Oktyabrina GanichkinaCandidate of Agricultural Sciences, author of hundreds of books on gardening and gardening
More and more gardeners adhere to the principles in the country organic farming– compost vegetable waste and use soil mulching. How do you get started if you've never composted or gotten rid of weeds with mulch? Most important rules environmentally friendly garden.
What is the best place to compost?
The place for the compost should be shaded and protected from the wind, this is necessary in order to avoid overdrying the compost. At the same time, a completely windless place for composting is also not suitable due to poor ventilation. If there is not enough natural shade, a tree, bush or just tall flowers can be planted next to the compost bins, which will provide the necessary shade and decorate the compost site.
What should not be added to compost?
Everything that does not decompose with the help of microorganisms: glass, metal objects, wire, foil, any kind of plastic, ceramics, construction garbage, textiles, any chemicals plants and newspapers affected by fungal diseases.
From plants, digitalis, tomato, potato tops, castor bean, broom, lily of the valley, aconite cannot be added to the compost - the composting process will not be effective, since the toxic substances contained in these plants kill some of the microorganisms involved in decomposition, and the compost matures more slowly.
What can be added to household waste compost?
Most often, food waste goes into the compost: potato peelings, eggshell, leftover vegetables, cabbage stalks, spoiled vegetables and fruits, banana peel, Asleep Tea Brewing. All suitable for composting organic waste and remains from home and garden, especially those of plant origin. These are grasses, green manure plants, crop waste (vegetables, fruits), garden waste, manure, bark, foliage, needles (pine, spruce), straw, sawdust and other materials.
In what form can all this be laid in compost?
Green manure plants. Protein-rich green mass quickly decomposes without creating problems. Before laying, allow to dry, lay in layers, interspersed with coarser materials.
Hay and straw. They are a valuable material, bind moisture in the compost, create a good porous structure of the compost, which provides oxygen access. Grind thoroughly and allow to dry, mix with nitrogen-containing green mass of compostable plants, organic kitchen waste and lay in thin layers in the compost.
Foliage. Poor in nutrients. So that the foliage does not get lumpy, it should be dried, if possible, crushed and laid in compost in thin layers, mixing with other plant and coarser materials. When composting oak leaves containing large quantities tannic acid, the addition of fluffy lime is desirable (for 10 kg of foliage - 200-300 g of fluffy lime).
Wood sawdust. They are characterized by a low nitrogen content and decompose very poorly, so it is necessary to mix them thoroughly with the green mass of plant material, bone meal and adding manure to increase the nitrogen content and speed up decomposition.
Wood bark. Compared to sawdust, it differs more high content nitrogen, but nevertheless needs the introduction of nitrogen-containing additives: bird droppings or manure, urea, it is also recommended to add lime at the rate of 10 kg / m2 of bark for the decomposition process.
Food waste. They are valuable organic matter and have a high rate of decomposition. To prevent rotting processes, food waste should be mixed with coarser material that provides them with sufficient ventilation (for example, with sawdust).
Manure. Due to the high nitrogen content, it is very favorable for compost, it is a catalyst for decomposition processes. It is recommended to lay manure in one of the layers among the material from which the compost is composed, sprinkle with earth on top.
Paper. Good to add to compost. It decomposes well due to the cellulose it contains. Grind and wet the paper before laying it in the compost, it is better in herbal infusion so that, together with moisture, it absorbs additional nutrients. Lay out in thin layers, combining with coarse material, otherwise the wet paper will clump and this will make the decomposition process more difficult.
Can weeds be added to the compost?
To prevent the spread of weed seeds in the garden as part of the compost, plants with seeds should be pre-soaked in barrels of water for 10 days and only then put into the compost. So that weeds do not grow in the compost, it is kept without access to light, covered with a dark impenetrable material (black film, roofing felt).
How long does it take to decompose compost?
The duration of the compost decomposition process depends on the desired quality of the final product, it can last up to 12 months and up to 2 years. Decomposition starts very rapidly and slows down in subsequent stages. The compost must be mixed in order to activate the decomposition process and achieve its uniformity in all layers. After mixing, the temperature in the thickness of the compost first decreases, but then rapidly increases due to the activation of the decomposition process due to the influx of oxygen.
What are the benefits of compost?
Compost is a favorable environment for the development of microorganisms and activates the vital activity of soil fauna.
Thanks to the activity of microorganisms in the compost and the soil fertilized by it, it is possible to suppress the activity of pathogens or restrain their development.
Because the source materials selected by ourselves for compost production, you can not be afraid of the admixture of substances harmful to the soil and plant health.
Compost comprehensively improves the structure of the soil, restoring its original ability to retain nutrients and moisture in the surface layer of the soil.
Compost has a mild dosed fertilizing effect on plants.
Obtaining humus through composting is quite fast, inexpensive and right at the place of further direct use.
The process of obtaining compost is very environmentally friendly and close to natural processes in its essence.
What are the benefits of mulching?
Mulching is covering beds with peat, humus, straw, sawdust and other porous organic materials.
The mulching layer provides favorable conditions for the vital activity of soil microorganisms. Organic mulch cover is decomposed, nutrient mineralization is accelerated, nutrient uptake by plants is improved and accelerated.
The decomposition of the organic mulch material takes place directly on the soil, therefore valuable nutrients are not lost, and the soil constantly has additional nutrients due to the decomposition of the mulch material.
The soil covered with organic fertilizers warms up faster in the spring, less caking and compacting.
The mulching cover makes it unnecessary to loosen the soil, since the roots of the plants are already well supplied with oxygen due to the absence of a compacted crust. This avoids mechanical damage delicate superficial roots.
The mulching cover inhibits the growth and development of weeds, protects the soil from erosion, wind, cracking and dry crust on the soil surface.
The protective cover provides uniform soil moisture and maintains a constant water balance by significantly reducing the evaporation of moisture from the soil surface.
Due to the constant mulching of the soil surface, it is possible to reduce the amount of fertilizers applied, since in the presence of a mulch layer, their leaching is significantly reduced.
The color of the soil largely determines its ability to absorb and retain solar heat Therefore, by changing the color of the soil surface, it is possible to control its thermal properties. Mulching plays an important role in regulating the thermal regime of the soil.
Dark mulch on the soil surface attracts Sun rays and quickly absorbs heat. This contributes to good warming of the soil. Light mulch, on the contrary, increases the ability of the soil surface to reflect the sun's rays, which prevents overheating of the soil under the mulch cover, which means it protects plant roots from exposure to high temperatures.
Mulching process followed by decomposition organic matter is one of the ways to enrich the soil with humus.
Practice shows that already after several years of mulching, the volume of soil pores filled with water and air increases significantly, which means that its air and water permeability improves, which are one of the main indicators of soil health.
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I hope that someday I will plant vegetables instead of vegetables on my plot ornamental plants and make beautiful paths, but for today the main thing for me is to create optimal conditions vegetable plants. I don't think I'm alone in this endeavor. Based on my priorities, I chose for myself the option of maintaining paths, somewhat unusual among gardeners - under mulch.
On my site, the entire area is divided into beds and passages of approximately the same width - a bed plus a passage - 1 meter.
Such a permanent marking allows you to include in the crop rotation (bed rotation) all crops grown on the site, including potatoes.
In defense of such a scheme, I will give a simple example. For two years in a row, he counted beans on bushes of bush beans planted in meter-wide beds. Beans were planted in 5 rows. On the bushes growing along the edges of the beds, an average of 10 beans (each), but on the rows that were in the center - an average of 3 beans. It can be seen that the difference is huge.
On half-meter beds I plant beans in 3 rows, and the harvest on all rows is approximately the same - all the same 10 beans from a bush.
With such a layout of the garden, the roots of the vast majority of cultivated plants use the entire area of the passages for food. Especially strong - the extreme rows.
Creating conditions for the roots that contribute to a better supply of moisture and nutrition.
As far as possible, I try to close all the paths with various organic matter: straw, foliage, bedding from the forest, weeds, mowed grass. Of course, it sounds very strange - to fertilize or mulch the paths, and, nevertheless, it makes sense.
In the spring, while the neighbors are waiting for when it will be possible to enter the garden and not fall through, I calmly walk along my paths sent by organic matter, and without boots - there is no dirt. There was a very striking effect this year. Groundwater rose abnormally high, and it was impossible to step in the gardens - you would fail. The sowing company in my garden, thanks to permanent sheltered paths, began in April, at the neighbors - at the end of May-June.
To quickly warm the beds with a gentle spring sun, you need to open them from the mulch. But at the same time, the soil loses the most important spring moisture. Of course, you can cover the beds with a film, but if the area is large, then it is a little expensive, and bare passages evaporate water very much.
In my case, the passages, on the contrary, are reservoirs of spring moisture and rainwater.
Even with prolonged drought, the soil under the paths is always wet, the roots of cultivated plants are comfortable there.
The question may arise how the tender roots of cultivated plants will penetrate the years-trodden ground of the paths. The answer is easy! And there is nothing strange here. Under the cover of mulch, worms abound even in the paths. Through their efforts, the trampled, dense earth becomes permeated with passages through which water enters the earth. atmospheric air, and the roots of vegetables pass easily.
Such moisture reservoirs allow you to manage with a minimum amount of watering, or without them at all. It is very important for me. On my site, irrigation water (from a well), according to chemical composition far from ideal - too hard. I try to use it to a minimum so as not to salt the soil. Therefore, I grow most crops using non-irrigated technology, even if the yield is somewhat reduced compared to irrigated beds.
July 2007 Compost paths + mulched beds - the plants feel great. It is hard to believe that these beds have never been watered.
In addition to storing moisture, my paths play another important role - organic matter decomposes on them.
In a constantly moist, well-aerated layer of organic matter, beneficial microorganisms multiply rapidly. Souring does not occur due to the moves of the worms - they play the role of drainage.
In this sense, the passages become like compost containers. At first glance, it seems that the volume of these containers is negligible, but let's calculate. The area of \u200b\u200bthe tracks in my garden is 50 square meters per hundred square meters. If the organic layer is 10 cm, then the volume of composted material on 5 acres is 25 cubic meters in! And it does not require a special place at all.
The organic layer on the tracks is preferably thicker.
Supporters organic fertilizers one is often overlooked important point: when composting organic matter in compost heaps, carbon dioxide is wasted, which is released by bacteria during respiration. But it is very important for the development of plants. There is a direct relationship - the more carbon dioxide, the greater the yield. Every student who carefully read a biology textbook knows this.
When composting on paths, carbon dioxide is released in close proximity to plants, which increases the yield of vegetables.
Unlike a compost heap, worms live in the paths all the time.
All processes here proceed without temperature increase. This process is closer to vermicomposting, which produces higher quality humus.
In our case, there is no need to start special technological worms (California reds or "Prospectors"). All processes happen by themselves. Worms only need to create suitable conditions, and they will gather on your site independently and in great numbers. How they find a comfortable place to live is completely incomprehensible to me. But the fact remains that there are a lot of them from somewhere.
Ideally, the paths only need to be layered with new portions of organics annually. This is what happens in nature. Under these conditions, an ideal community of fungi, microbes, worms and other soil inhabitants is created. Each representative of the "waste-processing" soil brethren is placed in his own organic horizon, the most favorable for him, and does his job.
It is impossible to create such ideal (natural) conditions in the garden - when planting, harvesting, the structure of the natural “layer cake” is necessarily violated. But on the tracks - please.
One problem - you need a lot of organic matter.
For small plot you can solve this issue, but what about the big one? We have to look for some tricks that contribute to the accumulation of mulch. For example, straw decomposes much faster than leaf litter or needles from the forest. Therefore, I try to prepare more of these materials. Sawdust overheats even longer. I do not use them for a simple reason - in our area it is an expensive pleasure.
Pine bedding
along with small twigs
and cones - a good mulch.
Mulch can and should be grown on your site - use green manure crops.
Often in conversations with the owners of 6 acres, one can hear lamentation: "I would plant green manure, and even so there is not enough space." And who forbade growing green fertilizers in places not occupied by vegetables - in the aisles? Moreover, this can be done simultaneously with the cultivation of cultivated plants.
He sowed crops, and scattered the seeds of green manure along the paths. Crops are growing, green manure is growing. At the initial stage of development of vegetables, while they are still small, grown siderates are beneficial - they serve as a kind of backstage, create a favorable microclimate.
The main thing here is not to run green fertilizers so that the crops do not shade and become coarse. Cutting green manure at the right time in the loose substrate of the tracks is not difficult - plants are often not even cut with a flat cutter, but pulled out with roots. Who had to weed compost heap they will understand what the conversation is about - the roots of plants in such conditions are superficial, poorly developed - there is enough food.
There is no need to remove the cut green manure anywhere, let them remain in place. Tops will build up a layer of mulch, albeit slightly. The roots will be digested very quickly by the soil inhabitants and will become food for both microbes and fungi, and our plants. If possible better greens do not cut off on the paths, but simply sprinkle with a layer of coarse organic matter.
Phacelia blooms.
Do not be afraid that the plants will break when you walk between the beds, most green manure is not afraid of this. The exception is phacelia, it has fragile stems. But that's not a problem for me either.
For movement, I use paths through one: I walk along one, phacelia grows on the next one. The beds are narrow (50 cm) and in any operation you can easily reach the opposite (from the path) edge of the bed. From one track I process two adjacent beds. That's all wisdom.
Sowing the next batch of green manure does not require additional time and effort. Before pruning grown plants, simply scatter the seeds. During pruning, the seeds are embedded in the mulch, they germinate there.
Maintaining green manure crops on paths has a drawback - siderates have to be cut off more often so as not to interfere with crops in the beds, and accordingly, you need a lot of seeds, you need to buy them or allocate a place for growing.
Use of weeds on paths.
Let us recall the experience of V. V. Fokin (the inventor of the flat cutter of the same name) - to use the seeds of annual weeds. According to studies, when 90% of all weeds are removed from the site, the yield of their seeds is reduced by only 10%.
From such numbers, a neat gardener simply drops his hands. It turns out that it is impossible to reduce the number of weed seeds. Even if you do not allow a single weed to be seeded on your territory, seeds will fly in abundance from a neighboring plot or wastelands. They fly in, but on the paths they only make me happy - a source of mulch and fertilizer.
Everything that is said about green manure on the paths can also be attributed to weeds, except for the drawback - there are no problems in the seeds and they do not need to be planted. But not everything is smooth here either. Unfortunately, the composition of self-propagating weed seeds cannot be controlled.
It is desirable that weeds appear at the most early dates as soon as the snow melts. So before everyone else in our area, colza, chamomile, and spurge sprout. These plants germinate 2-3 weeks earlier than spring green manure. It takes time to collect the seeds of these earliest weeds, and not to miss them so that they do not scatter. The solution is simple.
Flowering weeds in wastelands are mowed and laid out on the paths.
Believe me, the seeds will ripen on cut plants. In early spring, the seeds germinate at several times. In June, amaranth generously appears. At each specific site, you can pick up your own set of cultural and "non-cultural" green manure. It is only important to prevent malicious perennial weeds - rhizomatous and root shoots - from entering the paths. For example, I use only one type of euphorbia, an annual one that reproduces only by seeds.
There is rye on the ridges - it is too early to plant seedlings.
In the aisles "uncultivated green manure" - weeds.
Surely, some plants on the paths will be incompatible with crops growing on the beds. The issue of compatibility has not been thoroughly studied. You will have to observe and draw your own conclusions. There's nothing you can do about it, crop production is a creative process.
In any area there are hard-to-decompose, coarse organic remains: stems of Jerusalem artichoke, sunflower, raspberry, etc.
All this stuff can also be used in compost paths. Just keep in mind that if you just throw the stems on the paths, you will have problems - they greatly interfere with cutting weeds.
If it is not possible to grind this valuable material, you can use my method.
I just lay everything in a thick layer between the fenced beds, add some finer material on top. A thick dense layer does not allow weeds to germinate - the light does not pass. During the summer, all this wealth is trampled into crumbs, scorching. Grinding takes place without spending our time and effort.
The hassle of creating mulch on the paths will probably seem superfluous to many. Well, that's everyone's business.
But the fertility of the earth is restored and grows when we return as much organic matter to the earth as we took from it.
It would be better if we add more. There are many examples of this.
Experiencer from Krasnoyarsk Territory I.P. Zamyatkin receives up to two tons of potato tubers per hundred square meters (up to 8 kg per bush) without introducing any organic or mineral fertilizers. A member of the Omsk Club of Potato Growers, R. M. Chintsov, receives 400 kg of early ripening potatoes from one hundred square meters at the end of June (!) And by autumn, from the same weave, he takes another 200 kg of tubers.
For those who decide to keep paths under mulch, advice: if organic matter is not enough, then it’s better to make one " compost path» with a mulch thickness of 10 cm than 10 tracks with a thickness of 1 cm of organic matter. A very thin layer of mulch will not give an effect.
If the organics this moment very little, then you can apply the "walking heaps method".
It consists in the following. From the cut weeds, I form heaps 10-15 cm high and leave them on the path. Weeds are growing on the rest of the path. When they grow to a critical size, I trample down some of them and move piles on them. In the place where there was a bunch, there is a spot clean from weeds. I cut the remaining weeds that are not covered and increase the heaps due to them. Then everything repeats.
Ideal for this method, when the piles cover half the area of the tracks. Then the grown plants are completely covered with heaps and quickly decompose under them. In clean areas left after moving the piles, weeds sprout again. In this case, you do not need to cut anything, just move the heaps. At the same time, overheating of organic matter (and, accordingly, the release of carbon dioxide, which is important for us) takes place, and the sun's energy is used to accumulate mulch and weed control is minimized.
Part of the ground near the rhubarb bushes is covered with a layer of potato tops as mulch, weeds grow on the rest. Nothing should be thrown away. potato tops useful in the "lazy corner" - in a plot with perennials.
Kucha moved to weeds. Where there was a pile - a clean place and the ability to grow weeds or green manure, accumulating organic matter.
But weeded weeds and trimmed green manure cannot be dispensed with, you will still have to add organics “aged”. The fact is that young plants decompose very quickly, and, when dried, they lose their volume very much.
For example: he closed the bed with a continuous layer of phacelia (cut off at a height of 15 cm) 10 cm thick, and after 2 weeks, miserable blades of grass remained from this layer, unable to cover the ground at least a little. The same layer of mulch, but consisting of rye stalks at the beginning of earing, decreased only by half. But the forest litter decreased in volume by about 20%, and even then only due to compaction.
It should be noted that it makes sense to use "walking heaps" only as a compromise. In the future, you need to find a way to mulch the entire surface.
Sincerely, Oleg Telepov,
Omsk club of potato growers
In a broad sense, these words are synonyms. In Russian, it happens that any word has different meanings, depending on the context in which it was pronounced and written.
If manure and other organic waste is placed in a special compost pit or box, it is turned over several times a season, loosened, watered, covered, thinking about the correct ratio of nitrogen and carbon, that is, composting, then a product similar to black earth is called compost .
And in the old days there was a lot of manure, it lay in huge piles near the sheds with animals, no one composted it, it rotted itself, and therefore the people simply called it humus.
Sometimes compost and humus are called humus. But humus is a borrowed Latin word, meaning earth, soil. And it is more correct to talk about humus in the context of talking about the soil, about the constituent part of the soil. Humus is what remains of organic matter that has been in the soil for a long time, processed by soil inhabitants, joined together with soil particles into a single complex and lost the fibrous structure of organic matter visible to the eye.
When we take the soil in our hands in spring, we feel nice smell earth and see its black color, we say that there is a lot of humus in the earth, this is black soil. Therefore, the closest synonym for humus is chernozem.
When we take in hand good compost and we also see the black color and smell a pleasant smell, we still do not call it humus or soil, but when we bring such compost into poor soil, we understand that we enrich the soil with humus, turn the soil into black soil.
But when we approach a heap of rotted manure, take humus in our hand, we do not always smell the soil, sometimes the humus has an unpleasant putrefactive smell. Intuitively, we understand the difference between black soil, between good compost, and between humus (an old pile of pig manure that we did not want to compost properly).
So we understood at the ordinary level what compost is, it is organic matter with which we worked, which we composted.
Why Gardeners Make Compost Differently
I myself went through several stages of understanding what good compost is, and now reading hundreds of articles about composting and talking on this topic with gardening friends, I see that how many people, so many different opinions on how to make it.Many people like to strictly follow the instructions, hang them correctly in grams, mix manure, straw, grass, and food waste in strict proportions. When a beginner reads such advice, he is confused and afraid to start creating compost heaps.
Someone is afraid of worms, read a lot of esoteric literature and strictly monitors the temperature of the heap so that all eggs and microbes die. Washes hands and vegetables endlessly with soap and brush after working in organic gardens.
Someone builds tables and calculates on a computer how much nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium is in which compost, and what additives should be added to it for each crop.
For some, compost is just a way to utilize the existing organic matter, reduce its volume, reduce the putrefactive smell, so that it is easier to take it out and bring it to the beds. For these purposes, I just put it in bags for six months.
There are fanatical naturalists who believe in the myths of soil digestion, who believe that compost is a loss of carbon energy, and all organic matter must be composted in the garden so that there is no loss, and all the sun's energy goes to the roots of plants. And humus is a dummy, bacteria poop that does not contain nitrogen.
I used to compost the other way too
If I had been asked one or five years ago what is the value of compost for a gardener, what is the essence of its proper preparation, I would have answered: in the quantity and quality of soil organisms, in the stability of the ecosystem that has developed during its preparation.If you ask me now why have proper compost I will tell a novice gardener to cure my dead land of bacterial and fungal diseases and start harvesting faster. And they will ask what is the main benefit of compost, I will answer that in the quantity and quality of antibiotics that the compost has accumulated, thanks to the vital activity of fungi and bacteria, in the ability of the extract from the compost to fight putrefactive organisms, in the ability of compost to heal the land, in the possibility of using infusions and from such compost to restore the fertility of dead soils.
In soil, especially depleted agriculture, not always contain all beneficial microorganisms. Therefore, in order to restore the soil, we must introduce composts with a high content of bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms into it. Such inoculants can be: live compost, biohumus, vermicay, compost tea.
All novice gardeners have confusion in their heads
I want everything at once and quickly. And in order to avoid diseases, I want to kill all harmful fungi and bacteria, introduce pesticides and herbicides into the soil. In addition, I want to get a harvest in the first year on the acquired land. Not pesticides will help here, but extracts from compost.Live compost for these purposes can be obtained in three weeks, for this you need to make compost in a heap using a special method.
What materials should be used for the rapid maturation of compost
- Various types of manure and litter from pets (waste from the toilet and feces should settle for 3-4 months). This is a nitrogenous material. It causes "burning" of the compost heap.
- Hay, straw, leaves, coarse grass are carbonaceous material. All materials must be crushed: otherwise they are difficult to turn over, and it is more difficult for microorganisms to process them.
- Green grass with turf - contains soil microorganisms, it is with green material that they enter the compost heap.
- Wood mulch is food for mushrooms, mushrooms love to recycle wood fiber.
- In the middle of the compost heap, you can add a kind of seed - comfrey, nettle, yarrow, fish, food waste. This will speed up the overall decomposition process. These are compost activators or accelerators that help warm up the pile.
I'll tell you in detail, in order
First, we make a loose base of the heap: put hay, small branches at the very bottom. It is very important that air is easily drawn into the pile from below. Then we lay a layer of nitrogenous material, alternating with carbonaceous.
After laying the heap, pour water over it so that it is moderately moist.
Then we cover the pile with waterproof material and leave it for 4 days.
On the fourth day, we make the first transfer of the heap. Our task is to place outer material inward, and the inner outward. This is necessary for even composting, as the inside of the pile is hotter than the outside.
Then on the sixth day we do the second transfer of the heap. We control the heap temperature. We throw a bunch every other day, the outer material inward, and the inner material outward. On the 18th or 24th day, the compost should be ready, if it is not overheated or overdried.
Overheating will occur during the second third throwing - on the 6-8th day. Stick your arm up to your elbow in the compost heap. If you succeeded and you shout "Hot!" they pulled the hand back, which means that the temperature is above +50 ° C, and everything is fine. At +70 ° C, you will not be able to put your hand in a pile, it hurts.
During the composting process, optimal humidity should be observed, for this we take a little material from the base of the pile and squeeze it very strongly between the palms. If it drips a little, that's what you need.
What happens in the compost heap
During the first 4 days of composting, the population of microorganisms in the heap increases. We turn the pile, many organisms will die - and their bodies will become food for the next generation of microorganisms. There will be a population explosion, they will multiply rapidly and give off a lot of heat.During the composting process, carbon organics will bind nitrogen and all other elements into humus. Rough organics - absorbent; nitrous - fuel for the heap. Even toxic substances - if any of them end up in a pile - will be bound by long chains of carbon molecules and become inert. This is one of the most remarkable properties of humus.
So, main secret good and quick compost - optimum temperature compost heap, +55…+65 °С. And optimal humidity with good aeration.
How can live compost be used?
Ready compost I use in four various options, depending on the goals.1. To quickly improve the humus-poor garden soil, I prepare compost, which contains a lot of woody material and, accordingly, mushrooms.
Trees need fungi, they grow in soil in which fungi predominate. Fungi form mycorrhiza, a symbiotic relationship with woody plants. Mushrooms get carbon from plants, giving away nutrients from the soil in return. Mushroom threads - hyphae - stretch for many kilometers, they can extract batteries over long distances. In addition, hyphae provide an exchange of information between trees. This is a kind of Internet in the soil. Fungal spores and hyphae are easily damaged by improper tillage. By inoculating the soil with mushroom compost, fungal diversity in the soil can be quickly restored.
2. For vegetable beds, I prepare compost rich in nitrogen, which is dominated by bacteria. It has more grass, manure, food waste. This compost is better for fertilizer herbaceous plants and vegetables.
3. For the production of ACC, I leave the compost for 6-13 months for good maturation, it is better if it is overgrown with weeds. In this case, the ecosystem of compost organisms will be the most developed and diverse.
4. For the production of compost infusion, fresh compost 10-14 days before use should be shed with 1% molasses solution with the addition of 0.05% fish emulsion. (I make a "stink in a barrel" where I add nettle or comfrey, they have a good balance, a lot of nitrogen, and phosphorus, and carbohydrates). Then it is necessary to loosen well, this causes the rapid reproduction of all soil living creatures, followed by the lysis of most bacteria and fungi, while the compost is maximally saturated with antibiotics, amino acids and vitamins, and the infusion from it is the best medicine for treating rot-infected soils.
So, we need compost to quickly restore the fertility of the lands killed by the previous exploitation.
Why old drugs can not cure the earth
The use of EM preparations, trichoderma and hay bacillus on infected soils does not give a visible effect, they work well on healthy soils with a high content of humus. It is the same with ACh, poor in humus, soils infected with bacterioses, microorganisms introduced into the soil together with ACh and organics are treated, but slowly, in the first year of soil development, the crop is not obtained.Modern mixed bacterial-fungal diseases reduce the immunity of plants, their resistance to frost, drought, pests, weeds, and no agrotechnical measures can save them from these diseases. We treat mushrooms - we get an outbreak of bacterioses, we treat bacteria with antibiotics - we get an outbreak of fungal diseases.
I have forty years of experience in the treatment of children from mixed microbial-fungal diseases, I use drugs - four in one, kill fungi, microbes, relieve inflammation and restore disturbed microflora of the skin or intestines.
What I saw in vermicoff and what I learned now
So it is with the soil. For the first time I saw that the soils are superbly treated with fresh extracts from vermicomposts. There are no pathogenic bacteria and fungi in the intestines of worms, but there are thousands of microorganisms with hundreds of antibiotics that protect worms from diseases, because worms crawl for millions of years in the dirtiest rotting manure. Last year I described my experience that beds watered with vermicaffe (an extract from vermicompost), and then sprayed with ACH, give an unprecedented increase in yield.
Not everyone can make worm compost, but everyone can make quality compost following the guidelines above. In compost, where there are no temperatures above 55 degrees, micro worms and millions of other micro soil animals have time to multiply in three to four weeks, and all of them emit coprolites no worse than dung worms, and the composition of bacteria in it is no worse than in worm compost and the content of antibiotics that suppress all known soil pathogens is no worse, and the composition of beneficial soil anaerobes and protozoa is excellent. We get the effect of four in one.
How to make hoods and how to use them
If you take 2-3 liters of high-quality fresh compost in a bucket of water, stir well and leave for about an hour until the color of dark coffee, pour it over your diseased beds, at the rate of half to two liters per square meter, then this infusion will suppress both pathogenic fungi and bacteria, relieve inflammation of the roots and create in the rhizosphere protective layer from beneficial microorganisms. Vitamins from compost infusion will increase the immunity of plants, and they will successfully resist diseases, pests, drought and frost.
Then you can add organic matter to such a cured soil, without fear of intensifying bacterioses, add ACh, and beneficial microbes will take root.
If a dozen beneficial bacteria are added to millions of pathogens, they do not take root, and if millions of beneficial bacteria are added to the ten remaining pathogens in the soil, they will take root, create their own ecosystem and will not let pathogens into their paradise.
Thus, the gardener can already in the first year on the killed soil get a crop and not reduce, but increase fertility.
This is the essence of my understanding of why a gardener needs the right compost.
For several years now I have been arranging “warm” beds in the garden, this method has become a real salvation for my site. The work invested in the creation of natural "warmers" is minimal compared to what benefits the gardener receives:
Plant waste that makes up the garden bed heats the plants from the inside and allows you to get an early harvest. This is very important for the North-West, because May and June, and often all summer, we have very cool, night temperatures drop to + 8-10 degrees, and you can’t plant the whole garden under a greenhouse.
The land in the garden must be constantly updated. However, it is very expensive to import soil by trucks. A plus, purchased soil often brings only disappointment - the gardener receives dirt and clay instead of humus. Different variants"warm" beds allow you to update all the land on the site with sectors, using a method invented by nature itself.
Different types of beds that warm and make the earth themselves
All gardeners create "warm" beds in one form or another, sometimes they just don't know it. It remains only to approach this issue wisely, and the yield on the site will increase.There are several ways to create warm beds:
1. Compost heap in a stationary box. Summer residents who ignore this method, simply burying or throwing away grass or waste, are acting very unwisely. Organizing several compost heaps in bins with a removable wall is very simple, and the benefits of this business are enormous., The sides can be cemented or made from wood and improvised materials. 
One such pile is filled all summer long with waste from the kitchen, grass, manure in layers - late in the fall it is covered with compost on top, next season you can plant pumpkins or zucchini on it, and after summer the pile is opened to get compost for beds. 
While one compost bin is being filled, vegetable crops are growing in the other and soil is taken from it in autumn or spring. Thus, there is always fresh compost, and it turns out to be of good quality. It is also possible to arrange a compost heap based on a barrel or a concrete ring. 
2. Grass hole. On the virgin soil or in the garden with loamy soil at the beginning of the season, you can dig a hole 40-50 cm deep, dump grass there after processing the beds all summer, fill the hole with compost at the end of summer, plant green manure or legumes in this place next season and get a piece of fertile developed soil.
3. "Warm" ridge-trench. A deep rut that is dug two bayonets of a spade or even deeper and gradually filled in during the whole season or at the end of summer.
4. "Warm" bed in a box, which is formed in layers at the end of the season.
How to quickly make a "warm" out of an ordinary garden bed
In my garden, I use all methods, but I’ll tell you more about the latter.At the end of summer after harvest vegetable crops the beds are gradually released, this is the most opportune moment to make “warm” beds. Usually on such ridges we grow zucchini, pumpkins, squash, beans - the yield of these crops drops significantly if they are not provided with heating from under the ground.
All our beds are enclosed in a wooden or metal box 30-40 cm high, based on this design it is very easy to make a warm bed, you can act according to this scheme:
We choose a sector of about 1.5 by 1.5 meters, we focus on our strengths, it will be difficult to dig too large a bed at a time and it will take a long time to fill.
We dig up the earth from the bed, put the top one in buckets or throw it into a pile on the side, and send the lower loam to long-term compost or use it for household needs. If there is a strong assistant, then you can dig out the entire box, so the beds will be completely updated.
However, there is an easier option - to make a wide deep trench in the middle of the garden.
At the very bottom we put branches, large tops, chips, paper, these organic materials will decompose slowly, so they are placed in the base. Plus, there are always gaps between dense stems and pieces of wood, it turns out a kind of drainage layer that provides a gradual outflow of water. If I make a warm bed not from scratch, but with a furrow, then I put not hard branches at the base, but tops from beans, Jerusalem artichokes, sunflowers, zucchini, pouring everything with coarse-grained sand. I am an opponent of chips and rotten wood in the garden, because. we have a lot without it garden ants, so I don’t use such materials at all, but I mention them, because this material is in use by gardeners.
Next, we tamp and spill the greens well, the amount of water depends on the weather. We pour everything with a layer of earth, you can use the excavated soil, which we put aside in buckets.
In the next layer we place organic waste, which decomposes more quickly - traditionally, leaves, soft tops, wood chips, rotten vegetables and fruits are placed in the middle of the beds. I usually process strawberries during this period, so in given layer in my garden, most strawberry and strawberry leaves fall from pruning, I'm afraid to put rotten apples in the beds, because. it makes the soil very acidic.
This layer should be quite voluminous, it can be divided into two, sprinkled with earth and spilled with water. I also add ash, because. My soil is quite acidic.
The next layer of the bed is formed from organic matter, which decomposes very well, this is an elite level, which should turn into humus by the beginning of the next season. Here I put low grass without seeds and roots, plucked or cut with a sickle, and lawn grass after the lawn mower, which I collect and dry, getting hay.
The “warm bed” settles very strongly, so at this stage you need to fill up the bed so that the grass sticks out of the bed. This green hill should be compacted, spilled and covered with a layer of humus from compost for 10-15 cm. Then you can wait a few days and duplicate this layer again.
Put a layer of humus on top again.
Then on the newly made ridge, you can plant green manure - oats, rye, mustard.
Before, I sometimes planted oats before winter and then we kind of shoveled it, or beans in the spring, when we left the ground fallow. This year I planted rye, after 5 days the sprouts have already begun to crawl out. I read that pulling and burying is not best method, it destroys root system green manure, which accumulates nitrogen, phosphorus and other minerals. This year I want to try to cut the rye - however, this requires a very sharp flat cutter or chopper.
Such a bed does not need to be dug up, just loosen the ground with a hoe. In the spring, to start life in the ridge, it can be watered warm water or a solution of manure, then cover with a film for a while. Temporary hotbeds on such a natural "heater" also give a good result, because. plants are heated both from above and below, it turns out a real bathhouse. A “warm” bed in a box lasts 2-3 years, in the second year I add compost to it, and in the third or fourth year I change it.
A "warm" ridge based on a trench serves 7-8 years, because they dig it out for two bayonets of a shovel or even more, put sand and large branches and pieces of wood on the bottom. In my opinion, the ridge in the box is more convenient and efficient, because. it is easier to make and the land is changed more often, which means that the bed does not have to be left fallow for rest.
