With the onset of spring, every gardener begins preparatory work for the new season. Time is running out, running out. You need to get boxes for seedlings, choose varieties of vegetables and plan planting on the site. And the biggest headache is the soil for seedlings. Someone has been preparing it since the fall, others buy it in specialized stores. The second option is easier, but more expensive. Today we will talk about how to make it yourself.
Basic requirements
Sometimes a gardener sincerely tries to understand this issue, to make sure that the soil for seedlings is optimal for their growth and development. But in the literature you can find so many recommendations that it's time to get confused. As a result, it is easier to buy ready-made soil for seedlings.
But it's not that hard. To begin with, seeds have a certain supply of nutrients. Enoughfor a long time they do not require fertile soil. To a greater extent, they need water and air. Therefore, the soil for seedlings should be loose and porous, that is, it is excellent to pass water and air. Then the seeds will germinate perfectly.
The soil mixture can be prepared independently using peat and humus, compost and sawdust, sand. The composition depends on the culture and the means available to the gardener. The only rule: do not use damp garden soil, especially from areas where vegetables grew.
What to focus on
Most gardeners recognize the following potting mixes as optimal for seed. You can choose any soil for seedlings based on what is at hand.
- Mix equal amounts of compost, garden soil and coarse sand.
- For two parts of humus, take one part of sod land and sand.
- In equal proportions, take humus and sand. Necessarily large, because river sand contributes to excessive soil compaction.
- Peat, sod land, humus (compost) and sawdust (coarse-grained sand) in a ratio of 3:2:4:1.
Regardless of the crops grown, you can choose any of the proposed options. The soil for growing seedlings is also suitable for picking at the cotyledon stage or a pair of true leaves.
Main differences
Do I even need to make a distinction between seed and seedling soil? By the time of transplanting, you need to fill the seedling boxes with a nutrient mixture. Should be considered,that the plants will remain in these boxes until planting in open ground. The depth of the box should be sufficient for the development of the root system. The soil in this case should be more nutritious. This is usually achieved through the application of mineral fertilizers. Do not forget that even in the best soil there are enough nutrient reserves for no more than two weeks.
Seedling preparation
It is advisable to prepare soil for seedlings in the fall. The composition may vary, but sod land deserves special attention. This component is included in almost any mixture for seedlings. It is highly nutritious, as it contains decayed remains of plant and animal origin. It is porous at the same time, retains moisture well, but does not allow it to stagnate.
To get high-quality sod land, you need to take a walk in the meadow in June. Cut the sod layers into strips 20 cm wide and up to 12 cm thick. Lay the layers on top of each other and sprinkle with phosphate rock and lime and slightly moisten. In the spring, you need to shovel the earth and sift through a screen. It is best to leave it for another year, then it will acquire all the useful properties.
River sand
Required component of any mixture, regardless of composition. Preparing the soil for seedlings involves the mandatory sifting of sand. It is best to take a clean river that does not contain clay. Be sure to sift to remove dust and stones. But quarry sand is far from the best choice. It may containtoxic impurities like manganese. Assembly and preparation is also best done in the fall.
Organic fertilizers
Quality soil for seedlings necessarily includes a sufficient amount of nutrients. In mixture recipes, you can often find manure or mullein. But they are good if you grow plants in a greenhouse. If the boxes are on the windowsills, then the choice of fertilizer should be approached more responsibly. Manure happens:
- Fresh with straw visible. This option is definitely not suitable for you.
- Semi-rotted. The straw can still be seen, but it has already darkened.
- Decomposed - is a dark homogeneous mass.
- Dung humus. This is exactly the option that is suitable for indoor floriculture.
The last option is ideal not only in terms of aesthetics - it turns out that it is the most useful for plants.
Compost
Gradually, a picture is emerging of how to prepare high-quality soil for seedlings. Now let's move on to how to prepare fertilizer from rotted plant residues. They are very useful and often found in mixtures. The necessary components of the compost are sawdust and shavings, stems and leaves. The easiest way to do this is to use a compost heap. In it, you can put mowed grass from the site and sprinkle with lime. After about 5-7 months, the compost will be ready for use.
With the onset of spring
All components must be ready. If this is not done,you will have to buy them separately in a flower shop. Or choose a ready-made mixture right away. But the easiest way is to prepare high-quality soil for seedlings yourself. All available components from autumn should be stored at sub-zero temperatures in plastic bags. It is very important that they get cold.
Do not add fresh manure, fresh compost and untreated turf to the soil. If you did not have time to prepare them in the fall, you will have to replace them with other components. Do not forget that the earth can be infected with harmful insects and larvae, pathogens. Therefore, the soil needs to be healed. The following methods are used for this:
- The first task is to lower the pH level. For this, special preparations are used. There are quite a few of them on the market, for example, Flora-S.
- Fill the ground with insecticides and fungicides. The choice of drugs is so large that it makes little sense to list them now.
- You can ignite the soil in the oven or steam it. In extreme cases, pour boiling water with the addition of potassium permanganate. It is an excellent antifungal agent.
- Soil microflora is very important. To normalize it, a drug like "Gumi" is used.
It is necessary to keep the resulting mixture warm 2-3 weeks before the start of sowing. A week before planting, you need to spread the soil into planting boxes.
Pepper primer
It is desirable to use different mixtures for different horticultural crops. If you are preparing the soil for seedlings with your own hands, then this must be taken into account. Atsoil has many characteristics, each of which is important in its own way. Ultimately, they affect the appearance and yield. And the very first can be called the mechanical composition of the soil. It determines what is called looseness of the soil:
- ground can be light, that is, sand;
- medium - called loam;
- heavy loam.
The soil for seedlings of tomatoes and peppers should be light or medium. This is mostly regulated by the addition of sand. Chernozem can be used as soil for seedlings, all types of peat can be added. But for the initial sowing, black soil will not be the best choice, as it contains too many nutrients and can be clogged with various herbs. It is often too dense and heavy. That is, it is better to dilute it with other components.
Checking soil acidity
An important characteristic that is difficult to analyze. To many gardeners, even experienced ones, the determination of acidity seems to be a secret with seven seals. It's actually not that hard.
- Use litmus paper.
- Take ordinary vinegar and pour a teaspoon of soil over them. If the soil is alkaline, you will see hissing. With a neutral reaction, it will be weak. And if the soil is acidic, then there will be no reaction. In this case, you can take some more soil and pour a weak solution of soda.
For tomatoes and peppers, the acidity should be neutral or slightly alkaline. If this rule is not observed, the seeds may notsprout.
Soil nutrition
And we continue to talk about what kind of soil for seedlings to choose. This characteristic implies not only a sufficient content of nutrients, but also their balance. First of all, this applies to the main macronutrients, that is, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. They should be contained in the soil in approximately the same amount. If you buy ready-made soil, and the content of the main elements is less than 300-400 mg / l on the label, then it is not suitable for sowing tomatoes.
In addition, the presence of a complete set of trace elements is mandatory. Also keep in mind that the more nutritious the mixture, the more it needs to be diluted with neutral ingredients like coconut fiber or perlite.
Briefly about the most important
Above we talked about what is recommended to be included in the composition of the soil. But there are also unacceptable additives. What should not be added to seedling soil?
- Prohibited organic additives in the process of decay. The reason is simple: as they decompose, they release a huge amount of heat that will kill the seeds.
- It is strongly not recommended to use sand mixed with clay - it makes the soil heavy.
- And of course, do not collect soil near a busy highway. Heavy metals quickly accumulate in the soil, and they decay for many decades.
- The soil should be free from fungal spores and larvae, from pathogens and weed seeds.
Why can't garden soil be used
It may seem redundant to the novice gardener to attach such importance to potting mixes for seedlings. It would seem that you only need to pour garden soil - and that's it. After all, vegetables grow in it, and usually not bad. It is quite possible that seedlings will sprout and grow in such soil, the only question is the quality of the resulting seedlings.
All of the above should convince you that growing seedlings is technology. It must be observed if you want to get not just what happens, but plants that will grow quickly and give a bountiful harvest. Therefore, the formation of soil mixtures for seedlings is a very important issue.
What can be said about garden land? Usually it is exhausted, infected with pests and pathogenic bacteria. You can make the soil more nutritious, but you can't change its physical characteristics. The earth is poor in humus and usually does not have a water-resistant structure. When watering, water is poorly absorbed and stays on the surface for a long time. As a result, a crust forms, which is very bad for seedlings.
How can you improve the soil
You need to act in advance. If there is nothing else but garden soil, then you need to work on it so that it becomes suitable for seeds. To do this, in the fall, freeing the bed from vegetation, remove a layer 5 cm thick from it. It must be folded into a bag and left until December on the street. Now you need to get rid of weeds and microorganisms. To do this, proceed as follows. They bring the bag into the house for two days and warm it, and then take it out into the coldfor another week. So repeat 2-3 times. After that, it remains to perform the usual procedures: heating in a water bath, treatment with boiling water and potassium permanganate.
