Wood chips as fertilizer. Is pine sawdust in the garden beneficial or harmful? As a substrate for seed germination

Sawdust is wood waste that is always a good owner will find application. Some people do not take this material seriously, while others consider it to be the most valuable material for use in the country house and garden.

Gardeners found it in sawdust large number useful qualities and properties. This material is an excellent soil loosener. It makes the soil breathable and prevents the appearance of a crust on the surface of the earth. Soil mixture containing sawdust, it absorbs and retains moisture well. Sawdust is also a natural organic fertilizer.

This wood waste can be used not only to protect and fertilize the soil, but also to disinfect, insulate and decorate your site and home.

How to avoid problems when using sawdust in the garden

So that when using sawdust, summer residents do not experience additional problems, it is necessary to take into account some features of this material. For example, during the decomposition of sawdust in the soil, the nitrogen content decreases, and fresh sawdust in the beds contributes to an increase in soil acidity.

You can use fresh sawdust, but only for growing those crops that can thrive in acidic soils. Their list is very large: fruit and berry plants (blueberry, quince, barberry, viburnum, honeysuckle, cranberry, dogwood), conifers, herbs and spices (sorrel, spinach, rosemary), vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, radishes, potatoes, carrots).

You can rid fresh sawdust of its ability to acidify the soil with one of the alkaline materials that neutralize the acid. These materials must be mixed with sawdust, and only then added to the beds. Recommended for use as organic supplements ( eggshells, wood ash, chalk powder, dolomite flour), as well as various mineral fertilizers, which contain phosphorus, potassium, calcium, nitrate, etc.

To prevent sawdust from absorbing nitrogen from the soil, you need to mix it with nitrogen-containing fertilizer. Two hundred grams of urea dissolved in water must be added to a full bucket of fresh sawdust. Wood waste is well nourished required quantity nitrogen. Instead of mineral fertilizers, you can add organic components: herbal infusions (for example, based on nettle), freshly cut grass, bird droppings or manure.

In practice, rotted sawdust turns out like this. You will need a large piece of thick plastic film onto which you need to pour prepared fresh sawdust. The prepared liquid (200 grams of urea and 10 liters of water) must be thoroughly poured over all wood waste. You need to pour the same amount of solution onto one bucket of sawdust. Wet sawdust, saturated with moisture, should be placed in large garbage bags made of dark material, tied tightly and left in this form to rot for 15-20 days.

1. Sawdust as a mulch layer

Mulching is carried out only with rotted sawdust. The thickness of the mulch layer is about five centimeters. Most often this type of mulch is used for berry crops(raspberries, strawberries and wild strawberries), as well as for garlic. It is advisable to apply the sawdust layer in May - June, so that by the end of September the sawdust has time to rot. Later mulching will have an adverse effect on preparing plants for the winter, as it will prevent excess moisture from evaporating from the ground.

2. Sawdust in compost

Compost using fresh sawdust can be prepared in two ways.

The first method is classic. Compost contains plant and food waste, cow dung and bird droppings, as well as sawdust. With their carbon content, they will help you prepare excellent food in a short time. organic fertilizer.

The second method is longer. To prepare the fertilizer, you will need a hole (about one meter deep), which needs to be filled with eighty percent sawdust. The top of the wood waste must be covered with lime and wood ash. The decay process will continue for two years.

3. Sawdust as a substrate

To germinate plant seeds, you need to take a small container and fresh sawdust. They are poured in a thin layer on the bottom of the container, the seeds are laid on top, and then again a small layer of sawdust. Having covered thick film, the box with seeds is placed in a warm, darkened room until the first shoots appear. Further development seedlings should occur in a well-lit place. The top sawdust layer is sprinkled with a thin layer of earth. Picking of young plants is carried out immediately after the formation of the first full leaf.

It is recommended to germinate potatoes in sawdust substrate. First, ten centimeters of wet sawdust are poured into the prepared box, then potato tubers are laid out and sawdust again (about three centimeters). Before full-fledged seedlings (about eight centimeters long) appear, regular water sprays are carried out, after which the tubers can be transplanted to the beds.

4. Sawdust in warm beds

To build warm bed different ones fit organic waste, including sawdust. But with their help you can not only “insulate” the bed, but also raise it. Approximate order of work:

Prepare a trench about 25 centimeters deep.
Fill the trench with a mixture of sawdust, ash and lime.
Spread a layer of soil from the trench on top.

The sawdust layer will be an effective component for retaining excess moisture and as a nutrient layer for plants.

5. Sawdust paths and row spacing

A covering of sawdust between the beds in a garden or dacha makes it possible to move around the plot of land even after rainy days. Your shoes will remain clean and you won’t be afraid of any lumps of dirt or sticky garden soil. This coating looks like plot of land neat and even attractive. When the layer of sawdust is compressed, not a single weed will germinate. Sawdust is not only protection against weeds, but also retains moisture in the soil and provides organic fertilizing.

6. Sawdust as insulation

If you store vegetables and fruits (for example, apples, carrots or cabbage) indoors in a tall box with sawdust, they will retain their freshness and taste for a long time. You can also save your harvest on the balcony in a specially made thermal box. Sawdust will be a kind of insulation in such a container.

7. Sawdust in seedling soil

As part of soil for growing seedlings vegetable crops such as tomatoes, sweet pepper, eggplants and cucumbers, there are also rotted sawdust.

8. Mushroom farming

To grow mushrooms, fresh sawdust is used, which goes through special training, consisting of several stages. It is recommended to use only sawdust from deciduous trees for the substrate. Sawdust from birch, oak, poplar, maple, aspen and willow are ideal for growing oyster mushrooms.

9. Sawdust for insulating trees

Fruit trees need insulation winter period. Sawdust must be placed in thick garbage bags and tied tightly to prevent moisture, frost and rodents from penetrating into them. Then these bags need to be placed around the young trees around the trunk. This method of insulation is proven and reliable.

The vine can be insulated in another way. For this you will need wooden frame made from boards small size. It needs to be placed on top of the plant, filled with fresh sawdust to the very top and tightly covered with film.

It is very important that sawdust does not get wet when used as insulation, otherwise at the first frost it will become a frozen block.

10. Sawdust bedding for animals

Sawdust and wood shavings from fruit trees are excellent bedding in cages for rabbits, goats, pigs, poultry and other living creatures. This material can provide double benefits: minimum costs(or without at all financial costs) and organic fertilizer. With the help of wood processing waste, you can insulate the floor and not worry from a hygienic point of view, since sawdust perfectly absorbs all excess moisture. As it gets dirty, the old litter will still serve as a natural fertilizer in the beds.

11. Using sawdust in a smokehouse

For smoking meat, lard, fish, as well as vegetables and fruits, wood waste in the form of shavings, wood chips and sawdust of some types of trees is used. The most commonly used are alder, juniper, fruit trees, as well as oak, maple, ash. The aroma of the smoked product depends on the type of shavings and sawdust. Professionals in this business prepare sawdust mixtures from several trees at once.

12. Use of sawdust in construction and finishing work

Specialists construction work sawdust is used to make sawdust concrete. This mixture of concrete and crushed wood waste used for the production of building blocks and bricks, as well as plaster for finishing country houses And closed gazebos. You can also make a plastering mixture from sawdust and clay.

Since sawdust is a material that retains heat and is natural, it can be used to insulate floors and walls in any room.

13. Sawdust in classes for the development of creative abilities

Creative imagination and imagination has no limits. Real craftsmen use sawdust both in pure form (for filling pillows or toys) and in colored form. A little gouache and colored sawdust will be an excellent material for appliqués.

Sawdust as a fertilizer causes a lot of controversy among gardeners and gardeners. Many consider them an excellent fertilizer, others are against the use of such organic matter. Which one is right? Like any fertilizer, the use of sawdust requires some knowledge, since if used thoughtlessly positive effect If you don’t wait, you might even do more harm.

Options for using sawdust on garden plot set:

Effective mulching material for forming beds;
Sprinkle sawdust on the paths;
Used as a substrate for germinating seeds and potatoes, as well as for growing seedlings;

The effect of sawdust on the soil: benefit or harm?

Soil, rich a large number loosening organic matter, for example, sawdust, is breathable, absorbs moisture well, as a result, plants actively develop in such soil. Such soil is not subject to drying out, does not form a crust during dry periods, and therefore requires less frequent loosening.

However, all of the above advantages apply largely to rotted sawdust, which is dark or light brown in color.

Fresh sawdust

Using large amounts of fresh sawdust can do more harm than good to the soil.

During the decomposition of sawdust, soil bacteria consume a large amount of nitrogen from the soil, thereby significantly depleting it. Plants growing on this land are deficient in this essential microelement.
In addition, fresh wood shavings are replete with substances harmful to vegetation, such as resins.
Fresh sawdust can negatively affect the condition of the soil, as it has an acidifying effect. Therefore, when using them, the soil needs additional liming.
Therefore, fresh sawdust should absolutely not be used. Most best option, make compost from sawdust.

Sawdust compost

When preparing compost, you also need to adhere to some technology, because if you just dump wood shavings in a heap, and hope that it will rot over time. This process will take a lot of time. The fact is that sawdust piled up will never get wet through and through (this prerequisite rotting), even if they go heavy rains. Soaked top layer after drying, it forms a strong crust that protects the lower layers from any influences.

IN compost heap mix 1 cubic meter. sawdust with manure (100 kg) and bird droppings (10 kg);
Sawdust should first be thoroughly moistened with slurry or water;
You can also add fresh grass clippings, fallen leaves or plant waste to speed up the process.
If the required amount of manure is not available, it can be replaced with a solution of urea (200 g per 3 buckets of sawdust), or a solution of mullein and bird droppings.
During the year, the compost will mature, during which time it is necessary to regularly moisten and cover the biomass so that the beneficial substances are not washed out.
To improve the quality of compost, you can add a little soil at the laying stage: 2-3 buckets per 1 cubic meter. sawdust, then earthworms and microorganisms will become accelerators of wood decomposition and transformation into high-quality compost.

Keep in mind that if the sawdust was stored near abandoned areas where there were thickets of weeds. Such sawdust should be cleared of possible contamination with weed seeds using the hot composting method. To do this, the temperature in the biomass should be brought to +60C. This can be achieved by watering sawdust hot water and immediate shelter plastic film to maintain temperature.

Mulching material

Sawdust as a fertilizer and as a mulching material is sprinkled in a layer of 3-5 cm. This material is especially good for mulching the soil under raspberry bushes, strawberry and strawberry beds, when growing vegetables, as well as for flowers.

Rotted sawdust is immediately ready for use, but fresh sawdust should be prepared first, as it can draw nitrogen from the soil.

Preparation for mulching

Place a large oilcloth or film on the ground
Pour sawdust (3 buckets), urea (200g) in order and moisten evenly with 10 liters of water, then repeat everything in order.
At the end of the work, cover the sawdust with film, making it as airtight as possible, and place a few stones on top.
After two weeks, the sawdust is ready for use.

It is most effective to use this mulching material in the first half of summer, during the period when active evaporation of moisture occurs from the soil. With this approach, by the end of summer the mulch will have done its useful work, and thanks to the work of earthworms and regular loosening, the sawdust will be completely mixed with the soil.

If initially a too thick layer of mulch was poured, then by the end of summer it should be mixed with the soil, thoroughly loosening the soil. Otherwise, with the onset of spring, the frozen layer of mulch will become an obstacle to thawing of the soil cover. It is especially important to take this fact into account when processing areas where early spring plantings are carried out.

For greenhouses and greenhouses

When growing cucumbers and tomatoes indoors, sawdust as a fertilizer is an irreplaceable material.

Sawdust is used in combination with manure and all kinds of tops; in this combination, the compost rots much faster. When preparing compost, you should keep in mind: fresh sawdust is added to fresh manure, which will absorb excess nitrogen; when using rotted sawdust, rotted manure or sawdust is also added as independent material– because they do not require additional nitrogen.

Sawdust can be added to the beds of greenhouses or greenhouses in spring and autumn. To add sawdust, you can use this method:

In the fall, place a layer of vegetation residues (straw, fallen leaves, mown grass and plant tops) on the beds;
In spring, add a layer of fresh manure and sprinkle it with lime and a little fresh sawdust;
Thoroughly mix sawdust, manure and plant residues;
Then you should cover this mixture with straw or leaves and lay a layer of soil, adding ash and mineral fertilizers to it;
For better heating, it is recommended to pour boiling water over the soil and cover it with film.

Sawdust for sprouting potatoes

To receive early harvest Potato sawdust serves as an irreplaceable material.

First of all, you should get the right amount moistened sawdust and sprouted potato tubers of early varieties.
A couple of weeks before the planned planting of potatoes in the ground, fill the boxes with sawdust to 10-15 cm, place the potato tubers there.
Place a 3-5 cm layer of substrate on top.
Make sure that the substrate is optimally moistened, do not allow it to dry out or become waterlogged, and maintain a temperature of no more than 20C.
When the sprouts reach 6-8 cm, water them thoroughly complex fertilizer and plant them together with the substrate in the holes, sprinkling the tubers and potato sprouts with soil.
It is recommended to pre-heat the soil; to do this, cover the soil with plastic film in advance.
After planting potatoes, cover the entire area with hay or straw, and then with the same film, to prevent the tubers from freezing.
As a result, the potatoes will ripen several weeks earlier than usual.

I really love planting plants in my garden, caring for them, and harvesting them. But all the pleasure of working in the garden is ruined for me by the numerous weeds that grow and grow, no matter how much you remove them!

A lot of time is wasted fighting them! This would have continued to this day if I had not complained to a colleague about the weeds, and she said that there had been no weeds in her garden for a long time, thanks wood shavings, which she sprinkles between the rows of vegetables and in the aisles between the beds.

This year I decided to do the same. Weeds have decreased significantly. In this article I will list the benefits and harms of sawdust, tell you what fertilizers can be made from them, and how to use them correctly in the garden.

In Soviet times, sawdust was often used by gardeners as mulching and fertilizer to help plants grow better. Fortunately, this material is suitable for any soil.

Fresh sawdust has the ability to absorb all the liquid and take away useful substances from the soil, therefore experienced gardeners To increase their benefits, wood chips are added to various fertilizer mixtures.

There, during infusion, the chips become covered with beneficial bacteria, which then saturate the soil with microelements necessary for the development of plants. In addition, they give back to the soil and the plant essential oils.

Given wood material You can buy it inexpensively at any sawmill or get it from sawing firewood or any construction. The main thing is that they do not contain chemicals and that the percentage of conifers is minimal, since not all plants like it.

Some gardeners use shavings to insulate the soil around bushes and plants in the winter, but you need to remember that it is recommended to spread it in a thin layer, since under a thick layer the earth begins to rot and rot.

Most best material It is obtained from deciduous trees, but coniferous trees increase the acidity of the soil, so only beds with cucumbers, carrots and tomatoes are mulched with it.

Pros

Let's consider the advantages of wood chips:

Helps retain moisture in the ground for a long time. It is especially irreplaceable in the hot regions of Russia. Thanks to the sawdust carpet, there will be no hard crust on the ground during drought.
Blocks access of weeds to the ground surface. To do this, the shavings are poured in a thick layer. Only the toughest weeds can grow past this obstacle.
They are insect repellents. Therefore, it is generously sprinkled around fruit bushes and berries.
Helps some plants survive the winter thanks to mulching.
Can be used as fertilizer.
If you prepare it correctly, you can get humus of excellent quality that can replace cow manure.
Coniferous chips are an excellent antimicrobial agent, as they do not infect plants with various microbes, like deciduous wood.
With its help, you can correct too wet soil by simply sprinkling this material between the rows.

Cons

There are fewer disadvantages, but they still need to be taken into account when using wood shavings in the garden:

They absorb all the liquid and beneficial minerals, causing the soil to become poorer. The nitrogen content is especially greatly reduced.
Pine shavings make the soil more acidic, so they are not used to mulch cabbage and beets.
If sawdust is taken from uninspected places, you can lose almost the entire harvest due to destructive bacteria.
If you use fertilizers containing shavings that have not had time to rot, you can get a negative result.

Fertilizer recipes

Since they take all the water from the ground, they are mostly used as fertilizer, where they are indispensable. It’s just that wood chips are used only in weed control and for draining too much wet soil. In order for sawdust in fertilizers to work properly, it must be carefully prepared and in no case should the rotting process be rushed.

Typically, wood shavings take at least ten years to rot; compost is made to speed up this process. That is, this wooden material is mixed with manure and left to infuse. Usually the mixture with sawdust material begins to be prepared two weeks or a month in advance.

Ash

First, 200 kg of sawdust are placed at the bottom of a 50-liter container, about 100 kg of any grass and food waste are thrown on top, and 10 kg of ash is added. This layer cake is poured with 2.5 kg of urea dissolved in 50 liters of water. Then they are covered with a film with small holes for oxygen access. Leave it all until completely ready.

Organic enrichment

If the soil is too poor in nutrients, then this recipe, which increases the nitrogen content in the soil, can save the situation.

To do this, mix 50 kg of manure, 200 kg of wood waste, 30 kg of any food or human waste in one heap, and add 100 kg of regular fresh grass. All this is poured by eye with the required amount of humate solution (1 drop is enough for 100 liters of liquid).

Fresh sawdust

As we already know, fresh wood chips are not used to make the mixture. But what if you urgently need to fertilize the beds? There is a recipe according to which the mixture will be ready in two weeks. To do this, pour a glass of slaked lime, 30 grams of granulated superphosphate, 40 grams of ammonium nitrate, 10 grams of calcium chloride into a ten-liter bucket filled to the top with sawdust.

This is all mixed and infused on the street or open veranda. In no less than 14 days, this mixture will be ready to be added to the soil during digging. After which all the beds need to be watered, then the separation process will begin useful substances. For one square meter Two buckets of this mixture are enough.

Mulching

Usually, the beds begin to be mulched with sawdust at the beginning of summer in order to protect young shoots from weeds, which take everything for themselves. nutrients. Already in July, not a trace will remain of the wood chips, since it will mix with the soil with the help of rain and earthworms.

Usually they begin to use it as soon as the sprouts reach about 7 cm in height. And the rows in the garden bed should be mulched with a thin layer of 2-3 centimeters so that the soil does not rot. And bush plants are protected from insect pests and diseases by sprinkling around the trunk.

They will look especially beautiful fruit bushes, sprinkled with wood chips. In addition, thanks to this protection, the fruits grow beautiful and do not rot, which is especially beneficial for raspberries. And if you sprinkle soil around the bushes in the fall, even the youngest seedlings will survive the harsh winter without any problems.

To do this, wood chips are mixed with peat and compost for the winter. In spring, the mulched soil under the bushes will only need to be dug up.

Standard preparation of sawdust mulch: 3 buckets of wood chips are poured onto a huge waterproof film, 200 grams of urea are poured on top, all this is filled with 10 liters of water. Then they cover the top with another film, the edges of which are fixed with stones so that it does not fly off.

All this is left to infuse for about two weeks. After which this mixture can be spread between the beds mixed with ash.

If strawberries or wild strawberries are thoroughly covered with sawdust, the berries will remain clean and snails and slugs will not be able to crawl onto them. The layer thickness should be about 6 centimeters.

But before that the earth is thoroughly saturated minerals, since the sawdust material will take away some of the useful minerals. Then the procedure is repeated in the fall so that the strawberries survive the cold well and keep the roots in a healthy state.

Early potatoes

This recipe is only suitable for early variety potatoes. In order for early potatoes to grow better and ripen as early as possible, experienced gardeners heat them in wood shavings. Two weeks before planting, the sprouted potatoes are placed in a box full of wet sawdust.

Then a 3-centimeter layer of shavings is covered on top. For two weeks in a row, you need to maintain their humidity and ensure that the air temperature does not fall below 20 o C. During this time, the sprouts on the potatoes should reach a height of 8 cm.

Before planting, each potato is moistened in a fertilizer solution and planted in the ground in the usual way. If the forecast predicts frost, then the entire bed is covered with polyethylene.

Germination of seeds

In order for the seeds to germinate well and form strong roots, they are germinated in sawdust, which turns into loose material. In this case, the wood chips must be very fine. True, gardeners need to remember that sprouted seeds are replanted in the ground on time. If you postpone this matter until later, they may die.

Chips are extracted only from deciduous trees. Oak doesn't count. And it must be rotted. A thin layer of wet small shavings is poured onto the bottom of a flat container with low sides. After that, the seeds are carefully laid out on them and fertilizer is poured on top.

After which it is all covered with a film with small holes for oxygen. This container is placed on the windowsill on sunny place. After the first shoots have hatched, the film is removed and a thin layer of soil is sprinkled on top, in which they will then grow.

This is done so that the plant gets used to the composition of the soil. At the same time, the container is placed in a cooler place. After one or two leaves appear, the sprouts are transplanted into a separate pot with soil.

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

In order to bring unrotted sawdust onto the site, you first need to prepare it. To do this, you need to stock up on nitrogen-containing mineral fertilizer, for example, urea. Its quantity can be calculated if you consider that for each bucket of sawdust you will need about one handful of dry fertilizer. It is better to take fertilizer in granules; powdered fertilizer can cake and form a long-soluble lump.
To prepare sawdust, it is convenient to use large two-hundred-liter containers. plastic bags for black trash.

The preparation process is very simple. In an old tank or large garden bucket, thoroughly mix sawdust with fertilizer in the specified proportion, after moistening it, and carefully pour it 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’s good if sawdust needs to be added in the fall. Over the summer, the sawdust in the bags will not only become saturated with nitrogen, but will also lose its rigidity and prickliness.

Both in spring and autumn, sawdust is added to the soil for digging for any crops. 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 under 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

They are irreplaceable on our heavy loams. I’ll tell you about my 10 years of experience using this valuable fertilizer.
We get it from a sawmill located near our partnership. Sawdust has many useful properties.

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. In terms of its nutritional properties, sawdust is close to high-moor peat; it is rich in fiber, contains microelements, lignin, resins, and essential oils. True, they must be used together with liming materials.

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

Against harmful insects sawdust also "works". One day there was a season favorable for the Colorado potato beetle. But after introducing fresh sawdust into the rows, the number of larvae began to decrease before our eyes. Fresh sawdust releases resinous substances that repel pests. But over the summer you have to renew the sawdust in between 2-3 times. After a year, we swap the beds and potato boundaries.

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

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

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

Thanks to sawdust, our raspberries do not get sick and grow in one place more than 10 years. Strawberries also produce a bountiful harvest under sawdust in the same beds for 13 years. We spread sawdust 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 the structure of the soil and its physical properties. They do not contain weed seeds, unlike manure, and also evaporate moisture slowly. Even if weeds make their way through a thick layer of mulch, they can be easily pulled out of the loose soil.

Every year we add sawdust to film greenhouses to loosen the soil. We pre-moisten them with mullein (3 kg per 10 liters of water). This solution is enough to moisten 3 buckets of sawdust. In the fall, we scatter limestone material and embed the sawdust into the soil 2 weeks before planting cucumber and tomato seedlings.

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

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

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

Vera Sinitsyn

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