Peat bog soils mainly consist of organic matter, are rich in nitrogen, which is often in a form that is inaccessible to plants. These soils contain little potassium and critically little phosphorus.

However, there is such a variety as peat-vivianite soils. On the contrary, their phosphorus content is high, but it is contained in compounds that are inaccessible to plants. Peat-bog soils are also characterized by good air and water permeability, but often have excessive moisture content. Peaty soils warm up slowly because peat conducts heat poorly. Since structurally peat soils are a kind of sponge that easily absorbs but also easily releases water, their structural composition should be improved by increasing the content of solid particles.

Soil improvement measures

The main measures to improve this type of soil should be carried out in two directions. To normalize the process of processing organic matter, which will result in the release of nitrogen and its transformation into a form accessible to plants, it is necessary to create conditions for the development of normal biological life in the soil. To do this, it is necessary to add manure, slurry, compost, sawdust to the soil, and use microbiological preparations. The second direction for improving peat-bog soils is to increase the content of phosphorus and potassium in them in a form accessible to plants. To do this, when cultivating the soil, phosphorus-potassium fertilizers should be applied, and on peat-vivianite soils, the dose of phosphorus fertilizers is halved. To create a more porous, lumpy structure of peat soils, it is recommended to add compost, a little clay flour, and possibly coarse sand.

“Fifteen years ago I began to develop an inherited peatland plot. This turned out to be not a simple matter (I had to study the relevant literature) and very labor-intensive. I'll tell you how to drain a swamp summer cottage. Maybe the experience I’ve gained will be useful to someone.” This is the letter sent to our website by Gennady Veselov from Leningrad region. Here is his story.

Peat-swampy areas are rarely cultivated here. At the same time, they can bring good harvests. Naturally, when they are properly processed. The disadvantages of a summer cottage on a peat bog are known. This is the saturation of methane gas in the soil and the lack of oxygen, as well as the proximity to the groundwater surface. Therefore, to the question, a plot on a peat bog - what to do, the answer is with the right decision The problem is simple: enriching the soil with oxygen, getting rid of methane and lowering the groundwater level.

How to drain a swamp at the dacha, where to start? I had to dig the first summer drainage ditches 50 cm wide and 70 to 140 cm deep. They must be dug with a slope of approximately 1 cm per linear meter. Brushwood was laid at the bottom of the ditches. I covered the branches with old roofing felt, which I had left over after re-roofing. I laid dry grass on the roofing felt, which I mowed before the seeds appeared, so that the dacha plot would not become overgrown with weeds. This grass was covered with crushed dry peat, and the excavated soil was laid on top to form a small hill. After it settled, almost no bedding was required. The construction of such drainage ditches on a summer cottage made it possible to make the soil looser, get rid of methane gas and lower the groundwater level.

How to drain a swamp to make beds on a summer cottage.

Peat is known to be a source of nitrogen necessary for plant development. But as long as it lies in a compressed layer, there is no benefit from it. However, as soon as it was dug up and crushed, bacteria began to work, taking a breath of oxygen, turning the peat into soil suitable for planting. Of course, we had to work hard here too. After all, in order to receive good harvests, at a summer cottage, draining the swamp is not enough. It was necessary to add clay, sawdust from a cow farm and sand to the soil. For the first few years, we also had to feed our peat bog with mineral fertilizers with added microelements.

Peat retains moisture well and is an excellent mulch. Its top layer (3-5 cm) must be kept dry. This will save your garden from pests and diseases, and your garden from tedious weeding. In addition, peat soils freeze and thaw slowly and do not freeze deeply. Therefore, in our beds on the site of a drained swamp, the plants never froze even during winters with little snow and frost.

Thus, by draining the swamp at my summer cottage, I was able to create fertile soil here in a few years, which is suitable for growing most. Moreover, having improved the area, they planted plum trees, apple trees, cherries, pears, sea buckthorn and chokeberry, which began to produce abundant harvests. So garden plot on a peat bog - this is quite feasible. You just need to put your hands to it.

Before finding out what bog soils are, it makes sense to remind you what “soil” is in general. Many immediately imagined the school class, the natural history teacher and his words about the solid shell of the Earth - the lithosphere. Its top layer has unique quality- fertility. This is the layer that was formed over millions of years.

Soil formation factors

The geography of Russian soils is vast, like the country itself. Parent rocks, climate, vegetation, terrain - all these are factors influencing the formation of the fertile layer. In the Russian expanses, stretching from the southern mountains to the northern seas, these factors are very different. Accordingly, the land that gives people the harvest is also different. There are many on the territory climatic zones With different quantities precipitation, illumination, temperature, flora and fauna. In Russia you can admire the white silence of snow and sand dunes, see taiga forests and birch groves, flowering meadows and marshy swamps.

There are anthropogenic landscapes - people are increasingly interfering with nature, changing the thickness and quality of the fertile layer (not always for the better). But just one centimeter of humus or humus (which makes up the “living layer”) takes 200-300 years to form! How carefully we need to treat the soil so that future generations are not left alone with deserts and swamps!

Variety of soils

There are zonal soils. Their formation is strictly subject to the law of change of flora, fauna, etc. at different latitudes. For example, Arctic soils are common in the North. They are scarce. The formation of even a weak humus layer in permafrost conditions, where only mosses and lichens are present among plants, is impossible. In the subarctic zone there are tundra soils. The latter are richer than the Arctic ones, but poor compared to the podzolic lands of the taiga and mixed forests. By reducing acidity and adding mineral and organic additives, they make it possible to grow many varieties of crops.

There are forest soils, chernozems (the most fertile), and desert soils. All of them are the subject of research in such sciences as soil geography, etc. These knowledge systems also pay great attention to the study of non-zonal lands, which include swamp soils. They can be found in any climate zone.

Formation of bog soils

The geography of soils in Russia contains information that the layers we are discussing in swamps and swampy forests are formed during stagnant moistening by rain (precipitation), surface waters(lakes, rivers, etc.) or underground aquifers (ground sources). Simply put, bog soils are formed under moisture-loving vegetation. Bogs can be forest (pine, birch there are very different from their forest counterparts, they are small, “gnarly”), shrub (heather, wild rosemary), moss and grass.

Two processes contribute to the formation of bog soils. Firstly, this is peat formation, when plant remains accumulate on the surface because they rot poorly. Secondly, gleyization, when iron oxide turns into oxide during the biochemical destruction of minerals. This difficult natural work is called the “swamp process.”

Swamps come if...

Most often, swamp soils are formed during hydrogenous succession of land. But sometimes river spaces also turn into swampy places with stagnant water. For example, such a process has been taking place on the great Russian Volga River for several years now. Due to the cascade of hydroelectric power stations and reservoirs, it flows more slowly and stagnates. Urgent rescue measures are needed.

Thus, if for one reason or another the speed of rivers decreases, they become uncontrollably polluted. The bottom springs that feed them silt up. But despite the “cry of nature,” people do not care about them. Therefore, there is a great risk of Russia’s blue arteries turning into stagnant swamps.

Characteristics of peat-bog soils

As mentioned above, peat is formed from a dense mass of insufficiently actively rotting residues. Although there are places where the process does not occur at all. The upper layer, covered with “remains” deposits, is peat-bog soil. Are they suitable for farming? It all depends on geographical features.

In soils, a thick layer of organic matter could theoretically enrich the topsoil. But it doesn't decompose well. The active formation of humus is prevented by the high acidity of the medium and its weak bioactivity, which is also called “soil respiration.” By the way, this is the name given to the process of the earth’s absorption of oxygen, the release of carbon dioxide, and the production of thermal energy by organisms living in the subsoil. such swamps are primitive. It has two horizons: peat and peat-gley. Gley is an earthen profile to which ferrous oxides give a gray, blue or dark blue color. Such soils are not distinguished by their living force. For use in agriculture they are of little use.

Characteristics of bog-podzolic soils

Bog-podzolic soils can form where wetlands with a moss-herbaceous cover are located. Or where there are wet meadows formed by cutting down areas covered with trees. How to distinguish bog-podzolic soils from podzolic soils? Everything is very simple.

In swamp podzols, persistent signs of gleying are observed. Outwardly, they look like rusty ocher and bluish spots. There are also veins and smears that penetrate all horizons of the profile. The development of bog-podzolic lands is affected by two types of soil formation: bog and podzolic. As a result, both a peat horizon and gleying, as well as podzolic and illuvial layers, are observed.

Characteristics of marsh-meadow soils

Swamp-meadow soils are formed where plains and river terraces, covered with sedge and reeds, have depressions. In this case, additional surface moisture is observed (flood for at least 30 days) and at the same time constant ground recharge at a depth of approximately 1.5 m.

The aeration zone is unstable. It's about the layer earth's crust, located between the day surface and the groundwater surface. Soils about which we're talking about, are relevant not only for flat plains and river terraces with close groundwater, but also for forest-steppes. Sedges, plants from the rush family, and reeds are readily localized on them. The genetic horizons of such lands are differentiated very clearly.

Swamp-meadow soils “live” in an unstable water mode. When the dry season begins, the vegetation of the swamps gives way to meadow vegetation, and vice versa. The following picture is observed: the profile of the earth is one, but life on it is different. During the dry period, if the waters are mineralized, salinization of areas occurs. And if the liquid is weakly mineralized, then dry swamp silts are formed.

Krasnodar region and its soils

The soils of the Krasnodar region are diverse. In the Primorsko-Akhtarsky, Slavyansky, Temryuk regions they are marshy and chestnut, rusty due to the many estuaries and bays. Residents of Kuban grow vineyards and rice on them. In the Labinsky and Uspensky regions, the soils are podzolic and chernozem. These lands are very fertile. They are suitable for obtaining rich yields of vegetables and sunflowers.

On Black Sea coast mountain forest. Magnificent ones grow here orchards, vineyards. On the Azov-Kurgan Plain there are black soils everywhere. It’s not for nothing that Kuban is called the breadbasket of Russia. Its soils are so rich in humus that local residents often joke: “Even a stick stuck in the ground grows here.”

During the Second World War, the Nazis loaded black soil into railway cars and transported it to Germany, realizing what a natural value it was. It’s good that not all fertile layers are destroyed ill-treatment of people. But even with large reserves of gifted land, a person must carry out agricultural work carefully. Whether it is soils of versatile use or swamps of little use for cultivation, one must remember that thoughtless interference with life natural complexes dangerous for all living things.

How to increase soil fertility Khvorostukhina Svetlana Aleksandrovna

Peat- marshy soils

Peaty-boggy soils

The process of formation of peat-boggy, or peat-raised, soils occurs under conditions of excessive moisture. Traditional for them are such types of plants as sphagnum moss, blueberry, pine, wild rosemary, spruce, Scheichzeria, cloudberry, cotton grass, cassandra, cranberry.

Peaty-boggy soils are characterized by high acidity. The pH level is often between 2.5 and 3.6. In addition, they are characterized by high moisture capacity (from 700 to 2000%) and low ash content (from 2.4 to 6.5%).

This text is an introductory fragment. author

Swampy soils Swampy soils are soils that are formed under long-term or continuously excessive levels of moisture and waterlogging of the horizon located under moisture-loving plants(Russia, sedge, reed, cattail). Their range is usually

From the book How to Increase Soil Fertility author Khvorostukhina Svetlana Alexandrovna

Peaty-swampy soils The process of formation of peaty-swampy, or peaty, raised soils occurs under conditions of excessive moisture. Traditional for them are such plant species as sphagnum moss, blueberry, pine, wild rosemary, spruce, Scheuchzeria, cloudberry, cotton grass,

From the book How to Increase Soil Fertility author Khvorostukhina Svetlana Alexandrovna

Silt-swampy soils Silt-swampy soils have a limited distribution area. They can be found, for example, in low-lying areas. They are formed under the influence of periodically alternating processes of excessive wetting and drying. Level

From the book How to Increase Soil Fertility author Khvorostukhina Svetlana Alexandrovna

Tundra soils Tundra soils are typical of the tundra zone located in the Northern Hemisphere. They are characterized by insignificant thickness and manifestations of permafrost. These are coarse humus soils, the content of humic substances in which can reach 5%. In agriculture

From the book How to Increase Soil Fertility author Khvorostukhina Svetlana Alexandrovna

Arcto-tundra soils They are found in the northern regions of the subarctic zone. Their formation occurs under vegetation of polar willow, sedge and forbs. In lowland areas they form under mosses and sedges. In most cases these are loams.B

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Right of soil see Filiation.

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Soil drainage Soil drainage is carried out for agricultural, sanitary or construction purposes. Soil that is constantly saturated with water that does not allow fresh air to the roots of plants, produces only reeds, sedges and other aquatic plants, and a large excess

Peat soils, their improvement

There is a popular opinion that such soils seem unsuitable for growing vegetables and berry bushes, but after two to three years of mastering them, it is already possible to grow most garden crops on them.

But the approach to the development of each type of peat bog must be individual- depending on what type of swamp was previously in this place.

Peaty soils are very diverse in their physical properties. They have a loose, permeable structure that does not require special improvement. But they all contain little phosphorus, magnesium and especially potassium; they lack many trace elements, primarily copper.

Depending on their origin and the thickness of the peat layer that forms them, peaty soils are divided into lowland, transitional and highland.

Low-lying peatlands, often located in wide hollows with a slight slope, are most suitable for growing garden and vegetable plants. These soils have good vegetation cover. The peat on such peatlands is well decomposed, so it is almost black or dark brown, lumpy. The acidity of the peat layer in such areas is weak or even close to neutral.

Lowland peatlands have a fairly high reserve nutrients compared to transitional and especially high peat bogs. They contain a lot of nitrogen and humus, since plant residues are well decomposed, the acidity of the soil is weaker, and they contain enough water that must be drained into ditches.

But, unfortunately, this nitrogen is found in low-lying peatlands in a form almost inaccessible to plants and can only become available to plants after aeration. Only 2-3% nitrogen from total number is found in the form of nitrate and ammonia compounds available to plants.

The transition of nitrogen to a state accessible to plants can be accelerated by draining the peat soil and enhancing the activity of microorganisms that contribute to the decomposition of organic matter by introducing non-ferrous compounds into the soil. large quantity manure, ripe compost or humus.

High-moor peatlands are usually overly moistened, since they have a rather limited runoff of rain and melt water. They are highly fibrous because they do not provide conditions for greater decomposition of plant residues. This leads to severe acidification of the peat, which explains its very high acidity. Such peatlands are light brown in color.

The nutritional elements in high-moor peat, which are already scarce in any peat soil, are in a state inaccessible to plants. And soil microorganisms that help maintain soil fertility are often simply absent from them.

When planting gardens and vegetable gardens on such soils, their cultivation requires large expenses. In order for such soils to become suitable for growing garden plants, lime must be added to them. river sand, clay, rotted manure, mineral fertilizers.

Lime will reduce acidity, sand will improve the structure, clay will increase viscosity and add nutrients, and mineral fertilizers will enrich the soil additional elements nutrition. As a result, the decomposition of peat plant residues will accelerate and conditions will be created for growing cultivated plants.

And in pure form High-moor peat can practically only be used as bedding for livestock, since it absorbs slurry well.

All types of peaty soils are characterized by low thermal conductivity, so they slowly thaw and warm up in the spring, and are much more often exposed to return frosts, which delays the start of spring work.

It is believed that the temperature of such soils on average during the growing season is 2-3 degrees lower compared to the temperature of mineral soils. On peat soils, frosts end later in the spring and begin earlier in the fall. Create a more favorable temperature regime on such soils there is only one way- by draining excess water and creating loose structural soil.

Peat soils in their natural state are almost unsuitable for growing garden and vegetable plants. But due to the presence of a large amount of organic matter in them, they have significant “hidden” fertility potential, all four “keys” to which are in your hands.

These keys are lowering the groundwater level, liming the soil, adding mineral supplements and using organic fertilizers. Now let’s try to get to know these “keys” in a little more detail.

REDUCTION OF GROUNDWATER LEVEL

For removing excess moisture on site and improvements air regime Peat soils very often have to be drained, especially in new areas. It is, of course, easier to do this throughout the entire garden area at once, but much more often you have to do this only on your own site, trying to create your own local simple drainage system.

The most reliable way to arrange simple drainage can be done by placing shovels in grooves two bayonets wide and deep drainage pipes, pour sand on top of them, and then soil.

Much more often, instead of pipes, branches, cut stems of raspberries, sunflowers, etc. are placed in drainage ditches. They are covered first with crushed stone, then with sand, and then with earth. Some craftsmen use for this purpose plastic bottles. To do this, they cut off the bottom, screw the plug, make holes in the side with a hot nail, insert them into each other and lay them in place of the drainage pipe.

And if you are very unlucky and you have an area where the groundwater level is very high and it is quite difficult to lower it, then there will be even more worries.

In order to prevent tree roots from coming into contact with these very groundwaters in the future, you will have to solve not one, but two “strategic” problems at once- reduce the groundwater level in the area as a whole and at the same time raise the soil level in the area where trees are planted by creating artificial mounds from imported soil. As the trees grow, the diameter of these mounds will need to be increased annually.

SOIL DEACIDIFICATION

Peat soils come in different acidities- from slightly acidic and even close to neutral (in peat bog lowland soils) to strongly acidic (in peat bog high soils).

Under deoxidation acidic soil understand the addition of lime or other alkaline materials to reduce its acidity. In this case, the most common thing happens chemical reaction neutralization. Lime is most often used for these purposes.

But, in addition to this, liming of peat soils also enhances the activity of various microorganisms that assimilate nitrogen or decompose plant residues contained in peat. In this case, brown fibrous peat turns into an almost black earthy mass.

At the same time, hard-to-reach forms of nutrients contained in peat are converted into compounds that are easily digestible by plants. And phosphorus and potassium fertilizers applied to the soil are fixed in upper layers soils are not washed out of it by groundwater, remaining accessible to plants for a long time.

Knowing the acidity of the soil on your site, add alkaline materials in the fall. The dose of their application depends on the level of soil acidity and for acidic peat soils averages approximately 60 kg of ground limestone per 100 sq. m. meters of area, for medium acidic peat soils- on average about 30 kg, on slightly acidic- about 10 kg. On peat soils with acidity close to neutral, limestone may not be added at all.

But all these average doses of lime fluctuate greatly depending on the level of acidity, especially on acidic peatlands. Therefore, before adding lime, its specific amount must be clarified again depending on the exact acidity of the peat bog.

A wide variety of alkaline materials are used for liming peat soils: ground limestone, slaked lime, dolomite flour, chalk, marl, cement dust, wood and peat ash, etc.

APPLICATION OF MINERAL ADDITIVES

An important element in improving the physical properties of peaty soils is their enrichment with minerals- sand and clay,- which increase the thermal conductivity of the soil, accelerate its thawing and enhance warming. Moreover, if they are acidic, you will have to add an additional dose of lime to neutralize their acidity.

In this case, clay must be added only in dry powder form so that it mixes better with peat soil. Adding clay in the form of large lumps to peat soil gives little result.

The lower the degree of peat decomposition, the greater the need for mineral supplements. On heavily decomposed peat bogs, you need to add 2-3 buckets of sand and 1.5 buckets of dry powdery clay per 1 square meter. meter, and on weakly decomposed peatlands these doses should be increased by a quarter.

It is clear that such an amount of sand cannot be added in one or two years. Therefore, sanding is carried out gradually, from year to year (in autumn or spring), until it improves physical properties soil. You will notice this yourself by the plants you grow. The sand scattered on the surface is dug up with a shovel to a depth of 12-18 cm.

APPLICATION OF ORGANIC AND MINERAL FERTILIZERS

Manure, peat manure or peat-fecal composts, bird droppings, humus and other biologically active organic fertilizers are applied in quantities of up to 0.5-1 bucket per 1 square meter. meter for shallow digging to quickly activate microbiological processes in peat soil, promoting the decomposition of the organic matter in it.

To create conditions favorable for plant growth, it is necessary to add mineral fertilizers to peat soils: for basic tillage - 1 tbsp. spoon of double granulated superphosphate and 2.5 tbsp. spoons of potash fertilizers per 1 sq. meter of area, and in the spring additionally- 1 teaspoon of urea.

Most peat soils have a low copper content, and it is in a form that is difficult for plants to reach. Therefore, adding fertilizers containing copper to peat soil, especially on acidic peat soils, has a significant effect. Most often used for this purpose copper sulfate at the rate of 2-2.5 g/m2, first dissolving it in water and watering the soil from a watering can.

The application of boron microfertilizers gives good results. Most often, for foliar feeding of seedlings or adult plants, take 2-3 g boric acid per 10 liters of water (1 liter of this solution is sprayed on plants over an area of ​​10 sq. m).

Then peat soil along with mineral soil, manure, organic and mineral fertilizers and lime must be carefully dug to a depth of no more than 12-15 cm, and then lightly compacted. It is best to do this in late summer or early autumn, when the soil has dried out significantly.

If it is not possible to cultivate your entire plot at once, then develop it in parts, but adding to them all at once the entire amount of mineral additives and organic fertilizers indicated above, or first filling them with loose, fertile soil planting pits, and in subsequent years carrying out work on cultivating the soil between the rows. But this is already the worst option, because it is better to do it all at once.

On already developed peat soils, there is a gradual decrease in the thickness of the peat layer by about 2 cm per year due to its compaction and mineralization of organic matter. This happens especially quickly in areas where the same vegetables have been grown for a long time without observing crop rotation, requiring frequent loosening of the soil.

To prevent this from happening, cultivated peat soil in gardens, and especially in vegetable plots, requires annual additional application of organic fertilizers.

If this is not done, then every year on your site there will be a gradual irreversible destruction of peat (its mineralization), and after 15-20 years the soil level on your site may be 20-25 cm lower than it was before the development of the site began, and the soil will become swampy.

In this case, the soil on your site will no longer be fertile peat, but low-fertile soddy-podzolic, and its physical properties will greatly change for the worse.

To prevent this from happening, in addition to everything else that was mentioned above, a well-thought-out crop rotation system rich in perennial herbs must be constantly operating on your site.

In the future, you will have to import and deposit annually or sufficient quantity organic fertilizers (10-15 buckets per 100 sq. meters), or other soil.

And if there is no manure or compost, then green fertilizer can help out. Sow and bury lupine, peas, beans, vetch, sweet clover, and clover.

V. G. Shafransky