How we improve the soil, soil preparation for cultivation (+video)
May 1, 2022 12 Comments
Is our garden soil suitable for cultivation? To be successful in gardening we must first ensure that the soil we are planting is properly shaped to accommodate our plants.
Plants need fertile and fluffy soil that ensures vigorous growth and abundant fruiting. If the soil is too hard, compact, with a lot of unwanted weeds and does not ensure good drainage, then problems will arise in cultivation.
So before we proceed to plant the plants, we check that the soil in our field has the desired characteristics that will help the plants grow and bear fruit.
In today’s article, we will see how we prepare the soil for planting, what are the necessary materials that help us improve the soil and enrich it with nutrients to have an efficient crop.
1. How do we prepare the soil for cultivation?
Using the appropriate gardening tools (hoe, rake, shovel) and garden machinery (digger, lawnmower) we can perform the necessary work to improve the soil in the best and most relaxing way.
Before planting, there are certain cultivation tasks that will help us in cultivation.
- We first remove the largest stones that the field has, as they create many problems in tillage.
- We plow the soil of the garden with a cultivator, with a tractor or dig with a hoe if the area we cultivate allows us to do so. In this way, we make the soil more fluffy and at the same time remove the unwanted weeds that are present in our field.
10 natural ways to deal with unwanted weeds (weeds) in the garden
- The best time to plow and dig is after rain or after watering the soil, as a relative humidity is required to cultivate the field.
- We remove again smaller stones after plowing and digging as well as weed rhizomes that will appear on the surface.
- To make the soil of our garden even more fluffy, we can proceed with a second plowing.
- Form a small slope in the field with a rake so that the water is removed after rain and it does not flood.
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2. How do we improve garden soil?
It is very important to grow in loose soil, which has good ventilation and retains the right amount of moisture. To improve the physical characteristics of the soil, there are various natural soil improvement materials that we can use.
To better retain water, reduce watering and ensure better soil aeration, we can use soil improvement materials such as perlite, zeolite, pumice and attapulgite.
At the same time, to strengthen the soil with nutrients and organic matter, we can incorporate various natural organic materials such as manure, compost, peat and wood ash.
Soil improvement materials to improve the physical properties of the soil
3. How do we enrich the soil with nutrients?
Many times when cultivating in our garden we wonder if the soil we have is suitable for a certain crop and if it has the required nutrients for our plants to grow.
In these cases, it is necessary to do a soil analysis for the soil of our garden. Knowledge of soil fertility and properties is essential for any crop, especially for professional growers, to choose the type of fertilization and appropriate amounts of fertilizer.
How soil analysis is done and what it is used for
So depending on the composition of the soil in nutrients and the crop we have chosen, we can strengthen the soil with nitrogen fertilizer, phosphorus fertilizer, potassium fertilizer, magnesium fertilizer or calcium fertilizer.
In several cases, depending on the crop we choose to plant, it is also necessary to add trace elements to our garden and for this we will need to incorporate boron fertilizer, zinc fertilizer or iron fertilizer into the soil.
Fertilizer: Categories, types and how we choose
4. And a secret for soil preparation
If on a nearby beach, the sea has washed up seaweed, we can collect it, wash it off, chop it up and incorporate it into the soil before planting as it contains natural nutrients that will help our plants.
Algae, natural fertilizer for plants Share this article with your friends: