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5 things you must do in the country in October
The garden season is coming to an end, it remains to prepare the soil for next year.
The harvest has been harvested, the trees have been cut, the blanks have been rolled up in jars, the plot has been tidied up. What else? Almost nothing – you just need to make a reserve for the next season, so that the harvest will please as soon as possible.
candidate of agricultural sciences, agricultural technician
Reconstruction
Plant roots breathe too, and too dense soil interferes with their respiration and growth. That is why it is important to dig up areas with clay soil for the winter. Unlike the spring digging, the dumped clods do not need to be broken, the frosts themselves will loosen them. Turning over a layer of earth, you send weed seeds and pest larvae to the depths, from there it will be impossible for them to get out in the spring.
The optimal depth is on the bayonet of a shovel, or a couple of centimeters more if you want to increase the fertile layer. If the soil on the site is fertile and loose, it does not need to be dug up, it is enough to loosen it, dig it up with a pitchfork.
Sanding
Heavy clay soil will become looser and more fertile, if you add river sand to it, you will need about 1 m bucket2… True, improvement cannot be achieved in one year; the procedure should be carried out for at least five years in a row. After digging, you can immediately form high ridges for sowing vegetables and greens before winter.
Liming
These works are carried out only in late autumn, once every five years. Most soils of the Moscow region need the procedure, since they have an acidic reaction. When adding lime, excessive acidity of the soil is extinguished. fertility improves. Any local material can be used: limestone, hydrated lime, chalk and even cement dust. Bring them in at the same time as digging.
If the soil is very acidic (peaty or podzolic, as in the north of the Moscow region), for each square meter of clay and loamy soil, add at least 500 g of lime material, and sandy – 300 g.
Manure application
During the autumn digging of the soil, it is good to add fresh manure to it (which cannot be used in the spring, as it can burn the roots of plants). Fertilizer is scattered over the surface of the soil and dug up from the ground to the depth of the shovel bayonet. The optimal amount is 2-3 kg per 1 m2 sandy soil and 7-8 kg – 1 m2 loam. Thanks to the autumn application of manure, the soil not only restores fertility, but also becomes looser. Until spring, the fertilizer will have time to overheat, and the nitrogen content in it will return to the norm necessary for the safe growth of plants.
Mineral supplements
You can create a food reserve for the spring with ready-made preparations, but they should not contain nitrogen, only phosphorus, potassium and trace elements. Either a mixture of superphosphate and potassium sulfate is applied to the ground, or a combined fertilizer marked “Autumn”. In order for the granules to get into the root zone, the soil under the vegetables is dug with them on the bayonet of a shovel, and grooves are made around the trees and shrubs along the perimeter of the crown with a depth of 10–20 cm, fertilizers are poured into them and leveled. Be sure to follow the application rate, it is always indicated on the package.
Good to know
A 10 liter bucket holds:
fresh horse manure – 8 kg,
fresh cow dung – 9 kg,
sawdust bedding – 5 kg,
bird droppings – 5 kg,
humus – 8 kg,
peat – 5 kg,
sod land – 12 kg,
wood ash – 5 kg.