If it is necessary to make the soil loose, use sawdust for the garden, the benefits and harms of which have been studied by experienced gardeners. But using fresh sawdust is not recommended. First they need to be prepared. To do this, add urea or mullein infusion, cover with polyethylene, and then stir from time to time to speed up the process of overheating.

After a couple of weeks, the shavings are ready to be used as fertilizer. Much has been written in reviews about the benefits or harms of sawdust in the garden. Experienced summer residents claim that they take nitrogen from the soil, and therefore from plants. They say that you should not use fresh sawdust in the garden, as the plantings will begin to wither.

The benefits of sawdust in the garden

Plants require loose soil for full growth. Adding rotted sawdust makes the soil favorable environment for planting garden plants whose roots receive sufficient moisture and oxygen. The use of sawdust allows you to get rid of the crust during dry periods.

They contain a large amount of fiber, essential oils and active substances. The material is successfully used to eliminate soil moisture. To do this, dig ditches between the rows and fill them with sawdust mixed with lime. Their regular use improves soil composition, reduces the number of weeds, and increases productivity.

What is their secret and how do they work?

They form a natural ecosystem for plants in the garden. It is important to use sawdust that has not been chemically treated or contaminated. Otherwise they will become a real poison for garden crops. If rotted sawdust is used as mulch at the beginning of summer, then by the end of the season, as a result of loosening and the activity of earthworms, it will mix with the soil.

A thick layer of sawdust distributed over the surface of the earth during the rainy season prevents the evaporation of moisture from the soil surface. This negatively affects the condition of fruit and berry crops.

Basic rules for using sawdust

Sawdust is an excellent mulch for the soil. They are sprinkled with a thick layer after planting the seedlings.

Advantages:

the weed disappears;
soil moisture is maintained;
protection from insects;
the soil remains loose;
favorable conditions for the growth of bacteria.

Mulching

Do you need sawdust for your garden in the fall? Everyone is trying to find out their benefits and harms. As a rule, the soil is mulched for the winter. To do this, fresh sawdust is mixed with peat or manure and scattered on the beds. Over the winter, the wood decomposes and becomes a nutritious substance. In the spring, they dig up or loosen the soil.

High warm beds

Every summer resident should study the benefits and harms of sawdust for the garden. How to make multi-layered ones in a low-lying area raised beds? For such purposes it is convenient to use sawdust. The top layer of fertile soil is removed. They build a side and cover it with film to retain moisture in the bed. Form a trench and fill it with straw, hay or grass. Next, sawdust soaked in urea is placed on top of this, then a layer of organic residues is placed and the whole thing is completed with a fertile layer of soil.

Mulch for strawberries

Do pine sawdust bring benefit or harm to the garden? Sawdust used as mulch under strawberry bushes protects them from contact with the soil. Thanks to them, the berries are protected from the effects of gray rot. For this purpose, fresh pine shavings treated with urea are used. Mulch is applied in the fall to protect strawberries from freezing and create an obstacle for many weeds. Pine sawdust in the garden repels weevils, the benefits or harms of which can be determined by practical experience.

Sawdust in a greenhouse and greenhouse

Sawdust is a useful fertilizer for soil in a greenhouse. They are sprinkled plant remains and manure, which warm up in the spring and rot faster. The air permeability of the soil increases, it becomes loose and nutritious. In autumn, straw, mown grass and tops are laid out on the garden bed.

In the spring, add fresh manure and sprinkle with lime and sawdust and mix with a pitchfork. Then soil mixed with ash and mineral fertilizers is laid. To increase the speed of heating, pour boiling water over it.

Sawdust for early potato harvest

So, why do we need sawdust for the garden? What are their benefits and harms? Using sawdust helps speed up the potato harvest. Select tubers early varieties and germinate in the light. 10 cm of sawdust is poured into the bottom of the boxes, tubers with sprouts are laid out and sprinkled with moistened sawdust. Set aside for 2 weeks.

Substrate care features:

the optimal temperature is not higher than +20 °C;
sufficient hydration.

Before planting, cover the soil with film to warm it up. Sprouts 8 cm high are watered with complex mineral fertilizer and planted in prepared holes. First, cover the potato planting with straw or hay, and then with film.

Sawdust and plant insulation

To prevent sawdust from getting wet, they are stuffed into bags. Then they are laid out around the plants. If sawdust is poured around the plant and not covered, it will get wet and turn into an ice crust in winter. Rodents also like to hide in them, so be sure to cover them with polyethylene.

Sawdust for seed germination

The seeds are comfortable in moistened sawdust, but if the plant is not replanted on time, it will die.

The germination technology is as follows:

Sawdust is poured into the container and the seeds are laid out.
Sprinkle with a thin layer of sawdust.
Cover with polyethylene and put in a warm place (+25...+ 30 °C).
As soon as the shoots appear, the container is removed to a cool place.
Remove the polyethylene and sprinkle with soil.
They dive when the first true leaf appears.

This technology can be used when germinating any types of seeds.

DIY fertilizer

Nutritious compost can be prepared 4 months in advance. Thick polyethylene is spread on the ground, shavings, weeds, and leaves are poured. Add 200 g of urea and pour in 10 liters of water or mullein. Cover with polyethylene on top to create greenhouse effect. Under the influence of sunlight, the process of reproduction of microorganisms begins, and the sawdust quickly rots. The main thing is to monitor the humidity inside the heap and stir it periodically. Vegetables and raspberries can be mulched with semi-ripe sawdust.

After a month, the matured sawdust is ready for use in the garden beds. The constant use of such fertilizer will make the soil loose, similar in consistency to that sold in flower shops.

Disadvantages of using sawdust and cautions

So, we have already found out whether fresh sawdust brings benefit or harm to the garden. If you add sawdust without waiting for the moment when it has completely rotted, then the wood will take some of the nitrogen from the soil for the decomposition process, as we discussed above. The acidity of the soil may also increase and the growth of beets and cabbage will slow down.

Before the start of winter, it is not recommended to fill the beds with a thick layer of sawdust, since the layer below will begin to overheat, and no changes will occur on top until the onset of spring. Spruce or pine shavings contain a lot of resin, which garden plants they don't like it. Sawdust generated during construction work, may contain chemicals. Therefore, they are used with caution.

Most modern summer residents and gardeners are well aware of the values that such fertilizer as manure conceals. But its cost is getting higher every year, and there are no alternatives of similar quality and efficiency. Although the lack of alternatives is not true, because as organic fertilizers Sawdust works great. And if you learn to use them correctly, the result can exceed all expectations.

This material is found in abundance among people who are often involved in construction work, but buying sawdust today is not a complex task. Moreover, the cost of this lumber waste is several times lower than the price of manure. If you really want, you can observe where the nearest wood processing plants take waste and pick up ownerless sawdust.

If you are thinking about how to use sawdust in the garden, then there are many variations for this: as a basis for mulch, a substrate in which tubers germinate or seedlings are grown. There are a huge number of options, so every conscious summer resident should have sawdust on hand.

The influence of sawdust on the structure and chemical composition of the soil

The use of sawdust in the garden begins with adding it to the soil. This manipulation makes the soil structure looser, which guarantees more active absorption of moisture and good air permeability, and as a result, the absence of a dense crust on the surface, making frequent loosening completely unnecessary. In such soil, plants demonstrate excellent growth performance.

But the benefits of sawdust in the garden are noticeable only when rotted material is used. Their difference from fresh ones is dark color and a specific smell. But the main difficulty is that sawdust rots too slowly without additional additives from water or living organic matter. On average, the process takes more than 10 years. You can speed it up in two ways:

Place it in a compost heap or place it on beds in greenhouses, mixing it with already rotted manure.

Sawdust mixed with manure can also be used for mulching. beds.

Important to know!

Please note that sawdust from wood species popular in mid-latitudes has negative impact on the soil, acidifying it. Therefore, in parallel with the addition of sawdust, the soil will have to be limed.

Mulching beds

Rotted or fresh sawdust can be used as a base for mulching material. The main thing is to pour them out in a layer at least 5 centimeters thick. A similar mulch layer works especially well under raspberry bushes or in beds where vegetables are grown. But if rotted sawdust can be immediately laid out on the soil, then fresh sawdust is required. preliminary preparation. Neglect of this rule leads to the fact that fresh sawdust will draw nitrogen from the soil, intended for plants, which can cause the planting to die.

To prepare sawdust, spread plastic sheeting on a free area with dimensions corresponding to the amount of lumber available. Pour 3 buckets of sawdust and 0.2 kilograms of urea onto the film, and fill it all with 10 liters of clean water. Repeat this manipulation several times, laying out the components in layers until the entire area of the film is occupied by sawdust. At the end, all layers are covered with plastic film; it is important to maintain tightness. After just two weeks of storage in this way, the sawdust is ready for use.

Please note that it would be more rational to use mulch material prepared in this way only at the beginning of summer, when moisture is actively evaporating from the soil. Having fulfilled its function of retaining moisture, already in the middle of summer, thanks to worms and regular mechanical loosening, sawdust mulch will mix with the soil and saturate it with useful substances.

If you have made too much mulch and it does not mix with the soil on its own, actively loosen the area either at the end of summer or in the fall. Neglecting this recommendation will lead to the fact that in the spring the layer of sawdust will freeze and cause delayed thawing of the soil, accordingly, making any early planting impossible.

The use of sawdust when growing indoors

We have already figured out how to use sawdust in the garden. But they are also indispensable for greenhouses. One of the most popular fertilizers for growing indoors is manure. So, in combination with sawdust and plant waste, it gives maximum efficiency in the garden beds. This is all thanks to the fact that sawdust promotes rapid heating of manure. In such a mixture, sawdust overheats much faster, which has a positive effect on the quality of the soil - it is looser and has good air permeability.

Important to know!

If you plan to use fresh manure to fertilize a greenhouse or greenhouse, mix it with fresh sawdust - it will absorb excess nitrogen. If the manure is rotted, use rotted sawdust as well, so the soil will not be oversaturated with nitrogen.

You can add a mixture of manure and sawdust to greenhouse beds in both autumn and spring. If only sawdust is used, then the process of heating and overheating can be accelerated by pouring boiling water over the beds and covering them with a layer of thick plastic film.

For compost

Rotten sawdust carries the greatest value, therefore reasonable decision will compost some of them. It is recommended to prepare a mixture of one cubic meter fresh sawdust, 100 kilograms of fresh manure and 10 kilograms of bird droppings. The preparation period for such compost is one year, provided proper moisture and cover are provided to prevent leaching of useful substances. If the required amount of manure is not available, try urea - 3 buckets of sawdust diluted per 200 grams. You can speed up the process of rotting sawdust by pre-wetting it with water or slurry.

Composting sawdust is also necessary in cases where it was stored in places overgrown with wild weeds. A prerequisite is to heat the compost heap to a temperature of at least +60 degrees Celsius. Only under such conditions will all the seeds of the above-mentioned weeds mixed with sawdust lose their germination. If the compost heap does not heat up on its own, you can help it with this by spilling sawdust hot water and covered with thick plastic wrap.

Is pine sawdust in the garden beneficial or harmful?

Sawdust in the garden: preparation, use, benefits and harm

Many people probably think that dreams of waste-free management household They will remain dreams. However, there are things that can be used even when it seems that they are no longer useful. Such material is sawdust. Few people know how to properly use sawdust in the country, at home, in the garden. Most gardeners and gardeners do not know exactly how sawdust affects the soil, having only the information that sawdust acidifies the soil, and refuse to use this material in their plots. But about the use of sawdust on garden plots our ancestors knew. In this article we will talk about how to use sawdust in the garden, the benefits and harm they can bring.

What are the benefits and which sawdust is best to use in the garden?

Due to its availability, sawdust has gained popularity among gardeners and is widely used in the garden. Most often, sawdust is used as fertilizer, or gardeners mulch with sawdust, or use it to loosen the soil. Sawdust has a beneficial effect on plants in the garden due to the fact that when decomposed they release carbon, which activates the soil microflora by 2 times. In particularly dry areas, sawdust can be used to retain moisture, but if the trees suffer from constant flooding, then a trench is dug around them and covered with sawdust.

To prepare fertilizers/mulch for the garden, you can use sawdust from almost all trees, made from any part of the tree. The only limitation is pine sawdust; their use is a difficult process, since they slowly rot on their own, and also slow down the decay of other components due to high level resin content. However, using pine sawdust in the garden is beneficial.

How to use sawdust in the garden

Increasingly, owners of summer cottages use sawdust as fertilizer, because it is a valuable material that can be found right on their site. Often on websites and forums there are questions about whether it is possible to pour sawdust into the garden, how to mix sawdust with other fertilizers, how to prepare sawdust for mulching, etc. Next, we will tell you in more detail about the ways to use sawdust for the garden and garden, and also consider not only benefit, but also harm.

Mulching the soil with sawdust

Sawdust as mulch is often used by gardeners and gardeners. Experienced owners advise: if you do not know all the characteristics of the soil (namely, the acidity level), then you can try mulching one bed. This will not cause any significant losses, but in the future you will know for sure whether sawdust mulch is suitable for your area. The use of sawdust in the country as mulch is not limited to mulching in open ground; it can also be used in greenhouses and greenhouses.
Mulching with sawdust can be done in spring or autumn. IN fresh There is no point in using sawdust. It is better to use completely rotted or semi-rotted material.

Important! Under natural conditions, the reheating procedure can take up to 10 years, so there are ways to more quickly prepare sawdust for use.

The most common and in a simple way Preparation for mulching is as follows: 3 buckets of sawdust and 200 g of urea are poured onto the film and water is poured on top so that it completely wets the sawdust, then the layer is sprinkled with urea and the procedure is repeated. Thus, several layers are obtained, which are then tightly wrapped and kept in this state for two weeks. After this period, the sawdust can be used. You can scatter sawdust not only near the plant itself, but also in the aisles between plantings. A logical question would be whether it is possible to mulch all plants and, in particular, tomatoes with sawdust. Mulching tomatoes with sawdust can increase productivity by 25-30%, as well as speed up the ripening process and prevent diseases, such as late blight.

Disputes often arise among gardeners about whether it is possible to sprinkle strawberries with sawdust. Can. The main thing is to sprinkle it, not add it to the soil. Sawdust mulch prevents rotting of berries, therefore it is ideal option for strawberries.
When it comes to using sawdust, it is important not only what can be mulched/fertilized with sawdust, but also how to use it. So, for example, vegetable crops are mulched with a thin layer, just a few centimeters, shrubs - 5-7 cm, and trees - up to 12 cm.

Using compost with sawdust

Now that we have figured out whether it is possible to mulch with sawdust, let's talk about how to use sawdust in combination with compost / manure and other organic matter. Many people are afraid to use sawdust in its pure form for the garden or garden, but there are ways to make this use easier and more useful by using compost. Due to its availability, compost is an indispensable material for growing both fruit and vegetable crops on your site, and if it contains sawdust, the benefits will increase several times. To prepare such compost, you need to mix manure (100 kg) with 1 cubic meter. m of sawdust and leave for a year. Such fertilizer will significantly increase productivity.

Important! Rotted sawdust can only be mixed with rotted manure, fresh sawdust - with fresh manure. This will improve the quality of the compost.

Using sawdust for seed germination

Sawdust, due to the fact that it can retain moisture for a long time, has become of interest to gardeners and gardeners not only as a material for mulching or fertilizer, but also as a material for germinating seeds. In order for sawdust to serve well in germination, you need to use only rotted sawdust from deciduous trees, while using materials coniferous trees it is forbidden.

A very important advantage of germinating seeds in a sawdust substrate is that it is then much easier to replant the plant from sawdust without harming it. In order for the seeds to germinate, they must be poured onto a layer of wet sawdust and sprinkled with another layer on top, but the second layer must be thin enough that it only covers the seeds. If the second layer is not made, the seeds will have to be moistened much more often. The container with the seeds is covered with polyethylene, leaving a small hole in it for air to enter, and placed in a warm place.

Sawdust as a loosening agent for soil

If there is no time for processing into high-quality nutrient material based on sawdust, but there is a lot of raw materials (sawdust), then they can be used to loosen the soil. There are three ways to use sawdust for loosening:

Sawdust is mixed with mullein and added to the soil when growing vegetables in greenhouses (mix 3 parts sawdust, 3 parts mullein and dilute it with water).
When digging up the soil in the beds, you can add rotted sawdust. This will help the soil stay moist longer and solve the problem of heavy, clay soils.
When growing vegetables whose growing season lasts a long time, sawdust can be added to the soil between the rows.

Important! If you add sawdust to the soil when digging up the soil, then in the spring such soil will thaw faster.

Using sawdust as a covering material

The “waste” from wood processing can be used to protect plants as shelter. The most proven method is when polyethylene bags are stuffed with sawdust and the roots of the plant are covered with them. Plants such as roses, clematis and grapes are left to overwinter where they grow, to protect them, the shoots are bent to the ground and covered with a layer of sawdust. If you want to achieve 100% confidence in the safety of your plants in winter, then you can make a more durable shelter: place a cap over the plant (for this you can use wooden box) and cover it with sawdust on top - in this case the frosts will clearly not harm.

Sawdust can also be used as a wet shelter, but this risks severe frosts the sawdust will freeze and form an ice crust over the plant. This type of shelter is not suitable for everyone, although garlic tolerates the winter well under wet sawdust of coniferous trees - they not only provide warmth, but also protect the crop from diseases and pests.

Sawdust can also be used to provide the root system with thermal insulation; to do this, they simply need to be poured in a thick layer onto the bottom of the planting hole.

Features of using sawdust in greenhouses and greenhouses

For greenhouses and greenhouses, sawdust is a very valuable material, because it is perfect for indoor soil and mixed with plant residues and manure, as compost. You can use sawdust in greenhouses in both spring and autumn. It is better to introduce rotted sawdust, which does not draw nitrogen from the soil. The effect of sawdust in greenhouses is that, in combination with manure or other organic material the soil warms up faster and plants absorb better nutrients.

Method of using sawdust indoors:

In the fall, fill the beds with the remains of organic matter (leaves, tops, straw);
in the spring, lay a layer of manure on top and sprinkle with limestone flour and sawdust;
mix all the material in the garden bed (you can use a rake);
Place a layer of straw on top, and a layer of earth with the addition of mineral fertilizers and ash on top of the straw.

Important! For better heating, this mixture can be poured with boiling water or covered with film.

Sawdust in the garden: benefit or harm

Despite the fact that sawdust is increasingly used by gardeners, its use in the countryside still remains a subject of controversy. Let's take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of sawdust.

Advantages of sawdust:

Flaws:

fresh sawdust applied with fresh manure to the soil can draw nitrogen out of it, resulting in lower yields;
if sawdust and manure lie in one heap for a long time and are not stirred, then a fungus may grow in such a mixture;
Sawdust cannot be used in areas that are too dry.

As you can see, the advantages of using sawdust are much greater than the disadvantages. After all, the effectiveness of a material largely depends on the correctness of its application, and in the hands of a gardener who loves his job, any material will be useful.

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Using sawdust for the garden: benefits and harms, which is better, rules of use

Various production wastes are often used in the household.

Often they can successfully replace purchased products and turn out to be no worse in quality.

The waste generated during sawing of wood (sawdust) can be very useful in the garden.

After all, with their help:

fertilize the soil, making it more fertile;
create favorable conditions for the germination of seedlings and seedlings;
fight weeds;
regulate soil acidity;
protect plant roots from drying out and frost;
make the paths cleaner and more convenient for movement.

Use before planting

Most types of seedlings must be planted at the very beginning of spring, when the air temperature at night often drops to negative values.

Because of this, the soil temperature does not exceed +5 degrees, so the roots do not develop well in it and the plant gets sick.

If it is not possible to install a greenhouse, then good decision there may be a backfill of fresh wood waste into grooves or holes.

Sawdust should be poured 3–5 cm below the level of the roots, so make the planting places a little deeper.

Having dug a hole or groove and placed some sawdust on the bottom, pour it with any fertilizer that contains nitrogen and phosphorus, you can also put a few grains of urea.

In this case, the bacteria that ensure the rotting of wood waste and raise its temperature will take these substances from the fertilizer that has soaked the soil and the top layer of soil will be provided with constant heating, and will not be deprived of the microelements necessary for plant growth.

Waste from sawing wood from deciduous fruit trees (pear, apple, apricot, etc.) is better suited for this type of filling. If such sawdust is not available, then you can use any other deciduous waste, mixing it with a small amount of manure or droppings to speed up the decomposition processes of wood.

If only pine sawdust is available, then it must be mixed in equal parts with manure, and also treated with aerobic bifidobacteria. Such drugs are sold in garden stores, they can also be purchased online, for example here. The cost of packaging sufficient to process 25 m2 is 4–4.5 thousand rubles.

Pour a mixture of garden soil and humus on top of the sawdust, because in most cases the garden soil is very depleted, so the plant will not be able to develop normally in it.

The mixture of soil and humus contains many useful substances and microelements, so the planted seedlings will not suffer from a lack of them.

Do not mix the soil with unrotted sawdust, droppings or manure, because such a mixture will burn the roots of the plants and you will not get a harvest.

If you have completely rotted sawdust, then they can also be added to the mixture of soil and humus; they will improve the structure of the soil, so that the earth will be better filled with water, air and various nutrients.

In addition, rotted sawdust will provide the plant with additional nutrients, in particular calcium and phosphorus.

This planting method can be used for any garden plants, but for the best results you need to take into account the acidity of the soil.

It can be determined using tests or by looking at the plants on the site. If they grow there:

sorrel;
horsetail;
buttercup;
sorrel;
blueberry,

then the soil is very acidic and the holes or grooves for planting need to be filled with a solution of slaked lime, and the bottom layer of sawdust sprinkled with wood ash.

If the following appeared on the site:

heather;
fern;
cornflowers,

then it is enough to spill the holes or groove with lime mortar.

Most root vegetables, as well as cucumbers and tomatoes, love moderately acidic soil, so if there are no plants listed above on the site, then sawdust poured into the bottom of the hole, groove or furrow will slightly acidify the soil, making the seedlings grow better.

Rotted sawdust does not change either the acidity or the amount of nitrogen in the soil, therefore, by mixing it with soil and humus, you only add additional fertilizer, so adjusting the acidity or amount of nitrogen is not required.

The same method of adding sawdust to the bottom of grooves or holes can also be used to plant seeds directly into the ground. However, for such planting a greenhouse is necessary, because the time for planting seeds is in February and March, so sawdust burning will not be able to warm the ground and air to the required level.

Planting seeds on sawdust allows you to meet deadlines and avoid transplanting from pots into the soil, which is traumatic to the roots of plants, because, unlike soil, sawdust has a very loose structure, so the roots are kept intact during transplantation.

If you are going to grow seedlings in separate containers and then transplant them into open or closed ground, then completely rotted sawdust should be mixed with soil and humus. This will ensure maximum quantity nutrients and elements necessary for seedling growth.

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Sawdust are good material to obtain fertilizers, and depending on the method, its composition, characteristics and the time during which they are converted into fertilizer change.

Here are the main ways to obtain fertilizers:

natural decay;
rotting with droppings or manure;
rotting with the addition of bifidobacteria.

The process of natural decay takes several years, and its speed depends on the type of wood, humidity and temperature.

Soft hardwoods rot most quickly. The process lasts somewhat longer in hardwood waste of medium hardness. Sawdust from coniferous and hardwood species takes the longest to rot.

Adding droppings or manure to wood waste speeds up their decomposition and also makes the finished humus more useful.

In addition to glucose, calcium and phosphorus, it contains nitrogen and other useful substances. Adding bifidobacteria to the mixture of sawdust and litter or manure allows you to obtain ready-made humus within several months.

Such fertilizers can be applied from autumn to spring. In the summer, when the plants gain strength and bear fruit, it is not advisable to do this. After all, the soil must absorb the fertilizer and mix with it, otherwise in the area of the roots there will be areas where the content of useful substances exceeds not only the norm, but also the safe value.

This is exactly how you get vegetables soaked in nitrates - the fertilizer was applied at the wrong time and it did not have time to dissolve in the ground. As a result, the roots of the plant ended up not in the soil, but in the fertilizer and absorbed too many nitrogen compounds.

Mulching

After watering, water not only saturates the soil and goes deep, but also evaporates from the surface.

The evaporation process directly depends on wind speed and air temperature, so on sunny or windy days the earth quickly dries out.

As water evaporates, soil moisture drops and plant roots lose their ability to absorb nutrients and microelements necessary for growth.

The roots can only absorb an aqueous solution of these substances.

A layer of sawdust laid on top of the soil (mulch) reduces the rate of moisture evaporation, so plants absorb the water solution more efficiently and need watering less often.

Fresh sawdust negatively affects the acidity of the soil and also draws nitrogen out of it, so immediately after laying sawdust mulch, the soil should be watered not only with water, but also with a solution of nitrogen-containing and alkaline fertilizers.

In addition, these fertilizers need to be applied 2 more times throughout the season - in mid-spring and mid-summer. For more information about this process, as well as about various combinations of fertilizers, read the article (Sawdust mulch).

Chemical methods fights used in the fields are not always applicable in the garden, because domestic animals often run around it, which can be poisoned. Therefore, gardeners are forced to look for other methods of control, one of which is to cover the soil with a thick (5–10 cm) layer of sawdust.

This is similar to mulching, but not only the space around the plant trunk is covered, but the entire bed.

Wood waste laid in a thick layer prevents weeds from sprouting sunlight, due to which they cannot grow and soon die off.

Slugs are one of the most dangerous and tenacious pests living in vegetable gardens. Mulch made from fresh sawdust sticks to the body of the slugs, causing them to lose the ability to crawl and soon die from dehydration.

This mulch should be sprinkled once a week in a thin layer, and also watered with coffee residues dissolved in water, which is harmful to slugs.

If you only have rotted sawdust, then due to the softening of the wood during the decay process, they can no longer stop slugs, so they are useless in the fight against these pests.

Backfilling of paths

When it rains, the paths between the beds become muddy and turn into an impassable mess, so many gardeners fill them with various materials.

Wood waste is better suited for this task than crushed stone, broken slate or brick, because it not only removes dirt, but also improves the structure of the soil. In addition, the bottom layer of the fill gradually rots and after 1–4 years, depending on the humidity and type of wood, turns into good fertilizer, which is received by nearby plants.

If over time you decide to change the shape or location of the beds/plantings and dig up the garden, then sawdust will be useful in this case too.

They will improve the structure of the soil, making it looser, and also fill the soil with nutrients.

To reduce the negative impact of wood on the soil, water the sawdust-strewn paths with urea and slaked lime or ash solution 3-4 times a year.

These drugs compensate for the loss of nitrogen in the soil, and also adjust the acidity of the soil to an acceptable level.

When choosing between softwood, including pine and hardwood sawdust, consider different times their rotting. Deciduous wood turns into humus much faster, and the softer the wood, the less time is needed for this process.

Waste from sawing alder or poplar will rot in 1-2 seasons, and waste from oak or coniferous wood will rot in 3-5 seasons.

You don’t have to divide the garden into beds and paths by covering the entire area with sawdust. Optimal thickness layer - 10 cm. In this case, it is advisable to use rotted sawdust, because it is advisable to dig up the ground before winter and spring.

Fresh wood, once in the soil, will acidify it and reduce the level of nitrogen content. If there is no rotten wood waste, then immediately after backfilling and in the fall, after harvesting, pour the sawdust with a solution of droppings or manure, as well as a means that accelerates the proliferation of bifidobacteria.

From spring to autumn, these sawdust will play the role of mulch and filling, and by spring bacteria will turn them into high-quality fertilizer. Having plowed the entire garden, you will mix the soil with fertilizer, thanks to which all plants will receive more abundant and balanced nutrition.

Coniferous and deciduous – which is better for the garden?

On numerous forums, users often ask the question - which sawdust is best for the garden and is it possible to use coniferous or other wood waste?

When used correctly, any sawdust brings many benefits, but improper use can be harmful and completely destroy the crop, making the land unsuitable for growing some plants.

Any waste from sawing wood makes the soil more acidic and also draws nitrogen out of it, so it is necessary to add fertilizers along with them to compensate for these changes.

Sawdust, both completely or partially rotted and fresh, improves the structure of the soil, which is especially important on clay soils. On particularly heavy soils consisting of solid clay, it is necessary to add sand along with sawdust.

Fresh wood waste becomes very hot during the process of rotting, which leads to an increase in soil temperature and overheating of plant roots, so fresh sawdust should not be laid close to the roots.

Therefore, there is not much difference between coniferous and deciduous sawdust - when correct use they bring a lot of benefit, but mistakes can cause harm and lead to dire consequences. Most of the negative reviews about the use of sawdust in the garden are caused by their incorrect use, while those who used them correctly are satisfied with the results.

However, it is important to understand the differences between hardwood and softwood sawdust, as well as how the latter affects the soil.

In most cases, pine sawdust refers to pine or spruce sawdust as the most accessible, as well as the cheapest. Pine and spruce are used for most carpentry and carpentry, so sawdust is everywhere.

Due to their high resin content, fresh pine and spruce sawdust rots much longer than deciduous sawdust, and also draws more nitrogen from the soil.

Improper use of pine and any coniferous sawdust causes much more damage to the garden than deciduous sawdust.

Due to the high content of resins, humus from pine sawdust contains more microelements necessary for plants, and therefore is better suited for balanced feeding.

If pine sawdust is placed in furrows, ditches or holes, then due to the greater need for nitrogen for complete decay, it is necessary to increase the amount of nitrogen-containing fertilizers.

In addition, pine sawdust acidifies the soil more strongly, so you need to increase the amount of slaked lime or ash.

It is not only possible, but also necessary to use pine and other pine sawdust in the garden, taking into account their characteristics and compensating for the negative impact on the land. Only in this case will they bring much benefit.

Deciduous

Due to the lower resin content, humus from leaf waste is slightly less balanced, but it rots faster. In addition, deciduous sawdust is less accessible, so dried and crushed branches and branches of fruit trees are often used in the garden.

When using such material, be careful, because among the dried branches there are often sick or affected by various pests.

Such sawdust cannot be used, because bacteria will not be able to process pests and pathogens, so fertilizer made from them can infect your plantings.

Forumhouse.
Forum dacha.
Miracle garden.
Mastergrad.

All this allows us to conclude that those sawdust that are easier and cheaper to bring to the garden are better suited. Whatever wood waste you use, you will still have to use other fertilizers along with it.

In this article Where to get sawdust we talked about the places where you can buy wood sawing waste, and also talked about in various ways, which allow you to save on their purchase.

Only integrated approach, which compensates for the negative impact of wood on the soil, will lead to improved plant development, as well as more abundant and high-quality fruiting.

Video on the topic

This video talks about using sawdust in the garden:

Let's sum it up

Sawdust is a very useful material that will be useful to any gardener. After all, they are used for:

mulching;
filling paths;
plant nutrition;
improving soil structure;
earlier planting of seedlings or seeds.

After reading the article, you learned how to use this material correctly and what mistakes garden owners most often make.

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Sawdust for the garden: the benefits and harm of them as fertilizer

If it is necessary to make the soil loose, use sawdust for the garden, the benefits and harms of which have been studied by experienced gardeners. But using fresh sawdust is not recommended. First they need to be prepared. To do this, urea or mullein infusion is added to wood shavings, covered with polyethylene, and then stirred from time to time to speed up the reheating process.

After a couple of weeks, the shavings are ready to be used as fertilizer. Much has been written in reviews about the benefits or harms of sawdust in the garden. Experienced summer residents claim that they take nitrogen from the soil, and therefore from the plants. They say that you should not use fresh sawdust in the garden, as the plantings will begin to wither.

The benefits of sawdust in the garden

Plants require loose soil to grow fully. The addition of rotted sawdust makes the soil a favorable environment for planting garden plants, the roots of which receive sufficient moisture and oxygen. The use of sawdust allows you to get rid of the crust during dry periods.

What is their secret and how do they work?

They form a natural ecosystem for plants in the garden. It is important to use sawdust that has not been chemically treated or contaminated. Otherwise, they will become a real poison for garden crops. If rotted sawdust is used as mulch at the beginning of summer, then by the end of the season, as a result of loosening and the activity of earthworms, it will mix with the soil.

Basic rules for using sawdust

Sawdust is an excellent mulch for the soil. They are sprinkled with a thick layer after planting the seedlings.

Advantages:

the weed disappears;
soil moisture is maintained;
protection from insects;
the soil remains loose;
favorable conditions for the growth of bacteria.

Mulching

High warm beds

Every summer resident should study the benefits and harms of sawdust for the garden. How to make multi-layered high beds in a low-lying area? For such purposes it is convenient to use sawdust. The top layer of fertile soil is removed. They build a side and cover it with film to retain moisture in the bed. Form a trench and fill it with straw, hay or grass. Next, sawdust soaked in urea is placed on top of this, then a layer of organic residues is placed and the whole thing is completed with a fertile layer of soil.

Mulch for strawberries

Sawdust in a greenhouse and greenhouse

Sawdust is a useful fertilizer for soil in a greenhouse. They are sprinkled with plant residues and manure, which heat up in the spring and overheat faster. The air permeability of the soil increases, it becomes loose and nutritious. In autumn, straw, mown grass and tops are laid out on the garden bed.

Sawdust for early potato harvest

So, why do we need sawdust for the garden? What are their benefits and harms? Using sawdust helps speed up the potato harvest. Tubers of early varieties are selected and germinated in the light. 10 cm of sawdust is poured into the bottom of the boxes, tubers with sprouts are laid out and sprinkled with moistened sawdust. Set aside for 2 weeks.

Substrate care features:

the optimal temperature is not higher than +20 °C;
sufficient hydration.

Sawdust and plant insulation

Sawdust for seed germination

The seeds are comfortable in moistened sawdust, but if the plant is not replanted on time, it will die.

The germination technology is as follows:

Sawdust is poured into the container and the seeds are laid out.
Sprinkle with a thin layer of sawdust.
Cover with polyethylene and put in a warm place (+25...+ 30 °C).
As soon as the shoots appear, the container is removed to a cool place.
Remove the polyethylene and sprinkle with soil.
They dive when the first true leaf appears.

This technology can be used when germinating any types of seeds.

DIY fertilizer

Nutritious compost can be prepared 4 months in advance. Thick polyethylene is spread on the ground, shavings, weeds, and leaves are poured. Add 200 g of urea and pour in 10 liters of water or mullein. Cover the top with polyethylene to create a greenhouse effect. Under the influence of sunlight, the process of reproduction of microorganisms begins, and the sawdust quickly rots. The main thing is to monitor the humidity inside the heap and stir it periodically. Vegetables and raspberries can be mulched with semi-ripe sawdust.

After a month, the matured sawdust is ready for use in the garden beds. The constant use of such fertilizer will make the soil loose, similar in consistency to that sold in flower shops.

Disadvantages of using sawdust and cautions

Before the start of winter, it is not recommended to fill the beds with a thick layer of sawdust, since the layer below will begin to overheat, and no changes will occur on top until the onset of spring. Spruce or pine shavings contain a lot of resin, which garden plants do not like. Sawdust generated during construction work may contain chemicals. Therefore, they are used with caution.

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Sawdust for the garden: benefits and harm

Mulching is the surface covering of garden soil with mulch, which can be crushed bark, pine needles, sawdust, etc. natural materials. This agrotechnical technique helps to avoid many health problems cultivated plants on the ground and in the greenhouse. Using sawdust as mulch allows you to achieve amazing results in the growth and development of a plant, but only if you follow certain rules.

Properties of wood chips and shavings

Sawdust mulch is suitable for use on all types of soil. What's good about this material:

Does not release moisture from the ground, thereby helping to maintain the balance of water during dry periods and in hot areas;
Prevents weeds from germinating. This is one of the main reasons for using wood waste as a mulch;
Fresh sawdust is used as bedding for berries - the smell of the tree repels some pests from the fruit, and clean, small wood chips keep strawberries clean;
Mulching the soil allows the roots of some plants to survive winter period;
Wood chips serve as fertilizer. True, for this you need to fulfill some conditions.

It is worth noting that mulching with sawdust cannot be done in the form in which it is. The fact is that wood does not saturate the soil with useful substances, but, on the contrary, draws them out like a sponge. Sawdust becomes useful if it is added to basic fertilizer mixtures or kept for a year or two in a compost heap. At this time, bacteria settle on the surface of the chips, which saturate the wood with useful microelements released during rotting and proliferation of microflora.

What are the benefits and possible harm?

Sawdust is often used by gardeners to improve the quality of life of plants, but people do not always know about the true benefits of the intake and are not able to accurately assess its harm. However, in most cases, there is still a positive effect from their use. Sawdust in the garden - good or bad?

Advantages of sawdust:

With proper preparation, you get excellent humus, similar in properties to traditional manure, which, as you know, costs a lot.
Sawdust scattered on paths in the garden prevents the spread of weeds.
Retain moisture in the soil, especially in spring. To do this, it is necessary to mulch the soil in the fall.
Promote natural soil aeration several years after use.
Coniferous shavings and wood chips practically do not tolerate pathogenic microbes, which eliminates the risk of plant infection.

Harm from wood waste:

Sawdust in its pure form is not a fertilizer. According to some reports, they absorb minerals from the soil and the soil becomes depleted. To be more precise, nitrogen, necessary for the life of microorganisms, is drawn from the fertile layer.
Fresh sawdust oxidizes the soil.
When using sawdust of unknown origin, it is possible to infect plants with certain diseases. To eliminate this drawback, you should not take material from unknown sources.

What sawdust should I use?

Shavings different trees Not suitable for all plants:

Waste from deciduous trees, except oak, is suitable for all crops.
Coniferous species saturate the soil with acid, therefore they are suitable only for those who love such an environment - tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and others.

Several fertilizer recipes

Sawdust in its pure form is only suitable for filling paths in order to retain moisture and stop the development of weeds. In other cases, preparation of raw materials is required.

For sawdust in the garden to become useful, it needs to rot. To achieve the desired condition, they will have to lie in a pile for at least 10 years while bacteria convert the wood into a useful substrate. To speed up the process, you should make compost from sawdust. In combination with manure and additional additives, the fertilizer matures faster due to thermoregulation in the desired range and maintaining a sufficient level of moisture.

Recipe 1: Wood and Ash

Stack:

Wood sawdust – 200 kg;
Urea, rich in nitrogen (up to 47%) – 2.5 kg per heap;
Ash required to alkalize the soil – 10 kg;
Water – 50 liters;
Grass, food waste and sewage – up to 100 kg.

The shavings and grass are laid in layers, ash is added and the “pie” is filled with urea dissolved in water. You can cover the pile with a polyethylene film, but small pores should remain in the surface: this way the temperature and humidity level will be optimal, and oxygen access will remain.

Recipe 2: Organically Enriched

For poor soil that requires a significant dose of fertilizer, prepare the following compost from sawdust:

Wood waste – 200 kg;
Cow dung – 50 kg;
Fresh cut grass – 100 kg;
Organic waste (food, feces) – 30 kg;
Humates – 1 drop per 100 liters of water (no more).

When this fertilizer ripens, a significant amount of nitrogen is released.

Fertilizer from fresh sawdust

As already mentioned, fresh sawdust does not benefit the soil as a fertilizer for the garden. If you have not done composting in advance, but it is necessary to saturate the soil, use a sawdust mixture with the following additives on a bucket of wood chips:

Ammonium nitrate – 40 g;
Granulated superphosphate – 30 g;
Slaked lime – 120 g (glass);
Calcium chloride – 10 g.

The mixture must be infused for 2 weeks. To do this, spread plastic outside and scatter the ingredients on it.

Mix and leave to release necessary elements and conducting chemical reactions. After this, add the resulting mixture to the soil when digging the beds. The soil will receive a sufficient dose of ammonia, the acid-base balance of the soil will be leveled, and the release of useful substances will occur immediately after the first watering. The soil should be fertilized in the amount of 2-3 buckets per 1 square meter plot. This procedure promotes natural loosening of the soil.

How to do mulching correctly

Sawdust at the dacha is useful not only for speeding up the composting process, but also for winter shelter for plants, fertilizing them and protecting them from pests.

It is good to use prepared sawdust as mulch in the first half of summer, when seedlings and plants are just gaining strength and need protection from weeds, loss of soil moisture and disease attacks. By mid-summer, there will be no obvious trace left of the powder - it will be mixed with the soil by rain and worms.

Basically, sawdust saturated with fertilizers is lined in the passages. This must be done between beds with tomatoes, potato rows and other plants.

Other vegetables grown in the garden - onions, carrots, beets, garlic, turnips - also need protective powder. It needs to be done after picking, when the plantings are thinned out and have reached a height of 5-7 cm, they are covered with a 3-4 cm layer of sawdust.

Raspberries are one of the main favorites of mulching in the garden. It is necessary to preserve the soil moisture necessary for setting berries. Prepared sawdust is generously poured under the bushes.

Strawberries and wild strawberries

Is it possible to mulch strawberries with sawdust? The answer is clear - you can and should, just like strawberries. This procedure is useful for berries:

Sawdust maintains the moisture balance in the soil;
Tender fruits remain clean without touching the ground;
Slugs and snails do not crawl onto the berries.

For mulching, you need clean sawdust without impurities, but before the procedure it is important to saturate the soil with minerals and fertilize it well to prevent depletion of the fertile layer. The material used can be mixed with urea in the above proportions.

The sawdust is moistened and laid out under the bushes, under each branch and between the bushes. The layer thickness should be 5-7 cm. This work is presented in the video.

The bedding is done when the seedlings have already taken root and gained a height of more than 7 cm. Mulching strawberries with sawdust for the winter will help perennial plant It’s better to survive the winter and keep the root system intact.

How to cover roses

Gardeners say: “A rose is a child of manure,” because sawdust is necessary for it as fertilizer, but it is not suitable as a covering for the winter; such mulch does not have sufficient heat-retaining properties.

Covering roses with sawdust can only be used for wintering in combination with other, more effective materials. The expert will talk about this in more detail in the video.

Sawdust for seedlings

Tomatoes and other seedlings do not come to the garden as seeds, but as ready-made seedlings. They can also be bred in small wood waste - such an environment is more favorable for the delicate seed than soil. How to organize the process correctly:

Moistened small shavings are poured into a flat container;
They plant the seeds and generously sprinkle them with fertilizer, since there is nothing nutritious in sawdust;
Cover with film, make holes for air and expose to the sun;
When sprouts appear, soil is poured on top so that the plant gets used to it.

The advantage of germinating seeds in wood material– a loose environment that allows the root system of seedlings to develop intensively, but only if there is a sufficient supply of nutrients.

There is an opinion that by using sawdust in the garden, we bring only one benefit to the garden. But as practice shows, it is premature to speak out unambiguously. As an organic matter, garden sawdust can definitely benefit your garden beds. But there are rules according to which any fertilizers, whether organic or mineral, should be applied with special attention. Breaking them can cause heavy damage. garden crops. This statement is also true for sawdust.

Using sawdust you can significantly increase the yield of some crops. But it’s not enough to just scatter them around the garden. A competent approach will increase productivity to some extent.

Using fresh sawdust

Do not add fresh sawdust to the soil. A large amount of fresh sawdust will cause great harm. What “harm” are we talking about? It's all about the microflora of the soil. The soil is inhabited by a huge number microorganisms, including soil bacteria. When making large quantity fresh organic matter, these same bacteria will strive to process it. This processing occurs due to nitrogen naturally contained in the soil. Thus, the soil will very soon begin to experience nitrogen starvation.

What to do? Wood organic matter should be pre-processed. The best way to do this is to send the sawdust to the compost. To do this, they are poured in layers, wetting each layer with a urea solution (170-200 grams per 10 liters of water). After the compost heap has formed, it must be covered with film. After two weeks, the pile should be shoveled. After 2 months, wood waste will turn black. This means that they are completely ready for use as a complete organic fertilizer.

If you want to tinker with compost heap there is no desire, then you can do the following. Wood waste is sprinkled with any type of nitrogen fertilizer. By introducing them into the soil in this form, you compensate for the absorption of nitrogen by soil bacteria. Such organic matter is very useful for potatoes. It will definitely not be superfluous for carrots and tomatoes. For these crops, it is best to add organic matter in the fall. And vegetables such as cucumbers, pumpkin or cabbage prefer a similar “warm bed” in the spring.

We use sawdust in the garden as mulch

One of the most best applications wood pulp is to use it as mulch.

There are a number of indications for this:

Mulching the soil will not cause any harm to your vegetable garden! A year will pass and you will not notice any residues from last year’s mulch; it will rot without a trace. This organic matter will seriously enrich the soil with nitrogen. The structure of the soil will also only improve.

If you add fresh sawdust to the soil, then the next season you will need to apply more abundantly. nitrogen fertilizers into the soil. This will restore the nitrogen balance.

Advice from HomusT erra: “If you do not know the origin of sawdust, then it is better to refuse such organic matter. Perhaps this is waste from chipboard and other similar materials. Such organic matter will most likely only cause harm to your garden or vegetable garden.”

A video on this topic may be useful for you:

When used correctly, waste from sawing wood (sawdust) increase the fertility of any soil, making its composition not only balanced in microelements and nutrients, but also more friable.

Thanks to this, plant roots grow deeper into the soil more easily and receive more nutrients from the soil, as well as oxygen and nitrogen from the air.

In addition, sawdust is also well suited for making a soil mixture, which is used for growing high-quality seedlings.

So, why do they sprinkle sawdust on the beds, is it possible to add them painlessly, and what does it give in general?

Wood sawing waste contain many useful substances, which increase soil productivity.

After all, all these substances extracted from the earth are integrated into cellulose, which makes up wood.

In addition, during decomposition, cellulose breaks down into glucose, which plants need for growth.

Another useful quality of wood waste is change in soil structure, which is especially important for clay soils.

After all, the looser the soil, the easier it is to soak it aqueous solutions of fertilizers and microelements, and the roots penetrate the soil more easily, creating a more powerful root system.

Sawdust is used both as a single-component fertilizer and in a mixture with:

manure;
litter;
humus;
sand;
lime;
mineral fertilizers;
microelements.

Read more about preparing fertilizers from sawdust.

But it is worth considering that in addition to the undoubted benefits, sawdust can also cause significant harm if used incorrectly. But we will talk about this below.

Caring for seeds and seedlings

Wood sawing waste can be used to germinate seeds and grow seedlings.

Moreover, the seeds are germinated in clean rotted sawdust of high humidity.

Their advantage over other methods of seed germination is that wood waste is similar in structure to soil.

The seed produces a root and stem due to internal reserves of nutrients, and sawdust provides the root with the opportunity to produce shoots that penetrate into the soil.

Thanks to this root system developing rapidly and takes the desired shape.

During transplantation, the loose structure of wood waste allows the root to be removed without damage, thanks to which the seedling quickly takes root in a new location.

Germination in sawdust produces the greatest effect when the seedling is placed in a soil mixture containing, in addition to soil, peat and rotted waste from sawing wood.

Mulch

Used for mulching various materials, including sawdust.

The main advantage of sawdust is that it shipping is cheaper than purchasing any other materials.

The only exception is mulch from grass plucked or mowed from your own area.

Mulching with rotted waste from sawing wood has little effect on the microclimate in the soil, because no active processes take place in the waste.

That is why you cannot mulch with fresh sawdust, because bacteria that break down cellulose consume nitrogen from the soil and release various substances that increase soil acidity.

Mulching reduces the plants' need for water, because a layer of mulch separates the soil from the air and prevents moisture evaporation.

Thanks to this, plants less need for watering and problems caused by excessive moisture in the top layer of soil do not appear. In addition, the less the plant is watered, the less water gets on the leaves.

If the beds were mulched in the spring, then after harvesting, applying manure or litter and various fertilizers they need to be dug up or plowed. Thanks to this, the soil will receive a portion of balanced fertilizers, and sawdust will make its structure more loose.

You can read more about all these issues in the article.

Weed control

For many beds and greenhouses weeds are a serious problem, because even in imported soil their seeds are found.

In addition, many weeds release seeds into the air, which causes them to fly over long distances and germinate in any soil.

Chemical methods of control are not applicable, because it’s difficult to treat weeds without disturbing them useful plants, and it is very difficult to pull them out by hand.

That's why good way to combat such pests - put sawdust.

Layer of wood waste 10–15 cm thick prevents the germination of weed seedlings, after all, at this stage, seedlings can grow only 2–5 cm thanks to the energy reserves in the seed. For further growth they need both food from the ground and solar energy, the flow of which is blocked by the mulch layer.

The type of wood does not matter, the only condition is that the waste must completely rot, otherwise it will acidify the soil and draw nitrogen out of it, which will negatively affect plant growth.

To protect the beds or greenhouse from weeds, mulch must be sprinkled in several stages:

At the first stage (immediately after planting the seedlings), the thickness of the layer should be such that the mulch does not reach the bottom sheet a little.
After the plant has taken root and resumed growth, add another layer of mulch.
The third bedding is done along with trimming the lower and unnecessary leaves (pinching). During the third addition, the layer thickness is adjusted to the required level.

Slug protection

The leaves of many plants provide food for various slugs and snails, which eat and damage them.

Chemical control methods (including the use of tobacco) are not always applicable, so gardeners and greenhouse owners are forced to look for other ways to protect plants from these pests.

One of these methods is mulching with sawdust.

After all, the surface of the mulch is filled with sharp, protruding fragments, which is why it is difficult for slugs to move on them.

This makes wood mulch more effective at controlling slugs and snails than mulch made from grass clippings or grass.

After all, grass, even dried grass, is more convenient and familiar to slugs than a layer of sawdust.

Therefore, beds and greenhouses mulched with sawdust reliably protected from slugs and snails, and this protection prevents the germination of weeds, and after autumn and spring digging/ploughing, it will improve the soil structure and fill it with substances necessary for plant growth.

Is it possible to pour fresh sawdust?

Why are beds sprinkled with sawdust at all and why is it believed that fresh sawdust can harm the plantings?

To answer this question, you need to understand - what processes are taking place in fresh sawdust and how they affect the soil and plants.

Fresh wood waste consists of cellulose and various resins, into which the juices that nourish the tree trunk are converted.

When the humidity of waste exceeds 30–50%, aerobic bifidobacteria and various fungi begin to multiply in them, which convert cellulose into glucose, carbon dioxide and water.

By eating wood, these fungi and bacteria also consume huge quantities of nitrogen, some of which they obtain from the air. However, there is not enough nitrogen in the air, so microorganisms pull it out of the ground, on which sawdust is poured.

This leads to a decrease in the level of nitrogen in the soil, which reduces soil fertility, because nitrogen is essential for the development and growth of any plant.

Besides, microorganisms secrete various acids, which penetrate the soil and increase its acidity. This is good on alkaline soils if they are going to grow cucumbers, tomatoes and other plants that love acidic soil.

However, on neutral and acidic soils this will lead to excessive acidification and loss of yield, as well as to frequent plant diseases.

In addition, as sawdust rots, it heats up and heats the surrounding soil. This effect is used for heating the soil when planting seeds and seedlings early in greenhouses or open ground, however, there the decaying wood waste is separated from the soil in which the plant grows by a layer of earth.

Therefore, you cannot pour fresh sawdust onto the garden bed or into the greenhouse, you have to wait for them to rot. This applies to both the bottom layer of mulch and subsequent layers.

The exception is adding wood waste to the paths between the beds, because they will be separated from the ground by a layer of rotted sawdust and will not be able to affect the soil. If you are going to completely dig up not only the beds, but also the paths between them, then it is advisable to let them completely rot, because fresh waste will negatively affect the soil.

Filling between beds

Despite the fact that the paths between the beds are not used for planting, sprinkling them with fresh sawdust will lead to a decrease in the yield of the beds.

After all groundwater, which transfer microelements and nutrients between individual soil particles, even with low humidity will lead to entry of some acids and outflow of nitrogen from the beds.

The exception is the top layer of mulch, separated from the ground rotted wood waste.

In greenhouses it is difficult, and sometimes it is impossible to completely plow the soil, therefore, the use of fresh wood sawing waste in the top layer of mulch on paths is justified.

However, where the entire area is regularly plowed or dug up, fresh sawdust cannot be used.

After all, once in the ground, they will reduce nitrogen content and increase soil acidity, which will negatively affect productivity.

Therefore, even for filling paths between beds, it is advisable to use prepared (rotted) sawdust.

Preparing the mixture for addition in the spring to a greenhouse or open ground

The preparation method depends on how and when you intend to use the sawdust.

If time permits, the easiest way is to dump them in a large pile on the ground and pour the solution generously, consisting of warm water and litter or manure in a ratio of 1:50–1:100.

For every cubic meter of sawdust, you need to use 100 liters of this solution.

Manure and droppings activate bacteria and fungi, which will ensure the rotting of wood waste and the whole process will take 1–2 years. If you water clean water, then the process will take 2–4 years.

Such sawdust can be used for:

mulching beds;
adding to the soil mixture for growing seedlings;
seed germination;
protecting plant roots from frost;
plant nutrition.

If you are going to make a complex fertilizer from sawdust, then you need to mix it with droppings or manure and leave it to rot.

Such humus is a higher quality fertilizer than rotted waste from sawing wood alone, due to the fact that it contains many different useful substances, and the structure is close to the structure of chernozem.

To speed up the rotting process add drugs that accelerate the growth and reproduction of bifidobacteria. In order to reduce the acidity of the finished fertilizer, slaked lime, dolomite flour or wood ash are added to the mixture.

Preparations that accelerate the growth of bacteria can also be used for clean wood sawing waste or watered with a solution of manure/droppings.

However, even with the use of bacteria the process will take at least six months for deciduous trees and for coniferous trees.

If you need to quickly turn sawdust into rotted sawdust, then you need to process it:

an aqueous solution of humus or droppings in a ratio of 1:20 at the rate of 100 liters of solution per 1 m3 of wood waste;
urea solution 1:100 (10 l per 1 m3);
slaked lime or dolomite flour (50–100 g per 1 m3);
a drug that accelerates the proliferation of bifidobacteria (the dosage indicated on the package is multiplied by 2).

Video on the topic

This video talks about how you can use sawdust in garden beds:

Conclusion

Wood sawing waste can be very useful material for fertilizing the soil in beds and greenhouses, however, their improper use can not only destroy the crop, but also make the land infertile for several years.

After reading the article, you learned:

how to properly use sawdust in garden beds and greenhouses;
Is it possible to use fresh sawdust?
how to prepare wood sawing waste for use in greenhouses or garden beds.