Chopped turf

Sod land. It is used in gardening, potted and tub culture of ornamental plants, as one of the elements of the earthen mixture.

In various earth mixtures, turf soil is included in quantities from 1/8 to 3/4 of the total composition of the mixture. It differs from other garden soils in its low content of organic matter and lower amounts of humus, nitrogen and absorbed bases. It is characterized by high water-lifting capacity and low moisture capacity and moisture permeability. In terms of acidity and the presence of basic nutrients, turf soil is similar to compost soil.

Depending on the mechanical composition of the soil in the area from which the sods were taken, a distinction is made between light sod (the sum of clay and dust particles is about 29%) and heavy sod (the sum of clay and dust particles is more than 61%) soil.

Sod land is harvested in spring or late summer. It is prepared from sods cut from meadows and fields (the most valuable are areas from clover and other perennial forage plants). The turf is cut in layers 6-12 cm thick, 20-25 cm wide and 25-35 cm long. The turf is stacked in the floor shady place.

The turf is laid in rows so that the grass-covered upper surfaces (lower and upper rows) are adjacent to one another. If possible, to speed up the decomposition process and improve nutritional qualities, when laying the sod, layer it with cow or horse manure with a layer of 10-15 cm every 50 cm of folded sod. At excess acidity soil in the place where the turf is harvested, when laying the turf, sprinkle it with lime., at the rate of 50 g per 1 m² of turf folded in two rows.

The dimensions of the stack vary within the following limits: height 1-1.2 m, width 1.5-2.5 and length 2-20 m. With higher stacking, aeration worsens and decomposition slows down. The stack is shoveled at least once a summer. In dry weather, watering is carried out. The turf soil is ready for use in 1-2 years.

Sometimes turf soil is used in an undecomposed form. In this case, the turf is thoroughly crushed. A small amount of turf soil can be obtained by shaking out pieces of meadow turf.

Some plants, in particular cyclamen, require more fibrous turf soil. In this case, the turf is cut and shredded into small pieces and in this crushed form is used for planting.

In floriculture, specially prepared garden soils are used. They are obtained from the decomposition of turf, leaves, manure, heather, peat and others. organic matter containing humus. The source substrate affects the physical and chemical properties of garden soils. Flower growers prepare the following types of garden soil: turf, leaf, humus, peat, compost, etc.

Sod land

Turf soil is rich in essential nutrients that last for many years. Turf soil is obtained from meadows and pastures, fallow lands, with grass-clover grass. There are turf soils: heavy (with a large amount of clay), medium (with equal proportions of clay and sand), light (with a predominance of sand).

The turf soil is harvested in the summer (at the time of maximum grass development), so that by winter the turf has time to partially decompose.

Using disks or a shovel, the turf is cut into layers 20-30 cm wide and 8-10 cm thick, depending on the thickness of the turf layer. It is placed in stacks 1.2 m wide, 1.5 m high and of arbitrary length. When forming stacks, the grass cover of the first and second layers of turf is turned towards each other. To accelerate the decomposition of the turf and enrich it with nitrogen, the layers are moistened with a solution of mullein or slurry (at the rate of 0.2-0.5 m 3 per 1 m 3 of turf). To reduce acidity, add lime - 2-3 kg/m3. The top of the stack is periodically moistened with slurry. The next summer it is shoveled two or three times.

Only after two seasons do they get turf soil good quality. In the second year (autumn), the soil is passed through a screen and removed indoors. Sod soil left in the open air loses nutritional value, porosity, elasticity and other qualities.

Leaf ground

Leaf soil is light and loose, but contains fewer nutrients than turf soil. For heavy turf lands it serves as a good ripper. Leaf soil mixed with peat and sand is used as a substitute for heather soil.

Leaf soil is harvested in the fall during the period of mass leaf fall in parks, gardens, squares and forests. The most suitable leaves for this purpose are linden, maple, fruit trees and etc.

Leaf soil is often obtained from the forest floor by removing upper layer by 2-5 cm. Collected dry leaves or forest litter with grass remains are formed into stacks 1.2 m wide, 1.5 m high and of arbitrary length. When laying, the leaves are moistened with slurry or mullein solution and compacted. Over the next summer, the leaf mass is moistened two or three times with slurry, lime is added and shoveled. Composted leaves rot and turn into leaf soil only in the autumn of the second year. Before use, the leaf soil is passed through a screen to separate undecomposed residues. Coniferous soil is prepared in the same way.

Humus soil

Humus soil is a loose, fatty, soft, homogeneous mass, rich in nutrients. It contains a large amount of nitrogen in a form that is easily digestible for plants. This soil is used for most potted crops and growing seedlings, and also as an organic fertilizer in open ground.

Humus soil is formed from rotted manure mixed with old greenhouse soil. Manure placed in greenhouses as biofuel turns into humus by autumn. When cleaning greenhouses, humus is placed in piles (as for turf and leaf soil), moistened and shoveled once or twice over the next summer. The humus soil is kept in the open air for a year, then passed through a screen and stored indoors.

Peat land

Peat soil is a very moisture-intensive, soft and loose mass consisting of slowly decomposing residues. But in pure form Peat soil has little nutrition. It is used for various soil mixtures as a ripper for improvement physical properties turf land. Peat soil is also used in a mixture with light sand soil, which improves their moisture capacity, as well as for mulching the soil.

This land is harvested from lowland peat bogs. Peat chips and briquettes are also used to prepare it. Decomposed peat is formed into piles up to 0.8 m high. When laying, layers of peat every 20 cm are moistened with slurry and sprinkled with lime - 10-15 kg/m3. If high-moor peat is used, the dose of lime is increased.

At the end of the first year of harvesting and in the middle of the second, the mixture is shoveled and used in the third year (at this time the acidity of the peat decreases and its biological activity increases). When harvesting turf from peat meadows, sod-peat soil is prepared, which is used for peat humus pots, mulching the soil and planting some plants.

compost soil

The quality of compost soil depends on the type of waste and the nature of the composted material. In terms of the content of nutrients, compost soil occupies an intermediate position between turf soil and humus soil.

This soil is prepared by composting in piles, heaps, pits of various plant and animal residues, garbage, weeds, greenhouse waste and household. As the residue accumulates, it is sprinkled with lime, moistened with slurry and covered with peat or peat chips on top. In the second and third years, the compost mass is shoveled two or three times. compost soil usually ready only by the end of the third year. Before use, it is passed through a medium screen.

heather land

The heather land has practically lost its significance. It is successfully replaced with a mixture consisting of leaf soil - two parts, peat soil - three or four and sand - one part. The preparation technology is the same as for sheet soil.

Vegetable and garden land

Vegetable and garden soil is a nutrient layer of soil enriched with humus, which is prepared and placed in piles in the fall, adding lime, peat and potassium. In summer, the pile is shoveled twice. These lands, mixed with a small amount of sand, are successfully used for flower crops.

woody ground

Wood soil is prepared from roots, stumps, branches, chips and other wood waste. As a result of the decomposition of woody residues, light soil is formed, similar in composition to leaf soil, but poor in nutritional elements. It is used in growing orchids, ferns and bromeliads.

Composted bark

Composted bark is prepared as follows. The bark is crushed and composted in piles up to 3 m high with the addition of slag (from the settling tanks of pulp mills) and other organic materials, which ensures the decomposition of the bark by microorganisms. Microbiological and biochemical processes during composting are more active in a substrate with a particle size of 1-7 mm and the addition of urea (4.3 kg/m3) during the first few weeks. With constant shoveling, the duration of composting in summer is 4-4.5 weeks, in winter – 16-18 weeks.

The temperature in the stacks rises to 65-70 °C. Compost contains (g/m3): potassium -300; phosphorus – 60; magnesium – 30; iron – 30; manganese – 20, as well as copper and other trace elements.

Moss

Moss is harvested from moss swamps. After drying, grinding and sifting, it is used in earthen mixtures to impart lightness, friability, and hygroscopicity. In its pure form, moss is used when forcing lilies of the valley, to cover the earthen ball of orchids and other plants. Used for stratification and germination of large seeds.

Charcoal

Charcoal in the form of small pieces they are added to earthen mixtures for plants that do not respond well to waterlogging. Charcoal has the ability to adsorb excess water, but when there is a lack of it, it releases it. In powder form, charcoal is used as an antiseptic for covering cuts on dahlia tubers, gladioli corms, canna rhizomes, etc. In addition, it adsorbs herbicides and other chemicals from the soil.

Sand

The most commonly used is coarse-grained river sand. It is added to earth mixtures without pre-treatment(1/5-1/10 total volume) to give looseness. When cutting, the sand is thoroughly washed clean water from silt and clay particles. For plants that are difficult to root, use quartz sand.

Storing and mixing soil

For floriculture and horticultural purposes, two to three-year reserves of garden soil are created. They are stored in closed, frost-free places. For each type of land, special bunks are made or separate rooms are allocated.

Flower growers and gardeners need all of the above lands. They are protected from infection by pests and diseases. When preparing earthen mixtures, take into account biological features plants, their age, cultural conditions, as well as the reaction of the soil solution (pH) at which a given plant can grow.

Gardeners, especially beginners, are interested in how to use forest soil more effectively: what to do with the top layer of forest soil brought to the site - mix with garden soil or use in its pure form.

Fertile forest soil can be a good addition to garden soil (about 1/3), but it is not advisable to use it in its pure form.

In some cases, it is included in seedling mixtures. You should definitely figure out which forest, from which places it is supposed to be taken.

Deciduous soil includes leaf litter and top layer (about 10 cm) of soil. The best land has dark color, contains many organic substances, has a slightly acidic or neutral reaction. They take such land in mixed or broad-leaved forests where linden, maple, aspen, and birch grow. You can also take clean litter without soil, add it to compost, and mulch the trunks of trees and shrubs with it.

Soil and litter from coniferous forests are suitable for mulching or adding to the soil for crops that prefer an acidic environment (rhododendrons, heathers, hydrangea, blueberries, cranberries, lingonberries). It is believed that pine litter is more acidic, while spruce litter has moderate acidity. The soil under spruce trees is quite fertile, so it can be added to ordinary trees and shrubs. Decay coniferous plants suppresses weed growth well and increases soil looseness.

At the edge of the forest you can take turf - top part soil densely intertwined with grass roots. After rotting in a compost heap, it is used both to create mixtures for growing seedlings and as a substrate for various perennial crops.

Do not dig soil from a depth of more than 15-20 cm, in middle lane the soil is not too fertile, there will be no benefit for the garden. At great depths you will find only dense rock, often gels, which do not contain nutrients and beneficial microorganisms. If there is a need to improve the soil structure, add peat, sand (to clay soils) or clay and compost (on sandy soils).

It is very important to take care of the forest. Do not remove large pieces of turf; they will take several years to recover. Do not expose tree roots. Do not make pit traps in the forest - this is dangerous for people.

Earth from under an oak tree. Soil for seedlings is collected under oak trees

Cherkasy resident 63-year-old Valentina MOROZ has been preparing soil for seedlings and flowerpots since the fall. While picking mushrooms, he collects forest soil from under the oak trees into bags. Until February, when he plants seedlings of tomatoes and peppers, he stores the soil in the cellar.

-There is no better soil for seedlings than forest soil,” he says. - It’s best if you can find a molehill in the forest, near the oak trees. There are no worms or insects there, because moles eat them up. In a coniferous forest, the soil is not as nutritious. I store it in the cellar in several two-bucket bags. I also transplant flowerpots into forest soil in the fall. I add a handful of humus to the pot. Before transplanting or sowing seeds, I pour a 3-5 cm layer of soil into a bowl. I pour boiling water heavily on it.

Agronomist 61-year-old Vladimir Tarasenko from Cherkasy collects forest land in the lowlands.

-“During the rains, most of the humus is carried there,” he says. - I remove the top layer, 15 centimeters thick, with a shovel. But it doesn't need to be over-moistened. To remove insects and worms, in winter I take a bag of soil out into the cold. Below minus 10 degrees, pests will die, but beneficial organisms will remain.

He says dousing the soil with boiling water or frying it is harmful.

-The temperature kills beneficial nodule and azotobacteria. Will provide nutrients to plants. Before planting flowerpots or seedlings, I add a kilo of humus to a bucket of soil.

In the fall, Vladimir Tarasenko advises preparing humus. He says that in winter, in open-air pits, it becomes waterlogged. Because of this, it will not be possible to mix it well with the soil. Therefore, one part of the seedlings will receive an excess of nutrition, the other will receive less.

Worms damage roots

36-year-old Nikolay Dryzhenko from the village of Radovanovka in the Cherkasy region drives worms out of a transplanted flowerpot with water.

-If a worm gets into the pot, it will harm the root. It does not eat living roots, but feeds on rotted remains. But he makes a lot of moves. It exposes the roots and injures them. Worms are indicated by breasts on the soil surface.

The owner puts the flowerpot in a bowl. Fill the pot with water so that the soil fills it to the top.

-In a day or two, the pest will definitely crawl to the surface, because it won’t have anything to breathe with,” Nikolai Dryzhenko laughs.

Video HOW TO PREPARE turf ground for seedlings? Olga

Sod it is. Turf

m. () f. Wed Wed sodded earth; the top layer of soil, densely overgrown with cereals, spike grass, and meadow grass; meadow, stove rie, grass, murava, mur; fine grass layer; n plow or virgin soil. The name is also the removed layer, for transferring ants, and each plate of it, in places, speaks. wrong vm. thorn, and vm. blackthorn. grave Wed , the place where the turf is removed, cut in layers, or torn off, raised with a plow, for arable land. and. interline, cover, turf gap between arable land, strips. From verb. fight, stupidity, shouting, quarrels. Turf O vyy, made of turf. Turf edge of roads. Dernov O y, related to turf. Sod iron ore. Turf And dense, heavily turfed, densely overgrown with the roots of steppe meadow grass. Turfy soil is the same, to a lesser extent. || The soddy (turfy) peasant is old. assigned, attached to the land, serf, from old. shit real estate in eternal inviolable possession, property, sobin. They sold you to him for sod, completely, irrevocably, for eternal possession; adverb remains to this day. V O village, completely, completely, forever. Turf at shka f. dugout, shack, covered with canopy or earth. Turf And t at bare pile, cover it with turf. Twitch, be twitchy. Turf e nie cf. action is work, according to the verb. Turf e to turn into turf, to grow thickly (overgrown) with ants. Abandoned arable land will last for ten years. Turf e Nye Wed the state of a twitching, overgrown with ant. Dernov A to lay slopes, to sod, to cover with sod. Dernov A Nye, turf O vka turf, active according to verb. Turfmaker or turfgrass A worker, worker who covers slopes, edges of paths, etc. with cut turf or ants. Dernor e z m. projectile for cutting and lifting turf. || Worker cutting turf.

Leaf soil (leaf humus)

In vegetable growing, leaf soil is not used so often. It is used in a mixture with other soils, mainly to loosen heavy turf soils. Most often, leaf soil is used in ornamental gardening, especially when sowing small seeds of flowering plants. Leaf humus is obtained from the decomposition of leaves of deciduous trees and shrubs. When harvesting leaf soil, one must take into account the fact that the leaves decompose rather slowly. On average, good leaf soil is obtained only after 2-3 years. Leaf soil should be collected on farms where there are forests, plantations, and parks nearby, since collecting large quantities of leaves is quite labor-intensive work.
To prepare leaf soil in the fall, after leaf fall, or early in the spring, before the grass has yet grown, the leaves along with thin twigs are raked with an iron rake. The collected leaves are dumped into a hole 60-70 cm deep. The leaves are covered on top with a thin 10-15 cm layer of loose soil in order to somewhat compact the leaves and protect them from being blown away by the wind and water evaporation. It is better to arrange the pit in a shady place. During the summer, the leaves in the hole are shoveled and watered with slurry. After two or three years, a very light, dark-colored mass is obtained - “earth.” A cubic meter of leafy earth weighs only 600-700 kg.
To obtain leafy soil in a shorter time, leaves collected in the fall should be dumped for temporary storage in one of the corners of the greenhouse area and covered thin layer soil so that they are not scattered by the winds, and leave in this form until spring. When shelving and thinning vegetable plants, a large plant mass accumulates. All this green, juicy mass is taken to the area allocated for greenhouses and stacked in long piles 2-2.5 m wide and 2 m high.
Laying is carried out in a certain order. A collected leaf 20-25 cm thick is placed on the bottom, and a layer of weeds of the same thickness is placed on top of the leaf; then a layer of leaves is laid down again, etc. The pile is completed with a layer of weeds sprinkled on top with a thin layer of soil. Under the influence of high temperature and humidity, the entire mass quickly decomposes, begins to settle strongly and turns into a solid fatty mass before the onset of frost. in spring next year and over the summer they shovel the pile 2-3 times. By autumn, the leaf soil is completely ready for use.
In the absence of pre-prepared leaf soil, you can use forest litter. To do this, you need to rake off the undecomposed leaves and twigs in the spring and, after removing the top 5-6 cm layer, pass it through a screen. Such leaf soil is obtained quickly, but it is of little value, since most of the nutrients are leached from it and it is not free from pests and pathogens.

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