Sawdust is wood waste, which a good owner will always find a use for. Someone takes this material lightly, and someone considers it the most valuable material for use in the country and garden.
Gardeners have found a large number of useful qualities and properties in sawdust. This material is an excellent soil baking powder. It makes the soil breathable and prevents the appearance of a crust on the surface of the earth. The soil mixture containing sawdust absorbs and retains moisture well. And sawdust is a natural organic top dressing.
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 country
So that summer residents do not have additional problems when using sawdust, it is necessary to take into account some features of this material. For example, in the process of decomposition of sawdust in the soil, the nitrogen content decreases, and fresh sawdust in the beds contributes to an increase in the acidity of the soil.
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 (blueberries, quince, barberries, viburnum, honeysuckle, cranberries, dogwood), conifers, herbs and spices (sorrel, spinach, rosemary), vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, radishes, potatoes , carrot).
You can rid fresh sawdust of its ability to oxidize 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. It is recommended to use both organic additives (egg shells, wood ash, chalk powder, dolomite flour) and various mineral fertilizers, which contain phosphorus, potassium, calcium, saltpeter, etc.
So that sawdust does not absorb nitrogen from the soil, you need to mix it with a 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 saturated with the necessary amount of nitrogen. Instead of mineral fertilizers, you can add organic ingredients: herbal infusions (for example, based on nettles), freshly cut grass, bird droppings or manure.
In practice, rotted sawdust is obtained as follows. You will need a large piece of dense plastic film, on which you need to pour prepared fresh sawdust. The prepared liquid (from 200 grams of urea and 10 liters of water) must be carefully poured over all wood waste. On one bucket of sawdust you need to pour the same amount of solution. Wet, saturated with moisture, sawdust should be put in large garbage bags made of dark material, tied tightly and left in this form for overheating for 15-20 days.
1. Sawdust as a mulching 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 adversely affect the preparation of plants for the winter period, 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 way is classic. The composition of the compost includes vegetable and food waste, cow dung and bird droppings, as well as sawdust. With their carbon content, they will help to prepare an excellent organic fertilizer in a short time.
The second way is longer. To prepare the fertilizer, you will need a pit (about one meter deep), which you need to fill eighty percent with sawdust. From above, wood waste must be covered with lime and wood ash. The rotting 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, seeds are laid on top, and then again a small sawdust layer. Covered with a thick film, the seed box is placed in a warm, darkened room until the first shoots appear. Further development of seedlings should take place in a well-lit place. The top sawdust layer is sprinkled with a thin layer of earth. The picking of young plants is carried out immediately after the formation of the first full-fledged leaf.
It is recommended to germinate potatoes in a sawdust substrate. Ten centimeters of wet sawdust are first poured into the prepared box, then potato tubers and sawdust again (about three centimeters) are laid out. Before the appearance of full-fledged seedlings (about eight centimeters long), regular water spraying is carried out, after which the tubers can be transplanted into beds.
4. Sawdust as part of warm beds
Various organic wastes, including sawdust, are suitable for building a warm bed. But with their help, you can not only "warm" 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 aisles
Sawdust coating between the beds in the garden or cottage makes it possible to move around the land even after rainy days. Shoes will remain clean, no lumps of dirt or sticking garden soil will scare you. Such a coating on the land plot looks 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 the preservation of moisture in the soil and organic top dressing.
6. Sawdust as a heater
If you store vegetables and fruits (for example, apples, carrots or cabbage) indoors in a high box with sawdust, they will retain their freshness and taste for a long time. You can also save crops 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
The composition of the soil for growing seedlings of vegetable crops, such as tomatoes, sweet peppers, eggplants and cucumbers, also contains rotted sawdust.
8. Cultivation of mushrooms
For growing mushrooms, fresh sawdust is used, which undergoes special preparation, consisting of several stages. It is recommended to take only sawdust of deciduous trees for the substrate. Birch, oak, poplar, maple, aspen and willow sawdust are ideal for breeding oyster mushrooms.
9. Sawdust for tree insulation
Fruit trees need warming for the winter. Sawdust must be placed in dense garbage bags and tightly tied so that moisture, frost and rodents do not penetrate into them. Then, with such packages, you need to overlay young trees around the trunk. This method of insulation is proven and reliable.
The vine can be insulated in another way. To do this, you need a wooden frame, knocked together from small boards. It must be placed on top of the plant, filled with fresh sawdust to the very top and tightly closed with a film.
It is very important that the sawdust, when used as a heater, does not get wet, otherwise, during the first frosts, they will become a frozen lump.
10. Animal sawdust
Sawdust and wood shavings from fruit trees make excellent cage bedding for rabbits, goats, piglets, poultry and other animals. This material can provide a double benefit: minimal cost (or no financial cost at all) and organic fertilizer. With the help of woodworking 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 the smokehouse
For smoking meat, lard, fish, as well as vegetables and fruits, wood waste is used in the form of shavings, chips and sawdust of some types of trees. 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 chips and sawdust. Professionals in this business prepare sawdust mixtures from several trees at once.
12. Use of sawdust in construction and finishing works
Construction workers use sawdust to make sawdust concrete. Such a mixture of concrete and crushed wood waste is used for the production of building blocks and bricks, as well as plaster for finishing country houses and enclosed gazebos. You can also make a mixture for plastering sawdust with clay.
Since sawdust is a material that retains heat and is natural, they can be used to insulate floors and walls in any room.
13. Sawdust in the classroom for the development of creative abilities
Creative fantasy and imagination has no limits. Real craftsmen use sawdust both in its pure form (for filling pillows or toys) and in color. A little gouache and colored sawdust will be an excellent material for applications.
Using sawdust in the garden (video)
Whether or not sawdust can be used in the garden to fertilize the soil is a favorite topic of discussion between gardeners and gardeners. Opinions on this matter are absolutely opposite: some gardeners praise sawdust and use it to the fullest, others are categorically against such “recklessness”. Who is right here?
With proper preparation, it is certainly possible to use sawdust as a fertilizer. And not only. Sawdust, it turns out, is generally a wonderful help in the household. There are a lot of options for using them, we counted a damn dozen ...
Why sawdust is good in the garden
Sawdust has a lot of necessary and useful properties for a gardener. For example, they are a good soil leavening agent, which improves its structure and prevents cracking and crusting. In addition, sawdust is able to absorb and retain liquid, which allows it to be used where it is necessary to reduce moisture. Sawdust can insulate, disinfect, decorate, protect.
Finally, let's not forget that sawdust is wood waste. That is, the real organic matter, which is processed by soil microorganisms into nutrients necessary for everything growing on earth. And like any other organic matter, sawdust should not be sent to landfills, but to beds.
How to avoid problems when using sawdust in the country
But if sawdust is so beautiful, why are there opponents of its use? There are, in fact, two reasons for distrust of sawdust: the introduction of fresh sawdust increases the acidity of the soil and sawdust absorbs nitrogen from the soil during decomposition.
Both of these problems are solvable. The very first solution is to use sawdust for crops that grow well in acidic soils (pH 5.5-6.0). And there are quite a lot of them: Japanese quince, barberry, blueberries, honeysuckle, viburnum, potatoes, dogwood, cranberries, carrots, cucumbers, rhubarb, radishes, turnips, rosemary, tomatoes, pumpkins, conifers, spinach, sorrel.
If you do not want to take risks with fresh sawdust, their oxidizing ability must be neutralized. To do this, sawdust is mixed with “alkaline” materials: ash, lime, eggshells, dolomite flour, crushed chalk or fertilizers (superphosphate, potassium chloride, sodium or calcium nitrate, potassium or ammonium sulfate).
The second problem is even easier to solve. Since sawdust needs nitrogen so much, why not just add it to them? Let's add it! A bucket of sawdust usually takes 200 grams of nitrogen fertilizers (for example, urea) dissolved in water. Water in this case is required so that the sawdust is well saturated.
Those who do not recognize mineral fertilizers mix sawdust with freshly cut grass, manure, bird or rabbit droppings, spill them or other grasses. And the problem of “pulling” nitrogen is no more.
How to put all this into practice? We take a large piece of film and spread it on the site. Pour sawdust mixed with ash onto the film. For each bucket of sawdust we take ten liters of water and two hundred grams of urea. We dissolve urea in water, spill sawdust, cover it with a second piece of film on top, press down on the film so that it does not blow away. In this form, we leave our mixture for two to three weeks. There is no place for such a structure? No problem. Prepared sawdust can be folded into black garbage bags and tightly closed.
After the expiration of the prescribed period, we will receive the so-called rotted sawdust. All the shortcomings of fresh sawdust can now be forgotten.
13 ways to use sawdust in the country
Method 1. Mulching
Using sawdust as mulch is the first thing that comes to mind. It is enough to prepare them as described above, and the sawdust is completely ready to work as a mulching material. The soil under crops is covered with a layer of sawdust of 3-5 centimeters. Strawberries, strawberries, garlic and raspberries respond especially well to mulching with sawdust.
It is best to mulch with sawdust in spring and early summer, then by the end of the season you will not find sawdust in the garden - they will have time to rot. A thick layer of sawdust mulch in the second half of summer is undesirable, it will prevent the evaporation of excess moisture from the soil, which, in turn, will not allow the plants to properly prepare for winter.
Method 2. Composting
Another obvious use for sawdust in the garden is to add it to sawdust. Sawdust is a great carbon component for making compost, and when mixed with plant residues, kitchen waste, grass or manure, it will quickly turn into a natural organic fertilizer.
You can compost sawdust and “no impurities”. To do this, you will have to dig a hole a meter deep, fill it with fresh sawdust, and sprinkle lime, ash, etc. on top. After two years, the sawdust will rot and they can safely fertilize the beds.
Method 3. Germination of seeds and tubers
Many gardeners use sawdust as a substrate for germinating seeds and tubers. Sawdust is poured into the bottom of the container with a thin layer and the seeds are laid out on them. Sprinkle on top with another layer of sawdust, also thin. Cover the structure with a film and send it to a dark warm place. When shoots appear, the film is removed, the container is exposed to light, and the sawdust is lightly sprinkled with soil. With the advent of the first true leaf, the seedlings dive into separate ones.
To germinate potatoes, sawdust is moistened with water, poured into a box with a ten-centimeter layer. Seed tubers are laid out on sawdust, sprinkled with another layer of smaller sawdust - 2-3 centimeters. Sprinkle the contents of the boxes with water from time to time. When the tubers sprout 6-8 centimeters long, you can plant them in the ground.
In addition, some small seeds (for example,) are mixed with sawdust when sowing for better distribution along the furrow.
Method 4. Device ridges
Sawdust can be used when - here any organic matter is needed and important. With the help of sawdust, the ridges located in the lowlands are also raised. This is done as follows: at the site of the future bed, they dig a trench 25 centimeters deep and stuff it with sawdust mixed with lime, ash, etc. The earth dug out of the trench is laid on top. So the bed becomes higher, and the sawdust inside will not only supply nutrients to the plants, but also retain excess moisture.
Method 5. Coating for furrows and tracks
Sawdust can serve as an excellent cover for the passages between the beds and any other paths. The aisles covered with sawdust look beautiful, you can safely walk on them after the rain, without fear of getting your shoes dirty. In addition, sawdust is well compressed, preventing weeds from growing. They protect the soil from drying out and nourish it with organic matter. And you can also sprinkle the tracks with sawdust in ice!
Method 6. Storing vegetables
Carrots, cabbage and apples are well stored in sawdust. And if you decide to do it yourself for storing crops on the balcony, sawdust can come in handy as a heater.
Method 7. Preparation of soil for seedlings
Sawdust is one of the components of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and eggplants. Let's not forget that ONLY rotted sawdust is used to prepare seedling soil.
Method 8. Growing mushrooms
Mushroom farming is very interesting. On fresh sawdust of hardwoods (oak, birch, willow, aspen, poplar, maple), oyster mushrooms work well. However, the technology for growing mushrooms is far from simple, and in order to become an ideal substrate for mycelium, sawdust must go through a multi-stage preparation.
Method 9. Warming of fruit trees
If you fill plastic bags with sawdust and spread them around young fruit trees, the latter will be reliably insulated for the winter. Sawdust in packages will not get wet, will not freeze, will not attract rodents. Sawdust is very popular as a heater for the vine: a specially knocked together box without a bottom is placed on top of the plant, filled with sawdust and covered with a film on top.
Please note that in both cases, the sawdust is covered with polyethylene. It is important. Just like that, without any shelter, the sawdust poured on the plant will get wet during the winter, and then turn into an ice block.
Method 10. Bedding for animals
The best sawdust for this purpose is sawdust from fruit trees. Using shavings and sawdust as bedding for animals is beneficial from all sides. Wood waste is cheap (and often free), it insulates the floor, and it is hygienic due to its absorbent properties. In addition, such a litter, having served its intended purpose, will become an effective fertilizer.
Method 11. Smoking
Those who smoke meat, fish or lard in the country, sawdust, wood chips and shavings will always find a use. True, not all sawdust is suitable for a smokehouse, but only certain types of wood. Juniper and alder chips are most suitable for smoking. Ash, hazel, pear, maple, oak and apple are sometimes used. Each tree gives the finished dish its own aroma, so some gourmets prepare special smoking mixtures from several species. Chips and shavings for smoking are advised to be made from branches cut in the spring, for example, during planned pruning.
Method 12. Construction and decoration
Many, for sure, know that sawdust can be mixed into concrete. Garden houses and arbors are plastered with sawdust concrete or a mixture of clay and sawdust. Concrete with sawdust can be made into bricks or building blocks. Sawdust is also used as an insulating material for walls and floors.
Method 13. Creativity
Sawdust is loved to be used for crafts by both children and adults. Firstly, they can serve as an excellent material for stuffing toys, pillows, a torso for a stuffed animal, and any elements of country decor. Secondly, sawdust can be made colored! They are mixed with gouache solution and dried well. And from multi-colored sawdust they make both applications together with children, and the most complex “sawdust carpets”. For example, these: 
We wish you success and great harvests!
Waste wood is used in the garden in different ways - as mulch, in compost. How useful it is to use sawdust as a fertilizer, what nutrients wood contains, in what form it is better to bring it into the soil for digging - the main questions for beginner gardeners.
If there is wood waste, they are used to decorate the site - they sprinkle paths in the garden, flower beds. If the beds are located in a lowland, then with the help of shavings they can be raised.
sawdust properties
The use of sawdust in the garden in the fall helps protect the roots of berry bushes from freezing. The fact is that their root system is superficial, located in the ground no deeper than 30 cm, therefore, in a cold climate, raspberries and gooseberries easily freeze out.
For this purpose, you can use fresh shavings, after sprinkling it with lime or any other alkali. This is done so that the wood does not take useful nutrients from the soil, especially nitrogen.
The fine fraction of wood helps to improve the physical characteristics of the soil, especially clay or loam. When introduced into the soil by digging, sawdust in the garden and garden is used as a baking powder. As a result, more oxygen is supplied to the roots, the plants breathe and develop better.
The method of using sawdust in the country as sponges for water has proven itself well. The water entering the soil is retained by the wood, and the plants do not dry out in summer. If you mulch the soil and roots with sawdust after watering trees and shrubs in the fall, then the water lingers longer in the soil, the plants are provided with moisture for the entire cold period.
According to chemical indicators, rotted or composted wood residues are more useful. They contain the main nutrients - nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and calcium, have a neutral reaction and do not affect the acidity of the soil.
Small wood chips in the ground - benefit or harm
Not all plants love acidic soil, but only rhododendrons, azaleas, conifers, hydrangeas. For example, if you add 10 - 15 kg of fresh sawdust, there will be no harvest at all.
Video: Sawdust for a big harvest
Potatoes love nitrogen, and sawdust mineralizes fertilizer and prevents plants from getting it. When using sawdust as a fertilizer for potatoes, there will be no harvest for several years in a row. The same thing happens with tomatoes, cucumbers and other plants. This is a minus, but there is a solution - to neutralize the acid with alkalis:
- ash;
- calcium nitrate;
- dolomite flour;
- chalk or lime.
In this way, fresh shavings can be completely neutralized, so the question of benefit or harm when using sawdust in the garden remains open.
Mulching the soil with wood shavings does not allow weeds to grow, as it closes the sunlight. There is a secret here on how to use sawdust as mulch in a summer cottage and prepare them for soil application:
- Take shavings bucket and spread on film.
- sprinkle on top 200 g of urea.
- Pour bucket of water, cover and leave to ripen 2 weeks.
So do with fresh shavings. Overripe ones do not need to be marinated. Next, mix the resulting substrate with ash or other alkali and apply under the roots. Such sawdust mulch will not harm plants.
The use of shavings as fertilizer
Prepared wood chips are in themselves a good top dressing. But there is a way to use fresh sawdust in the garden as fertilizer - build a compost heap and put them to rot.
in compost
How to make sawdust compost lots of:
- Manure is an expensive pleasure if you don’t have your own animals. Therefore, it is possible to increase the amount of raw materials based on manure with the help of wood residues. Since both components are nitrogen-containing, dry leaves, hay, straw are added to the compost so that it is evenly saturated with air and ripens faster.
A centner of manure must be added per cubic meter of wood waste. The mixture matures within a year. If you need to make compost from sawdust quickly, then they use biological accelerators - bacteria.
- Instead of manure, you can use urea or bird droppings. In the summer, the pile is covered with a film on top so that precipitation does not fall and nutrients are not washed out. watered as it dries out to maintain the same level of humidity at which bacteria have the opportunity to actively process organic matter.
- Instead of manure, you can add kitchen waste. It is especially important in the fall, when people make conservation and eat vegetable peelings, rotten fruits, greens. 10 kg of wood ash, 2.5 kg of urea, 2 centners of chips, 5 buckets of water are added to a centner of waste.
- Wood sawdust can be composted with mineral fertilizers - potassium sulfate, superphosphate, ammonium nitrate and lime. A bucket of chips is 30 g of phosphate, 40 g of saltpeter, 120 g of slaked lime. After ripening, fertilizer is applied in 3 buckets per square meter.
The main condition for rapid maturation is regular shoveling of the substrate. Compost is produced by aerobic bacteria that need air. The more it is ingested, the faster the microorganisms will multiply and the sooner they will process the raw materials. It is customary to stir the mixture every 2 weeks.
As a mulch
Apply sawdust in the garden for mulching strawberries. This helps to protect the berries from rotting, especially in rainy weather. Ripening strawberries do not fall on the ground, so they are harvested clean and undamaged.
If you mix fresh manure with fresh shavings and cover the roots, you can avoid spring frosts. In such a mixture, earthworms quickly start up and accelerate decay.
Eukaryotes eat organic matter and secrete coprolites into the soil - waste products that enrich the soil with humic acids. The harvest of berries with such top dressing will be 2 times more.
If sawdust is used as a mulching fertilizer, then rotted shavings are added to rotted manure, and fresh wood is added to fresh manure.
Seeds germinate in wet shavings, but they must be quickly transplanted into the ground, because the wood will not provide them with nutrients and the plants will die. In humus, seedlings can exist provided that superphosphate, nitrogen and potassium are added.
Coniferous sawdust and litter
Softwood waste is not as nutritious as hardwood shavings, but is quite suitable for restoring soil aeration. The method of preparation of coniferous sawdust is the same as for all other types of wood.
In order not to waste time and effort, coniferous litter or shavings can simply be scattered on the site layer 3 - 5 cm and leave for the winter. Wood holds back moisture loss, so soil microflora will actively develop in a humid environment.
This will attract earthworms - they will gradually process the mulch layer and loosen the surface of the soil. Planting something in such a plot in the spring will be much easier.
Considering that coniferous plant residues rot very poorly on their own, they are kept in the air for some time before being stored in a compost heap - an average of 1 year.
birch shavings
An interesting suggestion is where to use birch sawdust as a fertilizer in the country: fill them with large plastic bags, make holes and populate mushroom spores - mushrooms or oyster mushrooms. The fact is that the mycelium of these mushrooms loves only the substrate of deciduous trees, quickly masters the environment, and mushrooms grow faster.
Mycelium shavings must be fresh and free of mold. It is pre-boiled for 2 hours, then dried and the mycelium can be populated. It is important to monitor the humidity - with an excess of water in the bags, mold can multiply. Humidity is checked by squeezing in the hand: if a couple of drops of water stand out, then it is optimal for planting.
In order for the mycelium to breathe, be sure to make holes in the film, otherwise the mycelium will die without air.
Using sawdust in a greenhouse
Most summer residents use shavings to heat the greenhouse. If you mix it with manure, the combustion process will begin, and warm air masses will warm the seedlings in the spring before the onset of warm weather. Lay the mixture under the top layer of soil or between rows.
Apply fertilizer from sawdust in the following way:
- In autumn, a layer of dry foliage, straw and green grass is laid in the greenhouse.
- In the spring, manure mixed with shavings is laid on top of the semi-overripe layer. Both layers are mixed.
- Further on top is another layer of straw.
- A layer of soil mixed with ash and mineral fertilizers.
Under the ground, wood rots faster because microorganisms from leaves and straw spread to the chips. Earthworms, attracted by the smell of manure, help the process. By next year, all that plant-based "hamburger" will be nutritious humus.
For cucumbers and tomatoes, sawdust treated with urea, superphosphate and potassium sulfate is a rich source of nutrition. Chips infused with an aqueous solution are used for digging with the top layer of soil. It is better if the wood lies in the air for about a year. It is also possible to grow seedlings in such a substrate, but it is pre-mixed with the soil.
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Sawdust in the country is always in abundance during construction work. But does everyone know that this organic material can be successfully used to enrich the soil and increase yields? How to use sawdust with maximum benefit, and will be discussed further.
Sawdust is an excellent loosening organic material, if they are added, the soil becomes light, perfectly passes air and moisture, and does not form crusts. The root system of plants develops better in it, with it there is less trouble for the summer resident, because you can loosen much less often. Sawdust in the soil itself becomes a fertilizer, along with other organic matter. All this is true only if you add not fresh sawdust, but rotted, or at least half rotted.
Fresh sawdust takes nitrogen from the ground, and this cannot be allowed in any way, because nitrogen is very important for a plant at all stages of its life, especially during a period of rapid growth. This means that only rotten sawdust should be used for the garden (for the garden, flower garden), they usually have a dark brown color and not as hard texture as fresh ones. If this process is not regulated in any way, then you can pile them up and wait at least 10 years. The process of decay slows down, because a crust forms on top of such a pile that does not allow moisture to pass through, and there is no living organic matter inside at all. It should be accelerated by mixing sawdust with manure, such as horse manure, or by adding them to compost. One more caveat: applying a lot of sawdust makes the soil more acidic. This scares some gardeners, but in vain, you just need to add lime, this will restore acidity.
sawdust as mulching material
You can mulch with sawdust everything that grows in the garden: vegetables, raspberry bushes, strawberry bushes. If you cover the ground in the garden with a layer of 3 cm thick, then moisture will be better preserved in the ground - you will have to water less often. Thanks to such a mulch, weeds practically do not grow between strawberry bushes, the berries are always clean, dry, they are not threatened with rot. Only sawdust must be “prepared” before use in this way: 3 buckets of sawdust are poured onto the spread film, 200 g of urea on top, water is poured over it all (at least 10 liters). You can make several such layers, cover with a film on top, press it down to create a greenhouse effect. After 2 weeks, you can pour mulch on the garden.
It is reasonable to use such mulch in the garden from the beginning of summer, it will retain moisture, and by the end of summer it will smoothly mix with the top layer of soil, making it much more fertile, looser. If you put it in the garden in the second half of summer, there will be less benefit when it rains, when excess moisture should actively evaporate. Too thick a layer of mulch may not have time to mix with the soil, then the earth will need to be thoroughly loosened, and dug up in the fall - a layer of excess mulch will freeze in the spring and will delay the thawing of the earth.
Among the raspberries, a thick layer of sawdust is poured - at least 20 cm, then lime is poured on top and all this is poured over with a solution of urea (1 cup of urea per 1 bucket of water). All this gradually turns into an excellent fertilizer, slowly but constantly coming to the roots of raspberries, and the need for loosening disappears. This mulch protects the bushes from pests. They say that with such top dressing, raspberries give a wonderful harvest for more than 10 years in one place. Strawberries and potatoes are advised to mulch with fresh sawdust of coniferous trees (before pouring, you need to spill them with a solution of urea) - they scare away the weevil and the Colorado potato beetle.
Use in greenhouses
In greenhouses, to enrich fresh sawdust with nitrogen, they are mixed with horse manure or other organic matter. In this case, the manure must also be fresh, and rotted horse manure is mixed with rotted sawdust. This combination causes horse manure to warm up more in the spring, and overheating occurs faster. You can add sawdust to greenhouse beds both in spring and autumn. It is good to put plant residues (grass, leaves, vegetable tops) on the beds in the fall, and put horse manure on top in the spring, sprinkle it with lime and carpentry waste. Then you need to mix all this with a pitchfork, and put straw with soil on top, add ash and mineral fertilizers. If you pour boiling water over it, then such a soil-mineral-organic mixture will warm up faster.
outdoor application
Sawdust is actively used to form beds and get rid of excess moisture.
In the lowlands around the planned bed, a trench is dug 30-40 cm wide and 20-25 cm deep. The earth is transferred from it to the bed, and the trench is filled with sawdust. Thus, the edges are protected from drying out, and a dry path is organized. Later, the sawdust will pereperet and turn into an excellent fertilizer, which will mix with the soil during general digging.
Some summer residents arrange high garden beds. To do this, they dig a trench with a width of at least 1 m, plant remains are placed in it, sawdust with urea is placed on top, then again a layer of grass and leaves, dug earth is placed on top. So that the edges do not crumble and do not lose moisture, they are covered with peculiar sides made of straw and turf (with the roots outward), laid with a film. Many vegetables and flowers like to grow on such high beds. Sawdust mixed with horse manure is introduced into the open ground, but coniferous waste cannot be used for this - they overheat too slowly.
Video "On the benefits and dangers of sawdust"
This video talks about the benefits and harms of using sawdust.
sawdust in compost
Sawdust is most useful as a fertilizer, they make excellent compost. They are mixed (1 cubic meter) with horse manure (100 kg) and bird droppings (10 kg), watered, covered from the cold, and a year later they receive excellent fertilizer for all garden and garden crops. As in any compost, grass is added there (preferably without seeds), leaves, kitchen waste. Manure can be replaced with a solution of bird droppings, mullein or urea.
If you add soil to such compost, and even with earthworms, things will go faster. The finished humus, soft and dark, is completely different from what was put into the compost heap at first, it rather resembles crumbly greasy earth, this is how it is brought into the soil. So, if you have small waste left after construction or carpentry work, do not rush to get rid of them - it is better to arrange a compost heap. The land is inevitably depleted by cultivation, so good fertilizers are always needed.
Video "All you need to know about soil mulching"
Video instruction on soil mulching and types of mulch.
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, is a 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
It is not recommended to bring rotted sawdust in its pure form to garden beds, as they very acidify the 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:
- Pour fresh sawdust into the prepared pit.
- Sprinkle lime on top.
- 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 the admixture of 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 the high humidity during the rainy season, the 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 seed germination. 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
