THE RANGE OF PRODUCTS IN MODERN GARDENING STORES IS AMAZING: THERE ARE NUMEROUS TYPES OF COVERING AND MULCHING MATERIALS, A VARIETY OF FERTILIZERS, INSECTICIDES, FUNGICIDES... BUT ALL OF US CAN DO YOU WILL YOURSELF TO BUY WHAT YOU WANT? I THINK NOT EVERYTHING. THIS IS WHY I DECIDED TO TELL ABOUT ORDINARY PINE NEEDLES, WHICH WILL BRING GREAT BENEFITS TO ANY HOLD GROUND AND WILL HELP YOU REFUSE BUYING THESE NECESSARY BUT EXPENSIVE GOODS
PINE NEEDLES AS MULCH
On the neighbor's summer cottage A huge pine tree grows close to our common fence. She reset every year large number pine needles, which I didn’t always have time to remove. And so, when one day I got around to this event, I discovered damp soil under a thick layer of pine litter, while the rest of my garden was suffocating from the scorching summer heat.
This observation gave me a brilliant idea - to use pine litter as mulch. It was not difficult to get a large amount of pine needles: our SNT borders on a vast pine forest. In half an hour, I filled the car to the brim with bags of this free material, which was enough for me to mulch all the vegetable beds, flower beds and tree trunks of garden plantings.
NOTE
To protect your hands FROM STINGY NEEDLES, when gardening with pine needles I use not ordinary cotton gloves, but thicker ones - intended for pruning thorny bushes. And in the cellar, where my harvest is also stored, also arranged with pine needles, I specially leave strong gloves: I put them on every time I take out the next batch of vegetables for consumption.
Under a layer of mulch 3-5 cm thick, the soil remained wet much longer after watering, so I stopped worrying about my green pets, leaving them unattended until the next weekend. In addition, the mulch suppressed weeds and prevented the formation of crust on the soil surface, saving me from the need to loosen the rows and weed out unwanted vegetation.
I still use pine litter as mulch to this day - and I never cease to rejoice at this economical find, which saved me from the need to buy special mulching materials in the store.
Prickly beds and tree trunk circles
In the spring, after emergence or planting of seedlings, mulching vegetable beds with pine needles. A thick layer of mulch under trees, shrubs and garden strawberries I have to renew only occasionally: the needles on the soil surface rot very slowly. For the same reason, in the fall, after harvesting vegetables, I rake the needles from the surface of the beds and send them to compost heap for “ripening”.
I dig up the beds with the addition mineral fertilizers and organic matter, and also add wood ash for digging at the rate of 1 half-liter jar per 1 m2, since pine litter, when used regularly, tends to acidify the soil. If there is no ash on hand, I use fluff lime, chalk or dolomite flour according to the instructions. I do things differently with garden crops: I move the layer of needles to the side, add fertilizers and deoxidizing agents to the tree trunk circle, embedding them into the soil with a hoe, and then return the mulch to its place.
After harvesting, I tried adding pine mulch to the soil, but I didn’t like it: in the spring it is very difficult to work with the “prickly” soil. Therefore, now I use pine litter, which I collect in large quantities in the fall, to prepare humus.
Preparing pine humus
The needles rot for a very long time, from 3 to 5 years, so to speed up the process I use little tricks. To do this, I put needles, fresh mullein (for every 1 m 3 of needles I take about 100 kg of manure), tops of vegetables, weeds, kitchen waste, layering them with small portions of garden soil, and then generously spill the contents with a thief of any microbiological fertilizer according to the instructions in the compost bin. and cover the pile with thick film. I use similar solutions 2-3 more times in the next season, and also periodically ventilate and moisten the ripening humus from a hose. With this approach, the coniferous litter rots 2 times faster, and within 1.5 years, by the next spring, I receive the most valuable fertilizer.
If there is no mullein available, then I fill the compost bin with needles and plant residues mixed with garden soil and each layer is generously moistened with a strong urea solution (200 g per 10 liters of water). In the future I also use solutions of microbiological preparations - and in the same time frame I get loose homogeneous mass, which thanks to the rich chemical composition pine needles are saturated with a lot of useful macro- and microelements.
And the presence of large quantities of pine needles essential oils and phytoncides, such humus completely frees it from pathogenic microflora and insect pests, which often choose “ordinary” humus for wintering or a place of permanent residence.
Coniferous humus has a slightly acidic reaction, so before applying it to the plants, I add a glass of wood ash to each bucket of such fertilizer. But if this seems tedious to someone, you can, even at the stage of adding humus, sprinkle the layers of ingredients with wood ash or a purchased deoxidizer according to the instructions.
Let the garden wake up early!
Slowly decomposing pine needles are an excellent material for construction warm beds . I prepare such beds in the fall so that next season I can harvest an ultra-early harvest of vegetables from them.
To do this, in the planned area I dig a trench two spade bayonets deep. I cover its bottom with a thick layer of pine needles sprinkled with wood ash, lay a layer of manure on top, and then fill the hole to the top with soft-stemmed plants - weeds without seeds and roots and vegetable tops, interspersing them with small portions of soil. Top layer - fertile soil 15 - 20 cm thick. I use so much “filling” that at the end of the work such a bed rises 25 - 30 cm above the surface of the earth. I spill the contents generously with a solution of microbiological fertilizer and cover it with a thick black film.
By spring, the bed settles, and with the arrival of the first thaw, the processes of decomposition of organic matter are actively launched in it, due to which heat is released, and the soil in the bed warms up at the most early dates. This allows you to plant seedlings a month earlier than usual. To do this, I make cross-shaped cuts in the film and plant plants in them, after which I install arcs over the bed and cover them with spunbond to protect the plantings from spring frosts. The contents of such a bed last a long time and allow it to be used for several years.
Alternative to spruce branches
On this beneficial properties I don’t run out of pine litter - I successfully use it for insulating plants for the winter. I remove the lashes of covering grapes, actinidia, clematis and other heat-loving vines from the trellis, tie them up and lay them on the ground. I bend the branches of “tender” shrubs (rhododendron, azaleas, roses, heat-loving varieties of berries, etc.) to the ground and secure them with metal pins. After this, I take out bags of pine needles that have been pre-dried in the sun from the bins and fill the ground part of the plants to the top with it. Then I cover the coniferous rollers with a thick film and secure its ends with stones or sprinkle it with a layer of earth.
In the same way, I insulate bulbous flowers and beds with vegetables planted before winter - I cover them with dry needles and cover them with film. I use the film to protect plants from damping off during winter thaws, the risk of which increases significantly under such a dense layer of wet mulch. A root system I insulate young seedlings of trees and shrubs in a different way: to do this, I place thick garbage bags filled with dry pine needles in their trunk circles.
Dry cover based on pine needles perfectly protects plants from winter frosts. And if, when using other materials, such as straw or sawdust, such shelters became cozy place wintering grounds for rodents, now such a problem does not arise: the prickly needles do not allow voles to come close to such “houses”.
Needles as an insecticide
In early spring, various pests of fruit trees and berry bushes which immediately begin oviposition. In order to protect against them, I spend spraying plants with pine infusion. To prepare it, first I finely chop 1 - 1.5 kg of young pine twigs with a hatchet, place them in a bucket and fill the container to the top hot water. I keep the contents in a warm place under a lid for 3 - 4 days, stirring them periodically.
Then I filter the infusion and dilute it by half. clean water, add a couple of spoons liquid soap and spray the trees and shrubs with the solution. I repeat spraying several times: during the period of swelling of the buds on the plants, in the pink bud phase, and also immediately after flowering. This economical product replaces expensive insecticides and allows you to rid your garden of codling moths, flower beetles, weevils, honey beetles and leaf rollers.
Also noticed that pine infusion is an excellent remedy for various types aphids, which likes to settle not only on garden plots, but also on garden crops ah, for example on cucumbers and tomatoes. For protection against aphids horticultural crops I spray the infusion described above, diluted 1:1 with water, and for processing vegetables I prepare a weaker solution - 1 part infusion and 2 parts water.
In one of the seasons, with the help of two sprayings carried out at an interval of 2 days, I completely rid my cabbage of white cabbage caterpillars - and took this remedy into service. However, in the new season, I decided that it was better to completely prevent these voracious pests from appearing on the plants, and immediately after planting the seedlings in the ground, I began to spray the cabbage bed every 10-12 days with a pine decoction, which scared away the white butterflies and did not give them the opportunity to lay eggs on the plants . Now I carry out such procedures every season, and my cabbage is always clean.
To prepare a decoction, place 1.5 - 2 kg of chopped pine twigs in a large enamel pan, pour in 6 liters of water and put it on fire. I boil the contents under the lid over low heat for 15 - 20 minutes, and after cooling, strain. I prepare a working solution for spraying from 2 liters of broth and 8 liters of clean water and add a couple of tablespoons of liquid soap there so that the fragrant drug settles on the leaves.
Coniferous solution - effective remedy against cruciferous flea beetle. Therefore, to protect against this pest for preventive purposes, I regularly spray not only cabbage, but also radishes, radishes, daikon and other crops of the cabbage family.
But to protect against the Colorado potato beetle, which, as it turns out, also cannot tolerate the pine smell, I prepare a more concentrated solution - 4 liters of decoction per 6 liters of water.
By the way, to protect potatoes from wireworms, you do not need to prepare infusions or decoctions, but you can use pine litter from the forest.
To do this in the spring, when planting tubers, you need to add a handful of pine needles to each hole, and the enemy will be defeated: the smell of rotting pine needles disorients the pest.
Fortunately, there are no slugs in my garden plot, but a friend of mine, having suffered with these voracious pests, found salvation in pine litter. Now she places rolls of pine needles around the perimeter of each bed, and the slugs are unable to reach the leaves and fruits of the vegetables. She does the same thing in the case of trees and shrubs, the young leaves of which slugs like to feast on: she makes rounded edges from needles in their trunk circles.
STRAWBERRY LOVES CONINES. With the onset of spring, when the returning cold has passed, remove from the garden old leaf, loosen the soil with fertilizers and, after new leaves begin to “sprout”, cover the entire bed with pine needles (dry fallen needles) with a layer of 5 cm. Grass will not grow through the pine needles; when watering from a watering can through the pine needles, the earth will not become compacted, there will be no need for frequent watering and loosening the soil during the summer. To any rainy weather the berries that lie on the pine needles are always clean. Until the end of the harvest, all worries will be reduced to watering (sometimes with fertilizer) and rationing of the remaining bushes. Leave 1 - 2 early tendrils on the bush with the first rosette. Root, spreading the needles for subsequent planting in the “school”. After harvesting, remove the pine needles from the garden bed (there is no need to bury them - the soil will turn sour), pour it with a solution of potassium permanganate, dry it and store it in paper bags until next spring. The needles will last 3-4 years without adding fresh ones. There is no need to be afraid of the acidifying effect. Strawberries tolerate slightly acidic soils well and even produce higher yields. As for protection against slugs, for this would be better suited spruce needles - they are shorter and prickly than pine needles. But strawberries are often mulched with pine needles. This is due to the fact that we simply have more pine forests. Over time, the needles overheat and become softer. Therefore, it is updated periodically. It is better to do this before the berries ripen, when under their weight they fall to the ground. In the forest, pine needles are collected in dry weather or dried in bags. Slugs do not like dry, prickly needles.
If pine or spruce trees grow near your site, you can use pine needles for mulching. It is believed that, just like sawdust, it acidifies the soil. However, some summer residents, having experimented with such mulch on their site, became convinced that this was not the case. But in order to be on the safe side, you should sprinkle a layer of rotted leaves or humus under the needles in the fall.
Mulching strawberry needles is not a complicated procedure at all. The source material collected in the nearest fishing line can be placed between the plants either in its pure form or after mixing it with other plant residues.
Old, fallen pine needles are very suitable as insulation for strawberries. Needle consumption is approximately 1 bag for mine standard bed from 22-24 strawberry bushes. A little less pine needles are spent on young strawberries, and a little more on an adult two or three year old one.
Pine and spruce needles are known to most readers mainly by their medicinal properties, which are well studied and widely used in medical practice. According to well-known herbal doctors in the country, up to 2/3 of all diseases, including cancer, can be cured with the help of pine needles. However, pine needles, as experience shows, are capable of more, including serving humans in their fight against pests and diseases, in increasing soil fertility and plant nutrition to enhance their growth and development.
The most effective results of using pine and spruce needles are known in the fight against pests and diseases fruit and berry crops: codling moth, moth on currants and gooseberries, weevil on raspberries, etc. In all these cases, it is enough to take 1-1.5 kg of needles and infuse it in 10 liters hot water, cool, strain and use a sprayer to treat the trees and bushes, preferably the trunks first, then the branches and then the green crown. This treatment of trees and shrubs is advisable at the beginning of their flowering and 2-3 more times with breaks for a week.
The experience of using pine needles against aphids and copperheads is also very effective, and take 2 kg of pine needles per 10 liters of water and leave for a week, keeping the infusion for about 7 days in a dark place and stirring daily. Before use, the infusion is diluted to a ratio in water of 1:3 or 1:5. Both pine and spruce needles give good results in the fight against cruciferous flea beetle on salads, cauliflower and a number of root crops (radish, turnip, radish, rutabaga, etc.). Moreover, the plants are either sprayed with a solution of infusion in water in a ratio of 1:5, or a mixture of pine needles and water in a ratio of 1:1 is added into the rows of plants. There has also been positive experience in using pine needles in the fight against the Colorado potato beetle.
It should be noted that spraying fruit and berry needles with a solution vegetable crops can be carried out both in the morning and in the evening, avoiding only periods of dew and rain. To prevent the solution from being lost, you can add 30 g of laundry soap to it. According to my observations, some gardeners add ash extract to the pine needle solution, which, in combination with soap, eliminates the possibility of soil acidification that occurs when using pine needles. The addition of chopped pine branches and cones by some gardeners to the infused mixture of pine needles and water, according to available information, only weakens the insecticidal properties of the solutions.
Some experience in using pine and spruce needles in recent years I also purchased it while growing tomatoes, strawberries and potatoes. In the first case, we added ash to a mixture of pine and spruce needles, boiled the mixture in water, filtered it, and then treated 10 tomato bushes twice with a solution having a 1:5 ratio. By doing this, we were able to encourage them to grow more intensively and eliminate developmental delays. What is important is that the treated bushes bloomed earlier and more friendly than all the others and did not suffer from any disease, and the harvest on them was greater than on the untreated bushes.
But, perhaps, the ones that pleased me the most were strawberries and potatoes, when planting them, in the first case, a mixture of pine needles with sand, ash and compost in equal proportions was used, and in the second case, a mixture of pine needles, bark, ash and compost in the same proportion, and In a strawberry bed, the mixture was embedded in the soil of the top layer, and when planting potatoes, it was applied under the tubers and on them in a volume of about 1 liter per bush. As it turned out, the strawberry bushes, being in such soil and having enough nutrition and moisture, had no pests or diseases, bloomed faster than others and produced a harvest almost 1.5 times greater than before. Moreover, the berries differed not only in their large size, but also had some particularly pleasant taste.
However, the most surprising thing was the potatoes, the planting tubers of which were affected by scab. When we dug up the very first bushes, we were surprised to note that none of the tubers had not only scab, but even any very tenacious sclerotia. The harvest of grown tubers turned out to be quite good, although the weather that year was not very pleasant.
The famous experienced gardener L. Rendyakov gets excellent results when using pine needles. In his practice, he covers onion plantings with coniferous spruce branches, and after removing the spruce branches after 2-3 weeks, the top layer of soil is well mulched with pine needles, due to which the soil remains loose, nutritious and moisture-free throughout the entire period of growing onions, has no weeds and protects the plantings from diseases and pests . As a result of all this, from 1 kg of sets, the yield of full-fledged onions is up to 40 kg, and this has been happening for about 4 years and regardless of the weather.
The experience of the skilled gardener V. Shchelkov, who uses pine needles with an admixture of sawdust to fumigate potatoes stored in the cellar with smoke, is also known from the press. This treatment of the cellar is carried out for about 0.5 hours, and monthly, until the end of the storage period. At the same time, potatoes not only do not rot, but also retain their properties well.
From all of the above, it is clear that pine needles effectively serve not only as a garden healer, but also as a fertilizer for soil and plants. This is explained by the fact that the needles contain, first of all, a very rich complex of physiologically active substances; it also contains many chemical elements: calcium, magnesium, manganese, copper, cobalt, zinc, etc.
Of course, there are also obvious opponents of the use of pine needles on plots, pointing out the harmfulness of removing green pine needles from trees and the possibility of terpenes, esters, etc. getting into the water and soil. Practice does not confirm this, since the doses of removing pine needles from the forest and introducing them into garden and vegetable garden are very small, and scientists have not found any noticeable difference between the properties of green and fallen needles. This means that it is quite possible to make do with fallen pine needles.
No plant is capable of producing as much oxygen as evergreen trees. It is not for nothing that people choose forests where spruce, pine, and fir trees grow to treat the respiratory system. Sanatoriums, which are located in pine forests, have amazing properties to heal the body thanks to the phytoncides found in the resin of these plants.You can recreate a piece of forest on your summer cottage by planting the types of trees you like. Before this, you need to familiarize yourself with the growing methods and nutritional system of conifers.
Feeding spruce, thuja and other tree species with needles must be done carefully. These breeds are unpretentious in nutrition and excess feeding can only harm them.When growing on a site for beauty, you need to knowhow to feed coniferswhen is the best time to do this? Professionals advise not to be too zealous with mineral supplements; it is better not to use anything at all than to use it incorrectly.
How does the nutrition of conifers differ from ordinary trees?
Fertilizer for conifers plants different from what is usually used for fruit trees, berries and vegetables. They do not need nitrogen in such concentrations as for deciduous trees, therefore complex mixtures - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium - are not suitable.
The necessary elements are potassium and magnesium, as well as phosphorus in small quantities. This is due to the fact that the necessary chlorophyll, which is always present in modified foliage, is obtained by plants through photosynthesis. The role of roots in this process is secondary.
Video: What fertilizers are best to use for conifers
The process of photosynthesis depends on magnesium. This microelement is part of chlorophyll, which is very abundant in needles, and its amount within all year round stays at the same level. In fact, magnesium is needed in small quantities for the growth of new branches that are located on the tops of trees.
Why fertilizer for coniferous treesnot needed in large quantities:
- evergreens do not shed their leaves, so they do not need building material for restoration in spring;
- do not produce crops, so they do not consume many nutrients;
- Plants can obtain the necessary nitrogen from the air.
Considering the type of nutrition, growth characteristics and shape of the “foliage”, you don’t have to worry too muchHow to fertilize coniferous plants.
Why nitrogen is dangerous for evergreen species
Fertilizers for coniferous treesmust not contain nitrogen. Plants need it, but in comparison with deciduous trees- in tiny quantities. Specialfertilizers for feeding conifersplants contain small amounts of phosphates, potassium and magnesium. Thesenutrientsenough for the trees.
Firstly, nitrogen can burn the root system and destroy the plant. Secondly, a large amount of nitrogen causes rapid growth, which does not have time to become lignified before the onset of cold weather and the tops freeze. Moreover, evergreen trees are considered the most frost-resistant on the planet. In Siberian forests, temperatures often drop to -65 degrees, but this does not harm pine and spruce trees. All because in the natural environmentno one uses it.
For this reason it cannot be used as fertilizers for conifersmanure. Not in any form, even diluted. Manure is a good source of nitrogen for deciduous plants, but it will destroy the evergreen tree
Mineral fertilizers for evergreens in autumn
Considering that soil fertilization is carried out in early May and mid-summer, it is worth considering whatautumn fertilizers for coniferous treeswon't hurt. You can use mulching around the root zone - this will protect the roots from freezing. Tree bark, hay, fallen needles, humus, crushed stone, and stones are used as mulch.
Feeding conifers in autumn includes superphosphates. Fertilizers in dry form are scattered around the perimeter of the plants and watered. You can bring it under digging and also water it. Over the winter, phosphorus is transformed and in the spring it becomes available to the root system.Autumn feeding coniferous plants superphosphate is not dangerous, since its effect will be noticeable only after 4 - 6 months.
Video: How to properly fertilize coniferous trees
Feeding conifers in August and Septemberis not carried out because the growth cycle is completed and new shoots ripen for wintering. Growth stimulants are not needed during this period.
Organics for evergreen trees
Organic mixtures that are suitable for evergreens:
- vermicompost;
- compost (necessarily rotted), which consists of green grass and kitchen waste.
Organic mixtures are placed around the trunk and lightly mixed with the top layer of soil. Organic additives are applied in the spring.
The main value of such supplements is the presence of potassium and microelements
Special additives for conifers
To make it easier to calculate fertilizers for conifers, special mixtures were created:
- "Fertika-lux";
- “Hello turbo for conifers”;
- "Aquarin";
- "Needle";
- "Green Needle";
- "Fertile universal for conifers."
"Fertika-Lux" is recommended by some amateurs as a fertilizer for conifers, but it contains no magnesium and a lot of nitrogen (16%). This mixture can be used in diluted concentration once every five years.
“Zdraven turbo for conifers” is a more acceptable option spring fertilizer. There are most of the necessary microelements, including magnesium. But the nitrogen content is worrying - 22%. It is not recommended to exceed the dosage of this mixture, much less use it asautumn fertilizer for conifers.
"Aquarin" is a water-soluble mixture that can be usedfor liquid feeding of conifers in the fall,but no later than the beginning of September.
"Hvoinka" is a good additive for dwarf evergreens. The main application is in spring and summer, since the nitrogen content is quite high (13%) .
"Green Needle" - wonderfulfertilizer for coniferous plants in autumn.A large percentage of magnesium and sulfur ensure the bright green color of the needles all year round.Fertilizer for spruce and pinewill prevent yellowing of the needles. A small percentage of nitrogen (3.4%) makes it safe for all types of conifers.
“Fertile universal” - spring feeding for the growth of new shoots. Starting from August, its use is not recommended.
Of the traditional nutritional mixtures for conifers, the most suitable is “Kalimagnesia”.
Conclusions
To maintain the green appearance of conifers, you cannot use large amounts of nutrient mixtures, especially those with a high nitrogen content. The emphasis in caring for pine needles is on the microelement magnesium and the macroelement potassium.
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Nowadays it is becoming more and more popular natural farming. In addition to a significant reduction in the volume of excavation work, the pleasure of receiving high yields various garden crops, this method requires the mandatory use of mulch. Can be used as mulch different materials. Mulching with pine needles is used when growing many plants that are not afraid of acidified soil. For these purposes, they do not use green pine needles, but brown ones that have fallen long ago.
Purpose of mulch
Mulch is any type of loose, air- and moisture-permeable, biodegradable material that is placed on the surface of the soil. The use of mulch provides:
- keeping the soil moist for a long time;
- growth retardation of many types of weeds;
- maintaining optimal soil temperature;
- creation of humus through gradual rotting;
- life support beneficial organisms, inhabiting the upper layer of the earth.
Growing plants on soil covered with a layer of mulch gives incomparably better results than without it. The thickness of the mulch should be from 5 to 20 cm. The needles are laid out at some distance from the base of the plant. They only need to cover heated soil.
If you rush to lay mulch in the spring, the ground underneath will remain cold for a long time. The effect of such use will be the opposite - a delay in plant development.
If in spring and summer the purpose of mulch is to protect the soil from drying out and the growth of weeds, and to accumulate heat, then in the fall it is to protect the soil organisms living underneath it from freezing.
Many natural materials can be used as mulch:
- pine litter;
- hay, straw;
- husks from seeds, buckwheat;
- pine nut shells;
- dry last year's leaves;
- sawdust and shavings;
- wood chips from tree bark;
- crushed cones;
- humus, humus, peat;
- freshly cut grass.
Buy mulch from natural materials It’s not easy, it’s rarely on sale even in specialized stores. Such materials are quite expensive and require renewal after a year, as they decompose in the soil.
Currently, in addition to natural shelters, modern nonwoven materials are used:
- spunbond;
- agril;
- lutrasil;
- Virotex.
They allow moisture to reach the ground and delay its evaporation. Their use is justified by their ease of acquisition and use. But it will not be possible to create real humus under such cover. Such a cover will not provide nutrition to the plant.
By using completely free pine litter, which can be collected from pine forests in any quantity, gardeners receive not only mulch, but also a natural humus production factory.
Raking needles into bags, you can see under pine needles white veins-mycelium. These myceliums provide the soil with enhanced nutrition and protection. Fertility and wildlife, and in the beds, is created by soil inhabitants who actively process a thick layer of needles.
Soil inhabitants - fungi, bacteria, small fauna that live under litter, help plants digest and assimilate any organic matter. Plant productivity in such conditions is optimal. After all, if there is no organic matter, there is no soil life, and there is no food for plants.
Application of pine mulch
In horticultural literature you can read about restrictions on the use of pine needles. It has an acidic reaction and over time, with constant use, acidifies the soil. Not all plants like this. Some people need such land, others suffer and get sick in such conditions.
The way out of this situation is very simple. It is worth remembering which vegetables, bushes and trees love such conditions. Raspberries and blackberries tolerate acidic soil well. Slightly acidic soil is suitable:
- for apple trees;
- pears;
- cherries;
- plums;
- quinces;
- gooseberries;
- currants.
Medium acid soil is suitable:
- for strawberries;
- potatoes;
- pepper;
- pumpkins;
- parsnip;
- sorrel.
Pine mulch helps the growth of sunflowers, eggplants, onions and garlic.
From ornamental plants loves coniferous mulch: hydrangea, rhododendron, all heathers, roses.
In addition, acidic soil can be neutralized by sprinkling slaked lime on the beds in the fall - 50 grams per 1 sq. m. m. It is even better to deoxidize the soil with ash, which is a natural supplier of nitrogen.
Pine needles contain natural phytoncides that counteract fungal and bacterial diseases. The needles also contain a huge amount of vitamins and minerals, which gradually pass into the soil.
Raspberry
Mulch from pine needles allows you to grow luxurious crops using biotechnology, which was studied and described by the outstanding Russian land manager Alexander Kuznetsov. Its principle is that plant nutrition is provided by root microbes and fungal mycorrhiza. Microbes and fungi do not live in the arable layer, only in rotting plant residues.
That is, by covering the raspberry beds with pine litter or any organic mulch, they create conditions for a favorable symbiosis between the plant, fungi and microbes. This symbiosis is a living biological product that enhances the breakdown of organic matter and improves plant nutrition.
Raspberry roots secrete substances necessary for the functioning of mycorrhiza, and mushrooms enrich the soil nutrients. Pine mulch provides a natural habitat for mycorrhizae.
Its presence allows you to increase the planting density from 5 shoots per 1 sq. m. up to 30-40 pieces.
At the same time, the weight of the berries increased from 4-6 g to 10-12 g. Fruiting remontant raspberries instead of August it starts from mid-July.
In beds that are mulched annually, plants either do not get sick at all or the disease is mild. With such agricultural technology, fertilizers are not needed, frequent watering, chemicals for baiting pests.
Strawberry (strawberry)
When using Kuznetsov’s biotechnology, strawberries instead of ordinary berries weighing 40 grams produced berries weighing 65 grams. The harvest increased by 1.5 times. Mulch, among other things, plays the role of an antiseptic; strawberries do not suffer from any diseases.
Unlike straw mulch, pine needles will prevent slugs from getting close to the berries. Mice won't live in it either. The mulch layer should be at least 5-7 cm high.
Lingonberries, blueberries, cranberries
Growing these crops is gradually becoming fashionable. Small plantations are planted in fenced beds covered with peat. For good development of plants, they are watered with acid-containing solutions. Covering such plantings with coniferous mulch is a mandatory procedure.
Onions and garlic
It is recommended to cover the beds with these plants with pine litter. Needles will not only retain moisture and prevent weeds from sprouting, but their phytoncidal properties will save plants from fungal and bacterial diseases. From mid-May, the beds are covered with a dense layer of pine mulch. At the same time, work on watering and loosening the beds is reduced.
It is very good to cover the roots of berry bushes, fruit trees, grapes and strawberries with pine mulch for the winter. Protecting from icy winds and low temperatures, it prevents the roots from suffocating from lack of oxygen. Many other protective structures become winter quarters for rodents. The needles will not allow them to settle in shelters built for grapes and roses.
From ancient times to this day, pine and spruce needles have been held in high esteem in Rus'. They use it for medicinal purposes, prepare infusions, make jam, add it to the bath, and even use it to scare away evil forces in those places where the traditions of their ancestors are still remembered.
This fragrant and very useful material can also serve gardeners who are looking for an effective and harmless way to control pests, as well as additional fertilizer for the soil.
Needles are an invaluable storehouse of useful substances; they contain calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, copper, but insects do not like them.
Needles as protection against pests
It is especially effective in protecting fruit and berry crops. The codling moth, the moth that destroys currants and gooseberries, the weevil that spoils raspberries and many other insects will never approach a plant sprayed with an infusion of pine or spruce needles.
Use of needles
To prepare it, you need to infuse one and a half kilograms of green needles in ten liters of hot water, cool and strain. Using the resulting infusion from a sprayer, first treat the plant trunks, then the branches and lastly the leaves. This treatment should be carried out three times in a row, once a week during the period when trees and shrubs begin to flower.
Pine needles show excellent results when used to protect the garden. A concentrated infusion of two kilograms of pine needles filled with ten liters of water is infused for a week, in a place protected from light, stirring daily. In order not to burn the leaves of the plants, the pine infusion is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:3 or 1:5.
This solution is incredibly effective against aphids, copperheads and cruciferous flea beetles. Good results are obtained from processing lettuce, cauliflower and many root crops.
Even the eternal enemy of potatoes, the Colorado potato beetle, cannot stand the coniferous “soul.” In addition to spraying, you can add a mixture of pine needles and water in a 1:1 ratio between the rows of plants.
Do not spray plants during periods of rain and heavy dew. Otherwise best time for the procedure – morning and evening. If you add about thirty grams of laundry soap and ash extract to the pine needle solution, this will help eliminate the effect of soil acidification.
Apart from these, no other components should be added, as they will weaken the effect of the infusion on pests.
With the use of infusions of pine and spruce needles, crop yields usually increase. You can do this purposefully by preparing a special solution. To do this you will need a mixture of pine and spruce needles mixed with ash.
Using pine needles as fertilizer
All this must be boiled in water, cooled, strained and diluted with water in a ratio of 1:5. Plants need to be sprayed twice. As a result of such treatment, for example, tomatoes grow more intensively, sprout together, do not get sick and bring a much larger harvest.
To protect strawberry bushes from pests and diseases, as well as to provide them with sufficient nutrition for intensive growth, you need to embed a mixture of pine needles with sand, compost and ash in equal parts into the top layer of soil.
With this feeding, strawberries grow much larger, and the yield is on average one and a half times larger.
When planting potatoes, pine needles are generally irreplaceable as fertilizer. It is capable of destroying scab, even if the planting tubers are affected by it. Needles qualitatively increase potato yields, protect them from harmful insects and many diseases. A mixture of pine needles, ash, bark and compost is applied directly under the potato tubers and on top in a volume of one liter.
By the way, you can also use pine needles to store potatoes in the cellar according to the method of gardener V. Shchelkov. If you fumigate potatoes monthly with pine needles mixed with sawdust, they will not only not rot, but will also retain all their beneficial properties.
Thanks to the experience of the famous gardener L. Rendyakov, today every owner land plot can grow in your garden excellent harvest Luke. Rendyakov covers the onion plantings with coniferous spruce branches, which are removed after three weeks.
Then the soil needs to be well mulched with pine needles, thanks to which it perfectly retains nutritional value, moisture and looseness. Weeds do not grow in such soil, it effectively protects onions from diseases, and also greatly increases productivity: from one kilogram of sowing, the onion yield is forty kilograms.
There are those who oppose the use of spruce and pine needles on the site, citing the harm caused to plants when young needles are removed from the forest. In fact, a gardener may well use litter, since it has the same properties as the green helper growing on trees.
If there are no pine needles, use pine concentrate
In pharmacies you can buy pine concentrate in the form of bath salts or powder. This is a proven, budget-friendly and, most importantly, pest control product that is not harmful to trees or people.
Dilute two or three tablespoons of concentrate into a bucket of water and spray fruit trees, when the buds swell, the second treatment is when the first leaves hatch.
The most interesting thing about this spraying is that in this way we confuse the pests; because of such “camouflage” they completely ignore the fruit trees, because it “seems” to them that in front of them conifer which they don't like.
Also in terms of concentration: if you dilute 4-6 tablespoons of concentrate in a bucket of water, you can destroy aphids and caterpillars. This remedy is effective against aphids at any time during the season.
Aphids are generally the most harmful pest - they will stick to the bush, populate all the young branches, not without the help of ants, of course, and suck the juices from the young shoots. So, after spraying with pine concentrate, this whole team disappears instantly.
Video - using pine needles in the garden
In conclusion, I suggest you watch a video from Tatyana Kudryashova, from which you will learn about the benefits of pine needles in the garden.