Sawdust is an organic material that is successfully used to increase productivity in summer cottages. In the garden and vegetable garden, sawdust can be used to fertilize the soil and control weeds and pests. If you mulch trees and shrubs correctly, you can improve the quality and extend the harvest time.

Sawdust consists of fiber, various microelements, resins, essential oils, and therefore becomes an excellent fertilizer for all plants. They enrich the soil with carbon, which increases beneficial microflora. They make the soil looser, lighter, more breathable, which simply saves heavy loamy soils.

The ability of sawdust to retain moisture can be used very advantageously in dry areas and in lowlands that suffer from floods or rainstorms. To remove excess water from plants, make small trenches (30–40 cm wide, 20–25 cm deep) and fill them with sawdust. And to retain moisture in the soil, mulching is done. Mulch made from fresh sawdust prevents moisture from evaporating, reflects sunlight due to its color, and therefore prevents the earth from overheating in the hottest summer. Properly organized mulching relieves summer residents from the need to frequently loosen the soil and weed the beds, because it prevents crust from forming after rain. And if any weed sprouts, it is very easy to remove it from the loose, airy soil.

The roots of many shrubs are located at shallow depths; tyrsa scattered around the stems will help provide them with the required amount of moisture.

Sawdust of which trees to choose

For fertilizers, you can use crushed parts of all trees, as long as they are not treated with chemicals. But coniferous sawdust contains a lot of resin, which slows down decay, so they are not used for compost or as part of complex fertilizers. But they perfectly repel the Colorado potato beetle, weevil and other pests - they are useful for sprinkling the rows of potato beds, covering strawberries, roses or other plants for the winter. The Colorado potato beetle really doesn’t like pine sawdust in a potato bed, but it is advisable to change them at least three times over the summer - then there will really be results. You can use them to mulch beds with eggplants and bell peppers, which are also often attacked by this pest.

Most often, people use a wide variety of tyrsa, without caring about the types of trees. Probably, the trees we use in the construction and furniture industry are only those that will not harm the plants in the country. The main thing is to use sawdust correctly, knowing that an excess of it can greatly acidify the soil, and burying it fresh can deprive the soil of nitrogen. Lime, wood ash, urea or manure will help enrich the soil with useful elements without disturbing the acid balance or reducing the amount of nitrogen.

Video “All about mulching the soil”

What is the best way to mulch the soil and why it is needed.

How to use

Regular application of rotted sawdust with manure and ash (or lime) into sandy soil, of course, will not turn it into black soil, but will significantly increase its fertile potential and will increase the yield of literally all crops. It must be remembered that fresh sawdust mixed with fresh manure, and rotted ones - only with rotted ones. If the soil is not too alkaline, you can always add lime flour or ash to prevent excessive acidification.

Vegetable beds can be mulched with a thin layer of sawdust (optionally mixed with manure) immediately after planting the seedlings. This will help retain moisture and make caring for plants less burdensome - you will have to loosen and weed less often. By the end of summer, the tyrsa will mix with the top layer of the earth and make it more loose and airy. This way you can organize an unobtrusive but constant delivery of the necessary fertilizer to the root system of plants.

Useful for trees and shrubs

You can use wood waste for mulching not only in vegetable beds. It is very useful to sprinkle a thick layer of sawdust on the ground in the raspberry patch. They do it this way: a thick layer of tyrsa (20 cm) is sprinkled with lime, and diluted urea is poured on top. Thus, it turns out that the soil constantly receives organic fertilizer, retains moisture, and a constant temperature - even in the hottest, driest summer, raspberries will have enough moisture, and a thick layer of mulch will protect the soil from overheating. The owner will not have to loosen the soil often, and there will also be significantly fewer weeds. The result of such care will be an increase in yield, even an extension of the fruiting period.

Currant roots are located at a depth of 10 cm from the surface; very often the ground dries out in the summer or freezes to such a depth in the winter. Some summer residents use wood waste to create more comfortable conditions for this plant. It has been proven by experience: if you mulch the ground around the bush, currants grow better, the fruits are larger and sweeter. In large beds, it is recommended to cover the entire soil with sawdust, even between the rows of bushes. The same applies to other shrub plants in the country.

The ground under fruit trees is often mulched in order to retain moisture and prevent weeds or overheating. It is noticed that then more side shoots appear. In addition, young trees are covered with wood waste to protect the roots from freezing. But it is important to do this just before frost, so that mice do not make winter nests in warm organic mulch. It is better to cover the soil under a tree in the spring with fresh grass with manure - slow rotting will provide feeding for the entire growing season. If there is a danger of excessive acidification, it is worth adding lime or ash.

Sawdust can bring as many benefits to trees and shrubs as it does to vegetables in the garden beds. The main thing here is not to overdo it, otherwise you will have to remove compacted but not rotted remains so that they do not delay the freezing of the earth in the spring. Some gardeners, fearing spring frosts, try to delay flowering in this way (by building a thick layer of sawdust and snow around the trunk). But competent botanists do not approve of this - not all trees can benefit.

Video “How to mulch trees”

This video tells and shows how to mulch trees using sawdust and wood chips.

It is known that introducing sawdust into the soil, especially fresh ones, is not recommended. A good harvest will not grow on such soil. If there is a lot of sawdust, it is not difficult to turn them into a wonderful component for improving the structure of the soil and its breathability.

In order to bring unrotted sawdust onto the site, you first need to prepare it. To do this, you need to stock up on nitrogen-containing mineral fertilizer, for example, urea. Its quantity can be calculated if you consider that for each bucket of sawdust you will need about one handful of dry fertilizer. It is better to take fertilizer in granules; powdered fertilizer can cake and form a long-soluble lump.
To collect sawdust, it is convenient to use large two-hundred-liter black polyethylene garbage bags.

The preparation process is very simple. In an old tank or large garden bucket, thoroughly mix sawdust with fertilizer in specified proportion, having previously moistened it, and carefully pour it into bags. The filled bag is tightly closed and left for at least three weeks. During this time, the sawdust will be saturated with nitrogen and become safe for the soil. It’s good if sawdust needs to be added in the fall. Over the summer, sawdust in bags will not only become saturated with nitrogen, but will also lose its rigidity and prickliness.

Both in spring and autumn, sawdust is added to the soil for digging for any crops. The experience of using sawdust in potato beds is successful - potatoes give a good harvest of even and clean tubers. However, it must be borne in mind that it is not worth applying nitrogen-containing fertilizers at the end of summer. Especially under fruit plants. This can delay fruit ripening and even fruiting. You can also use sawdust as mulch and insulation, covering the beds garden strawberries, winter garlic and flower beds with wintering flowers

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The use of sawdust in the garden

They are irreplaceable on our heavy loams. I’ll tell you about my 10 years of experience in using this valuable fertilizer.
We get it from a sawmill located near our partnership. Sawdust has many useful properties.

Sawdust is a valuable fertilizer. It contains a lot of carbon, thanks to which the soil microflora actively develops - the number of beneficial bacteria increases by 2.5 times. In terms of its nutritional properties, sawdust is close to high-moor peat; it is rich in fiber, contains microelements, lignin, resins, and essential oils. True, they must be used together with liming materials.

The drying capacity of sawdust is high. One part of them can hold 4-5 parts of water. Using this technique, it is not difficult to significantly reduce flood damage and prevent flooding of beds. We dug ditches 40-50 cm deep along the perimeter of the site, scattered the excavated soil around the site and leveled it, and periodically put sawdust in the ditches, sprinkling them with lime. After 3-4 years, humus forms from them, which we distribute over the beds. In the spring, we fill any damp, low-lying places with sawdust so that we can walk everywhere and start digging earlier.

Sawdust also “works” against harmful insects. One day there was a season favorable for the Colorado potato beetle. But after introducing fresh sawdust into the rows, the number of larvae began to decrease before our eyes. Fresh sawdust releases resinous substances that repel pests. But over the summer you have to renew the sawdust in between 2-3 times. After a year, we swap the beds and potato boundaries.

Sawdust makes excellent mulch. We mulch winter garlic with a thick layer in the fall and winter crops. In the spring we rake them so that shoots appear faster.

In hot and dry summers, fresh sawdust, due to its light color, reflects the sun's rays well, saving the soil from overheating and excessive evaporation of moisture. We mulch small-seeded crops with a thin layer, and we try to use smaller sawdust.

We cover the raspberry roots with a layer of 20 cm. Add powdered chalk on top, and then pour in a urea solution ( 200 g per 10 liters of water), because microorganisms developing in sawdust consume a lot of nitrogen. By autumn, the sawdust turns black and its layer thins, so for the winter we again add this fresh wood mulch, at the same time adding 50 g of nitrophoska per 1 m2. No digging or loosening is needed at all.

Thanks to sawdust, our raspberries do not get sick and grow in one place more than 10 years. Strawberries also produce a bountiful harvest under sawdust in the same beds for 13 years. We spread sawdust on the beds twice: in the spring and after cutting the leaves. Each time, we first scatter ground eggshells and ash, and then sprinkle the ground with fresh sawdust. After heavy rains, we feed strawberries with complex mineral fertilizers (50 g/m2).

Sawdust is an excellent loosening material that improves the structure of the soil and its physical properties. They do not contain weed seeds, unlike manure, and also evaporate moisture slowly. Even if weeds make their way through a thick layer of mulch, they can be easily pulled out of the loose soil.

Every year we add sawdust to film greenhouses to loosen the soil. We pre-moisten them with mullein (3 kg per 10 liters of water). This solution is enough to moisten 3 buckets of sawdust. In the fall, we scatter limestone material and embed the sawdust into the soil 2 weeks before planting seedlings of cucumbers and tomatoes.

We use fresh sawdust as a component in nutritional mixtures, adding 20% ​​of them from the volume of the total substrate. We even put sawdust in the peat nutrient mixture “Malysh” and “Ogorodnik”. Such soil does not need loosening and frequent watering. We enrich the compost with sawdust. Then the organic content in it reaches 40%.

We put the sawdust in a pile, layering it with plant residues, garden soil, and adding a little lime. If the sawdust is spruce, increase the dose of lime to 500 g per bucket. In summer, water the stack with water and a solution of complex mineral fertilizers.

To speed up the maturation of compost, we also add microbiological preparations Flumb K or Flumb Super. In this case, the compost is ready within a season. We don't even shovel it. It is not inferior in quality to manure.

Vera Sinitsyn

• Books for gardeners provide scant information about sawdust. It only says that they acidify the soil. So summer residents are afraid to use sawdust. But in vain!

1. Harm from wood waste
2. What sawdust should I use?
3. Several fertilizer recipes
4. Recipe 1: Wood and Ash
5. Fresh sawdust fertilizer
6. Mulching according to the rules
7. Strawberries and wild strawberries
8. How to cover roses
9. Sawdust for seedlings

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

Properties of wood chips and shavings

Sawdust mulch is suitable for use on all types of soil.

What's good about this material:

• It 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 mulch.
• Fresh sawdust is used as bedding for berries - the smell of the tree repels some pests from the fruit, and small chips keep strawberries and wild strawberries clean.
• Mulching the soil allows the roots of some plants to survive the winter.
• 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 material 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 unable to accurately assess its harm. However, in most cases, there is still a positive effect from their use.

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, you need to mulch the ground 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 pure form- not a fertilizer. They absorb minerals from the soil, and the soil becomes depleted. Nitrogen, necessary for the life of microorganisms, is drawn from the fertile layer.
• Fresh sawdust oxidizes the soil.
• The use of sawdust of unknown origin can lead to infection of plants with diseases. To eliminate this risk, you should not take material from questionable sources.

What sawdust should I use?

Wood shavings from different trees are not suitable for all plants:

• Waste from deciduous trees is good for crops, except.
• Coniferous species saturate the soil with acid, therefore they are accepted only by lovers of such an environment - tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and others.

Several fertilizer recipes

Sawdust in its pure form is used only 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 required condition, they will have to lie in a pile for at least 10 years while bacteria process the wood into a useful substrate. You can speed up the process by making 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.

We offer several recipes for preparing fertilizer from sawdust, which is used by gardeners throughout the country. It is recommended to bookmark from the beginning of summer as the necessary material becomes available.

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 polyethylene film, but small pores should remain on 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.

Fresh sawdust fertilizer

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:

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

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

Mix and leave to release the necessary elements and carry out 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 of land. This procedure promotes natural loosening of the soil.

Mulching according to the rules

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 layer of sawdust of 3–4 cm.

Raspberries are one of the main lovers 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 need it, 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 stems. The layer thickness should be 5–7 cm. This work is presented in the video.

Backfilling 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 the perennial plant to better survive the cold and maintain the integrity of the root system.

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 protective layer. Such mulch does not have sufficient heat-retaining properties.

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

Sawdust for seedlings

Tomatoes and other seedlings now more often appear in the garden not as seeds, but as ready-made shoots. 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:

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

Then, as they grow, the seedlings are transferred to a separate pot with garden soil.

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

Sawdust- very valuable organic matter, the place of which an experienced gardener will always find.

Today we will talk about mulching beds with sawdust. And so sawdust can still be composted, covered with garden paths, used as a substrate for growing seedlings, stored in them vegetables (carrots, beets) and other root vegetables (dahlias for example).

Let's talk about myths.

Many gardeners shy away from sawdust because they heard somewhere that they take nitrogen from the soil!

That's all! We can't afford such a bloodsucker!

But not everything is so simple! Gardeners do main mistake. Which one? Read on...

Do not use sawdust from chipboard or laminated chipboard under any circumstances!

A bed mulched with sawdust with garlic, tulips, peonies.

Fresh sawdust only for mulch.

On sawdust, during decomposition (rotting), microorganisms, various bacteria and fungi multiply, which use nitrogen.

But it is harmful if the sawdust is DIRECTLY in the soil! And then temporarily, after the sawdust has overheated, the borrowed nitrogen returns to its place.

If the sawdust lies ON the soil, then theoretically they cannot take anything out of it!

For reference: the air contains nitrogen - 78%, oxygen - 21%, carbon dioxide - 0.0392%, and the rest comes from other gases.

Therefore, feel free to use sawdust for mulch! And if you periodically water them with a bio-cocktail, then there will be nothing to think about at all!

What we mulch.

That's all. Sawdust can be used especially well for raspberries, garden fruit trees, flowers (tulips, roses, etc.), carrots, very good garlic and onions. We mulch the garlic in the fall to prevent it from freezing.

It is very good to use for mulching garden strawberries. But more about this...

Mulching garden strawberries.

Strawberry is very good at this procedure.

If you have a lot of weeds in your beds and you are tired of fighting them, use this technology.

We weed out the bed. We take old newspapers and spread them between the strawberries in 2-3 layers, overlapping. Then we cover everything with sawdust, in a layer of 3-5 cm. That’s it. You can forget about weeding. After this cake has been overheated for 1.5-2 years, we repeat the procedure.

It is better to use small shavings rather than small sawdust. It cakes less, allows air to pass through better, and as a result decomposes faster.

Which sawdust is better?

As we have already said, we do not use sawdust from chipboards, etc., since they are ARTIFICIALLY impregnated with all sorts of resins and other nasty things.

The rest of the sawdust will do!

Sawdust from deciduous trees will rot faster, so if possible, we give them preference.

But softwood sawdust is also suitable.

Well, that's all in a nutshell.

We will talk about the use of sawdust when preparing compost in a separate article.

Advantages:

• the weed disappears;
• soil moisture is maintained;
• protection from insects;
• the soil remains loose;

Mulching

High warm beds

Mulch for strawberries

Sawdust in a greenhouse and greenhouse

• sufficient hydration.

Sawdust and plant insulation

DIY fertilizer

1. What sawdust should I use?
2. Several fertilizer recipes
3. Recipe 1: Wood and Ash
4. Fresh sawdust fertilizer
5. Strawberries and wild strawberries
6. How to cover roses
7. Sawdust for seedlings

Advantages of sawdust:

Harm from wood waste:

• Fresh sawdust oxidizes the soil.

What sawdust should I use?

Several fertilizer recipes

Recipe 1: Wood and Ash

Stack:

• Wood sawdust – 200 kg;
• Water – 50 liters;

• Wood waste – 200 kg;
• Cow dung – 50 kg;

Fresh sawdust fertilizer

1. Ammonium nitrate – 40 g;
2. Calcium chloride – 10 g.

Strawberries and wild strawberries

How to cover roses

Sawdust for seedlings

Read the contents of the article!

Sawdust for the garden: use, benefits and harm of sawdust. There is still no consensus on the use of sawdust in the garden. This technology arouses keen interest among beginning gardeners. Experienced gardeners refuse sawdust because of negative experience with use. In fact, wood chips have a number of positive properties that can provide a good result. However, it should be used with a certain amount of caution, following certain rules.

With the help of sawdust, the fertile layer of the earth becomes more loose and airy. Such soils do not form a crust that is harmful to plants, which allows the amount of loosening to be reduced. Sawdust can also be used as fertilizer. As a result of proper preparation of the material, high-quality humus is formed, which is similar to more expensive manure. In winter, mulch made from wood shavings protects plant roots from freezing, and in summer it helps retain moisture in the soil.

This is interesting! The beneficial properties of sawdust appear only in combination with fertilizers or after 10 years in a compost heap.

During this period, bacteria appear on the surface of the chips, which saturate the wood with minerals. In its pure form, sawdust is used to fill paths. This allows you to reduce the risk of weeds spreading and gives neatness to the entire area.

The negative consequences of using wood waste include:

• Increasing soil acidity;
• Decrease in yield due to nitrogen leaching.

You can find out the acidity of the soil on your site using tests with litmus papers, which are purchased in specialized garden stores.

To neutralize the effect of acid, sawdust is mixed with substances containing alkali:

• dolomite flour;
• crushed chalk;
• lime or lime-acidifier;
• wood or peat ash.

Fertilizers such as superphosphate, potassium chloride, sodium or calcium nitrate, and potassium sulfate are also used for these purposes.

When using alkalis, certain rules must be followed. For example, fertilizers are added to a mixture of lime and dolomite flour, which include boron and manganese. A solution of calcium nitrate (urea) helps prevent nitrogen deficiency.

Options for using sawdust in the garden

Mulching

Wood chips are often used as a base for mulching. This operation is carried out at the beginning of summer, when active evaporation of moisture occurs. The material chosen is rotted sawdust. If this is not observed, use fresh shavings. Before the procedure, it undergoes special treatment.

Method for preparing mulch from fresh sawdust

You will need 3 buckets of wood waste, 10 liters of water and 200 grams of urea. The shavings are laid out on plastic film, fertilizer is added and water is poured evenly. Then the procedure is repeated. The structure is covered with polyethylene and left for 14 days, pressed down with stones. Sawdust is usually placed in the passages between the beds, mixing with ash. At the end of the summer season, wood waste is dug up along with the ground.

Carrots, garlic, onions, beets, and turnips need a protective dusting of sawdust. The procedure is carried out after picking, when the plantings have reached a height of 5–7 cm. Mulch vegetable crops in a thin layer of several centimeters. It is better to sprinkle cucumber bushes with substrate around the stem.
Sawdust will look especially good in raspberry fields and under strawberry and strawberry bushes. As a result of mulching, the fruits will be clean and not rotten. In addition, such treatment will help perennials survive the winter. Bedding under the bushes is done when the seedlings have already taken root and have gained a height of more than 7 cm.

Video: sawdust for a large harvest

To achieve maximum effect, experts recommend combining chips from different tree species. Most crops are suitable for waste from deciduous trees, with the exception of oak trees. For lovers of “acidic environments” – tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and also strawberries – you should select softwood sawdust. These shavings are practically not tolerated by pathogenic microbes, which eliminates the risk of plant infection.

Pre-winter mulching will have a great effect on the condition of the soil. The use of sawdust in the fall is slightly different from the spring procedure. During this period, it is necessary to mix the shavings with compost and peat, and only then spread them on the beds. In the spring, all that remains is to carry out shallow digging or simply loosen the soil with harrows.

Fertilizer

Expensive manure will become more affordable if you mix it with sawdust. Per cubic meter of wood chips you will need 10 kg of bird droppings and 100 kg of cow manure. At the same time, it should be taken into account that rotted shavings are combined only with rotted manure, and fresh ones with fresh ones. This improves the quality of the compost. Instead of manure, you can use mullein, urea or a solution of bird droppings.

Fertilizer is prepared throughout the year from the beginning of summer. Before laying the compost heap, sawdust is moistened with water or slurry. Ordinary soil (at the rate of 2 - 3 buckets per cubic meter of sawdust) will not be superfluous here. As necessary, water the compost and add grass, hay, and kitchen waste to it. The top of the pile is covered with polyethylene, leaving small pores for heat exchange and ventilation.

Here are several recipes for such fertilizers.

Wood and ash:

• 200 kg sawdust;
• 50 liters of water;
• 10 kg of ash;
• urea, saturated with nitrogen (up to 47%) 2.5 kg per heap;
• up to 100 kg of food waste, grass.

Grass and shavings are laid in layers, ash is added and a pile of urea dissolved in water is poured over. Cover the compost with polyethylene and organic matter (on soils poor in microelements):

• 200 kg of shavings;
• 100 kg of freshly cut grass;
• 50 kg of cow dung;
• 30 kg of organic waste;
• Humates (1 drop per 100 liters of water).
• a bucket of wood chips;
• 40 grams of ammonium nitrate;
• 30 grams of granulated superphosphate;
• a glass of slaked lime;
• 10 grams of calcium chloride.

The substrate is infused for two weeks. Then, when digging the beds, they add it to the soil. The soil should be fertilized in the amount of 2 – 3 buckets per 1 square meter of area. This procedure promotes natural loosening of the soil.

If sawdust was stored near abandoned forest areas, they should also be composted first. In order for the pile to warm up to at least 60 degrees, it is poured with hot water and covered with polyethylene. This temperature allows you to destroy weed seeds.

Treating seeds in wood shavings

Sawdust serves as a favorable environment for growing seedlings. This method is used only when nutrients are present in the seed. If the plant is not transplanted into the ground in time, it will die.

To treat seeds, use only rotted sawdust from deciduous trees. The moistened shavings are poured into a container in a thin layer, after which planting material is laid on them. Then add fertilizer to the container and sprinkle with another layer of wood chips. The container is placed in a slightly open plastic bag and hidden in a warm place. After the emergence of seedlings, the seedlings are transferred to a cooler place, the film is removed and sawdust is sprinkled with a layer of soil of about 0.5 cm. When the first leaf appears, the plants are planted in the ground in a separate pot. Any seeds can be treated in this way.

Early potatoes ahead of schedule

Wood chips are also used to prepare sowing potatoes. Two weeks before planting the tubers in the ground, the box is filled with a 10-centimeter layer of sawdust moistened with water. Place dried potato tubers (early varieties) on top of the sprouts.

After this, the seed material is sprinkled with another layer of sawdust (2–3 cm). During the entire period of preparing potatoes, it is very important to maintain the humidity of the sawdust and the temperature no higher than 20 degrees. When the height of the sprouts reaches 6–8 cm, the tubers are watered with a fertilizer solution, planted in holes and completely covered with soil. The top of the area is covered with straw or hay; in case of frost - polyethylene.

How to insulate plants with wood chips

The simplest method is considered to be when plastic bags are filled with sawdust, and then the root system of the plants is covered with them. Garlic tolerates cold well under damp pine sawdust - they provide warmth, but also protect the crop from diseases and pests.

As a more reliable option, experienced gardeners choose a wooden box without a bottom. It is placed above the plant, covered with sawdust and covered with film. The top of the box can be sprinkled with a layer of earth. Plants such as roses, clematis and grapes are left to overwinter in their place of growth. For protection, the shoots are bent to the ground and covered with a layer of sawdust. It is better to cover plants with shavings in late autumn, then the risk of rodents appearing in it will be much lower.

A thick layer of wood waste at the bottom of the planting pit will help provide the root system with thermal insulation.

Using sawdust in closed ground

In greenhouses and greenhouses, sawdust acts as biological fuel. They can be combined both with manure and with rotten plants. As a result of this combined effect, the soil warms up faster, and the plantings better absorb useful substances. In addition, the speed of their digestion increases, and the compost becomes more airy and nutritious. You can add wood shavings to the greenhouse soil in both autumn and spring. If fresh organic matter is available, use fresh sawdust, otherwise use only rotted waste.

In the fall, it makes sense to cover the ridges with a layer of straw or mown grass, and at the beginning of spring work, add fresh manure and fresh sawdust mixed with lime. Then vegetable waste is mixed into the resulting mass. The soil is covered with straw and a layer of soil, flavored with ash and mineral fertilizers. To warm the soil, the ridges are poured with boiling water or covered with an airtight film.

Formation of high beds

With the help of rotted sawdust, you can increase the height of the ridge. To do this, large trenches up to 25 cm deep are dug around the intended location. The bottom of the pit is covered with the remains of straw and covered with a mixture of sawdust, alkali and urea. A layer of leaves is placed on top, and then covered with the previously deposited soil.

To prevent the earth from crumbling around the edges, a barrier of mown grass, straw or layers of turf is placed around it (it must be placed with its roots facing out). The sides of the ridge are covered with film to reduce evaporation. The remaining shavings are distributed between the beds. In the future, it is used to fertilize plants. Cucumber, squash and pumpkin seedlings and young plants actively grow on the formed multi-layer ridges.

Other areas of use of sawdust

From juniper sawdust you can make a fragrance for your closet.

Small wood waste absorbs water well and is therefore suitable for storing vegetables in the cellar.

With the help of wood shavings it is easy to insulate the attic floor or the floors of the first floor. To do this, the material is mixed with lime and cement, and then water is added. Instead of cement, crushed clay is often used. Only before carrying out construction work should the stones be removed from it. Any operations with solutions containing small wood chips require prior installation of waterproofing. This is due to the fact that sawdust material absorbs moisture well.

Video: use of sawdust in other areas

High-quality fuel is obtained from shavings. To press briquettes at home, use a manual machine equipped with a form for filling in wood chips. The finished product is dried outside. Such briquettes are inferior to factory products in terms of heat transfer, since they have a low density due to low pressure during pressing. Nevertheless, this method of obtaining economical fuel has found wide use among owners who have large reserves of wood shavings.

Sawdust can also be used as bedding for pets. In this case, the shavings perform two functions:

1. insulation;
2. hygiene products (absorb liquid, waste).

Fruit tree waste contains less resin. It is advisable to dry the pine chips well first. But walnut sawdust can cause hoof inflammation in horses.

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.

They contain a large number 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 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 everything is completed. fertile layer land.

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 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.

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. 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.

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:

1. Sawdust is poured into the container and the seeds are laid out.
2. Sprinkle with a thin layer of sawdust.
3. Cover with polyethylene and put in a warm place (+25…+ 30 °C).
4. As soon as the shoots appear, the container is removed to a cool place.
5. Remove the polyethylene and sprinkle with soil.
6. 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

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 do not like. Sawdust generated during construction work may contain chemicals. Therefore, they are used with caution.

1. Properties of wood chips and shavings
2. What are the benefits and possible harm?
3. What sawdust should I use?
4. Several fertilizer recipes
5. Recipe 1: Wood and Ash
6. Recipe 2: Organically Enriched
7. Fresh sawdust fertilizer
8. How to do mulching correctly
9. Strawberries and wild strawberries
10. How to cover roses
11. Sawdust for seedlings

Mulching is the surface covering of garden soil with mulch, which can be crushed bark, pine needles, sawdust and other natural materials. This agrotechnical technique allows you to avoid many problems with the health of 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 chips keep strawberries and wild strawberries clean;
• Mulching the soil allows the roots of some plants to survive the winter;
• 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 material 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?

Wood shavings from different trees are 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.

Fresh sawdust fertilizer

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:

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

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

Mix and leave to release the necessary elements and carry out 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 of land. 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.

Backfilling 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 the perennial plant to better survive the winter and maintain the integrity of the root system.

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:

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

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

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.

Waste generated during the sawing process of wood (sawdust) can be very helpful 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 it the roots do not develop well and the plant becomes sick.

If it is not possible to install a greenhouse, then good decision You may end up pouring fresh wood waste into grooves or holes.

Sawdust needs to be poured 3–5 cm below the root level, so make the seats a little deeper.

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

In this case, bacteria that ensure the decay 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 also will not lose the microelements necessary for plant growth.

Wood sawing waste is better suited for this type of bedding. deciduous fruit trees(pear, apple, apricot, etc.). 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 you need it mix in equal parts with manure, and also treat with aerobic bifidobacteria. Such preparations are sold in garden stores, they can also be bought on the Internet, for example, here. The cost of packaging sufficient to process 25 m2 is 4–4.5 thousand rubles.

Place on top of the sawdust a mixture of garden soil and humus, because in most cases, garden soil is severely 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 soil with unrotted sawdust, litter or manure, because this mixture will burn the roots of the plants and you will not receive 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 best result soil acidity must be taken into account.

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

• sorrel;
• horsetail;
• buttercup;
• sorrel;
• blueberry,

That the earth is very acidic and holes or grooves for planting are needed pour slaked lime solution, and sprinkle the bottom layer of sawdust with wood ash.

If the following appeared on the site:

• heather;
• fern;
• cornflowers,

that's enough pour lime mortar into the holes or groove.

Most root vegetables, as well as cucumbers and tomatoes, love moderately acidic soil, so if the site does not have the above plants, then sawdust poured into the bottom of the hole, grooves or furrows will will slightly acidify the soil, so that the seedlings will 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 fertilizers, so no acidity or nitrogen adjustment is required.

The same method of adding sawdust to the bottom of grooves or holes can also be used for planting 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 soil that injures the roots of plants, because, unlike soil, sawdust has a very loose structure, so When transplanting, the roots are kept intact.

If you are going to grow seedlings in separate containers and then transplant them into open or closed ground, then you need completely rotted sawdust mix with soil and humus. This will provide the maximum amount of nutrients and elements necessary for seedling growth.

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Fertilizer

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 main methods of obtaining fertilizers:

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

The natural decay process 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 accelerates their decay, as well as makes ready-made 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 apply 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.

That's exactly how it turns out 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 ground dries out quickly.

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, due to which plants absorb 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 must be watered not only with water, but also 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).

Weed and pest control

Chemical control methods used in the fields not always applicable in the garden, because domestic animals often run along 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 area around the plant trunk is covered, but the entire bed.

Wood waste, laid in a thick layer, deprives weed seedlings of 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 slugs, causing them to lose their ability to crawl and soon die from dehydration.

This mulch should be added once a week in a thin layer, and pour over the coffee residue 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 useless in the fight against these pests.

Backfilling of paths

During the rain the paths between the beds become muddy and turn into a difficult-to-pass porridge, 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 remove dirt, but also improve soil structure. In addition, the bottom layer of fill gradually rots and after 1–4 years, depending on the humidity and type of wood, it 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, 3-4 times a year, water the sawdust-strewn paths with urea and slaked lime or ash solution.

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

Choosing between coniferous, including pine and hardwood sawdust, take into account different time 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.

Can do not divide the garden into beds and paths, covering the entire area with sawdust. The optimal layer thickness is 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 bacteria will turn them into high-quality fertilizer by spring. 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?

At correct use any sawdust brings many benefits, but improper use can be harmful and completely destroy the harvest making the land unsuitable for growing some plants.

Any waste from sawing wood make the soil more acidic and also draw nitrogen out of it Therefore, 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 add sand along with sawdust.

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

That's why there is not much difference between coniferous and deciduous sawdust - when used correctly, they bring many benefits, but mistakes can be harmful 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.

Conifers

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 means pine or spruce sawdust as the most accessible, as well as as cheap as possible. Pine and spruce are used for most carpentry and carpentry, so sawdust is everywhere.

Fresh pine and spruce sawdust due to the high resin content, it takes much longer to rot deciduous and also pull 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, therefore 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 acidify the soil more strongly, so you need to increase the amount of slaked lime or ash.

Use pine and other pine sawdust in the garden not only possible, but also necessary, taking into account their characteristics and compensating for the negative impact on the earth. 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 they rot 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 often come across sick or injured various pests.

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

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2. Forum dacha.
3. Miracle garden.
4. Mastergrad.

All this allows us to conclude that sawdust that It’s easier and cheaper to bring it to the garden. 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 sawdust waste, and also talked about various ways that allow you to save on their purchase.

Only A complex 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:

Summarize

Sawdust is Very useful material , which 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.

Inexpensive and accessible natural material - sawdust. They can be purchased at the nearest sawmill, or obtained on your own site during construction or sawing firewood. Farmers have found many ways to benefit from this waste. However, do not forget that they can also cause harm. Later in the article, let's take a closer look at such aspects as the benefits and harms of using sawdust in the garden. And also how you can fertilize or treat beds with them.

Areas of application of sawdust in the country house or garden

Sawdust and shavings are sometimes burned to produce mineral fertilizer - wood ash. But this is how valuable organic matter evaporates, the voluminous loose substance disappears. It's better to do it differently:

1. Mulching.
2. Compost.
3. Adding to soil and greenhouses.
4. Neutralizer of harmful substances.
5. Acidifier.
6. Dehumidifier.
7. Temperature insulator.
8. Pest repeller.
9. Additive to seedling soils.
10. Substrate for mycelium, germination of seeds and tubers, forcing flowers and herbs.
11. Medium for winter storage of rhizomes and tubers.
12. Covering garden paths.
13. Bedding in livestock and poultry farming, in a dog kennel.
14. Filler in a country toilet.
15. Material for stuffing garden scarecrows, garden furniture and pillows.
16. Construction raw materials (insulator, insulation, filler for sawdust concrete).
17. Fuel in heating boilers.
18. Source of smoke in the smokehouse.

Sawdust close up

Types of small wood waste

Small waste from cutting wood is divided into shavings, large and small fractions. There are also differences in the type of wood: from coniferous or from deciduous species. Sometimes the differences are important, for example: leaf waste rots faster; Coniferous trees are not suitable for smoking products, etc. But any organic matter is valuable. It is advisable to treat the sawdust before use.

Benefits and harms

1. The presence of impurities such as creolin, chemical oils, paint particles, glue, gasoline. That's why you need to take pure wood products, and not chipboard or sleepers.
2. Resinous substances inhibit seed germination and plant development. This deficiency is neutralized by scalding the substrate with boiling water, as well as by composting.
3. Unripened organic matter (when introduced into the soil and onto its surface) begins to decompose by microorganisms that intensively consume soil nitrogen. Because of this, plants experience nitrogen starvation - they turn pale and develop worse. Therefore, it is recommended to put only rotten sawdust in the ground, and when mulching with fresh sawdust, flavor it with nitrogen fertilizers.
4. Sawdust compost acidifies the soil. Simultaneous alkalization is necessary (in the fall - with lime, in the spring - with dolomite flour, ash).
5. Seedling sawdust soils dry out too quickly. It is necessary to follow the recommended proportions of components and monitor regular watering.

Mulching

Sawdust mulch is a cheap and convenient option. They cover it at the dacha:

• surface of beds with vegetables and strawberries
• soil in raspberry gardens, flower beds
• tree trunk circles in a fruit and berry garden

Sawdust in bags, ready for soil mulching

The layer thickness can be from 4 to 20 cm.

Mulch is applied in the spring or early summer, and for fruit and berry and ornamental crops it can also be applied in the fall. At the beginning of the season, rotted sawdust compost from last year or the year before is used; at the end of the season, organic matter from spring composting is suitable.

It is also possible to mulch with fresh sawdust. They are pre-cooked: soak strong solution nitrogen fertilizers. To do this, 3 buckets of mulching material are filled with 10 liters of water, where a quarter kilogram of urea or saltpeter is dissolved. It is best if this mixture sits for a couple of weeks (covered with polyethylene) before mulching, after which you can sprinkle it on the beds. Mineral fertilizers can be replaced with fresh manure or droppings (2 liters), but such mulch is not suitable for strawberries and some vegetables (for hygienic reasons).

Advantages of sawdust mulch

1. the material is not contaminated with weed seeds
2. gradually rotting, the mulch enriches the soil with organic matter
3. moisture is saved
4. no soil crust and erosion
5. roots are insulated, temperature changes are smoothed out
6. comfortable for beneficial soil inhabitants (microorganisms, earthworms)
7. makes it difficult for some pests to escape
8. no dirty splashes from rain and watering – cleaner products and fewer diseases
9. inhibits weed growth
10. ridges, garden, flower beds look well-groomed and beautiful

Mulching a potato bed with sawdust

How to fertilize with compost

The best option for sawdust disposal is proper composting. Simply poured out in a large heap, they will rot for several years (especially from coniferous trees). Rotting is accelerated by layer-by-layer mixing with substances such as

• manure, droppings
• feces
• foliage
• herbal humus
• dolomite flour, ash.

The mass is regularly shoveled and spilled with water, as well as solutions of mineral fertilizers, herbal infusions, biological preparations (Baikal, Flumb Super, Shining). The process of compost maturation usually lasts from six months to two to three years. The minimum waiting period is 2 months.

Mixed compost is considered the best organo-mineral fertilizer for all crops.

Compost made from sawdust

Adding to soil and greenhouses

The fertilizer “works” in the soil for 3-5 years: it nourishes plants and loosens heavy loams.

Small wood waste is also used to add biofuel to greenhouses. They are mixed: fresh sawdust with fresh manure, rotted with rotted manure (in a 1:1 ratio).

Using sawdust in greenhouses

Neutralizer of harmful substances

A fresh mass of small wood waste serves as an “ambulance” in emergency situations. It is added to the soil if an excess of nitrogen and other fertilizers is noticed. This way the plants will avoid fattening, accumulation of nitrates and harmful salts.

Acidifier in garden beds

Rotted sawdust is useful when planting and mulching those plants that like high acidity of the soil (hydrangeas, rhododendrons, azaleas, heathers, blueberries).

Pine sawdust as a desiccant

Sawdust compost

Fresh sawdust can absorb an amount of liquid that is 5 times its volume. They are good for filling drainage ditches and paths between high ridges in wetlands.

Temperature insulator

In regions where winter temperatures are low, dry sawdust is used to protect the root zone and branches of shrubs (grapes, hydrangea, roses, clematis), planting winter garlic and perennial flowers (lilies, irises, chrysanthemums) from freezing. To avoid overheating, shelter is provided when subzero temperatures, and opening earlier in the spring. To protect against dampness, a waterproof material (polyethylene, roofing felt, etc.) is placed on top.

Some fruit and berry crops bloom very early, and the ovaries freeze. If the root zone is covered with a thick layer of sawdust, then the trees and shrubs will wake up later. Flowering will be postponed to a more comfortable time.

Rose bushes sprinkled with sawdust for the winter

Pest repeller for garden plots

Small wood waste is soaked in tar or gasoline and laid out to repel rodents, onion and carrot flies.

Adding prickly sawdust makes it difficult for snails and slugs to move around. The resinous aroma partially protects plants from attack by beetles (Colorado beetle, raspberry beetle, flower beetle, weevil).

Additive to seedling soils

A soil substrate containing from 10 to 50% rotted sawdust compost is recommended for

• seedlings of vegetable and flower crops
• rooting cuttings and strawberry mustaches
• growing seedlings with a closed root system.

Other components of such soil are garden soil, peat, and a little sand. Loose soil requires frequent watering or special additives that retain moisture (hydrogel, vermiculite, coconut substrate).

Unrotted organic matter can cause starvation of young plants. If the foliage has turned pale, then you need to give nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizing.

Path covered with sawdust

Using substrate as fertilizer

Seeds of cucumbers (as well as zucchini, pumpkin, melons and watermelons) are germinated in fresh small sawdust and seedlings are kept. The substrate is poured with boiling water, then the water is immediately drained. The procedure is repeated twice to wash off the resinous substances. The warm, wet mass is laid out in a layer of 6 cm, and dry seeds are placed into it at a depth of 1.5 cm (at a distance of 3 cm from each other). The crops are covered with film and placed in a warm place. The seedlings “shoot” after 3-4 days. The seedlings are ready for planting in two weeks.

In sawdust you can force onions and tulip flowers. The substrate must first be spilled with boiling water and fertilized with a complex fertilizer with a predominance of nitrogen. Potato and dahlia tubers are sprouted in the same way before planting.

The middle fraction of crushed wood from deciduous trees is used for artificial cultivation of mushrooms such as oyster mushrooms.

Medium for winter storage of rhizomes and tubers

In autumn, flower growers dig up dahlia tubers, calla lilies and begonias, and canna rhizomes. They are stored in a cellar or refrigerator, sprinkled with dry, fresh sawdust. Resinous components inhibit rotting.

This method is not suitable for preserving lilies and onion sets (they will lose turgor).

Farmers are zealous and creative people. They have the ability to convert waste into income, especially when it comes to organics. As you can see, using pine or any other sawdust can be beneficial in the right hands.