To improve soil characteristics as well as maintain quality composition soil is used tree mulching. This procedure not only keeps the soil from the action of the sun (prevents the formation of a crust), but also keeps moisture from evaporating.

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Why mulch the soil

To begin with, let's understand what is tree mulching and why is it used in garden plots. In fact, mulching is covering the soil with special materials (mulch). All materials are divided into two groups: organic and inorganic.

Organics include: wood waste (sawdust, bark, shavings), plants (freshly cut grass, straw, hay, nettles), as well as moss and needles. Popular inorganic mulch: paper (newsprint, cardboard), film (black, red - foreign novelty, transparent - rarely used).

Mulching fruit trees performs the following functions:

• Warming of the root system (the soil does not freeze through);
• Reflection of sunlight (if light mulch is used);
• Preservation of moisture, prevention of rapid evaporation;
• Weed control (they do not grow through coatings);
• Provides preservation of friability of the soil.

Experienced gardeners note that in mulched lands, trees take on more adventitious roots, which positively affects their development.

So let's consider how to properly mulch trees to achieve maximum results. Since the mulch will serve as a shield from environment, before covering the soil, it is advisable to add useful trace elements to it and saturate it with organic matter. It is especially important to feed the plants if you plan to cover the soil with inorganic materials. Mulch should cover all tree trunks.

Thickness of organic coating layer:

• Straw, hay, freshly cut grass - 10-15 cm;
• Nettle (finely crushed) - 5 cm;
• sawdust - about 7 cm;
• Bark for mulching trees - from 5 cm or more;
• Moss - about 10 cm.
• Needles (overripe) - 3-5 cm.

Almost all inorganic mulch is laid in one layer (all types of film and cardboard), newsprint is spread in several layers (minimum 4). Unlike artificial turf, organic matter serves less, but, decomposing, saturates the soil with useful microelements.

Recall that our garden will help to mulch professional gardeners. We will perform all the work as quickly as possible, efficiently and inexpensively! :)

Peculiarities different types mulch

• To protect against severe overheating of the soil is suitable mulching trees with sawdust or others light materials . Like a mirror they reflect Sun rays. In addition, moisture practically does not evaporate from under the material, even on hot days.
• To saturate the earth with useful trace elements, you can use mulching garden trees nettle. It decomposes quickly and contains nitrogen, which has a positive effect on the growth of trees. Freshly cut grass is also useful, but unlike nettle, it takes a little longer to break down into useful substances.
• Mulching with tree bark used to retain moisture and decorative purposes. It practically does not "exterminate" weeds, harmful plants sprout calmly through a layer of bark 3-4 cm. Straw or hay, as well as artificial mulch, will help to overcome weeds.
• Mulching trees for the winter is best done with the help of moss. It retains heat well, so moss is often used in intensive gardens, that is, areas planted with columnar trees. Due to the conservation of heat by moss, the ground practically does not freeze, which is very important for all plants with a root system close to the soil surface.
• inorganic mulch most commonly used for evaporative protection. As a heater, only cardboard or roofing material is suitable (they are often replaced with a film).

One of the basic techniques that any farmer should master is soil mulching. In the garden, mulch performs many functions by helping to preserve the soil. But any agricultural technique becomes useful only with a competent approach. In the article we will talk about mulching trees and bushes in the garden, consider the main methods.

The biological meaning of soil mulching

Mulching is covering the surface of cultivated soil with a layer of organic or inorganic material. In nature, there is no bare ground under the trees. It is always covered with fallen leaves or covered with growing grass. This natural mechanism performs the following functions:

• protects the soil from erosion;
• prevents evaporation of moisture from the upper layers;
• improves air exchange, preventing the appearance of a soil crust;
• protects the roots of plants from overheating in the heat and from freezing in winter;
• becomes a barrier to the penetration of insect pests and pathogenic microorganisms;
• becomes a source carbon dioxide and nutrients for plants;
• increases the activity of useful soil flora and fauna.

Observing nature, people began to intuitively use this soil protection mechanism, using different means. Depending on the materials used, mulching is divided into two types - organic and inorganic.

3 mistakes when using mulch in the garden

Wanting to benefit their trees, gardeners sometimes make a number of mistakes:

1. Leaves fallen from fruit trees are used as mulch. Leaf litter can be infected with spores of pathogenic fungi. Such mulch, instead of being useful, harms the garden, becoming a source of infection.
2. Lay mulch on unheated soil. Mulching materials absorb the sun's rays and prevent the soil from warming up in spring.
3. Stacked thick layer mulch in wet weather. In rainy spring or summer, putrefactive bacteria develop in waterlogged mulch that can damage the bark of trees and shrubs.

Tip #1 Sometimes a thick layer of packed mulch becomes dense and loses breathability. Such mulching will also not benefit the garden. Mulch needs to be turned up from time to time, and the soil under it must be combed with a rake.

Mulching trees with organic materials

For mulching trunk circles V orchard various natural materials can be used:

Mulching trees with inorganic mulch

Inorganic materials used for mulching have significantly fewer features than organics. Inorganic mulch only protects the soil from erosion and moisture loss. The following materials can be used for mulching near-stem circles of garden trees and shrubs:

Mulching the garden by weeding

One option for mulching fruit plantations is growing under and between trees. lawn grass. This method is called tinkering. Tinned soil naturally retains moisture and all the qualities of fertility.

It is important to keep in mind that full grassing is only suitable for an adult garden. Around the seedlings, it is still necessary to leave the near-trunk circle without grass, mulching it with something else.

Using this method, you should pay attention to the mulching of the lawn itself. The soil on it also needs care. good help a lawn mower with a mulching function will provide this. It turns the mowed grass into a fine chaff and evenly scatters it on the grass between the trees.

A good and inexpensive mower with mulching is produced by Greenworks. For example, model 2505107 has a grass catcher. With it, you can collect ready-made mulch and scatter it yourself around the trees. Another worthy option in terms of value for money is the Champion LM4215 mower.

How to properly mulch trees and shrubs?

When mulching tree trunks, the following rules must be followed:

1. Do not push the mulch close to the root collar. An indent of 5-10 cm is necessary so that the neck does not rot and rot.
2. Spring mulching should be carried out after warming up the soil at a depth of 20 cm to + 12-14⁰С.
3. In the fall, replace undecomposed organic mulch with peat or sawdust.
4. When using cut grass as mulch, it must be dried beforehand.
5. Lay out the mulch only on moist soil - after rain or watering. Read also the article: → "".

How to water mulched soil

If a permeable material is used, water directly through the mulch cover. It is curious that mulched soil has to be watered much less frequently than open soil. This is due to the mechanism of the so-called "auto-irrigation": warm air under the mulch it cools, and water vapor falls out of it in the form of dew.

To thick layers organic mulch not moldy from moisture, they need to be stirred from time to time. EM preparations will help to quickly decompose the biomass into components and prevent it from rotting.

Tip #2 You can speed up the mineralization of organic matter by mixing mulch with mineral fertilizers.

How to fertilize mulched soil

Using organic mulch reduces the need for regular tree feeding. Mulch itself is an excellent nitrogen fertilizer. You can add phosphorus-potassium fertilizers in spring and summer:

Mulching is the most useful agricultural technique that gardeners use in many climatic zones. During this procedure, the soil is covered with organic or man-made material, and the beds can be covered completely or only the space between the rows.

A layer of mulch allows the soil to maintain its structure and prevents the formation of a crust. In addition, mulched soil is not washed away by water during irrigation, retains moisture and inhibits the growth of weeds. Mulch significantly reduces the number of waterings and makes loosening almost unnecessary.

What can you use for mulching on your site? There are enough options.

For this, color and black film, lutrasil, roofing felt, roofing material are suitable. They are laid on the beds, strengthened, after which they make holes where the plants are planted. The slots should be slotted (we cut the film across or along), and not in the form of a square or circle. So the earth will evaporate less moisture, and water will be able to penetrate well into the soil.

Black film is used for mulching zucchini and cucumbers. It will perfectly protect the planting from weeds and reduce the frequency of watering. Strawberries covered with a film will always delight you with clean berries.

Tomatoes prefer to be mulched with a red film, and cabbage - white. A transparent film under the mulch is not recommended - it does not slow down, but, on the contrary, causes active growth weeds.

The film material used for mulching must meet the following requirements:

• Don't miss the sun's rays
• Have an elastic and thin structure
• Close to the ground
• Be strong to weeds couldn't break it

Mulch from the film increases the soil temperature by 1.5-2 ° C, and this is an important factor for the unstable climate of the middle zone, where summer is short. Also, film mulching reduces the evaporation of moisture, making the soil surface cooler on hot days. Thus, the film helps plants feel comfortable in hot, cold, and drought conditions.

This light-tight shelter is widely used for weed control without chemicals. With its help, even difficult-to-breed plants that reproduce by rhizomes are destroyed - loach, couch grass, sow thistle.

The black film prevents the formation of a soil crust, which reduces the amount of oxygen supplied to the roots, which is so necessary for seedlings. This mulch preserves the loose structure of the soil. For example, on strawberry patch under the film, the earth remains not knocked down and porous even for five years.

Another plus: film mulch increases soil fertility. Weeds in the upper soil layer decompose, enriching it with nitrogen, and the microorganisms under the protection of the film begin to actively grow and feed, increasing the humus content.

The soil covered with such a mulch retains heat better in winter, and the beds freeze less. Therefore, film shelter is very important for dwarf apple trees, whose frost resistance is not so high, and for strawberries - its roots are located close to the soil surface.

Film mulch under strawberry bushes prevents the formation of gray mold and reduces the number of nematodes.

With all the advantages, film mulch and negative quality. Unlike organic matter, it does not lend itself to decomposition that feeds the soil. This factor makes many summer residents first mulch the beds with humus, and then cover them with various non-woven materials.

Whatever the merit synthetic materials, current gardeners prefer natural mulch more.

Organic shelter not only inhibits the growth of weeds, protects the soil from freezing and overheating and retains moisture in it, but also saturates plants and microorganisms with nutrients. After all, gradually decomposing, the mulch forms a fertile layer in the soil.

To mulching natural materials gave the maximum effect, it is necessary to figure out when and what kind of shelter is better to use.

Mulching with fresh cut grass

The grass is saturated with nitrogen and other useful elements, which are needed for the development of landings to be complete.

For mulching, you can take grass from a mowed lawn, slightly dried weeds after weeding, stepson tomato twigs. Please note that the leaves of tomatoes will be an excellent cover for a cabbage bed, they will scare away the whites that love tight cabbages.

Do not rush to mulch the soil with freshly cut grass, let it dry for a day or two - otherwise it will begin to rot too quickly.

In the northern regions, the mulching process is carried out after the soil warms up to a sufficient depth, and the seedlings sprout and get stronger. IN southern regions Grass mulch is applied even before planting, so that it can saturate the ground with nutrients.

Mulching the soil with compost

It's hard to find a more versatile and ideal covering material than compost. It is completely safe and loved by all vegetables. Mulching with compost increases the resistance of plants to diseases and provides them with excellent nutrition.

Therefore, kitchen waste, tops, weeds, organic debris should be placed in compost pit, sprinkling with sawdust, paper, soil. A year later, you will have a quality natural material for mulching.

Straw mulching

Straw is best to cover the soil under nightshade - bushes of tomatoes and potatoes.

It will become a good barrier between ripening tomatoes and pathogens living in the soil, protect plants from rot and anthracnose, and prevent leaf spot. And if you mulch potato rows with straw, Colorado beetle will avoid them more often.

In addition, straw mulch is great for planting garlic, basil, garden blackberry and strawberries.

Mulching with newsprint

A bed prepared for mulching is covered with four layers of newspapers and sprinkled with grass, hay, soil or straw.

Some gardeners fear that printing ink can damage plantings, however, according to American scientists, modern formulations for printing do not pose a threat to the soil and plants.

Cardboard and kraft paper are no less effective in fighting weeds. They can replace film mulch when it is necessary to warm the soil. If two or three days before transplanting the seedlings to the garden, the bed is covered with kraft paper, it will raise the soil temperature by 3 ° C.

Paper mulching of raspberry bushes and legumes gives a high result - the yield of these crops is greatly increased.

Mulching with fallen leaves

Leaf litter is ideal for cabbage and bean beds. Leaves can be used to mulch peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes, but after deep heating of the soil.

Such a mulch is good in flower beds, it will save the flowers from freezing and will not allow the bulbs to germinate during the thaw period.

Mulching with tree bark

Tree bark is the most durable material for mulching. It rots for a long time, as it is poorly saturated with moisture. Therefore, such a mulch turns out to be “long-playing” and is often poured around bushes and trees.

Wood mulch is very good in flowerbeds and berry fields. Its durability makes it possible to use the bark as a decor in landscape design and create amazingly original flower beds.

Mulching with sawdust or wood chips

Such material is poured where the land is rarely cultivated and almost does not know what a shovel is - on garden paths, furrows. After all, wood chips need more than a year to completely rot.

Sawdust is good to cover the soil in the raspberry or late autumn cover the beds with winter crops, for example, with garlic.

Compacted sawdust should not be used for mulching. If they have been piled up for a long time, it is very likely that oxygen has not been supplied to the lower layers for a long time, and they have “soured”. Before use, such material must be scattered with a thin ball and dried well.

Mulching needles

Pine needles are loved by strawberry and eggplant bushes - it perfectly protects and nourishes them. However, many gardeners have a preconceived notion that pine needles seem to oxidize the soil.

But it has been empirically proven that the pH of the soil, where a seven-centimeter layer was poured for two years in a row coniferous needles, remained the same as before mulching.

In addition to the materials mentioned above, peat and crumbs from it, cake of sunflower and pumpkin seeds, humus, and dry reeds are suitable for covering the soil in the beds. Often, several materials are combined under mulch, for example, freshly cut grass with bagasse or straw along with cardboard. A wonderful effect is obtained from mulching with fresh grass mixed with sawdust.

How and when to mulch will be discussed in the next article.

As I already wrote, the leaves are good insulation, so a layer of 5-7 cm in the near-trunk circle of a fruit tree will protect the soil from severe freezing. How larger sheet the more loose the pillow will be. The smaller, the more likely that the leaves are compressed into a dense cake and this is not very good.

These points must be taken into account. And loosening the leaf canopy on the offensive sub-zero temperatures not only destroys a large number of pests, larvae and pupae wintering in the heat. Such loosening destroys packed foliage, giving air access to the root system, retaining the first snow, which also insulates the soil.

In the spring, I really want to remove such sheet mulch as soon as possible. First of all, because we are frightened by horror stories, that under it all sorts of pests are simply teeming, and spores of diseases are already starting to explode on the leaves. Moreover, the knowledge that under the foliage that has packed over the winter the earth freezes more slowly pushes us to urgent cleaning.

To begin with, pests and diseases can be reckoned with without removing the foliage. To do this, it is enough to pour the leaves with a solution of urea (300 g per 10 l warm water). But it is not worth rushing to remove the leaves precisely because they do not allow the soil to thaw quickly, which means that the tree will wake up more slowly and bloom a little later than unmulched relatives. And under threat return frosts this is pretty good too. Let me take last spring as an example. In my garden, a plum and two cherry plums were well mulched before winter and kept under the foliage until the soil in the garden completely thawed, and the same two plums in the area in front of the house turned out to be “bare”. As a result, the "street" ones bloomed 5 days earlier and came under frost - there were 0 fruits. garden flowering was only partially affected by frost and there was enough fruit to eat for pleasure.

So.

Foliage as mulch

The leaves of trees and shrubs decompose for a rather long time and become complete food for plants only after they are processed by worms.

Only leaves without signs of disease and pest egg-laying are suitable for mulching, so in the garden as mulch I prefer to use leaves of decorative or forest species with large leaf blades. Oak and chestnut leaves serve longer as mulch. They actively suppress the germination of seeds, therefore they are suitable only for large perennials and in the near-trunk circles of trees and shrubs.

IN middle lane Russian oaks often get sick powdery mildew, but this is not an obstacle to the use of their foliage, because the race of these pathogens is not dangerous to other plants.

For mulching large perennials and shrubs, it is better to take dry leaves, mostly large. They do not cake, protect the soil from hypothermia, and in summer from overheating, preserve the structure and moisture of the soil, and prevent the growth of weeds. The optimal layer of mulch is 5-10 cm. Mulching with leaves is especially important for perennials suffering from bulging roots, as well as crops in which root system superficial.

I use part of the foliage for mulching the row spacing of strawberries, after the foliage gets wet in the rain, I sprinkle it with a little ash and a small layer of garden soil.

Remember that the mulch should not fit snugly against the root neck, otherwise, under adverse conditions, this most vulnerable place in the plant may become blocked and rot. Do not mulch small herbaceous perennials with foliage.

The ideal leaf mulch is shredded.

Lawn owners carefully scrape fallen leaves from the grass in autumn. They are partly right - leaf litter can cause the grass cover to rot. I do otherwise. In fact - I mulch the lawn with leaf litter. But ... I do it competently. As soon as a lot of leaves appear on the lawn (say, they hide the grass by 50%), in dry weather, take the lawn mower out. I remove the grass catcher from it, adjust it to the highest cut and start mowing. The crushed foliage lays down on the lawn in a thin, even layer, and after rain settles to the roots, where over time it turns into an excellent organic fertilizer. In fact, I remove the leaves from the lawn only at the very end of autumn. When it is simply impossible to injure grass that has grown by 8 cm with a lawn mower.

Many have noticed that I often write: to collect foliage in bags. Yes, this is the best for me. convenient way further use of fallen leaves. In dry weather, the collected leaves in bags lie until the moment when they need to be used. For example, fall asleep perennials cut and prepared for winter as mulch, insulate near-stem circles of shrubs or a garden bed prepared for spring. Yes, and it is more convenient to pour the leaves from the bags into the compost heap in layers. Here you certainly won’t forget to sprinkle them with garden soil: poured out of the bag, leveled it over the entire surface of the compost bin, sprinkled it with earth, took up the second bag. Most often I use large plastic black garbage bags. I carry the filled ones closer to the places of future use of foliage, I definitely cover it so that water does not get inside.

The sequel is being written...

Mulching is one of the simplest and most inexpensive agricultural practices used to increase the yield of fruit trees.

Mulch is a material used to cover upper layer soil for its protection. Mulch can be organic - grass, compost, manure, peat, straw, bark coniferous trees, wood chips, shavings, dry leaves, needles and other similar materials. And inorganic - polyethylene film, pebbles, crushed stone, lutrasil, fragments of bricks.

Both organic and inorganic mulch have a number of useful properties:

• Does not allow soil erosion;
• Allows you to retain moisture, which eliminates the need for frequent watering;
• Relieves the destructive effects of heavy rains;
• Stabilizes soil temperature at the same level;
• Inhibits the growth of near-stem weeds;
• Prevents the formation of dirt after rains;
• Keeps the garden in a "commodity" form.

Organic mulch also improves soil composition. Since such a mulch slowly decomposes, it gives some useful substances soil in the near-trunk circle of a tree. As a result, root growth, soil permeability and its ability to retain moisture increase. organic compounds contained in the mulching material contributes to the growth of trees, attracting earthworms and other useful garden organisms.

Inorganic mulch also has a number of advantages, in particular - high decorative qualities. However, such mulch does not improve the quality of the soil, and it can be quite difficult to remove it from the site in case of a radical change in the garden plan. Thus, the use of organic mulch in many cases remains more appropriate.

Where to get mulch material

Certain types of mulch are used in various conditions, depending on what goals are set: cover the surface of the near-stem circle from the sun, improve the structure of the soil near the tree, increase the nutrient content. Whatever the goal of the gardener, the available variety of mulching materials can satisfy any of his needs. And as a rule, these materials are widely distributed and more than available.

Most of them can be found in your own garden! For example, cut grass is perfect as a mulch, in fact, it is most often used.

Excellent and very available material- ordinary newsprint. It is used in combination with other types of mulch, in itself has the ability to drain the soil.

The bark of conifers and leaves of trees is not only an affordable material, but also an excellent option for improving soil structure - it increases its ventilation and drainage. The same can be said about compost, if it is in sufficient quantity, then this material will not only improve the structure of the soil, but also supply it with nutrients.

Bark mulch can be used as decorative coating. Depending on the size of the pieces of bark, it can last a very long time, but this mulching material is best for trees that prefer an acidic soil.

Depending on where you live, you can use most a variety of materials. Hay and straw work great in the garden, although they can be a source of weed seeds. Mulch made from seaweed or pine needles is also a good material. Although needles also contribute to an increase in soil acidity.

The best kind of mulch

In most cases best type mulch for trees - wood chips. This mulch, gradually decomposing, dosed, supplies the roots of fruit trees with additional nutrients. At the same time, mulch wood chips is an excellent obstacle to weeds, which also helps to improve the microclimate around the root system of the tree.

The thickness of the mulch layer, depending on the material used

More best solution, from a nutritional point of view, is compost made from wood chips and sawdust. For a long time, wood chips are subject to decomposition, during which the soil is supplied with nutrients. But in the fight for these nutrients quite a lot of competitors are involved, in the face of various microorganisms. As a result, the soil of the near-trunk circle of the tree does not receive all the nutrients that it could. The solution to this problem is - compost from wood chips and sawdust. Preparing such a mulch is quite simple. The main thing is to ensure that the composting container is well ventilated and its contents are mixed frequently enough.

Video: How to properly mulch trees

Other types of organic mulch, such as conifer bark, may also be suitable for mulching fruit trees. It is important to periodically update the mulch as the old one decomposes, thus improving the soil structure. The layer of mulching cover should be 5 - 10 cm. When cultivating tree circles, there should be a distance of 1.5 to 3 m between the tree trunk and the edge of the mulching area.

Fruit trees are an essential part of almost any garden plot but taking care of them is not as easy as it seems at first glance.