Almost all summer residents are well aware that it is categorically not recommended to introduce sawdust into the soil and you should definitely not expect good yields on such soil. This is especially true for fresh sawdust, because they often lead to excessive acidification of the soil, a fungus can easily appear in them, and they also draw a decent amount of nitrogen from the soil. But, nevertheless, sawdust can be an excellent component for improving air permeability (they are an excellent leavening agent) and soil structure! True, in order for them not to overrip and thoroughly spoil the soil, they must be properly prepared. And it's not that hard to do it!

How to prepare sawdust for fertilizer?

In order to prepare sawdust for subsequent application to the soil, you will need to acquire some kind of nitrogen-containing mineral fertilizer. Urea is especially well suited for these purposes - for each bucket of sawdust it will be enough to take one handful of urea. At the same time, it is important to take into account the ability of powdered urea to cake and form sparingly soluble lumps, so it is better to immediately purchase a granular version. Useful for harvesting sawdust and huge black plastic garbage bags (up to two hundred liters).

Pre-moistened sawdust is thoroughly mixed in a large garden bucket, in an old tank or in some other container with urea or other nitrogen-containing fertilizer, after which they are carefully poured into pre-prepared bags. When the bags are filled, they are tightly closed and the contents are allowed to “brew” well for at least three weeks - during this period, the sawdust will be properly saturated with nitrogen and become absolutely safe for the soil. It is especially good to use sawdust prepared in this way in the fall - over the summer they are not only perfectly saturated with nitrogen, but also lose their pricklyness and rigidity.

How and when to bring ready-made sawdust into the soil?

Sawdust-based fertilizer can be applied to the soil both in autumn and in spring - as a rule, this is done when digging the soil. And, most importantly, such fertilizer can be applied under absolutely any crop! Its application under potatoes gives very good results - in this case, the tubers always turn out clean and even. And if you take pine sawdust as a basis, they will become a real salvation from the Colorado potato beetle (in the event that there are too many beetles on the site, such fertilizer is applied three times over the summer)! For potatoes, sawdust is also good because they in every possible way prevent it from overheating and drying out.

As for the end of summer, it is better not to introduce sawdust into the soil during this period. This is especially true for fruit plants - if you ignore this rule, fruit ripening and the entire fruiting process as a whole can be greatly delayed.

Sawdust saturated with nitrogen can be used not only as a fertilizer, but also as a mulch or insulation - they can safely cover the beds with winter garlic, garden strawberries, as well as flower beds with wintering flowers! As you can see, the scope of sawdust is very extensive, so do not rush to get rid of them as unnecessary as soon as possible! Better put them into action - you won't regret it!

Sawdust is one of the most common organic fertilizers used by summer residents. However, many believe that if you do not know and do not follow certain rules of use, this cheap, environmentally friendly and practical material can significantly damage plants. To prevent this from happening, you must first figure out how to use sawdust in the garden, and only then proceed to actions on your own. suburban area.

Sawdust for the garden: benefits and harms, safe methods of use

Let's figure out how to use sawdust correctly so that they will surely benefit. Sawdust is really good as a fertilizer for the garden, but there are some nuances. You should not expect a rich harvest if they were simply thoughtlessly scattered along the garden until a stable microbial community has been created.

1st method: sawdust as compost

This is how it is done, and everyone has been scared for a long time that you should not use fresh sawdust for any crops. Decaying, they will use up the available nitrogen in the soil, while expelling toxic substances. It would be much more rational to make compost from sawdust.

To do this, the bottom layer of grass or hay is first laid out in the compost tank, and then sawdust is compacted in layers of 10-15 cm. Each layer is significantly filled with a solution of water with urea, made in proportions of 200 grams of this substance per bucket of water.

Of course, mineral water can be replaced with weed infusion (there are more nettles and dandelions, but with roots) or bird droppings can be diluted. It is also good to layer each layer of 10-15 cm with earth in order to populate the compost with beneficial microbes.

When the whole pile is ready, it should be covered with a film or any material that does not allow drying. After two weeks, the pile must be poured with a shovel (transshipment should be done). After a two-month period, the sawdust will completely darken and a safe organic fertilizer for the garden is ready.

Method 2: Nitrogen Enriched Sawdust - A Quick Mix for the Lazy

There is not always time and patience to make a full-fledged compost fertilizer. Not a problem. Plants will receive excellent nourishment from raw wood sawdust mixed with a nitrogen fertilizer prepared according to any of the following. the following ways:

• 20 grams of urea per kilo wood chips;
• 0.5 liters of bird droppings solution per bucket of water;
• 3 liters of weed infusion for 7 liters of water.

You can mix dry sawdust with urea in advance, or first scatter them on an empty garden bed and spill it with a solution - it doesn’t matter. After a while, the ground covered with sawdust can be processed as usual. Enriched sawdust is great to use when laying high beds - they give looseness to the soil, improve moisture capacity.

Whoever has a little bit of sawdust, you can enrich them with home remedies - rinse the bowl from the preparation of the dough for the jellied pie (another name is "charlotte") and soak the sawdust. The wash from the dough contains everything you need - the remains of eggs, flour, sugar. Soil biota will definitely be delighted with such a freebie. By the way, it is not a sin to powder the soil in pots of home flowers with such sawdust - evaporation from the soil surface will decrease, transpiration jumps will smooth out.

3rd way: enrichment of fresh sawdust with EM cultures

Wood sawdust as fertilizer for the garden can be enriched with EMs. It doesn't matter if it's purchased or homemade. We cook just like OFEM in this video of charming Valeria Zashchitina:

4th method: a mixture of fresh sawdust with compost or manure

Potatoes, tomatoes and carrots can be fertilized with sawdust mixed with organic fertilizers. In this case, it is better to shower the ground with them in autumn.

As for cucumbers, cabbage, gourds, fertilize them in this way, preferably in the spring, mixing with farm animal manure and ash.

5th method: mulching the soil with sawdust

As already mentioned, due to the many publications, novice gardeners doubt whether it is possible to mulch fresh sawdust. It seems to us that such articles are incomplete and scare beginners in vain. Sawdust is a wonderful natural material, and it is simply a sin to refuse such cheap organic matter. By the way, such a wonderful fertilizer as lingohumate is obtained from wood waste. Haven't tried? Try at least on seedlings.

As a mulch, sawdust will remarkably protect the soil from adverse weather conditions and drying out, because they perfectly retain moisture. In addition, many rooted weeds will not be able to break through their stratification.

After a year, the sawdust will rot without a trace, saturating the soil with nutrients during this process, which will ensure a good harvest. In the next season, it is advisable to take care of the plants by soaking the sawdust mulch with aerated compost tea or weed solution.

To avoid trouble

And, as usual, having considered all the advantages, we must still recall the harm of sawdust to the soil. There are not so many cons. For example, do not sprinkle the soil around the plants with sawdust of unknown origin. Varnishes, glues, carcinogens and other chemicals they contain can kill crops or ruin expected crops. If a mistake has already been made, all the beds should be generously watered with rotten humus. It will gradually cleanse the soil of unwanted substances.

The second warning is also quite simple - softwood sawdust contains organic resins, and they acidify the soil. It is desirable for them to mulch the soil near rhododendrons, blueberries and heathers. Or add deoxidizers - dolomite flour, ground eggshells and / or wood ash.

Third - sawdust of poplar, oak, walnut known to be allelopathic. That is, their excretion inhibits the growth of many cultivated plants. But do not throw away such organic matter! It is better to accumulate sawdust, shavings and foliage of these tree species somewhere separately (bag, box, etc.), spilling them with EMs or urea and calmly use them in a year or two.

By this time, the natural colins will have weathered out, the waste will be saturated with natural organic acids, saprophytes will develop in it, and the entire armada of soil biota will pounce on these sawdust when you distribute it in the garden.

Here are some ways to use sawdust in the garden. So do not be afraid of incomplete publications, and do not try to collect and take sawdust in the country somewhere, and even more so burn it - this is blasphemy! We hope that the excessive emotionality of the article did not prevent you from understanding how you can use sawdust for the garden - the benefits and harms of their use in the country have become obvious.

After cutting down trees, sawing wood or construction works, there are always sawdust. Many, out of ignorance, simply throw them away or burn them, depriving themselves of very useful material. Where and how sawdust is used, you can read in detail in this article.

What are sawdust for?

These, in fact, waste can be used for such purposes:

• To loosen the soil.
• Fertilizer as part of the compost.
• Mulching horticultural crops.
• Insulation in the cold season for heat-loving plants.
• Covering material for paths.
• Storage of vegetables and fruits.
• Growing seedlings and mushrooms.
• In decorating.
• Construction works.

It is only important to remember that there is different types sawdust. Some may not be suitable for specific purposes. For example, coniferous sawdust for fertilizers and soil work is not suitable. But birch, linden, from fruit trees, maple sawdust - universal.

Garden work

In order to use sawdust on your site, you need to know all their features. Since at misapplication and used in its pure form, they can not only not give the expected effect, but also harm.

Garden fertilizer

In order for sawdust to serve as fertilizer, you need to mix it with minerals. There are two good reasons for this:

• Sawdust in its pure form makes the soil acidic.
• Nitrogen is removed from the soil, which is so necessary for most plants.

To avoid such problems, composting is a great option. Two cooking methods:

1. Quick way: with air access. Can be used after 1-2 months.
2. 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 bucket for 10 liters - 1 kg of sawdust), 125 g of urea, 40 g of superphosphate and 75 g of potassium sulfate are taken. Dissolve mineral fertilizers in water, pour sawdust, which is placed in a prepared pit. Mix everything thoroughly for better air access. Leave for a month, or better - two. Stir occasionally.
• Sawdust-organic. In this option, you need to add to the sawdust chicken manure or manure. With manure, the proportion of sawdust is 1: 1 (by weight), and the litter should be taken half as much. Mix all. Leave for fermentation, periodically fluffing and mixing with a pitchfork.
• Sawdust-mixed. In this case, compost is harvested as in the first option - with mineral fertilizers. They stand for a month, and sawdust with organic matter is applied on top. Leave for another month, stirring regularly, and the fertilizer is ready to use.

Important to remember! No sealing or pressing. Looseness and free access of air are the main rules of this compost.

If it is possible to keep such 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 the soil.

Long-term compost

It is necessary to dig a hole, about 50 cm deep. Throw chopped unnecessary organic waste from the garden and the house into it (branches, foliage, grass, vegetable and fruit peels, carrot and beet tops, tomato stalks, sawdust, manure, food waste) everything tamp thoroughly. This is best done by pouring in small layers, pouring each layer with several shovels of soil. Pour with a solution of nitrophoska, at the rate of 100 g per bucket of water, gradually filling and compacting the pit. Cover everything with plastic wrap. To block air. Withstand 4-6 months. High humidity and temperatures below 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 the ground (rotted or pre-treated with urea, ash or chalk), you can get excellent soil for growing seedlings of peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers.

But ordinary sawdust is suitable for germinating seeds. Pour a thin layer of these small pieces of wood, spread the seeds, cover with a thin layer of sawdust. Pour over, cover with plastic wrap. Leave in a warm place to germinate. When shoots appear, remove the film, and lightly sprinkle the sawdust with earth. When the first true leaf appears, the plants dive into separate containers with fertile soil.

Mushrooms on sawdust

You can grow oyster mushrooms on sawdust from deciduous trees. But the cultivation technology is not as primitive as it seems. It is necessary to properly prepare sawdust: mix with hay, bran, mineral components. Sami bran simmer in hot water to remove the microorganisms that live in them. Sow live mycelium in a moist substrate. Maintain high humidity and temperature between 8°C and 28°C.

warm beds

The peculiarity of these beds is more rapid maturation 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 get sick less, it is difficult for pests to get to them.

You can make a garden bed like this:

• Dig a hole, 25-30 cm deep, in place of the future bed.
• Protect the edges with bumpers so that the bed does not fall apart.
• Put everything in layers, at least 10 cm thick.
• At the bottom - a drainage layer of coarse branches and organic waste.
• Pour sawdust, pour them with a solution of urea.
• From above, lay out a layer of what is on the site: straw, grass, foliage, chopped corn stalks, weeds, manure. The thickness of this layer is 15 cm.
• Every layer shed hot water or a solution of manure, or chicken manure.
• cover polyethylene film for warming up (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 vegetables.

Sawdust can be used not only in the garden. They will also find work in the garden and flower beds.

Use of sawdust in the garden

Shredded wood is an excellent insulation for plants that are difficult to tolerate cold. Young seedlings also need warming for the winter.

sawdust insulation

If you use sawdust as a heater, you need to remember that they cannot be left on outdoors. They get wet, freeze, rot and kill plants. It is better to fill polyethylene bags with sawdust and overlay seedlings or bushes with them. You can do it this way: cover bent branches, vines or vines with sawdust. Then cover the top with foil and secure the edges. But such insulation must be made before frost, so that a shelter for rodents does not work out.

Mulching

For this purpose, you can not take fresh sawdust. They need to be prepared: mixed with ash, poured with a solution of urea and let it brew for two weeks. Such sawdust can already be poured under the plants. The layer thickness is not more than 4 cm. Strawberries, raspberries, strawberries, and garlic love such mulching. It is better to pour this remedy in the spring. In the middle of summer, such manipulations are better not to do. For horticultural crops, mulching should be carried out along the perimeter of the crown. Fertilize and water over the mulch.

From a practical point of view, such paths have proven themselves well in both dry and rainy weather. The chance of getting dirty is minimized. A dense layer does not allow weeds to break through.

The use of sawdust for decorative purposes

Craft stuffing

Well-dried sawdust can be used as filler for stuffed animals in the country, summer pillows on the terrace, decorative and soft toys.

colored sawdust

Chopped wood is well stained with gouache solution. After drying, applications can be made from it by gluing a picture onto cardboard. On the floor or path - a soft decorative rug will come out.

Other applications

Harvest storage

It is known that it is not recommended to introduce sawdust into the soil, especially fresh ones. On such ground good harvest won't grow. If there is a lot of sawdust, it is not difficult to turn them into a wonderful component for improving the structure of the soil, its breathability.

In order to bring unrotted sawdust to the site, they must first be prepared. To do this, stock up on nitrogen-containing mineral fertilizer, for example, urea. Its amount can be calculated, given that for each bucket of sawdust you will need about one handful of dry fertilizer. It is better to take fertilizer in granules, powdery can cake and form a long-soluble lump.
For harvesting sawdust, it is convenient to use large two-hundred-liter black plastic garbage bags.

The preparation process is very simple. In an old tank or a large garden bucket, sawdust is thoroughly mixed with fertilizer in the specified proportion, pre-moistened, and carefully poured into bags. The filled bag is tightly closed and left for at least three weeks. During this time, the sawdust will be saturated with nitrogen and become safe for the soil. It is good if sawdust needs to be applied in the fall. Over the summer, sawdust in bags will not only be saturated with nitrogen, but will also lose its rigidity and pricklyness.

Both in spring and autumn, sawdust is introduced into the soil for digging for any crop. The experience of using sawdust in potato beds is successful - potatoes give a good harvest of even and clean tubers. However, it must be borne in mind that it is not worth applying nitrogen-containing fertilizers at the end of summer. Especially for fruit plants. This can delay fruit ripening and even fruiting. You can also use sawdust as mulch and insulation, covering the beds. garden strawberries, winter garlic and flower beds with winter flowers

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The use of sawdust in the garden, vegetable garden

On our heavy loams, they are indispensable. I will tell you about my 10-year experience of using this valuable fertilizer.
We take it from a sawmill located near our partnership. Sawdust has many useful properties.

Wood sawdust is a valuable fertilizer. It contains a lot of carbon, thanks to which the soil microflora actively develops - the number of beneficial bacteria increases by 2.5 times. According to their nutritional properties, sawdust is close to high-moor peat, they are rich in fiber, contain trace elements, lignin, resins, essential oils. True, they must be used together with lime materials.

High drying capacity of sawdust. One part of them can hold 4-5 parts of water. With the help of this technique, it is not difficult to significantly reduce the damage from floods and prevent flooding of the beds. We dug ditches 40-50 cm deep along the perimeter of the site, scattered the excavated soil over the site and leveled it, and periodically lay sawdust in the ditches, sprinkling them with lime. After 3-4 years, humus is formed from them, which we distribute among the beds. In the spring, we fill with sawdust any damp low-lying places so that you can walk everywhere and start land work earlier.

Sawdust also "works" against harmful insects. Once there was a season favorable for the Colorado potato beetle. But after the introduction of fresh sawdust into the aisles, the number of larvae began to decrease before our eyes. Fresh sawdust emit resinous substances that repel the pest. But over the summer, you have to update the sawdust in the boundaries 2-3 times. A year later, we swap the beds and potato borders.

Sawdust makes an excellent mulch. We mulch with a thick layer from autumn winter garlic and winter crops. We rake them in the spring so that shoots appear faster.

In hot and dry summers, fresh sawdust, due to its light color, reflects the sun's rays well, saving the soil from overheating and excessive evaporation of moisture. We mulch small-seeded crops with a thin layer, and we try to take smaller sawdust.

We cover them with raspberry roots with a layer 20 cm. We add powdered chalk on top, and then pour it with a solution of urea ( 200 g per 10 liters of water), because microorganisms that develop in sawdust consume a lot of nitrogen. By autumn, the sawdust turns black and their layer thins, so for the winter we again add this fresh wood mulch while adding 50 g of nitrophoska per 1 m2. No digging or loosening is needed at all.

Thanks to sawdust, raspberries do not get sick and grow in one place over 10 years. Strawberries also give a bountiful harvest under sawdust on the same beds for 13 years. Sawdust is laid out on the beds twice: in the spring and after cutting the leaves. Each time, we first scatter ground eggshells and ash, and then sprinkle the ground with fresh sawdust. After heavy rains we feed strawberries with complex mineral fertilizers (50 g / m2).

Sawdust is an excellent loosening material that improves soil structure and its physical properties. They do not contain weed seeds, unlike manure, and also slowly evaporate moisture. Even if weeds make their way through a thick layer of mulch, they are easy to pull out of the loose earth.

Every year we bring sawdust into film greenhouses to loosen the soil. Pre-moisten them with mullein (3 kg per 10 liters of water). This solution is enough to moisten 3 buckets of sawdust. In autumn, we scatter lime material, and we embed sawdust in the soil 2 weeks before planting seedlings of cucumbers and tomatoes.

We use fresh sawdust as a component in nutrient mixtures, adding 20% ​​of them from the volume of the total substrate. We put sawdust even in the peat nutrient mixture "Baby" and "Ogorodnik". Such soil does not need loosening and frequent watering. We enrich the compost with sawdust. Then the organic content in it reaches 40%.

We put sawdust in a pile, interbedding with plant residues, garden soil, adding a little lime. If sawdust is spruce, increase the dose of lime to 500 g per bucket. In summer, the stack is watered with water and a solution of complex mineral fertilizers.

To speed up the maturation of the compost, we also put microbiological preparations Flumb K or Flumb Super. Compost in this case is ready for the season. We don't even shovel it. In terms of quality, it is not inferior to manure.

Vera Sinitsyn

• In books for gardeners about sawdust, scarce information is given. It is only said that they acidify the soil. So summer residents are afraid to use sawdust. But in vain!

Every gardener knows that a good harvest can only be obtained on fertile soil. Therefore, carefully prepare for the onset of the summer season, fertilizing your site. Nowadays, there are many novelties in the field of fertilizers, but the good old methods are also widely used on a par with modern preparations and have never failed. One such method is the use of sawdust.

Often summer residents are interested in whether rotted sawdust can be used as fertilizer. The answer is obvious - not only possible, but also necessary, because sawdust, in fact, pure organic material. The main thing is to properly prepare them before use. Sawdust not only enriches the soil, but also makes it looser and serves as an excellent mulch. In addition, they are more affordable financially.

The use of sawdust for fertilizing the garden

Apply rotted sawdust in its pure form to garden beds do not recommend, because they are very acidic soil. On such soil, many plants simply will not survive. However, it is thanks to the process of sawdust decay that the earth is saturated with oxygen. To neutralize acidity, sawdust fertilizer should be properly prepared:

1. Pour fresh sawdust into the prepared pit.
2. Sprinkle lime on top.
3. Leave to rot for at least two years.

To speed up the process of decay, a pile of sawdust is poured with liquid kitchen waste without impurities. household products. When the sawdust rots, they fertilize the soil, spreading it over the beds.

It is better to fertilize with sawdust in the first half of summer, so that by autumn they have time to completely decompose. If you fertilize at the end of summer, due to high humidity during the rainy season, water from wood waste will not evaporate well.

Using sawdust as mulch

Sawdust serves as a good mulch for various crops, not only in the garden, but also in the garden. Overripe sawdust can be immediately scattered on the beds with a layer of 5 cm, and fresh ones must first be prepared. To do this, lay them out in layers, alternating approximately in the following proportion: 3 buckets of sawdust - 200 g of urea. Cover the top with cling film and leave for 2 weeks. After the specified time, the sawdust will be ready for use.

Raspberry-type shrubs are mulched with a thicker layer - up to 20 cm.

Mulching with sawdust will allow you to water the beds less often, since moisture will not evaporate as quickly, and will keep the soil structure loose. In addition, the presence of mulch in the aisles will create obstacles for the growth of weeds.

Sawdust in greenhouses and in compost

Overripe sawdust is applied to greenhouse beds in spring or autumn in order to speed up the germination of seeds. Such soil warms up faster. For greater benefit, they are mixed with manure, also rotted.

Sawdust is good to add to the compost. At the same time, they must rot during the year, so that the compost is more nutritious.

Using sawdust in the garden - video