oilseed radish, white mustard, rapeseed. These plants have been known in world agricultural practice since time immemorial, being close relatives of cabbage plants. They came to us from the ancient farmers of East Asia and the Mediterranean. Cruciferous crops are now widely cultivated in economically developed countries (France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, etc.) as phytosanitary and as crops that increase soil fertility.

Oil radish- powerful, highly branched and sprawling plant 1.5-2.0 m high; with corollas of flowers from white to purple. It is not found in the wild flora, wild field species are found. Cold-resistant plant, growth does not stop until late autumn, grows back after mowing. In comparison with white mustard, it is more moisture-loving, shade-tolerant and productive. Seeds and pods taste like radishes. Blooms 35-45 days after sowing.

Mustard white- was one of the magical plants of the ancient Greeks. Even today, having unique properties, it serves as a classic object of study of science. The height of its shoots is somewhat lower than that of the oilseed radish, and the flowers on the racemes are yellow. Mustard is the earliest ripening annual plant. It strongly reacts to the length of the day and the photo period, so the highest yields are obtained during the summer sowing dates - after June 22. Convenient for its precocity and undemanding to the type of soil.

Rape- about 1.2-1.5 m high, light yellow flowers. It is somewhat more demanding on heat than oilseed radish and white mustard. There are spring and winter forms that can turn into each other. The pods of spring rapeseed can open after seed maturation, then the sowing itself takes place, and after overwintering in the spring, part of the young plants grows in the form of a winter form. Sometimes another type is practiced - colza. This is a more "wild" form, inferior to rapeseed in terms of yield, bitter in taste and worse eaten by animals, but better adapted to different types of soils. There are hybrid forms of rapeseed with fodder cabbage, turnip (for example, typhon), which are relatively more productive and stable in various climatic conditions.

USEFUL PROPERTIES OF GREEN FERTILIZER
What are the benefits of cruciferous crops?

Here are 7 of their most distinctive properties:
1. For sowing one hundred square meters of land, only 180-220 g of seeds are required. A denser sowing is used if the biomass is additionally alienated for animal feed. Cultures have a very high rate of development, so you can sow at a variety of times, from May to September. The best time for a high yield is June-July. In practice, it is sown repeatedly in 2-3 terms per season. Flowering occurs 30-40 days after germination and lasts until the end of autumn. Flowering plants withstand frosts down to - 6 ... 8 ° and even - 12 ° C.

2. The green mass of plants contains the same amount of nutrients as cow dung: nitrogen - 0.5%; phosphorus - 0.25%; potassium - 0.6%. The mass of plant residues grown on an area of 100 m2 contains the following amount of mineral fertilizers (in conventional terms for chemical composition): 3-5 kg of ammonium nitrate; 2.5-3.5 kg of superphosphate; 3.5-5.0 kg of potassium salt. In addition, the green mass, when incorporated into the soil, deoxidizes it, acting like the introduction of lime, since it has an alkaline content of cell sap.

3. The underground part of plants has the ability to absorb nitrogen from the air, like clover and lupine. Root secretions dissolve mineral inclusions in the soil and convert microelements, phosphorus and potassium into a form accessible to subsequent crops.

4. Decaying cruciferous biomass releases substances into the soil that inhibit and suppress the growth and development of weeds. On a substrate rich in organic matter, saprophytic microflora rapidly develops, which displaces pathogens of agricultural crops from the soil.

5. After harvesting the green mass, along with rotted residues, plant growth and development stimulants from the class of brassinosteroids remain in the soil, increasing the yield and improving the quality of the commercial products of subsequent crops.

6. Green mass is an excellent food for all kinds of animals and birds, contains up to 30-35% of crude protein in terms of dry matter. This is 2 times more than in clover and 3 times more than in barley grain. It is rich in vitamins, unsaturated fatty acids and various nutrients. Regular feeding, even in the form of a small supplement, strengthens the immune system of young animals, makes it resistant to viral and bacterial aggression. Young, not hardened shoots, having a sweet-burning taste of radish, are a delicacy for children. Radish pods are canned like vegetables. Mustard powder and medicinal ointment are prepared from the ripened mustard seeds, which are used for various diseases and ailments.

7. Honey-bearing qualities of cruciferous crops are also generally recognized. Their main advantage is in the release of nectar on days even with cold nights. The nectar contains an average of 120-180 kg/ha of sugars. Cruciferous crops provide honey collection in early spring (winter species) and in the second half of summer (spring species), when other honey plants have already faded. Honey crystallizes, so it is removed from the hives for the winter.

AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY

You can sow cruciferous crops for green manure at any time - from early spring to late autumn. For sowing, a small (required) amount of seeds is mixed with sand in a ratio of 1:50, scattered over the site and harrowed. The optimal seeding depth is 2-3 cm. Cruciferous plants are not demanding on the type of soil, but are responsive to fertilizing with mineral fertilizers, especially nitrogen fertilizers (if the soil is poor).

To some extent, seedlings of early sowing periods can be damaged by pests, the probability of such a fact is small in June and July crops. With sparse seedlings, you should not particularly worry, since the yield value is capable of auto compensation, i.e. it depends little on the density (density) of plants per unit area.

When used as a green manure, plant biomass during the flowering phase is mowed, crushed and incorporated into the soil. This is the cheapest type of fertilizer, with which none of the other types can be compared in terms of precocity and economic efficiency. In the northern regions, twice a season, it is possible to "fertilize" the soil in this way. In the middle lane, this can be done three times.

If the plot is half a hectare or more, part of the area can be taken out of circulation for 3-4 years by sowing with pink clover (on waterlogged and swampy soils), pink clover and lupine (on heavy clay soils), blue alfalfa and eastern goat's rue ( on medium and light loams), horned loam and yellow alfalfa (on light and sandy loamy soils).

One of the basic rules of organic farming is to never leave the soil without vegetation cover. Green manures that grow before, after, or in between major crops create dense leaf cover. It protects the soil from weathering and mineralization of organic matter, reduces the leaching of nutrients into the deep layers and keeps them in the upper fertile horizon. Such a leaf cover acts as a living leaf mulch, which is especially important for light sandy soils, especially horizon. Therefore, it is recommended, whenever possible, to sow green manure on light soils in the fall and leave it for the winter, and in the spring to plant living or dead plants in the soil.

Green manure also plays an important health role. Firstly, it suppresses the growth of weeds, and in order for it not to become a weed itself, it is necessary to mow or close it up before seeds are formed. This applies to rapidly growing and abundantly seeded rapeseed or mustard plants. Secondly, some types of green fertilizer help cleanse the soil from pests and diseases. For example, dense sowing of mustard significantly reduces the amount of wireworm.
Green manure produces a green mass that can be used as mulch or as composting material.

Take care of the land on time and correctly and you will always have a rich harvest!

In order to receive high yields of vegetables and fruits every year, it is necessary to take care in advance how to fertilize the land. In autumn, a favorable period comes for fertilizing the soil - all the plants have been harvested, work in the garden and in the garden has been completed, and now it’s just right to think about how to fertilize the land. At the same time, on the one hand, we want the fertilizers to be as natural as possible, and the crops to be grown organically, without the use of industrial fertilizers. And on the other hand, you want high yields, which means that fertilizers should be as productive as possible.

All fertilizers are divided into 3 groups: organic, mineral and organomineral fertilizers.

organic fertilizers

It is impossible to fertilize the land with fresh manure. Getting into warm and humid soil, such fertilizer begins to actively decompose and release heat and gases, so the crop can simply “burn out”. Fresh manure is used only for feeding mature plants, diluting it with water and watering the aisles. You can also use dried manure, pouring it in a thin layer between the rows.

Mineral fertilizers

Orgomineral fertilizers

In the spring, when nature awakens, summer residents begin to become more active, because for them it is a hot time. In order to get a rich harvest in the fall, you should prepare under early spring, including choosing the right ones and observing the right dosages.

It is important to take into account the needs that will be planted on. And if such a process is not difficult for experienced gardeners, then it can be difficult for beginners in this business to choose the right effective

There are also disadvantages to this. In particular, an imbalance of nutrients is possible. Also in this form of dressing there can be seeds, and even organics can sometimes cause and be a kind of magnet for toxins. Nevertheless, organic fertilizers do not lose their popularity, since the benefits from them are much greater than the harm.

When choosing organics, it is highly recommended to use. Any gardener can prepare it. For this, on a plot of 10 sq. m. straw should be scattered, the layer thickness should be about 15 cm. A layer 20 cm thick is laid out on top, and at the end - 20 cm layer.

You can sprinkle all this with lime and phosphate rock, at the rate of 55–60 g of the mixture per 1 sq. m. From above you need to lay out a layer again and cover all layers with a thin ball. After 7-8 months, an effective organic fertilizer will be ready for use.

In granules, it is a universal phosphorus-nitrogen fertilizer that can be applied to almost all