Whether or not sawdust can be used in the garden to fertilize the soil is a favorite topic of discussion among gardeners and gardeners. Opinions on this matter are completely opposite: some summer residents praise sawdust and use it to the fullest, others are categorically against such “recklessness.” Who's right here?

With proper preparation, using sawdust as fertilizer is certainly possible. And not only. Sawdust, it turns out, is generally a wonderful help in the household. There are a lot of options for using them, we counted a damn dozen...

What are the benefits of sawdust in the garden?

Sawdust has many properties that are necessary and useful for gardeners. For example, they are a good soil loosener, which improves its structure and prevents cracking and crusting. In addition, sawdust is able to absorb and retain liquid, which makes it possible to use it where it is necessary to reduce humidity. Sawdust can insulate, disinfect, decorate, and protect.

Finally, let's not forget that sawdust is wood waste. That is, real organic matter, which is processed by soil microorganisms into nutrients necessary for everything growing on earth. And like any other organic matter, sawdust should not be sent to landfills, but to garden beds.

How to avoid problems when using sawdust in the garden

But if sawdust is so beautiful, why are there people against using it? There are actually two reasons for mistrust of sawdust: adding fresh sawdust increases the acidity of the soil and sawdust absorbs nitrogen from the soil when decomposing.

Both of these problems can be solved. The very first solution is to use sawdust for crops that grow well in acidic soils (pH 5.5-6.0). And there are quite a lot of them: Japanese quince, barberry, blueberries, honeysuckle, viburnum, potatoes, dogwood, cranberries, carrots, cucumbers, rhubarb, radishes, turnips, rosemary, tomatoes, pumpkin, conifers, spinach, sorrel.

If you don’t want to take risks with fresh sawdust, their oxidizing ability needs to be neutralized. To do this, sawdust is mixed with “alkaline” materials: ash, lime, eggshells, dolomite flour, crushed chalk or fertilizers (superphosphate, potassium chloride, sodium or calcium nitrate, potassium or ammonium sulfate).

The second problem is even easier to solve. Since sawdust needs nitrogen so much, why not just add it to it? Let's add it! A bucket of sawdust usually contains 200 grams of nitrogen fertilizers (for example, urea) dissolved in water. Water is required in this case so that the sawdust is well saturated.

Those who do not accept mineral fertilizers mix sawdust with freshly cut grass, manure, bird or rabbit droppings, spill them or other grass. And the problem of “pulling” nitrogen is no longer there.

How to put all this into practice? We take a large piece of film and spread it on the area. Pour sawdust mixed with ash onto the film. For each bucket of sawdust we take ten liters of water and two hundred grams of urea. Dissolve the urea in water, pour in the sawdust, cover the top with a second piece of film, press the film down so it doesn’t blow away. We leave our mixture in this form for two to three weeks. Is there no room for such a design? No problem. The prepared sawdust can be placed in black garbage bags and closed tightly.

After the due date, we will receive so-called rotted sawdust. You can now forget about all the disadvantages of fresh sawdust.

13 ways to use sawdust in the country

Method 1. Mulching

Using sawdust as mulch is the very first thing that comes to mind. It is enough to prepare them as described above, and the sawdust is completely ready to work as a mulching material. The soil under the crops is covered with a layer of sawdust of 3-5 centimeters. Strawberries, strawberries, garlic and raspberries respond especially well to mulching with sawdust.

It is best to mulch with sawdust in spring and early summer, then by the end of the season you will not find sawdust in the garden bed - it will have time to rot. A thick layer of sawdust mulch in the second half of summer is undesirable; it will prevent the evaporation of excess moisture from the soil, which, in turn, will not allow plants to properly prepare for winter.

Method 2. Composting

Another obvious option for using sawdust in the garden is to add it to Sawdust is a great carbon component for making compost, and when mixed with plant debris, kitchen waste, grass or manure, it will quickly turn into a natural organic fertilizer.

You can compost sawdust “without impurities.” To do this, you will have to dig a hole a meter deep, fill it with fresh sawdust, and sprinkle lime, ash, etc. on top. In two years, the sawdust will rot and you can safely fertilize the beds with it.

Method 3. Germination of seeds and tubers

For many gardeners, sawdust serves as a substrate for germinating seeds and tubers. Sawdust is poured into a thin layer at the bottom of the container and the seeds are laid out on it. Sprinkle another layer of sawdust on top, also thin. Cover the structure with film and send it to a dark, warm place. When shoots appear, the film is removed, the container is exposed to light, and the sawdust is lightly sprinkled with soil. With the appearance of the first true leaf, the seedlings dive into separate ones.

To germinate potatoes, sawdust is moistened with water and poured into a box with a ten-centimeter layer. Seed tubers are laid on sawdust and sprinkled with another smaller layer of sawdust - 2-3 centimeters. From time to time, spray the contents of the boxes with water. When the tubers produce sprouts 6-8 centimeters long, they can be planted in the ground.

In addition, some small seeds (for example,) are mixed with sawdust when sowing for better distribution along the furrow.

Method 4. Construction of beds

Sawdust can be used for - here any organic matter is needed and important. With the help of sawdust, ridges located in the lowlands are also raised. This is done like this: at the site of the future bed, they dig a trench 25 centimeters deep and fill it with sawdust mixed with lime, ash, etc. The soil dug from the trench is placed on top. This way the bed becomes higher, and the sawdust inside will not only supply nutrients to the plants, but also retain excess moisture.

Method 5. Covering furrows and paths

Sawdust can serve as an excellent covering for walkways between beds and any other paths. The aisles filled with sawdust look beautiful; you can walk on them after rain without fear of getting your shoes dirty. In addition, sawdust is well compressed, preventing weeds from growing. They protect the soil from drying out and nourish it with organic matter. You can also sprinkle sawdust on the paths in icy conditions!

Method 6. Storing vegetables

Carrots, cabbage and apples are well stored in sawdust. And if you decide to make your own for storing crops on the balcony, sawdust can be useful as insulation.

Method 7. Preparing soil for seedlings

Sawdust is one of the components of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and eggplants. Let's not forget that ONLY rotted sawdust is used to prepare seedling soil.

Method 8. Growing mushrooms

Mushroom growing is very interesting. Oyster mushrooms work well on fresh sawdust from hardwood (oak, birch, willow, aspen, poplar, maple). However, the technology for growing mushrooms is far from simple, and in order to become an ideal substrate for mycelium, sawdust must undergo multi-stage preparation.

Method 9. Insulation of fruit trees

If you fill plastic bags with sawdust and place them around young fruit trees, the latter will be reliably insulated for the winter. Sawdust in bags will not get wet, will not freeze, and will not attract rodents. Sawdust is very popular as insulation for grapevines: a specially made box without a bottom is placed on top of the plant, filled with sawdust and covered with film on top.

Please note that in both cases the sawdust is covered with polyethylene. It is important. Just like that, without any shelter, sawdust poured onto the plant will get wet over the winter and then turn into an ice block.

Method 10. Animal bedding

The best sawdust for this purpose is sawdust from fruit trees. Using shavings and sawdust as bedding for animals is beneficial from all angles. Wood waste is cheap (and often free), it insulates the floor, and it is hygienic due to its absorbent properties. In addition, such litter, having served for its intended purpose, will become an effective fertilizer.

Method 11. Smoking

Those who smoke meat, fish or lard in the country will always find a use for sawdust, wood chips and shavings. True, not all sawdust is suitable for a smokehouse, but only certain types of wood. Juniper and alder wood chips are most suitable for smoking. Sometimes ash, hazel, pear, maple, oak and apple are used. Each tree gives the finished dish its own aroma, so some gourmets prepare special smoking mixtures from several species. It is recommended to make woodchips and shavings for smoking from branches cut in the spring, for example, during routine pruning.

Method 12. Construction and finishing

Many people probably know that sawdust can be mixed into concrete. Garden houses and gazebos are plastered with sawdust concrete or a mixture of clay and sawdust. Concrete with sawdust can be used to make bricks or building blocks. Sawdust is also used as insulating material for walls and floors.

Method 13. Creativity

Both children and adults love to use sawdust for crafts. Firstly, they can serve as an excellent material for stuffing toys, pillows, the body of a stuffed animal, and any elements of country decor. Secondly, sawdust can be made colored! They are mixed with a gouache solution and dried well. And from multi-colored sawdust they make both appliqués with children and the most complex “sawdust carpets”. For example, these:

We wish you success and great harvests!

I remember that 25-30 years ago there were no problems with where to get fresh manure. My father and I always made a high bed for growing cucumbers from cow dung. The collective farmers offered it for almost nothing - just take it with you and take it away. Nowadays, real horse or cow manure is the most valuable type of manure; you won’t find it during the day.
Of course, you can pay for money to order a car loaded with this valuable natural fertilizer from a farm or private farmstead. But the price for such a service leaves much to be desired. So we, summer residents, have to get out of this in order to somehow improve the properties of the soil, which becomes poorer over time. In this article we will talk about the use of sawdust in the country. They can be a fertilizer, a mulch layer, as well as a substrate for growing various vegetable crops.

It should be noted that sawdust is one of the cheapest and most accessible production wastes. It is best to take them from a sawmill, where the primary processing of tree trunks takes place. We suggest considering different options for using this material, and how, using sawdust, you can increase your future harvest.

Sawdust as fertilizer

Wood sawdust is an organic material that occurs during the sawing process of wood. Most of this material can be found in sawmills and those involved in construction work. Compared to manure, it costs much less. So why throw sawdust into a landfill if you can use it as fertilizer? However, in order to use sawdust at the dacha, it needs to be properly prepared.

Sawdust in compost for soil fertilization

When the soil is enriched with loose organic material, it absorbs moisture well, allowing plants to develop better. Because of the mulch, a crust does not form on the surface of the earth after rainy weather, so such soil does not require additional loosening from the summer resident. But you only need to use already rotted sawdust. The better the sawdust is rotted, the darker its color.

It is worth noting that this process takes quite a long time. In the open air, it can decompose in about 5-10 years. To speed up the process, you need to add it to the compost heap, mix it with manure or water it with special mixtures. This mixture can already be used as fertilizer after one year.

Therefore, it is better to prepare such compost in the spring so that it is ready for use next year. For best results, the mixture needs to be slightly moistened. You should not overfill it - useful substances will be washed out of the compost. It is generally better to use a urea mixture instead of water.

Adding sawdust to slurry or mixing with liquid kitchen waste gives good results. If you add a little soil to the mixture, earthworms will soon appear here. Their waste products - humus - will contribute to the process of decay of wood waste.

It should also be taken into account that pine sawdust (the main waste item) acidifies the soil. Therefore, they must be added together with limestone, which neutralizes this effect.

Sawdust for fertilizing strawberries

Sawdust is an excellent fertilizer and mulch for garden strawberries. This mulching will prevent the berries from lying on the ground, which will significantly reduce crop losses from rot.

In frosty winters, sawdust mulch will prevent the roots from freezing. use fresh sawdust treated with urea. In this case, softwood sawdust is best suited.

Birch sawdust is often used to raise ridges located in swampy and low areas. For this purpose, trenches are dug around the ridges and filled with fresh sawdust. Such trenches will prevent moisture from quickly evaporating on a hot day, and will prevent the crop from dying from drought. A dense mulch layer will not allow weeds to break through to the surface.

Sawdust for seed germination

Stale sawdust is an ideal soil for a short period of time for the development of the root system. For example, you can grow early potatoes in March-April by placing the tubers in a sawdust substrate. Then, the strengthened plants are painlessly transplanted into the soil.

Mulching the soil with sawdust

But most often sawdust is used by summer residents as a mulching material. For these purposes, you can use sawdust of any freshness. Try to spread it in an even layer of 3-5 centimeters. This mulch is best suited for raspberries, other fruit bushes or vegetable beds.

An accelerated method of preparing fertilizer from sawdust

Pour sawdust onto it (three buckets), then pour urea (200 grams), and then pour water from a watering can (half of the watering can). And we do this for the required amount of sawdust. We cover the top with film, and in turn press it down with stones or bricks. After two weeks, you can use this sawdust as fertilizer.

This fertilizer can only be used until mid-July or during the dry season, when water evaporates from the soil more quickly. From the second half of summer, such mulch will be completely mixed with the soil.

Use of sawdust in greenhouses

Sawdust, as a fertilizer for greenhouses, should always be mixed with fresh manure and plant residues. This helps the soil to warm up much faster and seed germination will also begin earlier. Apply this mulch in the spring, before planting.

Planting plants in sawdust

We take flat containers, which we fill in advance with moistened sawdust. We place the seeds at short distances from each other and cover them with sawdust on top. We place the containers in slightly opened polyethylene bags. You can also seal the top with cling film by making a number of small holes in it. After this, we put the boxes in a warm, well-lit place.

After the first shoots appear, you can remove the plastic bags. A layer of fertile soil should be poured on top so that the plants can get used to the soil. We plant the plants in separate containers no earlier than the appearance of the first leaf. Fertilizing the soil with sawdust will also occur before planting seedlings in the garden.

Sawdust when growing potatoes

Sawdust is a wonderful fertilizer for potato crops, with which you can harvest this vegetable earlier. To do this, you need to buy or prepare in advance light-sprouted potato tubers of early varieties, as well as several deep boxes. These boxes must be filled with rotted sawdust. About 2 weeks before planting the tubers in the ground, they must be placed in these boxes and sprinkled with sawdust on top.

Make sure that the substrate is not too dry or very wet. After two weeks, you should begin planting the tubers in the beds. After planting potatoes, it is recommended to cover the entire area with agrofibre or straw to prevent the tubers from freezing. In this way, you can speed up the ripening of the potato crop by several weeks and eat young potatoes at the end of June.

From the above it follows that sawdust is an indispensable fertilizer, which many summer residents have been using so intensively on their plots lately.

Main benefits of sawdust are its relative cheapness and ease of use.

Purposes of using sawdust different: for mulching the soil, insulating vegetable crops, fertilizing the soil layer and retaining moisture in it during dry periods.

I really love planting plants in my garden, caring for them, and harvesting them. But all the pleasure of working in the garden is ruined for me by the numerous weeds that grow and grow, no matter how much you remove them!

A lot of time is wasted fighting them! This would have continued to this day if I had not complained to a colleague about the weeds, and she said that her garden has been free of weeds for a long time, thanks to the wood shavings that she sprinkles between the rows of vegetables and in the aisle between the beds.

This year I decided to do the same. Weeds have decreased significantly. In this article I will list the benefits and harms of sawdust, tell you what fertilizers can be made from them, and how to use them correctly in the garden.

In Soviet times, sawdust was often used by gardeners as mulching and fertilizer to help plants grow better. Fortunately, this material is suitable for any soil.

Fresh sawdust has the ability to absorb all the liquid and take away useful substances from the soil, so experienced gardeners, in order to increase their benefits, add wood chips to various fertilizer mixtures.

There, during infusion, the chips become covered with beneficial bacteria, which then saturate the soil with microelements necessary for the development of plants. In addition, they release essential oils to the soil and plant.

This wooden material can be purchased inexpensively at any sawmill or obtained from sawing firewood or any construction. The main thing is that they do not contain chemicals and that the percentage of conifers is minimal, since not all plants like it.

Some gardeners use shavings to insulate the soil around bushes and plants in the winter, but you need to remember that it is recommended to spread it in a thin layer, since under a thick layer the earth begins to rot and rot.

The best material is obtained from deciduous trees, but coniferous trees increase the acidity of the soil, so only beds with cucumbers, carrots and tomatoes are mulched with it.

pros

Let's consider the advantages of wood chips:

• Helps retain moisture in the soil for a long time. It is especially indispensable in the hot regions of Russia. Thanks to the sawdust carpet, there will be no hard crust on the ground during drought.
• Blocks access of weeds to the ground surface. To do this, the shavings are poured in a thick layer. Only the toughest weeds can grow past this obstacle.
• They are insect repellents. Therefore, it is generously sprinkled around fruit bushes and berries.
• Helps some plants survive the winter thanks to mulching.
• Can be used as fertilizer.
• If you prepare it correctly, you can get humus of excellent quality that can replace cow manure.
• Coniferous chips are an excellent antimicrobial agent, as they do not infect plants with various microbes, like deciduous wood.
• With its help, you can correct too wet soil by simply sprinkling this material between the rows.

Minuses

There are fewer disadvantages, but they still need to be taken into account when using wood shavings in the garden:

• They absorb all the liquid and beneficial minerals, causing the soil to become poorer. The nitrogen content is especially greatly reduced.
• Pine shavings make the soil more acidic, so they are not used to mulch cabbage and beets.
• If sawdust is taken from uninspected places, you can lose almost the entire harvest due to destructive bacteria.
• If you use fertilizers containing shavings that have not had time to rot, you can get a negative result.

Fertilizer recipes

Since they take all the water from the ground, they are mostly used as fertilizer, where they are indispensable. It’s just that wood chips are used only in weed control and for drying overly wet soil. In order for sawdust in fertilizers to work properly, it must be carefully prepared and in no case should the rotting process be rushed.

Typically, wood shavings take at least ten years to rot; compost is made to speed up this process. That is, this wooden material is mixed with manure and left to infuse. Usually the mixture with sawdust material begins to be prepared two weeks or a month in advance.

Ash

First, 200 kg of sawdust is placed at the bottom of a 50-liter container, about 100 kg of any grass and food waste is thrown on top, and 10 kg of ash is poured over it. This layer cake is poured with 2.5 kg of urea dissolved in 50 liters of water. Then they are covered with a film with small holes for oxygen access. Leave it all until completely ready.

Organic enrichment

If the soil is too poor in nutrients, then this recipe, which increases the nitrogen content in the soil, can save the situation.

To do this, mix 50 kg of manure, 200 kg of wood waste, 30 kg of any food or human waste in one heap, and add 100 kg of regular fresh grass. All this is poured by eye with the required amount of humate solution (1 drop is enough for 100 liters of liquid).

Fresh sawdust

As we already know, fresh wood chips are not used to make the mixture. But what if you urgently need to fertilize the beds? There is a recipe according to which the mixture will be ready in two weeks. To do this, pour a glass of slaked lime, 30 grams of granulated superphosphate, 40 grams of ammonium nitrate, 10 grams of calcium chloride into a ten-liter bucket filled to the top with sawdust.

This is all mixed and infused on the street or open veranda. In no less than 14 days, this mixture will be ready to be added to the soil during digging. After which all the beds need to be watered, then the process of releasing useful substances will begin. Two buckets of this mixture are enough for one square meter.

Mulching

Typically, the beds begin to be mulched with sawdust at the beginning of summer to protect young shoots from weeds, which take all the nutrients for themselves. Already in July, not a trace will remain of the wood chips, since it will mix with the soil with the help of rain and earthworms.

Usually they begin to use it as soon as the sprouts reach about 7 cm in height. And the rows in the garden bed should be mulched with a thin layer of 2-3 centimeters so that the soil does not rot. And bush plants are protected from insect pests and diseases by sprinkling around the trunk.

Fruit bushes sprinkled with wood chips will look especially beautiful. In addition, thanks to this protection, the fruits grow beautiful and do not rot, which is especially beneficial for raspberries. And if you sprinkle soil around the bushes in the fall, then even the youngest seedlings will survive the harsh winter without any problems.

To do this, wood chips are mixed with peat and compost for the winter. In spring, the mulched soil under the bushes will only need to be dug up.

Standard preparation of sawdust mulch: 3 buckets of wood chips are poured onto a huge waterproof film, 200 grams of urea are poured on top, and all this is filled with 10 liters of water. Then they cover the top with another film, the edges of which are fixed with stones so that it does not fly off.

All this is left to infuse for about two weeks. After which this mixture can be spread between the beds mixed with ash.

If strawberries or strawberries are thoroughly covered with sawdust, the berries will remain clean and snails and slugs will not be able to crawl onto them. The layer thickness should be about 6 centimeters.

But before this, the earth is thoroughly saturated with minerals, since the sawdust material will take away some of the useful minerals. Then the procedure is repeated in the fall so that the strawberries survive the cold well and keep the roots in a healthy state.

Early potatoes

This recipe is only suitable for early potato varieties. In order for early potatoes to grow better and ripen as early as possible, experienced gardeners warm them up in wood shavings. Two weeks before planting, the sprouted potatoes are placed in a box full of wet sawdust.

Then a 3-centimeter layer of shavings is covered on top. For two weeks in a row, you need to maintain their humidity and ensure that the air temperature does not fall below 20 o C. During this time, the sprouts on the potatoes should reach a height of 8 cm.

Before planting, each potato is moistened in a fertilizer solution and planted in the ground in the usual way. If the forecast predicts frost, then the entire bed is covered with polyethylene.

Germination of seeds

In order for the seeds to germinate well and form strong roots, they are germinated in sawdust, which turns into loose material. In this case, the wood chips must be very fine. True, gardeners need to remember that sprouted seeds are replanted in the ground on time. If you postpone this matter until later, they may die.

Chips are extracted only from deciduous trees. Oak doesn't count. And it must be rotted. A thin layer of wet small shavings is poured onto the bottom of a flat container with low sides. After that, the seeds are carefully laid out on them and fertilizer is poured on top.

After which it is all covered with a film with small holes for oxygen. This container is placed on the windowsill in a sunny place. After the first shoots have hatched, the film is removed and a thin layer of soil is sprinkled on top, in which they will then grow.

This is done so that the plant gets used to the composition of the soil. At the same time, the container is placed in a cooler place. After one or two leaves appear, the sprouts are transplanted into a separate pot with soil.

Many people probably believe that dreams of waste-free household management will remain dreams. However, there are things that can be used even when it seems that they are no longer useful. Such material is sawdust. Few people know how to properly use sawdust in the country, at home, in the garden. Most gardeners and vegetable gardeners do not know exactly how sawdust affects the soil, having only the information that sawdust acidifies the soil, and refuse to use this material on their plots. But our ancestors knew about the use of sawdust in garden plots. In this article we will talk about how to use sawdust in the garden, the benefits and harm they can bring.

What are the benefits and which sawdust is best to use in the garden?

Due to its availability, sawdust has gained popularity among gardeners and is widely used in the garden. Most often, sawdust is used as fertilizer, or gardeners mulch with sawdust, or use it to loosen the soil. Sawdust has a beneficial effect on plants in the garden due to the fact that when decomposed, it releases carbon, which activates the soil microflora by 2 times. In particularly dry areas, sawdust can be used to retain moisture, but if the trees suffer from constant flooding, then a trench is dug around them and covered with sawdust.

Did you know?If the soil in the garden is acidic, then it is better to use sawdust mixed with peat. Or, after sawdust gets into the ground, sprinkle the ground with limestone flour.

To prepare fertilizers/mulch for the garden, you can use sawdust from almost all trees, made from any part of the tree. The only limitation is pine sawdust; their use is a difficult process, since they slowly rot on their own, and also slow down the decay of other components due to the high level of resin content.

However, using pine sawdust in the garden is beneficial.

Increasingly, owners of summer cottages use sawdust as fertilizer, because it is a valuable material that can be found right on their site. Often on websites and forums there are questions about whether it is possible to pour sawdust into the garden, how to mix sawdust with other fertilizers, how to prepare sawdust for mulching, etc. Next, we will tell you in more detail about how to use sawdust for the garden and garden, and also consider not only benefit, but also harm.

Mulching the soil with sawdust

Sawdust as mulch is often used by gardeners and gardeners. Experienced owners advise: if you do not know all the characteristics of the soil (namely, the acidity level), then you can try mulching one bed. This will not cause any significant losses, but in the future you will know for sure whether sawdust mulch is suitable for your area. The use of sawdust in the country as mulch is not limited to mulching in open ground; it can also be used in greenhouses and greenhouses.
Mulching with sawdust can be done in spring or autumn. There is no point in using sawdust in its fresh form. It is better to use completely rotted or semi-rotted material.

Important!Under natural conditions, the reheating procedure can take up to 10 years, so there are ways to more quickly prepare sawdust for use.

The most common and simplest way to prepare for mulching is the following:3 buckets of sawdust and 200 g of urea are poured onto the film and water is poured on top so that it completely wets the sawdust, then the layer is sprinkled with urea and the procedure is repeated. Thus, several layers are obtained, which are then tightly wrapped and kept in this state for two weeks. After this period, the sawdust can be used. You can scatter sawdust not only near the plant itself, but also in the aisles between plantings. A logical question would be whether it is possible to mulch all plants and, in particular, tomatoes with sawdust. Mulching tomatoes with sawdust can increase productivity by 25-30%, as well as speed up the ripening process and prevent diseases, such as late blight.

Disputes often arise among gardeners about whether it is possible to sprinkle strawberries with sawdust. Can. The main thing is to sprinkle it, not add it to the soil. Sawdust mulch prevents berries from rotting, so it is an ideal option for strawberries.

Did you know?Some gardeners believe that dry material can be used as mulch, but only if the sawdust remains on the surface of the soil, because underground it can draw nitrogen from the soil.

When it comes to using sawdust, it is important not only what can be mulched/fertilized with sawdust, but also how to use it. So, for example, vegetable crops are mulched with a thin layer, just a few centimeters, shrubs - 5-7 cm, and trees - up to 12 cm.

Using compost with sawdust

Now that we have figured out whether it is possible to mulch with sawdust, let's talk about how to use sawdust in combination with compost / manure and other organic matter. Many people are afraid to use sawdust in their pure form for the garden or garden, but there are ways to make this use easier and more useful by using compost. Compost, due to its availability, is an indispensable material for growing both fruit and vegetable crops on your site, and if it contains sawdust, the benefits will increase several times. To prepare such compost, you need to mix manure (100 kg) with 1 cubic meter. m of sawdust and leave for a year. Such fertilizer will significantly increase productivity.

Important!Rotted sawdustCanmix only with rotted manure, fresh manure with fresh manure. This will improve the quality of the compost.

Using sawdust for seed germination

Sawdust, due to the fact that it can retain moisture for a long time, has become of interest to gardeners and gardeners not only as a material for mulching or fertilizer, but also as a material for germinating seeds. In order for sawdust to serve well in germination, you need to use only rotted sawdust from deciduous trees, while materials from coniferous trees cannot be used.

A very important advantage of germinating seeds in a sawdust substrate is that it is then much easier to replant the plant from sawdust without harming it. In order for the seeds to germinate, they must be poured onto a layer of wet sawdust and sprinkled with another layer on top, but the second layer must be thin enough that it only covers the seeds. If the second layer is not made, the seeds will have to be moistened much more often. The container with the seeds is covered with polyethylene, leaving a small hole in it for air to enter, and placed in a warm place.

Did you know?The disadvantage of germinating seeds in sawdust is that with the appearance of the first true leaves, the seedlings must be transplanted into a regular substrate.

Sawdust as a loosening agent for soil

If there is no time for processing into high-quality nutrient material based on sawdust, but there is a lot of raw materials (sawdust), then they can be used to loosen the soil. There are three ways to use sawdust for loosening:

1. Sawdust is mixed with mullein and added to the soil when growing vegetables in greenhouses (mix 3 parts sawdust, 3 parts mullein and dilute it with water).
2. When digging up the soil in the beds, you can add rotted sawdust. This will help the soil stay moist longer and solve the problem of heavy, clay soils.
3. When growing vegetables whose growing season lasts a long time, sawdust can be added to the soil between the rows.

Important!If you add sawdust to the soil when digging up the soil, then in the spring such soil will thaw faster.

Using sawdust as a covering material

The “waste” from wood processing can be used to protect plants as shelter. The most proven method is when polyethylene bags are stuffed with sawdust and the roots of the plant are covered with them. Plants such as roses, clematis and grapes are left to overwinter where they grow, to protect them, the shoots are bent to the ground and covered with a layer of sawdust. If you want to achieve 100% confidence in the safety of your plants in winter, then you can make a more durable shelter: place a cap over the plant (you can use a wooden box for this) and cover it with sawdust on top - in this case, frosts will clearly not harm.

Sawdust can also be used as a wet shelter, but this risks the fact that in severe frosts the sawdust will freeze and form an ice crust over the plant. This type of shelter is not suitable for everyone, although garlic tolerates the winter well under wet sawdust of coniferous trees - they not only provide warmth, but also protect the crop from diseases and pests.

Sawdust can also be used to provide the root system with thermal insulation; to do this, they simply need to be poured in a thick layer onto the bottom of the planting hole.

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 the specified proportion, after moistening 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 for fruit plants. This can delay fruit ripening and even fruiting. You can also use sawdust as mulch and insulation, covering beds of 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 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 and winter crops with a thick layer in the fall. 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, we 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!