What determines the fertility of the soil, its increase? Can we gardeners answer this question? It is no secret that the soil is depleted, its properties are deteriorating. The application of mineral fertilizers, as practice has shown, does not solve the problem of fertility. Nutrients are not balanced; weeds absorb some of them. How to make the soil fertile in your area?
Soil is an incredibly complex substance. It has physical, chemical properties that allow it to support not only the life of plant diversity, but the life of hundreds of thousands of different insects, worm-shaped creatures, microorganisms. She breathes, she interacts with the environment, she can even clean herself, grow over time.
Soil fertility
More than a hundred years ago, the great scientist, professor of St. Petersburg University V.V. Dokuchaev declared to mankind that the soil is a special living body of Nature - the "skin of the planet." A huge number of living organisms live in it. The soil lives, breathes .... Life is born there constantly. And life is excretion and nutrition, respiration and death, synthesis and decomposition ...
Soil scientists have found that one gram of meadow soil contains up to 15 million workaholes - the smallest invertebrates - tail tails, ticks, and other organisms.
Soil not only gives life to plants. This is a home for a huge number of living creatures - 50-60% of them are earthworms.
As early as 1886, Charles Darwin first pointed out the role of worms in increasing soil fertility. Earthworms are constantly moving. They migrate deeper than other soil living organisms, penetrating deeper to 1.5-2 meters. Earthworms move in the thickness of the soil, penetrating it with a network of passages with a diameter of 3 to 7 mm, increasing its fertility, contributing to better aeration, penetration of moisture and roots.
The worms themselves feed on decomposing organic substances, pass through their intestines a huge soil mass, releasing it in the form of caprolites - several hundred tons per hectare. Caprolites are the most favorable environment for the propagation of soil microbes.
Life expectancy of earthworms is 3-5 years, but some species live up to 10 years. They have regenerative ability - circumcised, complete their body.
Their number per 1 square. m ranges from several copies to tens and hundreds. They accelerate the decomposition of organic substances inside the soil, significantly increase its fertility.
Life in nature is always represented by communities of organisms - plants, animals, microorganisms, that is, it exists in the form of biocenoses. There is no monocultural uniformity anywhere on the planet; communities are prevalent everywhere. Monoculture is rejected by Nature. But a man is intensively introducing it in the fields and gardens.
Meanwhile, clean crops not only violate the structure of the soil, but reduce the number of living organisms.
Crop rotations with the inclusion of perennial legumes or cereals lead to soil enrichment with root residues, activate microbiological activity, promote the accumulation of nitrogen and other nutrients, and increase fertility.
A man constantly torments the soil: he will plow the virgin soil, sow the grain - in a few years it will weaken it, it will bring cattle - he will trample everything, then he will sprinkle the crops with chemicals. She lacks the strength and time to restore her original condition.
Vegetable growers, amateur gardeners need to constantly improve fertility in their areas by applying organic fertilizers, vermicompost, mulching, observe crop rotation, fight pests, diseases mainly by biological methods, and observe proper agricultural practices.
The main elements of the characteristics of any type of soil are:
- soil structure
- soil texture
- soil fertility
- acidity (pH) of the soil.
The physical nature is determined by the balance of clay, silt, sand, organic particles, and the content of humus in the soil.
The fertile land includes many plant nutrients, including the main ones - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, minerals (zinc, manganese, boron, iron, sulfur, cobalt, copper, magnesium, molybdenum, chlorine) and organic substances. In addition, fertile soil has an acidity of pH from 5.5 to 6.2, good water and air permeability.
The chernozem soils of the Krasnodar Territory have high potential fertility. However, this can not always be used to obtain high yields due to the low availability of nutrients in the lower layers of the soil, lack of moisture and, often, a large weed infestation.
I decided this way: to make the soil fertile, it is necessary to increase the use of the mulching layer from legumes. Allot all the small spots of land for peas, vegetable beans, part of flower beds made from tires of automobile wheels, and give them under a long-term lupine. I think that my land has become more fertile.
Scientists, for example, N.M. Zhirmunskaya, it is recommended to use a mulching layer of 8 centimeters to suppress weeds, and a layer of 15 centimeters to destroy them. It is characteristic that earthworms intensively reproduce in such a layer, helping to restore the fertility of the earth. Ground bean plants are planted in the ground, which improves the soil structure, increases the nitrogen content in the soil.
Doctor of Agricultural Sciences V. Zubchenko emphasizes that the mass of legumes planted in the soil enriches the arable layer with organic matter, nitrogen. This fertilizer mass is equivalent to the introduction of fresh manure. That's why I grow legumes all over the site.
My experience in improving soil fertility
Near the gooseberry bushes, currants were planted with peas (3-4 holes near each bush), set slats for tying. When the time came for harvesting, I collected as many legumes as I used to get from three middle beds.
The fact is that legumes perfectly absorb atmospheric nitrogen, and bacteria transfer it to a state accessible to plants. Focal cultivation of legumes in order to increase fertility I think is a promising business, I was personally convinced. Even visually noticeable as the yield increases.
Gooseberries now produce berries the size of an average plum, and black currants, even black chokeberries, are the size of cherries. I chop the green parts of legumes, bury them around shrubs, fruit trees to a depth of 8-10 cm.
To get more peas, vegetable beans, I apply watering with an infusion of ash: a glass of ash in a bucket of water; infusion of weeds: 1: 3. In addition, I feed three times - half a glass of sifted wood ash per bush.
Perennial lupine continuously gives a green mass. She cut it, fed it with wood ash - it grows again. I keep the siderates (stalks of peas, beans and lupins) in a wet state, since in this form the plant mass decomposes faster.
When growing legumes, I take into account the illumination, I try so that the plants do not obscure other crops.
Scientists and gardeners-practitioners have repeatedly emphasized that siderates, in addition to restoring the structure, increasing soil fertility, suppress weeds, and successfully protect the earth from water and wind erosion.
I advise you to draw up a plan for the use of green manure, to calculate their need, to use a patch of land for growing legumes.
Video how to care for the soil and restore its fertility: