Mulching The Soil - A Step Towards Harvest

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Summer has come. All the plants started to grow, and most gardeners using traditional agricultural techniques began the laborious summer work of weeding, endless loosening and constant watering. In general, not a day is without labor. For gardeners and truck farmers who use natural farming techniques (ALE), the main operation is mulching!

Mulch is anything that covers the soil from above

In nature, there is no black, uncovered land. Without mulch, the most fertile top layer is in very unfavorable conditions, it is exposed to the sun, wind and rain. In the upper layer, intensive humus mineralization takes place, most of the mineral elements are washed away by rains, the sun and wind turn the earth into a cracked asphalt road, and living soil inhabitants go into the depths. Thus, the bare soil quickly loses its fertility, and the work of the gardener turns into unbearable hard labor.

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Humidity is preserved under a thick layer of organic mulch, temperature drops between day and night are reduced, here the best conditions are created for the development of soil microorganisms, for which mulch serves as food. Under the influence of microorganisms and worms, organic matter decomposes with the formation of humus (in the lower layers), as well as mineral nutrients that are easily assimilated by plants (in the upper layers). But that's not all: a layer of mulch with a layer of 5-7 cm significantly (5-6 times) suppresses the growth of weeds. Thanks to mulch, the top layer of the soil always remains loose, and additional loosening is not required after watering.

In addition, even on the hottest day, the soil under the mulch remains cool, and the warm air, which always contains water vapor, sinks down the soil channels, cools down, and water condensation falls on the walls of the channels. At night, the mulch cools down, and the ground underneath remains warm. Damp warm air rises and dew falls on the cool mulch. This is how natural autowatering works, thanks to which, as scientists have calculated, plants receive twice as much moisture as from precipitation in the form of rain. And finally, it is very important that during the decomposition of organic mulch by microorganisms, a large amount of carbon dioxide is released, which is necessary for photosynthesis and is the main (50%) plant nutrition.

Thus, thanks to only one operation - mulching - organic matter is introduced into the soil, which is necessary for the formation of humus; at the same time the growth of weeds is suppressed, the evaporation of moisture is delayed, natural automatic watering begins to act, the soil is not washed out and becomes loose. Therefore, gardeners spend five times less time weeding, three times less watering, and no loosening is required at all.

So far we have talked about organic mulch and its benefits, but it can also be inorganic (various films and nonwovens). The advantages of such mulch are good moisture retention and almost complete suppression of weeds.

Mulch the soil after it warms up and cultivated plants grow on it. Organic mulch around the plants should be laid out in a layer of 5-7 cm. Since the top layer of mulch dries up and the bottom one is decomposed by microorganisms, it must be renewed every two to three weeks.

Hay, straw, foliage, post-harvest residues, lawn and meadow grass, sawdust, bark and even weeds can be used as a mulch cover. Moreover, the best mulch is obtained by mixing carbon-containing materials with nitrogen-containing ones. The use of mulching the soil with organic materials allows not only to reduce labor costs, but also to increase the fertility of the earth, but it is necessary to pay special attention to the crucial role that microorganisms play in this process. After all, it is they who decompose organics inedible for plants into digestible mineral elements, and also form humus. × Notice board Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

Unfortunately, in the Northwest the number of useful soil microorganisms is small (4 times less than in the south). In addition, a large number of them die during the cold and long winter. Fortunately, in our time, scientists have studied and isolated the most valuable agronomically useful microorganisms from the soil and, on their basis, have created complex microbiological preparations of multifunctional action. These drugs not only accelerate the decomposition of organic matter and increase the yield, but also protect plants by suppressing putrefactive and phytopathogenic processes. For their effectiveness, the drugs are called effective microorganisms (EM). They must be used as solutions once a week for spraying and watering. Without the use of EM preparations and with not quite correct mulching, the risk of mulch decay and infection of plants with fungal diseases increases.

So, mulching the soil with organic materials together with microbiological preparations ensures the complete transfer of biological substances to the soil, as well as reducing labor costs. Thanks to this agrotechnical technique, you can not only get a large harvest, but easily and quickly enough increase the fertility of the soil and turn the depleted land into a blooming garden.