Fertile land is a horse that will always take out. In our time, there is no gardener-gardener who does not know this statement. Therefore, everyone is diligently digging and fertilizing the soil, especially now, in the fall, when the harvest is harvested and the beds are empty.
But, no matter how hard many try, soil fertility does not improve over the years. And often, on the contrary, it falls. Every spring, arriving at their plots, gardeners see beds with gray compacted soil, as if in the fall they did not drag compost on them and did not dig them up to a lush state. There is a hard struggle for fertility, which means for the harvest. And we groan, clutching at the tired lower back.
Naturally, farmers are looking for ways to work with the land, which facilitate physical labor, without causing sciatica or heart attack with a stroke, but increase fertility. They are constantly improving agricultural practices, using organic green fertilizers and are ready for any labor feats for the sake of high yields. As a result, many different systems, directions, new technologies for increasing fertility have now appeared in world agriculture. All of them are based on imitation of Nature. Indeed, in Nature, the maintenance of fertility proceeds in a natural way, according to a simple scheme: everything that plants have taken from the soil during the summer, then comes back. To understand how this happens, you need to know specifically the processes occurring in the soil, to know the role of its inhabitants in the formation of fertility.
In recent years, we have been actively developing a direction called Organic Farming, which helps to somehow understand these mechanisms. Its main, initial, position is that the soil is considered as a living organism, and not just a mechanical mixture of various particles of organic and inorganic origin. But the majority of modern farmers simply do not think about it. Meanwhile, the soil, it turns out, lives and develops according to its own laws, like any living organism. Very interesting processes are taking place in it, which are now being actively studied. Living beings arise and die there. They breathe, they eat someone or something, they eat them, they excrete their waste products. Ultimately, the soil is saturated with organic matter, oxygen, carbon dioxide and other substances necessary for plants, i.e. becomes fertile.
Who are these soil dwellers who create soil fertility? These are all kinds of microorganisms, fungi, as well as various soil "animals", the main of which are earthworms. All of them are called so: "workers of the soil." If we take care of them and cherish them, they will thank us by giving them excellent nutritious soil. It is this circumstance that Organic Agriculture uses, helping farmers to find agricultural methods, so that with their help, as they say, "make the soil."
Now the main provisions have been developed, which are aimed at putting this "soil making" into practice.
Organic farming principles
1. Do not dig up the soil with the seam turnover. Because when digging, both aerobic bacteria that live in the upper soil layers and need oxygen, and anaerobic bacteria that live in deeper soil layers without oxygen, die. You can only loosen the soil surface - a layer of 5-10 cm. In addition, by digging, we disrupt the natural paths of soil living creatures. For example, for earthworms, digging up the soil is about the same as destroying our house into bricks or logs and trying to live among these debris.
2. Do not fertilize the soil with mineral fertilizers. Because the inhabitants of the soil perceive these fertilizers as poisons that kill them. Mineral fertilizers can only be used in very low concentrations.It is advisable to use only organic fertilizers, but unfortunately this is not always possible.
3. To create conditions for the active life of all "soil makers". For this it is necessary, first of all, to feed them with organic residues. Any organic matter that can rot is suitable for them: old non-synthetic rags, newspapers, cardboard, dry grass, branches, foliage, etc. All this soil dwellers will eat and digest. Moreover, for lunch, you need to create comfortable conditions for them: it should be warm, humid, a lot of air with oxygen. With sufficient nutrition, they all actively reproduce. Ultimately, the soil is enriched with humus.
In the process of the vital activity of microorganisms, carbon dioxide is released, which is necessary for plants and which in the atmosphere is insufficient for their normal growth.
How do microorganisms eat, because they have no mouth, no teeth, no stomach? And they eat like this: they secrete digestive enzymes with their whole body, these enzymes digest the surrounding organic matter. It remains to suck in the resulting dish. They also eat mushrooms, which take a very active part in the processing of organic matter.
The note
To accelerate and intensify the processes of organic matter processing, special microbiological preparations have been developed. They help gardeners very quickly increase the fertility of their beds. However, you can do without these drugs, as Nature does without them.
Irreplaceable worms
In the production of humus, all kinds of worms that live in the soil, such as earthworms, dung, etc., play a huge role. These are powerful "eaters" of organic matter, thanks to which our land is annually freed from last year's fallen leaves and dry grass. They work very quickly. I watched the first fallen autumn leaves disappear. After 3 days, they no longer lie flat on the ground, and their remains stick out upright from the burrows of earthworms. This is especially evident on the trodden paths. After a week, not a single sheet remained on them. In the same way, worms very quickly eat dead grass residues, which are primarily attacked by microbes. Eating these residues together with soil particles and microbial mass, the worms throw out their waste - coprolites.
The special value of the work of worms lies in the fact that they eat at the same time and pathogenic microorganisms, clearing the soil from them. Microbes eating organic matter also cleanse the soil of pathogens. Thanks to this, the plants grown according to the agricultural technologies of Natural Agriculture practically do not get sick. In addition, these plants receive adequate nutrition, and their immune system works well.
Thus, the task of preserving the fertility of our soil is to return to the earth what our plants have taken from it. For example, they grew a pumpkin - a powerful whip with luxurious leaves, a huge pumpkin. Let's leave all this in place of growth, let it turn into humus. But we took the pumpkin home from the garden. So, it is necessary to compensate the soil for this loss: for example, to bring to this place a couple of wheelbarrows of hay from different grasses. See how the trees act wisely: they have grown the leaves, dropped them in the fall, and microbes, mushrooms, worms have turned them into humus. The tree can live on. The same - in the fields-meadows with herbs. They grow from year to year, do not die of hunger.
The benefits of mulching
Our northern soils are very poor in humus, and it is not enough for us to maintain the level of fertility, we need to increase it. What do we do with the land in our orchards? Every autumn, having harvested, we leave clean rectangles of bare earth. And in the spring we dig, fertilize with mineral fertilizers, treat sciatica ...
I will not talk here about all the agricultural practices of Organic Farming aimed at increasing fertility. You can read about them in the literature.I will tell only about the simplest and accessible to every owner of 6 acres, which you can use now in your garden and which is suitable throughout the season, because you need to work with the land on the site continuously. This technique is the mulching of the near-trunk circles with mown grass, and later, in the fall, with fallen leaves. This is an excellent food for all soil inhabitants, which they will quickly turn into humus.
I noticed a long time ago, and many gardeners, probably, too, that if you leave a pile of mown grass somewhere on the lawn, then new grass will soon grow around it, more green and lush than the rest. Here's a great organic fertilizer - grass cut. Now I mulch all summer the near-stem circles of all berry bushes and fruit trees with cut grass. I take grass from my lawn, and also follow it to the surrounding lawns and even to the nearest forest. I have been mowing all summer. I add the grass gradually, layer by layer. When I add the next batch of herbs, the previous one is already drying up. This is very important because soil microorganisms and worms only eat dead grass. Therefore, we also need the grass to dry out.
What is the use of herbal mulch? First, a layer of grass protects the soil underneath from drying out. Secondly, it prevents weeds from germinating. Even perennial weeds are difficult to break through. Individual stems or leaves that stick out their noses can be easily pulled out. In addition, the soil under such a grass cushion is always loose, filled with air. Microorganisms begin to proliferate there. Huge quantities of them die off, providing additional food for the worms. Sensing food supplies, earthworms run there, piercing the soil with their moves, making it loose and airy, and the feast begins like a mountain! Soon this herb turns into a nutritious fertilizer. When the autumn frosts begin, the ground under the grass is still warm, and microorganisms and worms continue their work to create humus. And one more plus: in the soil in the root zone, especially if they are shallow - gooseberries, currants, cherries
etc. - the situation in terms of temperature fluctuations becomes calmer. Microorganisms that live in the root zone and help plant nutrition work at full strength for a long time. Plants are happy!
With grass, I began to mulch everything I could: apple trees, pears, plums. Raspberries, gooseberries, all currants. I mulch blackberries, strawberries with grass. And also beds with cabbages, zucchini, tomatoes, and even planting in a greenhouse. I liked the result. They became less sick. Yields have increased.
At the lectures, experts taught us that the near-trunk circles of fruit trees must be dug up and kept under black steam. They didn't do that in our garden. My clever ancestors always kept the tree trunks tinned, and left the cut grass in the same place. All of our fruit trees have produced and continue to produce excellent harvests. I do the same. In the fall, I add fallen leaves from alder, birch, linden to the trunk circles. Moreover, I pour these leaves over the leaves that have fallen from the fruit, even if there are some sores on them, the leaves from the fruit. It is recommended to burn such leaves or bury them deeply. I don't bury, luckily for earthworms. They primarily eat the lower leaves, with disease-causing spores. I do not leave the grass and leaves closer than 20 cm to the trunk, so that the bark on the trunk does not begin to undermine.
I do the same with plums, cherries, pears. I don’t remove the leaves in the spring. Apple trees wake up later because the ground under the leaves keeps the cold longer. Disease-causing spores from under the layer of birch leaves do not scatter, and worms with these leaves quickly straighten out along with these harmful spores and microbes. Naturally, the mulched plants receive good organic nutrition.
So it is very useful to mulch fruit trees that have fallen from barren trees in the fall.They save roots from frost, bury diseases and feed our plants.
At raspberries and blackberries, I mow the grass with a sickle and immediately leave it, neatly laid out in a beautiful ring.
For currants, gooseberries, I lay the grass in a ring under the bush and a little behind the projection of the crown. In the fall, I also sprinkle fallen leaves there.
Strawberries - young bushes from rosettes - are planted in rows on high - 20 cm - ridges. In the grooves formed between the rows, I also gradually, layer by layer, pour grass. As it is processed, the bushes will receive the organic nutrition that strawberries love so much.
I grow potatoes in the same way: I plant them on high ridges, where the soil quickly warms up in spring. Later, when all the soil warms up, I fall asleep between the rows, and then all the plantings with grass. In autumn, when I dig out potatoes, underneath I find a layer of humus and a large number of worms.
The note
I also mulch plantings in the greenhouse with cut grass: peppers, tomatoes. I do this in mid - late June, when the soil in the greenhouse warms up well. If you mulch earlier, when the soil is still cold, then tomatoes and, especially, peppers grow very poorly. But after the June mulching, everything
is going great: moisture in the soil remains longer, earthworms loosen the soil, plants receive additional nutrition.
Thus, using the cut grass, we return to the soil what the plants took from it.
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Date: Friday, 08 August 2014
