Mulching is a useful agronomic technique used by gardeners in many climatic zones. In the process of this procedure, the soil is covered with organic or man-made material, and the beds can be completely covered or only the space between the rows.
Nature itself taught man to mulch soil. Indeed, in meadow open spaces and in thickets under bushes and trees, the earth is rarely bare - fallen leaves, dry grass, needles protect the soil from drying out, and plants - from the effects of cold weather and parasites.
The mulch layer allows the soil to maintain its structure and prevents crust formation. In addition, the mulched soil does not erode with water during irrigation, retains moisture and inhibits the growth of weeds. Mulch significantly reduces the number of waterings and makes loosening almost unnecessary.
What can you use for mulching on your site? There are a lot of options.
Mulching with inorganic covering materials
For this, color and black film, lutrasil, roofing felt, roofing material are suitable. They are laid on the beds, strengthened, and then holes are made where the plants are planted. The slots should be slotted (we cut the film across or along), and not in the form of a square or circle. So the earth will evaporate less moisture, and water will be able to penetrate well into the soil.
Black film is used for mulching zucchini and cucumbers. It will perfectly protect the planting from weeds and reduce the frequency of watering. Strawberries covered with foil will always delight you with clean berries.
Tomatoes prefer to be mulched with a red film, and cabbage - white. Transparent film for mulch is not recommended - it does not inhibit, but on the contrary, causes active growth of weeds.
The film material used for mulching must meet the following requirements:
- Keep out the sun's rays
- Have elastic and thin structure
- Stick tightly to the ground
- Be strong so that weeds cannot break through
Film mulch increases the soil temperature by 1.5-2 ° C, and this is an important factor for the unstable climate of the middle zone, where the summer is short. Film mulching also reduces moisture evaporation, making the surface of the soil cooler on hot days. Thus, the film helps plants to feel comfortable in hot, cold and drought conditions.
This opaque shelter is widely used for weed control without chemicals. With its help, even difficult-to-hatch plants propagating by rhizomes - loach, wheatgrass, sow thistle - are destroyed.
The black film prevents the formation of a soil crust, which reduces the amount of oxygen supplied to the roots, which is so necessary for the seedlings. This mulch maintains a loose soil structure.For example, on a strawberry bed under a film, the soil remains unbroken and porous even for five years.
Another plus: film mulch increases soil fertility. Weeds in the upper soil layer decompose, enriching it with nitrogen, and the microorganisms protected by the film begin to actively grow and feed, increasing the humus content.
The soil covered with such mulch stores heat better in winter, and the beds freeze less. Therefore, the film shelter is very important for dwarf apple trees, whose frost resistance is not so high, and for strawberries - its roots are located close to the soil surface.
Film mulch under strawberry bushes prevents the formation of gray mold and reduces the number of nematodes.
With all the advantages, film mulch also has a negative quality. Unlike organic matter, it does not lend itself to decomposition, which feeds the soil. This factor forces many summer residents to first mulch the beds with humus, and then cover them with various non-woven materials.
Using organic mulch
Whatever the merits of synthetic materials, today's gardeners prefer natural mulch.
An organic shelter not only inhibits the growth of weeds, protects the soil from freezing and overheating and retains moisture in it, but also saturates plants and microorganisms with nutrients. After all, gradually decomposing, the mulch forms a fertile layer in the soil.
In order for mulching with natural materials to give the maximum effect, you need to figure out when and what kind of shelter is better to use.
Mulching with freshly cut grass
The grass is saturated with nitrogen and other useful elements that are needed for the development of plantings to be full.
For mulching, you can take grass from a mown lawn, slightly dried weeds after weeding, pinned branches of tomatoes. Pay attention, the leaves of the tomatoes will become an excellent covering of the cabbage bed, they will scare off the white-haired woman who loves tight heads of cabbage.
Do not rush to mulch the soil with freshly cut grass, let it dry for a day or two, otherwise it will start to rot too quickly.
In the northern regions, the mulching process is carried out after the soil warms up to a sufficient depth, and the seedlings rise and grow stronger. In the southern regions, grass mulch is applied even before planting so that it can saturate the soil with nutrients.
Mulching the soil with compost
It is difficult to find a more versatile and ideal shelter than compost. It is completely safe and loved by all vegetables. Mulching with compost increases the resistance of plants to diseases and provides them with excellent nutrition.
Therefore, it is better to put kitchen waste, tops, weeds, organic waste in a compost pit, sprinkling it with sawdust, paper, soil. After a year, you will have high-quality natural mulching material.
Straw mulching
It is best to cover the soil with straw under the nightshade - bushes of tomatoes and potatoes.
It will become a good barrier between ripening tomatoes and pathogens living in the ground, protect plants from rot and anthracnose, and prevent leaf blight. And if you mulch potato rows with straw, the Colorado potato beetle will often bypass them.
In addition, straw mulch is great for planting garlic, basil, garden blackberries and strawberries.
Mulching with newsprint
Read color and black-and-white newspapers can be safely laid on the beds - they will become an excellent mulch and prevent weeds from growing.
The bed, prepared for mulching, is covered with four layers of newspapers and sprinkled with grass, hay, soil or straw.
Some gardeners fear that printing ink can damage the plantings, however, according to American scientists, modern printing compounds do not pose a threat to soil and plants.
Cardboard and kraft paper are no less effective in fighting weeds. They can replace film mulch when it is necessary to warm up the soil. If, two to three days before transplanting seedlings to the garden, the garden bed is covered with kraft paper, it will raise the soil temperature by 3 ° C.
A high result is obtained by mulching raspberry bushes and legumes with paper - the yield of these crops is significantly increased.
Fallen leaves mulching
Leaf litter is ideal for cabbage and bean beds. Peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes can be mulched with leaves, but after deep heating of the soil.
Such mulch is good in flower beds, it will save flowers from freezing and will not allow bulbs to germinate during the thaw period.
Tree bark mulching
The bark of trees is the most durable mulching material. It decays for a long time, as it is poorly saturated with moisture. Therefore, this mulch turns out to be "long-lasting" and is often poured around bushes and trees.
When mulching tomatoes, it is recommended not to use coniferous bark - volatile substances from it often harm tomatoes.
Wood mulch is very good in flower beds and berry fields. Its durability makes it possible to use bark as a decor in landscaping and create stunningly original flower beds.
Mulching with sawdust or wood chips
Such material is poured where the land is rarely cultivated and almost does not know what a shovel is - on garden paths, furrows. After all, chips need more than a year for complete decay.
It is good to cover the soil in the raspberry with sawdust, or in late autumn to cover the beds with winter crops, for example, garlic.
Do not use caked sawdust for mulching. If they have been piled up for a long time, it is very likely that oxygen has not been supplied to the lower layers for a long time, and they "sour". Before use, such material must be sprinkled with a thin ball and dried well.
Needle mulching
The needles are loved by strawberry bushes and eggplants - it perfectly protects and nourishes them. However, many gardeners have a preconceived notion that pine needles seem to oxidize the soil.
But it has been experimentally proven that the pH of the soil, where a seven-centimeter layer of coniferous needles was poured for two years in a row, remained the same as before mulching.
In addition to the materials mentioned above, peat and crumbs from it, sunflower and pumpkin seed cake, humus, dry reeds are suitable for covering the soil in the beds. Often, several materials are combined under the mulch, for example, freshly cut grass with cake or straw together with cardboard. An excellent effect is obtained from mulching with fresh grass mixed with sawdust.
How and when to carry out mulching, we will discuss in the next article.
