Contents
Cow dung, also known as mullein, is a widespread fertilizer, it contains many useful substances and gives plants all the necessary nutrition. Judge for yourself, it contains nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, boron, copper, zinc, cobalt. Treating the soil with such a fertilizer will make it more fertile, and the plants healthy and beautiful. They store cow dung in bags when it is dry, in barrels and bottles when it is liquid; you can use it in the spring, before planting, and in the fall, when the harvest has taken place. The main thing is to follow the instructions to prepare the best fertilizer for the soil in the garden.
Cooking infusion
An infusion of cow dung is easy to prepare, and it will last you for a long time. You can buy cow dung in bags in any barn in spring or autumn, and you can use fresh infusion as much as you need to fertilize the soil. It is best to prepare mixtures in the spring, before planting, and use as soon as possible.
The barrel needs to be filled with slurry by a third, add water until it is full, mix well. The solution is left for several hours, infused, and then diluted 1:5 or 1:15, depending on how much moisture is in the ground, immediately before watering. Fresh infusion can be diluted with urea, mineral and organic fertilizers can be added to get a more saturated solution.
Another method of preparation: mix slurry with water and leave to ferment for 7-10 days. Dilute the resulting solution again with water 1:2 or 1:4 (depending on soil moisture). For young plants of such fertilizer, you will need one bucket each, for trees you will need a little more – 2-3 buckets, taking into account 2 liters per 1 sq. m. You can also mix a solution of bird droppings and cow feces. Mix equal parts of bird and cow dung with water, leave to ferment for 3 days. Drain the resulting mixture into one tank, dilute it again with water. A lack of phosphorus can adversely affect your plantings, so you can mix slurry, 50 g of superphosphate, and dilute 1: 2 with water before applying.
A day is allotted for the use of the mixture, since then all the nutritional properties disappear. The fermentation process is a kind of cleaning and removal of weeds, parasites from the final raw material.
Video “All about the use of cow feces”
Informative video with illustrative examples and tips on the use of cow feces.
Breeding
Fertilizing the soil with mullein requires proper breeding, fertilizer must be applied carefully. Infusion or humus provides the nutrients needed for the soil, but with an excess it can lead to nitrate poisoning. Fresh cow dung in bags is best purchased in the spring, but skipped through the processing and removal of pests and weeds.
Cow manure is bred as follows: for 1 kg of raw materials, 5 liters of water will be needed; mix the resulting mixture well, cover with a lid and leave for 2 weeks. Once a day, you need to mix the mixture to get a homogeneous mass. After a week, the mixture will become lighter, small bubbles will appear on the surface. To use such a solution for feeding, you must first dilute it with water. Fresh manure is almost never used due to the fact that it is rich in parasites and weed seeds, humus is more common as a fertilizer for any type of soil. For top dressing 1 sq. m of soil you will have to use 7-10 kg of cow manure.
All useful elements that are introduced into the ground with mullein are absorbed by plants in the first day. Such an impact on plantings gives an obvious advantage – large yields at the end of the season. How much water is needed to apply this mixture? A ratio of 1:10 is usually used, but if you previously diluted the mixture with water, then you will need to dilute it 1:5.
Application
Before finding out the methods of using mullein, you should understand what types of mullein are. The first is litter. This type of mullein contains solid and liquid excrement, which is mixed with hay, straw or peat, used as bedding. Depending on what kind of material was used as bedding, you can determine the most effective use of fertilizer.
If hay or straw served as bedding, the humus will turn out to be rich in phosphorus, potassium and magnesium. I use such a mullein to fertilize the soil in the fall, after the harvest has taken place. Peat mullein contains ammonium nitrogen, which is well absorbed by plants. It is best to use it in the spring.
The second type is litterless, a substance of medium density, contains all the necessary nutrients. For example, ammonia nitrogen, which plants absorb better than nitrogen from litter mullein. The last type is slurry. This is a liquid type of manure, which is prepared from bedless mullein. It can only be used in a fermented state and diluted form.
You can often find factory mullein, an organic mixture obtained by industrial methods. This fertilizer is produced in several forms. It can be a package of dry fertilizer (this option is always inexpensive and easy to transport) or a bottle of liquid fertilizer.
However, it is worth remembering that such fertilizers must be used correctly and not applied to the soil before planting, otherwise there is a high risk of burning the roots of your seedlings. An obvious plus – factory processing involves the removal of pathogens. Factory mullein can be used immediately if you prepare a mullein solution from it. With this solution, you can feed the seedlings already in the process of ripening, as well as the entire period of growth, up to harvesting.
Video “Cooking natural top dressing”
Demonstrative video with recommendations for processing mullein.
