Mulching with sawdust: advantages and disadvantages, features. Mulching the soil with sawdust What can be mulched with fresh sawdust

Mulching with sawdust is a well-known technique experienced gardeners and gardeners. Simple actions were suggested to people by nature, because wild-growing plants somehow survive both heat and cold. The reason for survival is in the natural soil cover with fallen leaves, needles, and brushwood. A peculiar mantle reliably protects the soil from leaching, erosion and insects.

Benefits of sawdust mulching

Mulching with sawdust equally suitable for any soil in greenhouses and garden beds. It not only protects the soil and plants from the cold, but is often used as a fertilizer that enriches even poor soil. For example, if flowers in spring, bush plants (raspberries, currants) or vegetables (tomatoes, cabbage) at a later time lack fruits and ovaries, then mulching can be a great help.

Mulch, sprinkled on the soil in a layer, allows plants to "breathe" and better absorb fertilizers. For growing tomatoes, this is the most effective method improve the quality of the crop. Since sawdust tightly covers the ground, without sunlight, a large number of bacteria develop in the layer. They process most of the sawdust, so we get fertile soil at the output.

Mulching with tomato sawdust or potatoes, for example, is simply necessary when the dry period comes. open ground heats up quickly in open sunlight, and plants quickly deteriorate in such soil. Sawdust retains moisture and protects the earth from overheating. With this approach, you can water vegetables and bushes less.

If we talk about fruits located close to the ground, then mulching helps to avoid their decay (cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, strawberries, etc.)

Mulching the soil as fertilizer

Many types of fertilizers are quite expensive. Sawdust in this regard is quite a profitable option, in addition, it is absolutely safe. Sawdust is the basis of the nutritional complex. The best way to cook it - skip the sawdust through the compost. Remember that clean fresh sawdust as fertilizer should not be applied to the soil. Fresh sawdust is not a fertilizer, it is extremely low in nitrogen, it is fibrous and contains cellulose.

Bring in natural fertilizer based on mulch and compost, you need it in the spring, because certain, rather high temperatures are necessary for decay. The lignin contained in the mulch helps form the stem of the plant and conducts nutrients to it. After some time, mulch, as a medium, begins to be used by microorganisms, saturate wood chips useful elements. If you do not put sawdust in compost pit, then the process of soil decay will take several years. In compost, this period can be significantly reduced.

Sawdust compost is pretty easy to make. Fresh shavings, urea, water and ash are taken as ingredients. If there is household organic waste, straw, grass, then they can also be added to the compost pit. Urea is first dissolved in water, and then the materials of the future fertilizer are watered. You can also add manure to enhance the beneficial properties.

What plants need to be mulched?

Mulching with sawdust is relevant if there are a lot of bushes on the plot in the greenhouse roses or other whimsical colors.

Walkways between beds tomatoes, bushes currants and at the flower beds they are also sprinkled with shavings - this allows you to give the area a neat look without weeds and pits.

Use mulching when planting potatoes and other root plants - carrots, garlic, onions. So, when hilling potatoes, the resulting "furrows" are covered with a substrate, which allows you to grow healthy fruits. This layer is useful for vegetables in that it retains moisture in the ground and it is not necessary to water the bushes (and sometimes these are entire plantations for which there is simply not enough water). Onion feathers after mulching grow higher and turn out juicier.

Mulching is often used for raspberries. Raspberry roots after mulching, where the soil is covered with a thick layer of sawdust, retain moisture and nutrients better, as a result we get tasty fruits, which are more than usual on the bush. Thanks to this procedure, you can not replant a raspberry bush for up to fifteen years.

Mulching for loosening and
soil cover

Since fertilizer sawdust rots rather slowly, it is often used to loosen the soil. Most often, mulching for such purposes is carried out in a greenhouse for tomatoes. For a small greenhouse, you will need three buckets of shavings, three kilograms of humus and ten liters of water. All this is mixed in a container (trough, barrel) and left to brew for a couple of hours. Then they are evenly applied to the soil.

Insulation with sawdust

If loosening is required open ground, then you can use sawdust during digging. Just add small portions of the substrate to the soil, from which it will be loose. Therefore, the need for frequent watering disappears by itself. sawdust are ideal material for laying the ground for cold weather. Soil cover is considered the most in a safe way weather the cold.

To mulch roses, grapes and weaving flowers that cannot be dug out of the ground and that have vines, you can bend them down and along their entire length and cover them with a substrate.

To completely protect rose shoots, you can make an air-dry shelter. To do this, a small frame is made of wood, a film is laid on top of it, and a layer of sawdust is placed on top of it. Such a layer will allow you to withstand even the most severe frosts, it can be used not only for roses, but also for low plants (raspberries, tomatoes) until frost (after all, they are more tender and wait out the winter only in a greenhouse).

Mulching strawberries with sawdust

strawberries, on winter period, you can not dig out of the ground! Strawberry sprouts are insulated so as not to freeze the root and leaves. If the strawberries freeze, then the next season it will not produce berries. This is true for raspberries and roses (in their case, they will not bloom).

Pre-beds with strawberries must be weeded, weeds and debris removed. It is good to loosen the soil near the strawberry bushes. Then, between the strawberry bushes, lay a layer of old newspapers. It is better to do even several layers. But don't use thick cardboard- it will not allow moisture to reach the roots. Pour fresh sawdust onto the paper. They must be dry, free of rot and insects. The substrate layer should be five centimeters. It will last for a couple of years, after the chips will begin to rot and rot, so it is better to repeat the procedure every two years.

Astrakhan tomatoes ripen remarkably lying on the ground, but you should not repeat this experience in the Moscow region. Our tomatoes need support, support, a garter. My neighbors use all sorts of pegs, garters, loops, ready-made plant supports, and mesh fences. Each method of fixing the plant in an upright position has its own advantages and " side effects". I'll tell you how I place tomato bushes on trellises, and what comes of it.

Flies - a sign of unsanitary conditions and carriers infectious diseases hazardous to both humans and animals. People are constantly looking for ways to get rid of nasty insects. In this article, we will talk about the Zlobny TED brand, which specializes in fly protection products and knows a lot about them. The manufacturer has developed a specialized line of drugs to get rid of flying insects anywhere quickly, safely and without extra costs.

The summer months are the time for hydrangeas to bloom. This beautiful deciduous shrub is luxuriously fragrant with flowers from June to September. Florists willingly use large inflorescences for wedding decors and bouquets. To admire the beauty flowering bush hydrangeas in your garden, you should take care of the proper conditions for it. Unfortunately, some hydrangeas do not bloom year after year, despite the care and efforts of gardeners. Why this happens, we will tell in the article.

Every summer resident knows that plants need nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium for full development. These are the three main macronutrients, the deficiency of which significantly affects appearance and yield of plants, and in advanced cases can lead to their death. But at the same time, not everyone understands the importance of other macro- and microelements for plant health. And they are important not only in themselves, but also for the effective absorption of the same nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Garden strawberries, or strawberries, as we used to call them, are one of the early fragrant berries that summer generously endows us with. How we rejoice in this harvest! In order for the "berry boom" to repeat every year, we need to take care of the care of the berry bushes in the summer (after the end of fruiting). Bookmark flower buds, from which ovaries will form in spring, and berries in summer, begins approximately 30 days after the end of fruiting.

Spicy pickled watermelon is a savory snack for fatty meat. Watermelons and watermelon rinds pickled since time immemorial, but this process is laborious and time-consuming. According to my recipe, it’s easy to cook pickled watermelon in 10 minutes, and a spicy snack will be ready by the evening. The watermelon marinated with spices and chili is stored in the refrigerator for several days. Be sure to keep the jar in the refrigerator, not only for the sake of preservation - chilled, this snack is just licking your fingers!

Among the variety of species and hybrids of philodendrons, there are many plants, both gigantic and compact. But not a single species competes in unpretentiousness with the main modest - blushing philodendron. True, his modesty does not concern the appearance of the plant. Reddening stems and cuttings, huge leaves, long shoots, forming, although very large, but also strikingly elegant silhouette, look very elegant. Philodendron blushing requires only one thing - at least minimal care.

Thick Chickpea Soup with Vegetables and Egg - an easy recipe for a hearty first course inspired by oriental cuisine. Similar thick soups are prepared in India, Morocco, countries South-East Asia. The tone is set by spices and seasonings - garlic, chili, ginger and a bouquet of spicy spices, which can be assembled to your liking. It is better to fry vegetables and spices in melted butter (ghee) or mix olive oil and butter, it's certainly not the same, but similar in taste.

Plum - well, who does not know her ?! She is loved by many gardeners. And all because it has an impressive list of varieties, surprises with excellent harvests, pleases with its diversity in terms of ripening and a huge choice of color, shape and taste of fruits. Yes, somewhere she feels better, somewhere worse, but almost no summer resident refuses to grow her on her plot. Today it can be found not only in the south, in middle lane, but also in the Urals, in Siberia.

Many decorative and fruit crops, except for drought-resistant ones, suffer from the scorching sun, and conifers in the winter-spring period - from sunlight, enhanced by reflection from snow. In this article, we will talk about unique preparation to protect plants from sunburn and droughts - Sunshet Agrosuccess. The problem is relevant for most regions of Russia. In February and early March, the sun's rays become more active, and the plants are not yet ready for new conditions.

“Each vegetable has its own time”, and each plant has its own optimal time for landing. Anyone who has experienced planting is well aware that the hot season for planting is spring and autumn. This is due to several factors: in spring, the plants have not yet started to grow rapidly, there is no sweltering heat, and precipitation often falls. However, no matter how hard we try, circumstances often develop in such a way that landings have to be carried out at the very height of summer.

Chili con carne in Spanish means chili with meat. This is a Texan and Mexican dish whose main ingredients are chili peppers and minced beef. In addition to the main products, there are onions, carrots, tomatoes, and beans. This red lentil chili recipe is delicious! The dish is fiery, burning, very satisfying and amazingly tasty! You can cook a large pot, arrange in containers and freeze - a whole week will be a delicious dinner.

Cucumber is one of my favorites horticultural crops our gardeners. However, not all and not always gardeners manage to get really good harvest. And although growing cucumbers requires regular attention and care, there are little secret, which will significantly increase their productivity. It's about pinching cucumbers. Why, how and when to pinch cucumbers, we will tell in the article. An important point The agricultural technique of cucumbers is their formation, or type of growth.

Now every gardener has the opportunity to grow absolutely organic, healthy fruits and vegetables in his own garden. The microbiological fertilizer Atlant will help in this. It contains helper bacteria that settle in the zone of the root system and begin to work for the benefit of the plant, allowing it to actively grow, stay healthy and give high yields. Usually, many microorganisms coexist around the root system of plants.

Summer is associated with beautiful flowers. Both in the garden and in the rooms you want to admire the luxurious inflorescences and touching flowers. And for this it is not at all necessary to use cut bouquets. In the range of the best indoor plants many beautiful flowering species. In the summer, when they receive the brightest lighting and the optimal duration of daylight hours, they are able to outshine any bouquet. Short-lived or just annual crops look like living bouquets.

Many do not know about useful properties sawdust, using them on your site only as mulch or insulation material. But with certain processing, sawdust can be used as a fertilizer. Rather, as the basis for an organic nutritional complex. The best way to recycle them is to put them through compost. This will help to subsequently use them to enrich the earth with nutritious organic matter, and for the pre-winter hilling of heat-loving plants.

sawdust as fertilizer

It is absolutely impossible to make clean sawdust as a fertilizer! This is the most common mistake a gardener can make. Waste from the woodworking industry of small and medium fractions, introduced into the soil in its raw form, greatly impoverishes it, binding not only manure, but also part of the phosphorus contained in it.

If you follow the theory that recommends using sawdust as a fertilizer, then you need to make them in the fall. Like, they will pereperet during the winter, and by spring they will turn into a nutrient. But for the normal course of the process of decay, high temperatures are necessary, which are not observed in winter. Accordingly, the decay process is inhibited. sawdust in the spring garden plot thawed whole and unharmed, only well wet. This happens not only because the soil freezes, but also because there are a lot of phenolic resins in wood waste, which are preservatives.

Wood, in itself, is not a fertilizer, it contains only 1-2% nitrogen, the rest is ballast substances, such as cellulose, hemicellulose and lingin, which form the plant stem and serve as conductors of nutrients dissolved in the liquid. However, when she lies down, they settle on the surface various microorganisms, which saturate the wood with useful substances. If the sawdust lie for 2-3 years in one place in the garden, they begin to turn black - this is a sign of the formation of humus. Putting wood into compost helps speed up this process, where it is processed and enriched with various nutrients.

Compost enriched with sawdust matures faster as it helps create and maintain heat in the heap. In spring, this pile warms up rather than traditional humus. The resulting substrate is usually looser, more breathable, and more nutritious. Its use helps to more effectively fertilize the soil with sawdust.

How to make sawdust compost

It is best to lay the pile at the beginning of summer, when there is already material for composting, and there is still time for this substrate to rot. Sawdust compost is prepared from the following ingredients:

Wood sawdust - 200 kg;

Urea -2.5 kg;

Water - 50 l;

Ash -10 l;

Grass, leaves, household waste - 100 kg.

Urea is dissolved in water, and this solution is used to spill a "pie" consisting of layers of wood chips, grass, and ash.

Another Sawdust Compost Recipe Include More Organics, and is used for plants that require the introduction of significant doses of nitrogen. You can prepare it like this:

Oak sawdust - 200 kg;

Cow manure - 50 kg;

Grass cut - 100 kg;

Food waste, any feces - 30 kg;

Humates - 1 drop per 100 liters of water.

Fertilizing the soil with sawdust fresh is also sometimes used, but with the obligatory enrichment of their mineral fertilizers, otherwise the wood waste will “suck out” everything useful material from the earth. The following mixing ratios are recommended:

Wood sawdust - a bucket (coniferous sawdust is not recommended for direct application);

Ammonium nitrate - 40 g;

Superphosphate simple granular - 30 g;

Slaked lime - 120 g;

Calcium chloride - 10 g.

The resulting mixture is applied during digging, under crops that need loose soil, at the rate of 2-3 buckets per 1 sq.m.

Mulching with sawdust

The use of small chips as mulch has long been practiced by domestic gardeners. Many gardeners use this method of cultivating the surface of the earth in the country to suppress weeds, conserve moisture and improve soil structure.

Very often, the passages between the beds are covered with sawdust, thus preventing weeds from germinating. Also, this substrate is used for potatoes, after high hilling, sprinkling them with the formed furrows. This layer keeps the soil between the rows in a moist state, which has a positive effect on the yield. Moisture is well preserved under sawdust, and the soil does not overheat, which creates optimal conditions for potatoes.

Cucumbers are often grown using fine wood chips. Coniferous sawdust is used not only to fertilize the land in a composted form, but also as a biofuel. They are laid at the foundation high beds, and well watered with slurry. Then the garden bed is built up with earth, and the heat source, which is created by wood waste that is mixed with manure, warms it up qualitatively throughout the season.

Raspberries are another fan of mulching with sawdust. They help this shrub retain moisture at the roots, which allows you to increase the number of berries during fruiting, and improve them. taste qualities. Thanks to this method, raspberries can grow in one place for up to 10 years, since their root system does not dry out, and, accordingly, does not degrade.

Almost all plants can be mulched with sawdust, subject to the additional application of nitrogen fertilizers. After all, even covering the soil superficially, wood shavings draw useful nutrients from it quite strongly. But at the same time, she creates comfortable conditions, which allow plants to grow and develop better, so there are much more advantages from sawdust mulching than disadvantages.

Video: mulching beds with sawdust using strawberries as an example

Sawdust as a baking powder for the soil

Why do many gardeners, despite their low nutritional value, still use sawdust as fertilizer in their gardens? They are an inexpensive and easy-to-transport substrate that has a large volume with a small mass. But, since it takes time to process them into nutrient-rich organic matter, sawdust is often used fresh to loosen the soil. They are brought in:

In greenhouses, when cooking soil mixture for cucumbers and tomatoes, pre-mixed with mullein (3 buckets of sawdust, 3 kg of rotted cow dung and 10 liters of water).

Overripe sawdust can be applied when digging the soil in the garden. It will become loose, and there will be no need for frequent watering, and in spring such soil will thaw faster.

This woody substrate can be dug into the aisles when planting vegetables with a long growing season. This will enable the plant roots to use the space between the rows, under the thickness of the trampled earth.

Sawdust as a covering material

Residues from wood processing in the garden are used not only as fertilizers and mulch. Also sawdust in demand as a covering material. They are used in different ways. For instance, stuffed into bags and wrapped around the roots and shoots of plants. Such shelter is considered the most reliable.

At roses, grapes and clematis, which are left on the beds, they protect the vines bent to the ground, covering them with a layer of sawdust along the entire length. So that field mice do not have time to start up under the covering substrate, it is necessary to add it in late autumn, just before the frosts, otherwise the rodents will spoil all the plants during the winter. It would be even better to make an air-dry shelter over the wintering shoots. To do this, they knock together a frame from boards in the form of an inverted box, and fill it with sawdust from above, then put polyethylene film, and a layer of earth is thrown on top. The construction of such a mound gives an almost 100% guarantee of protecting the plant from any cold weather. Sawdust for insulation must be used very carefully. If they are used as a "wet" shelter, when the mound is not protected from water, they get wet, and then freeze into an ice ball. Such insulation is suitable only for a small number of plants, the rest under it can rot.

But what a rose is to death is to the benefit of garlic. It winters well under a “wet” shelter made of pine sawdust, since the phenolic resins contained in their composition perfectly protect this plant from pests and diseases.

Coarse sawdust can be used as a heat insulator by laying it in the base of the planting pits. They will serve as a barrier to deep cold when planting southerners such as grapes and flowering vines.

This is interesting: seedlings of cucumbers in hot sawdust (video)

Sawdust- a very valuable organic matter, the place of which experienced gardener will always find.

Today we will talk about mulching beds with sawdust. And so sawdust can still be composted, covered with them garden paths, use as a substrate for growing seedlings, store vegetables (carrots, beets) and other root crops (dahlias for example) in them.

Let's talk about myths.

Many gardeners shy away from sawdust, as they heard something somewhere that they take nitrogen from the soil!

And that's it! Don't give us such a blood-drinker!

But not everything is so simple! Gardeners make a major mistake. What? Read more...

In no case do not use sawdust from chipboard and chipboard!


A bed mulched with sawdust with garlic, tulips, peonies.






Fresh sawdust only for mulch.

On sawdust, during decomposition (rotting), microorganisms, various bacteria and fungi multiply, which use nitrogen.

But it is harmful if the sawdust is DIRECTLY in the soil! And then temporarily, after the sawdust is overheated, the borrowed nitrogen returns to its place.

If the sawdust is on the ground, then theoretically they cannot take anything out of it!

For reference: the air contains nitrogen - 78%, oxygen - 21%, carbon dioxide- 0.0392%, and the rest is accounted for by other gases.

Therefore, feel free to use sawdust for mulch! And if you periodically water them with a bio-cocktail, then there will be nothing to think about at all!

What do we mulch.

Actually everything. Sawdust can be used especially well for raspberries, garden fruit trees, flowers (tulips, roses, etc.), carrots, very good garlic and onions. We mulch the garlic in the fall so that it does not freeze out as well.

Very good for mulching garden strawberries. But more on that...


We mulch garden strawberries.

Strawberries are very good at this procedure.

If you have a lot of weeds in your beds and you are tired of fighting them, use this technology.

We weed out the garden. We take old newspapers and spread them between strawberries in 2-3 overlapping layers. Then we fill everything with sawdust, a layer of 3-5 cm. That's it. You can forget about weeding. After overheating this cake for 1.5-2 years, we repeat the procedure.

It is better to use not small sawdust, but small chips. It is less caked, it passes air better, and as a result, it decomposes faster.


What sawdust is better.

As we have already said, we do not use sawdust from chipboard, etc., since they are ARTIFICIALLY saturated with all sorts of resins and other muck.

The rest of the sawdust will do!

Sawdust of deciduous trees will overheat faster, therefore, if possible, we give preference to them.

But sawdust conifers fit.

Well, that's all in a nutshell.

We will talk about the use of sawdust in the preparation of compost in a separate article.



Material prepared by: Nadezhda Zimina, gardener with 24 years of experience, process engineer

Many do not know about the beneficial properties of sawdust, using them on their site only as mulch or insulation material. But with certain processing, sawdust can be used as a fertilizer. Rather, as the basis for an organic nutritional complex. The best way to recycle them is to put them through compost. This will help to subsequently use them to enrich the earth with nutritious organic matter, and for the pre-winter hilling of heat-loving plants.

sawdust as fertilizer

It is absolutely impossible to make clean sawdust as a fertilizer! This is the most common mistake a gardener can make. Waste from the woodworking industry of small and medium fractions, introduced into the soil in its raw form, greatly impoverishes it, binding not only manure, but also part of the phosphorus contained in it.

If you follow the theory that recommends using sawdust as a fertilizer, then you need to make them in the fall. Like, they will pereperet during the winter, and by spring they will turn into a nutrient. But for the normal course of the process of decay, high temperatures are necessary, which are not observed in winter. Accordingly, the decay process is inhibited. In the spring, sawdust in the garden thaws whole and unharmed, only well wet. This happens not only because the soil freezes, but also because there are a lot of phenolic resins in wood waste, which are preservatives.

Wood, in itself, is not a fertilizer, it contains only 1-2% nitrogen, the rest is ballast substances, such as cellulose, hemicellulose and lingin, which form the plant stem and serve as conductors of nutrients dissolved in the liquid. However, when it lies down, various microorganisms settle on the surface, which saturate the wood with useful substances. If the sawdust lie for 2-3 years in one place in the garden, they begin to turn black - this is a sign of the formation of humus. Putting wood into compost helps speed up this process, where it is processed and enriched with various nutrients.

Compost enriched with sawdust matures faster as it helps create and maintain heat in the heap. In spring, this pile warms up rather than traditional humus. The resulting substrate is usually looser, more breathable, and more nutritious. Its use helps to more effectively fertilize the soil with sawdust.

How to make sawdust compost

It is best to lay the pile at the beginning of summer, when there is already material for composting, and there is still time for this substrate to rot. Sawdust compost is prepared from the following ingredients:

  • Wood sawdust - 200 kg;
  • -2.5 kg;
  • Water - 50 l;
  • -10 l;
  • , leaves, household waste - 100 kg.

Urea is dissolved in water, and this solution is used to spill a "pie" consisting of layers of wood chips, grass, and ash.

Another Sawdust Compost Recipe Include More Organics, and is used for plants that require the introduction of significant doses of nitrogen. You can prepare it like this:

  • Oak sawdust - 200 kg;
  • Cow manure - 50 kg;
  • Grass cut - 100 kg;
  • Food waste, any feces - 30 kg;
  • Humates - 1 drop per 100 liters of water.

Fertilizing the soil with fresh sawdust is also sometimes used, but with the obligatory enrichment of them with mineral fertilizers, otherwise the wood waste will “suck out” all the useful substances from the earth. The following mixing ratios are recommended:

  1. Wood sawdust - a bucket (coniferous sawdust is not recommended for direct application);
  2. - 40 g;
  3. simple granular - 30 g;
  4. Slaked lime - 120 g;
  5. Calcium chloride - 10 g.

The resulting mixture is applied during digging, under crops that need loose soil, at the rate of 2-3 buckets per 1 sq.m.

Mulching with sawdust

The use of small chips as mulch has long been practiced by domestic gardeners. Many gardeners use this method of cultivating the surface of the earth in the country to suppress weeds, conserve moisture and improve soil structure.

Very often, the passages between the beds are covered with sawdust, thus preventing weeds from germinating. Also, this substrate is used for, after high hilling, sprinkling the formed furrows with it. This layer keeps the soil between the rows in a moist state, which has a positive effect on the yield. Moisture is well preserved under sawdust, and the soil does not overheat, which creates optimal conditions for potatoes.

Very often grown using wood chips of small fractions. Coniferous sawdust is used not only to fertilize the land in a composted form, but also as a biofuel. They are laid in the base of a high bed, and well watered with slurry. Then the garden bed is built up with earth, and the heat source, which is created by wood waste that is mixed with manure, warms it up qualitatively throughout the season.

- Another fan of mulching with sawdust. They help this shrub retain moisture at the roots, which allows you to increase the number of berries during fruiting, and improve their taste. Thanks to this method, raspberries can grow in one place for up to 10 years, since its root system does not dry out and, accordingly, does not degrade.

Almost all plants can be mulched with sawdust, subject to additional application. After all, even covering the soil superficially, wood shavings draw useful nutrients from it quite strongly. But, at the same time, it creates comfortable conditions that allow plants to grow and develop better, so there are much more advantages from sawdust mulching than disadvantages.

Video: mulching beds with sawdust using strawberries as an example

Sawdust as a baking powder for the soil

Why do many gardeners, despite their low nutritional value, still use sawdust as fertilizer in their gardens? They are an inexpensive and easy-to-transport substrate that has a large volume with a small mass. But, since it takes time to process them into nutrient-rich organic matter, sawdust is often used fresh to loosen the soil. They are brought in:

  1. In greenhouses, when preparing a soil mixture for cucumbers and, after mixing with (3 buckets of sawdust, 3 kg of rotted cow manure and 10 liters of water).
  2. Overripe sawdust can be applied when digging the soil in the garden. It will become loose, and there will be no need for frequent watering, and in spring such soil will thaw faster.
  3. This woody substrate can be dug into the aisles when planting vegetables with a long growing season. This will enable the plant roots to use the space between the rows, under the thickness of the trampled earth.

Sawdust as a covering material

Residues from wood processing in the garden are used not only as fertilizers and mulch. Also, sawdust is in demand as a covering material. They are used in different ways. For instance, stuffed into bags and wrapped around the roots and shoots of plants. Such shelter is considered the most reliable.

U, grapes and clematis, which are left on the beds, protect the vines bent to the ground, covering them with a layer of sawdust along the entire length. So that field mice do not have time to start up under the covering substrate, it is necessary to add it in late autumn, just before the frosts, otherwise the rodents will spoil all the plants during the winter. It would be even better to make an air-dry shelter over the wintering shoots. To do this, they knock together a frame from boards in the form of an inverted box, and fill it with sawdust on top, then put a plastic film, and put a layer of earth on top. The construction of such a mound gives an almost 100% guarantee of protecting the plant from any cold weather. Sawdust for insulation must be used very carefully. If they are used as a "wet" shelter, when the mound is not protected from water, they get wet, and then freeze into an ice ball. Such insulation is suitable only for a small number of plants, the rest under it can rot.

But what a rose is for death is for good. It winters well under a “wet” shelter made of pine sawdust, since the phenolic resins contained in their composition perfectly protect this plant from pests and diseases.

Coarse sawdust can be used as a heat insulator by laying it in the base of the planting pits. They will serve as a barrier to deep cold when planting southerners such as grapes and flowering vines.

This is interesting: seedlings of cucumbers in hot sawdust (video)