What is humus, what does it consist of and how to cook at home?
Leaf humus is most often used to fertilize crops. But you can make this nutritious fertilizer not only from leaves. It is also important to store it properly so that it does not lose nutrients.
What is humus?
Humus - what is it? Inexperienced summer residents often ask such questions. Humus is a fertilizer of organic origin. With its help, it is possible to saturate the poor soil with all trace elements necessary for the growth and development of plants. Humus is easy to do with your own hands. All the ingredients necessary for this can be found in any subsidiary farm.
What does it consist of?
Before cooking humus at home, you need to find out what is in it. The composition of humus, as a rule, includes the following components:
- Leaves.
- Cattle manure.
- Bird droppings.
- Straw.
- Hay.
- Weeds from the site.
- Ash.
- Remains of fruits and vegetables.
- Bark.
- Wood sawdust.
- Special additives to accelerate plant growth.
- Branches of trees and bushes.
It can be said that all parts of the plants that grew on the site, as well as cattle manure, can enter the composition of humus. This is especially convenient for those summer residents who are also engaged in agriculture.
How to do it yourself?
Grass and leaves are the basis for fertilization. But that alone will not be enough. Also, you can not do without poultry droppings and cattle manure. Otherwise, instead of nutrient fertilization, you can get silage or rotten grass, which does not bring any benefit to the plants.
What cannot be used for processing into humus:
- Chemical agent.
- Infected plant parts.
- Food of animal origin.
- Weed seeds.
If cattle manure is used, then the animals must be healthy. Not all waste that is intended for disposal can be used to make humus at home.
How to get humus?
In order to get high-quality humus cooked at home, you need to know exactly in what order to arrange the layers.
- Plants. The first layer is plant remains. It should be no more than 15 cm. If this layer is larger, then the decay process will be slower. All parts can be used from grass, except seeds. Otherwise, they may germinate and then you will have to fight the weeds. The first layer of grass should be sprinkled with earth mixed with lime.
- Straw and hay. Thanks to the straw, the deciduous and all other layers are saturated with oxygen.The straw creates a porous structure and binds moisture in the humus. Before laying out hay or straw, it must be thoroughly chopped. Mulching with humus with the addition of hay to provide oxygen access to the plant roots.
- Leaves. The leaves need to be dried before making your own humus. If this is not done, then they will go into lumps. Leaves are mixed with other plant residues and spread in a thin layer.
- Sawdust. To cook humus in the country, you can use sawdust. But they do not decompose well, so they are mixed with grass and bone meal before laying.
- Tree bark. The bark contains a large amount of nitrogen. But in order to increase its concentration in the compost, it is necessary to mix the bark with chicken droppings, cattle manure or urea.
How to make humus?
At home, you can get humus from the following components:
- Food waste. Cooking humus is not complete without food waste. They contain a variety of nutrients. But to prevent their decomposition, the waste is mixed with solid material to provide oxygen access.
- Manure and dung. Manure produces the most nutritious humus for plants. It contains a large amount of nitrogen, which helps to accelerate the growth of crops. It is advisable to sprinkle it on top with soil.
- Paper. Before laying the paper when preparing manure with your own hands, it must be coarsely cut and moistened in a decoction of herbs. An herbal decoction can be made with nettle. There are a lot of nutrients in nettles, and the paper will absorb them in the process of soaking. Mix wet paper with another hard material. Otherwise, it will crumple.
How to prepare humus from manure?
Many summer residents are interested in the question of humus and where to get it. You can cook it at home with your own hands. The most common type of humus is based on cattle manure. Dung from sheep, cows or horses will do.
We prepare humus as follows:
- Manure for humus must be taken fresh. It contains more nutrients.
- Punch up a box and put coarsely chopped grass on the bottom. Then you can lay out the straw. So the humus will be saturated with oxygen.
- Then lay out the manure (you can use chicken droppings).
- In order to accelerate the decomposition, biodegradants can be added to the humus. It can be Baikal-M or Shining. They include bacteria that accelerate the decay process.
- Humus must be watered regularly (but not poured). It is important not to let it dry out.
You can use humus when it will not be possible to consider individual parts. The mixture should be homogeneous. The smell of ready-made humus should be like that of moist soil. And the color is brown or closer to black.
How to quickly make humus from leaves?
Leaf humus is also prepared with the addition of manure. You can use straw, paper and other plant debris.
Leaf humus is prepared like this:
- You can use any leaves of deciduous trees. If shrubs or fruit trees grow on the site, then fallen leaves are used.
- Since the leaves are poor in micronutrients, they must be mixed with food waste or sawdust.
- Put bird droppings on a layer of foliage.
- Humus should be watered periodically. If a large number of midges appear above the box with humus, then this is a clear sign of high humidity. In order to get rid of them on a sunny day, the humus must be left open. When it dries a little, cover it back.
- If the humus does not change color and does not acquire the smell of moist earth, then it is dry. You can remedy the situation by adding water, potato peel or fresh grass.
They mulch plants for the winter so that the roots do not freeze and the bushes do not die. Fertilizers made in this way can be stored in bags.
Where to store it?
How to properly store humus prepared with your own hands so that it does not lose its beneficial properties? The best storage method is a drawer. How to make a humus box?
Humus storage box:
- You can put together such a box from any unnecessary boards. At the bottom, you can pour sawdust or leave the box without a bottom, and immediately put humus into it.
- On top of the container, you can lay slate or greenhouse film. Moisture that gets on the humus along with rain should not accumulate in one place, but should drain into the ground.
- Also, do not forget that one of the walls of the box must be pulled out. This will make it easier to pick up humus for application to the soil.
- Humus can also be stored in bags, but you just need to make sure that the sun's rays do not fall on it.
How to store?
What are the features of humus storage? First of all, the container with humus should not be located in open sunlight. So the fertilizer will begin to decompose and pathogenic microbes will begin to multiply in it.
It is important to maintain a constant temperature and humidity in the drawer. The earth and humus itself should not be too wet, but they should not dry out either.
It is not advisable to place fertilizer containers next to trees. Very soon, trees can direct their growth towards the composts. And then all the nutrients will be spent on their growth.
