To remove mulch for the winter or not?
THE MULCH AS A FUR COAT
Proponents of organic farming use mulch very actively. But is it necessary or not to clean it up for the winter?
If during the warm season and early autumn the mulch smoothed out the temperature drops in the soil, creating optimal conditions for the soil microbiota, then in the spring the organic layer lying on the ground will slow down the thawing and warming of the soil. I checked myself: under a 15-centimeter layer of mulch, the earth remains cold until mid-May, and under a 40-centimeter layer - until June.
Any farmer knows how important it is in the spring to warm up the soil as soon as possible, to activate it, to remove soil microorganisms from winter suspended animation. I once removed the mulch in early spring, right after the snow melted.
And the loose, moist earth in a matter of hours was covered with a hard crust. Seedlings just can't break through! And the reason is simple: in the wind, the top layer of the soil, in which it was necessary to preserve moisture, not only heated up, but also dried up.
Now I have found the best option for myself.
I keep mulch in the beds all the time, periodically add it in the summer. Nevertheless, by the fall, she still has miserable memories. But this is also for the better: I sow green manures on the places freed from vegetables - not frost-resistant, those that die in winter. I actively use white mustard, rapeseed, vetch, phacelia, annual lupine, oats. Thus, the beds leaving under the snow are also covered with a layer of dead plants.
I send winter garlic and onions in autumn with fallen leaves collected in the forest. Such insulation helps a little if there is no snow for a long time. During the winter, foliage is caked, but for powerful leaves of garlic or onions, this is not an obstacle. However, moisture under such a shelter is perfectly preserved.
In the spring, my goal is to speed up the snow melting as much as possible, so I sprinkle the beds with ash. Dark ash particles, heating up in the sun, accelerate the melting of snow for almost a week. Then I cover the beds with foil, and they are warmed up directly with the mulch underlay.
The film is an indispensable element of agricultural technology, without it the top layer dries quickly.
Let the outwardly mulched beds look unprepossessing, but soil microorganisms in the spring immediately find a plentiful source of food for themselves.
For this purpose, I leave uncleaned plant residues - cabbage stumps, roots and leaves of squash, carrot and beet tops, in a word, everything that did not suffer from diseases last year. In the spring, I compost the largest organic residues or transfer them to paths between the beds.
I sow rye (mixed with oats) only in those places where potatoes or seedlings will grow. Oats die in autumn, covering the ground under the rye and protecting it from drying out. I noticed that cereal crops dry the soil very much, so additional mulch for rye is very necessary. Well, in spring, these areas delight the eye with fresh greens.
Here my cats and my dog “graze” with pleasure - they also need vitamins after winter. And I plant potatoes and seedlings right in the rye. Grain covers young plants from the wind. And when they get stronger, I pull out the rye and fold it over the beds.
Now it's her turn to do the mulch. Of course, its layer is clearly insufficient, and therefore, as soon as the lawn grass grows up, I mow it and lay it on top. I take the surplus cut grass from the neighbors and pour it under the potatoes. The more grass, the better the potato grows and develops, and the better the yield in the end. And you don't even have to huddle it.
See also: The best MULCH - what is she? Types of mulch - a memo to the summer resident
WHAT TO DO WITH THE MULCH IN THE GREENHOUSE IN AUTUMN? VIDEO
© Author: B. YURASOV Tyumen region
Below other entries on the topic "Dacha and garden - with their own hands"
- To remove mulch for the winter or not?
- When and how to water a garden and garden - a memo on the flow of water per plant
- Spring garden treatment - until the flowers bloom! Tips AGRONOM
- Spraying and processing of the garden in April (memo to the summer owner)
- Planting pits for seedlings - what depth to dig and what to put in them
- If trees and shrubs are cut late in spring, they can “cry” - how to help?
- Trimming the garden in winter - rules, pros and cons
- Harvesting cuttings in the fall and storing cuttings in winter - advice from gardeners
- Trimming and turfing near-trunk circles instead of digging them - tested BETTER!
- Little care garden - for lazy gardeners
Subscribe to updates in our groups and share.
Let's be friends!
#
I mulch the trunks of apple trees and plums with broken bricks. Such mulch protects tree roots from damage during soil cultivation, prevents weeds from growing, and prevents mice from settling here in winter. In addition, the earth does not dry out under the moisture-absorbing red brick, which is especially valuable in a drought. And also, I think, brick circles prevent pests that winter in the soil from getting to the trunks and crowns in the spring. Therefore, I do not put fishing belts on the booms now.
In early spring, as soon as the snow melts, I sweep the debris from the bricks with a broom and spill the circles with a solution of the insecticide Decis (according to the instructions).
#
Any mulch, including brick chips, is a good shelter for wintering pests. Therefore, do not abandon the trapping belts, which are reapplied to the stems after flowering in order to collect pests hiding for the winter in August-September.
Valery MATVEEV, Doctor of Science
#
Do I need to remove (or change) mulch from vegetables planted before winter in spring?
#
- If it is necessary for the beds to warm up faster in spring, or if the seeds of plants sown before winter have not sprung up, then it is better to remove the mulch. For vegetables that are propagated by tubers or bulbs, mulch can be left on: it will retain moisture in the soil and prevent weeds from germinating.
#
It is better to cover the roots of perennials with the last cut stems. Soft stems can be chopped with a shovel, a hoe, so that they fit more compactly and neatly between the plants and are more accessible to the soil "living creatures", which will gradually turn them into humus. By the way, plant residues can be put not only in compost containers or pits (in pits, the compost matures longer due to the low temperature underground), but also in low places on the site.
#
The correct layer of mulch (at least 8 cm) can save plants from many problems in winter. What is the benefit: less moisture evaporates under the shelter, after water-charging irrigation, heat is better kept in the root zone, the soil is saturated with nutrients. Therefore, in October-November, fill up the trunk circle. For this, use rotted manure, matured compost, chopped bark, fine cut from tree pruning, peat.
But! The mulch layer should not touch the stem and cover the grafting site (to avoid podoprevaniya and damage to the seedling by rodents).
#
Everyone knows that the land on the site should not remain bare throughout the season, and in autumn this is especially important - ahead of the cold. If frosts come without snow, you can lose some of the perennials
Shelter materials can be different: peat, compost, sawdust, cut grass, chopped straw, perennial stems, weeds without seeds and roots.
For lovers of acidic soils, pine litter and crushed pine bark are irreplaceable. Heathers, ericas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas will be extremely grateful for such a “treat”.
When using compost, the mulch layer should be 5-10 cm. Sawdust is good in a composted state, aged for at least a year with occasional watering with a urea solution. But it also happens that an urgent need to cover the roots protruding to the surface of primroses, geyher, geleniums, nivyaniks, phlox and other species. In this case, you can scatter dry sawdust between flowers, and in the spring you can spill them with a solution of urea or scatter its granules before the rain.
Dirt paths covered with sawdust look very beautiful: clean, soft, but the grass does not grow without light.
#
To facilitate the work of weeding in the garden, I cover all trees, bushes and perennial flowers with black covering material, if possible. And on top of the non-woven I also lay out the cardboard. Do you think that this is something completely unnecessary? Not at all! It allows the cardboard and water to pass through, and at the same time presses the covering material to the ground. Yes, and worms in the ground under such a double cover are invisible!