Every summer resident knows: manure is an excellent fertilizer, thanks to which the soil on the site is saturated with substances valuable for plants. In this article we will talk about how this fertilizer is useful for the garden and cottage and will tell you how it should be used so as not to harm the green inhabitants of the site in any way.
What is manure? In simple words, this is the excrement of farm animals. It is used not only as fertilizer in fields and private lands, but also in construction, for growing champignons and for paper production,and also as fuel (in this case, dried manure is used - high in the Himalayas, dry cakes are still used as fuel for heating residential premises)
What is in manure? Let's look at the example of cattle manure. As a percentage, fresh manure contains: water (about 77%), organic matter (approximately 20%), nitrogen (0.5%), potassium (0.59%), calcium (0.4%), phosphorus (0. 23%). Horse manure contains less water but more organic matter, nitrogen and potassium. Sheep and goat manure contains the least amount of water (approximately 65%).
Why manure is useful:
The substances that manure is rich in feed the soil - gradually decomposing in the soil, the manure mass, combining with the soil, gives the plants of the site adequate nutrition;
Improves the structure of the soil - when manure is applied to the site, the structure of the soil improves, the soil breathes better and retains moisture better;
Organic fertilizers reduce the flow of radioactive elements from the soil into garden crops.
Why manure is insidious:
It has been noticed that when fresh manure is added to the soil, the army of weeds on the site increases. This is due to the fact that fresh manure contains a lot of weed seeds (which is why many summer residents apply manure during late autumn digging of the site);
Due to an overdose, the soil can become oversaturated with nitrogen, which is especially abundant in chicken droppings, and plants can suffer a so-called nitrogen burn;
In addition, when working with manure, you should use protective clothing, gloves, and a respirator (due to the corresponding smell, working with this fertilizer is not very comfortable).
To neutralize possible risks, it is best to turn fresh manure into a safer and very useful fertilizer - compost. To do this, the manure is placed in a special box (you can make it yourself or buy it ready-made at a specialty store), layered with peat and adding lime or phosphate rock. After a year, the fertilizer will be ready for use on the beds.
Cow manure is the most popular among summer residents. First of all, it's saturated nutrients. Secondly, it is relatively inexpensive and can be purchased at your nearest farm. Horse manure is also considered valuable. Pig manure loses in this regard (in particular, it contains less calcium when compared with the manure of other animals). Another disadvantage of pig manure is that it is especially unpleasant to work with (due to its specific liquid consistency and smell).
On cold soils (clayey), manure is added so that it is sprinkled with earth on top; on warm soils, it is added to the depth of the layer being worked.
This is interesting: why do flies love manure? Two reasons why manure is so attractive to flies is the opportunity to find food for itself, and the opportunity to lay eggs in a favorable environment.
Manure is divided into:
Fresh - it is generally undesirable to use it to fertilize the soil under garden crops;
Semi-rotted - it is added in the form of an aqueous solution to feed plants or introduced during autumn digging of the site. Usually a solution is made according to the following proportions: for a 10-liter bucket of water - a kilo of manure;
Rotted manure (which has dried out by about 50%) is introduced into the soil during digging - a bucket of manure per square meter of land. If the goal is to make a soil mixture for seedlings, in this case, take one part of fertilizer for two parts of soil. The aqueous solution is made in this way: add two kg of rotted manure to a 10 liter bucket of water;
Humus is the last stage of decomposition of manure. This is a very valuable organic fertilizer - it is used both for mulching beds and for creating soil mixtures (including mixtures for seedlings).
If you rinse slightly decomposed manure, the water that comes out will have a greenish or reddish tint. In half-rotted manure, the straw particles have a different shade; they become dark brown (an aqueous solution of such manure has dark color). In rotted manure there is no more straw - it has completely decomposed (such manure is very dark). As for humus, at this stage of decomposition, manure loses about 75% of its original mass (it looks like a loose soil mixture).
Research has revealed a relationship between the levels of volatile chemicals and organic compounds in the air of the pigsty stall and animal health
Air pollutants in pig farm stalls can be divided into gases, particulate matter, toxic microbiological products, and airborne microorganisms. In particular, increased levels of volatile organics and chemicals such as ammonia in barn air are associated with decreased average weaning rates, arthritis, swine stress syndrome, muscle lesions, purulent symptoms, and liver dysfunction. With an increased content of suspended substances in the air of stalls, animals gain weight worse and are more likely to develop nasopharyngeal diseases. When there is an excess content of sprayed microorganisms in the air, the animal eats worse, grows and gains weight more slowly, and mortality due to respiratory diseases and purulent diseases increases. Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide are the two main volatile compounds that negatively affect the health of the respiratory system of animals. Volatile products of microbiological decomposition of manure such as methyl mercaptan (known as “boar odor”), indoles, skatole, etc. reduce the protective functions of the respiratory system of animals.
According to the criteria of organic, microbiological and biogenic pollution, pig manure is a highly concentrated environmentally hazardous waste: suspended solids>20,000 mg/liter, BOD_5>2000 mgO2/liter, BOD_20>5000 mgO2/liter, ammonia>200 mg/liter, phosphates>200 mg./liter, conditionally pathogenic and pathogenic microflora, helminth eggs having long terms survival (from 20 to 475 days), pH5-6. During storage, organic manure is subjected to decomposition by putrefactive microorganisms, as a result of which volatile products of microbiological decomposition of manure and pork bristles, which have a heavy depressing odor and a negative effect on health, are continuously released into the atmosphere in large quantities. For pig farm workers, manure fumes are also not harmless because... contain organic and chemical compounds that cause headaches, intoxication, general deterioration of health, reducing the body's protective functions. The problem of an unhealthy atmosphere in stalls occurs with all known methods of collecting manure under animals - from baths to deep, permanent bedding. Natural microbiological processes begin to break down manure into volatile waste products almost immediately after the animal defecates. Therefore, the only available way out of the situation today is forced ventilation of the pigsty or constant disinfection.
It is strictly prohibited to transport fresh pig manure directly from the stalls to the fields for application to the soil as a fertilizer - fresh manure causes soil erosion, plant death, water blooms and death in nearby water bodies, and contaminates the air, soil and water with pathogenic microorganisms and helminths. The most accessible and widespread way to neutralize pig manure today is to allow the slurry to stand in open manure containers. Thanks to the natural processes of rotting, settling, and evaporation, the concentrations of biogenic, organic and biological pollution in manure are reduced to safe levels. The final phase of neutralization - rotted manure belongs to hazard class 4 waste and is a homogeneous, moist, spreadable mass of black color without separation into elements of feces and litter. Rotted manure is a valuable organo-mineral fertilizer that brings tangible benefits when applied to the soil at a strictly defined rate, but not more than 1 part of manure to 2 parts of soil.
By sanitary standards Before fresh pig manure rots and becomes fertilizer, it must be kept in a manure collector for up to three and a half years. In professional language, an open manure collector is called a “lagoon”. Covered with a thick, up to 50 cm, crust of dried manure, the lagoon spreads strong and harmless emissions into the air: inorganic compounds of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, gaseous decomposition products of manure and pork bristles, microorganisms dispersed in a gaseous environment. Even birds avoid being near the lagoon. An unexpected change in the wind rose - and the population of nearby villages and towns can feel the proximity of a pig farm. With the development of technology, open lagoons are being replaced by closed, sealed manure collectors, in which volatile products of manure decomposition and unpleasant odors accumulate inside a closed volume and are partially processed by microorganisms.
Thus, before turning into fertilizer, pig manure, as a dangerous substance from both environmental and hygienic points of view, goes a long way from collection to disposal - from the pigsty to the manure collector.
Scientists microbiologists have proposed a comprehensive solution to the problem all the way from generation and collection to disposal and removal of waste to the fields. The soil contains millions of cells of the most diverse types of living microorganisms (bacteria, bacilli, fungi, actenomycetes, yeast), for which waste, dead plants, dead insects, and animals are sources of vital energy. Thanks to the existence and activity of these microorganisms in nature, self-purification and self-healing of the ecosystem occurs in accordance with the principle of the cycle of substances. In places where large amounts of waste accumulate, putrefactive microorganisms and restoration processes take advantage. You can help nature cope with intense pollution by using natural saprophytic microorganisms that exist in nature, participating in the self-purification of soil and water, which are best adapted by nature to extract energy from the organic and biogenic components of various wastes, including manure. Scientific work in this direction is carried out by isolating from the soil natural microorganisms that are the most hygienically and environmentally effective for the utilization of specific organic substrates in terms of: rate of waste mass reduction, oxidation, use of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, acceleration of the death of putrefactive, potentially dangerous, and pathogenic microorganisms of humans and domestic animals , odor elimination. A synergistic microbial community composed in this way is capable of artificially replacing decay processes with fermentation and oxidation processes in places of mass accumulation of waste, as well as purposefully and effectively carrying out the biodestruction of specific substrates, the putrefactive decomposition of which causes the outflow of foul-smelling and toxic volatile emissions into the atmosphere. By multiplying in waste, using organic matter and biogenic elements as sources of vital energy, beneficial microorganisms, due to their numerical superiority, suppress putrefactive and pathogenic microflora, thereby ensuring a hygienically and environmentally effective waste disposal process. Having processed the contamination as completely as possible, if a new portion of waste does not arrive, beneficial microorganisms do not die off, but fall into a state of suspended animation, and only in the absence of a food source for a long time do they reduce their population by 50%, while the second 50% of the population turns into spores in order to return to active life activity in the event of restoration of previous conditions.
RSE-Trading Microzim(tm) LLC has created a biotechnological solution that allows you to begin the process of converting manure into fertilizer, as well as control the release of volatile decomposition products into the air, starting from the moment the waste is generated, right up to its removal to the fields. Thanks to the use of biotechnology, the volume of emissions of volatile organic volatile substances into the air, including ammonia, was reduced by 80%, hydrogen sulfide by 70%, the ripening period of rotted manure was reduced to no more than 3 months, the rate of application of rotted manure to fields increased by 2 times , the volume of dry residue is reduced by more than half from the initial mass of fresh manure. Biotechnology is used both in pigsties (in bathtubs or on deep permanent bedding) and in open and closed lagoons and makes it possible to purify water in lagoons to a quality that allows its reuse.
For the utilization and neutralization of manure, a consortium of six types of microorganisms was used, using solid organic matter of pig manure feces as a source of vital energy. After introducing the biological product into the litter, the manure collector, in a short time (6 hours), the entire volume of water and solid waste is populated by microorganisms, and the biochemical reduction of the waste mass begins: under the influence of biologically active substances synthesized by microorganisms (microbial enzymes). Feces and litter elements decompose to form CO2, H2O and mineralized sediment. The biological product reduces the mass of solid waste by more than half, in just a few days it reduces the number of pathogenic microorganisms by more than a thousand times, greatly accelerates the death of helminths, localizes intense unpleasant odors, greatly reducing the release of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and toxic products of manure decomposition into the air, and increasing the release of carbon dioxide into the air. The biological product is active in the temperature range from plus 5 to plus 45 ° C, tolerates negative temperatures in a “dormant state” and resumes activity with warming. The drug is harmless to humans, animals, plants, does not create an acidic or alkaline environment, is non-corrosive, completely biodegradable, safe for treatment facilities and sewerage, corresponds to confirmed hazard class 5 substances.
Larchenko V.V.
Technical Director
RSE-Trading LLC
Genes of resistance (i.e. immunity) of microorganisms (bacteria and protozoa) to antibiotics are a terrible bogeyman for modern medicine, which continues to actively use antibiotics on a long wave of delight from victories over syphilis, consumption and various typhus. The more microbes, incl. harmful, assimilates antibiotic-resistant genes into its hereditary code, the higher the likelihood of the planet’s health care falling back to the position of the early 1940s, when penicillin was invented and everything started to turn upside down.
Recently, a large number of previously unidentified resistance genes were discovered in cow manure, or more precisely, in bacteria contained in complex system digestion, and got out of her belly along with the “cakes” into the world.
Tell ordinary people about this, concealing a small part of the truth, and it will work like a fairy tale about the horrors of GMOs. The problem is supposedly that cow excrement and the waste of other cattle have long been used to fertilize farmland. On which human food grows and matures. Will a cow's intestinal microbes share their drug resistance genes with the soil microbes that sometimes cause so much trouble?
In fact, most antibiotic resistance genes currently do not pose any threat to humans, since the bacteria that contain them are not dangerous to humans and are generally harmless. But it is possible, of course, that these genes can get into the DNA of harmful microbes, and then neither ointment nor injections will cope with them. They'll start somewhere food poisoning, like cucumbers in Europe, somewhere in a hospital a patient will die after surgery from bacteria that cannot be disinfected.
Scientists from Yale University (USA) undertook to test cow dung for the degree of danger to civilization. The Americans presented their conclusions about the interaction of ecosystems in the journal mBio.
Previously, experts found that soil bacteria and sick leave have the same resistance genes, and perhaps it all starts in the soil. Researchers from Yale became interested in how manure bacteria are involved in this process of gene exchange, and which ones exactly.
Having taken up the study of cow excrement, the Americans discovered 80 genes for resistance to antibiotics in its composition. And this is in only five manure samples, but how many of them can be taken for analysis around the world?
When Yale microbiologists introduced these genes into a culture of common laboratory E. coli, the bacterium became immune to the action of antibiotics such as beta-lactams (penicillin and its “relatives”), aminoglycosides, tetracycline and chloramphenicol.
However, after sequencing all 80 newly discovered resistance genes in cattle feces, it turned out that 75% of them are only very distant similarities to those genes that were previously known to specialists. That is, three out of four genes are not to blame for either hospital infections or other troubles of humanity due to mutations of single-celled organisms to the detriment of multicellular organisms. In general, it is not yet known whether these genes are capable of being transmitted to the human microbiome through food, for example.
There are two ways in which antibiotic resistance can be transmitted from nature to humans. In the first of them, microbes colonize a particular person due to the fact that he is closely associated with animals, for example, working as a farmer. If suddenly some bacteria that is immune to antibiotics gets into the peasant’s body from manure, then big problems arise.
The second method is the so-called horizontal gene transfer from one microbe to another. In this case, a bacterium that is harmless to humans shares valuable hereditary information with other microbes that are not at all harmless. This gene transfer can occur at any stage of organic matter turnover - either in a dung heap, or already in the human body.
The identification of 80 new genes for microbial resistance to antibiotics is an important step in exploring the prospects on the front of the struggle between higher beings and lower beings.
Our grandmothers, growing garden strawberries, or strawberries, as we used to call them, did not particularly worry about mulching. But today this agricultural technique has become fundamental in achieving high quality berries and reducing crop losses. Some might say it's a hassle. But practice shows that labor costs in this case pay off handsomely. In this article we invite you to get acquainted with the nine the best materials for mulching garden strawberries.
Succulents are very diverse. Despite the fact that “little ones” have always been considered more fashionable, the range of succulents with which you can decorate modern interior, it’s worth taking a closer look. After all, colors, sizes, patterns, degree of prickliness, impact on the interior are just a few of the parameters by which you can choose them. In this article we will tell you about the five most fashionable succulents that amazingly transform modern interiors.
The Egyptians used mint as early as 1.5 thousand years BC. It has a strong aroma due to the high content of various essential oils, which are highly volatile. Today, mint is used in medicine, perfumery, cosmetology, winemaking, cooking, ornamental gardening, and the confectionery industry. In this article, we will look at the most interesting varieties of mint, and also talk about the features of growing this plant in open ground.
People began growing crocuses 500 years before our era. Although the presence of these flowers in the garden is fleeting, we always look forward to the return of the harbingers of spring to next year. Crocuses are one of the earliest primroses, whose flowering begins as soon as the snow melts. However, flowering times may vary depending on the species and varieties. This article is dedicated to the earliest varieties of crocuses, which bloom in late March and early April.
Cabbage soup made from early young cabbage in beef broth is hearty, aromatic and easy to prepare. In this recipe you will learn how to cook delicious beef broth and cook light cabbage soup with this broth. Early cabbage cooks quickly, so it is placed in the pan at the same time as other vegetables, unlike autumn cabbage, which takes a little longer to cook. Ready cabbage soup can be stored in the refrigerator for several days. Real cabbage soup turns out tastier than freshly prepared cabbage soup.
Looking at the variety of tomato varieties, it is difficult not to get confused - the choice is very wide today. Even experienced gardeners are sometimes confused by it! However, understanding the basics of selecting varieties “for yourself” is not so difficult. The main thing is to delve into the peculiarities of the culture and start experimenting. One of the easiest groups of tomatoes to grow are varieties and hybrids with limited growth. They have always been valued by those gardeners who do not have much energy and time to care for their beds.
Once very popular under the name of indoor nettle, and then forgotten by everyone, coleus today is one of the brightest garden and indoor plants. It is not for nothing that they are considered stars of the first magnitude for those who are primarily looking for non-standard colors. Easy to grow, but not so undemanding as to suit everyone, coleus require constant supervision. But if you take care of them, bushes made of velvety unique leaves will easily outshine any competitor.
Salmon backbone baked in Provençal herbs provides tasty pieces of fish pulp for a light salad with fresh wild garlic leaves. The champignons are lightly fried in olive oil and then water it apple cider vinegar. These mushrooms are tastier than regular pickled ones, and they are better suited for baked fish. Wild garlic and fresh dill get along well in one salad, highlighting each other’s aroma. The garlicky pungency of wild garlic will permeate both the salmon flesh and mushroom pieces.
A coniferous tree or shrub on a site is always great, but a lot of conifers is even better. Emerald needles of various shades decorate the garden at any time of the year, and phytoncides and essential oils, released by plants, not only aromatize, but also make the air cleaner. As a rule, most zoned adults coniferous plants, are considered very unpretentious trees and shrubs. But young seedlings are much more capricious and require proper care and attention.
Sakura is most often associated with Japan and its culture. Picnics under the canopy of flowering trees have long become an integral attribute of welcoming spring in the Land of the Rising Sun. Financial and academic year here it starts on April 1, when the magnificent cherry blossoms bloom. Therefore, many significant moments in the life of the Japanese take place under the sign of their flowering. But sakura also grows well in cooler regions - certain species can be successfully grown even in Siberia.
I am very interested in analyzing how people's tastes and preferences for certain foods have changed over the centuries. What was once considered tasty and was an object of trade, lost its value over time and, conversely, new fruit crops conquered their markets. Quince has been cultivated for more than 4 thousand years! And even in the 1st century B.C. e. About 6 varieties of quince were known, and even then methods of its propagation and cultivation were described.
Delight your family and prepare themed cottage cheese cookies in the shape of Easter eggs! Your children will be happy to take part in the process - sifting the flour, combining everything necessary ingredients, knead the dough and cut out intricate figures. Then they will watch with admiration as the pieces of dough turn into real ones. easter eggs, and then with the same enthusiasm they will eat them with milk or tea. How to make such original cookies for Easter, read our step by step recipe!
Among tuberous crops, there are not so many decorative deciduous favorites. And caladium is a true star among the variegated inhabitants of interiors. Not everyone can decide to own a caladium. This plant is demanding, and first of all, it requires care. But still, rumors about the extraordinary capriciousness of caladiums are never justified. Attention and care can avoid any difficulties when growing caladiums. And the plant can almost always forgive small mistakes.
We have prepared a hearty, incredibly appetizing and simply easy-to-prepare dish for you today. This sauce is one hundred percent universal, as it goes with every side dish: vegetables, pasta, or anything. Chicken and mushroom gravy will save you in moments when you don’t have time or don’t want to think too much about what to cook. Take your favorite side dish (you can do this in advance so everything is hot), add some gravy and dinner is ready! A real lifesaver.
Among the many different varieties We will tell you about three of these most popular vegetables, which are distinguished by their excellent taste and relatively unpretentious growing conditions. Characteristics of the eggplant varieties “Almaz”, “Black Beauty” and “Valentina”. All eggplants have medium-density pulp. In Almaz it is greenish, while in the other two it is yellowish-white. They are united by good germination and excellent yield, but in different times. Everyone's skin color and shape are different.
Tips for Using Organic Fertilizer in the Garden
IN recent years Many gardeners, vegetable gardeners, and farmers are switching to ecological farming based only on natural products. A worthy substitute for “chemical well-being” are natural fertilizers - waste from animals that eat plant foods. Simply - manure. How to use it correctly so as not to harm the plants, says agronomist Mikhail Pertsev from the Lysov farm in the Surovikinsky district.
Types of manure
While communicating with amateur gardeners, I learned that many of them consider manure harmful substance and refuse to use it on their sites. But in vain, says Pertsev. - When using soil stimulants that work at the expense of the last reserves of the soil, Mother Earth becomes dead. And for the good development of any plants, the soil must be alive and contain a large number of different microorganisms. And manure contains all this; it is a valuable organic fertilizer.
There are many types of waste from domestic animals and birds that make it possible to improve soil fertility for a specific crop, taking into account the condition of the upper plant layer.
So, for example, it is good to use horse or sheep manure in a greenhouse, because it gives a certain temperature, says Mikhail Pertsev. - From my own experience I can say that there is no such thing as bad manure. Each type - bird or cow - has its own advantages.
The right nutrition
Fresh manure contains many living organisms that eat organic matter. For them, this means an abundance of food, which means reproduction. When organic matter is eaten, the mass decreases by half, becomes loose, dark in color with a brown tint, enriched with living microorganisms, and easily breaks. Such manure is called half-rotted.
This is the most favorable material for creating humus, that is, humus, which is the main source of nutrition for the soil, explains the agronomist. - On their own organic fertilizers are not food for plants, since plants cannot feed on living organisms only when they are converted into mineral fertilizers.
In this way, manure can become nutritious for plants when microorganisms die, become buried and mineralize. This happens when the manure has been left in the sun for two to three years. If you add slightly rotted manure as fertilizer, then living microorganisms will eat the entire mineral part and take the food for themselves. In this case, organic matter must be added wood ash and phosphate mineral fertilizers.
Half-rotted manure is obtained within several months. More time passes, and the volume of the heap decreases by three to four times. It becomes black as earth, the straws in it are indistinguishable - this is rotted manure, which is ready meals for plants,” says Mikhail Pavlovich. - All microorganisms have been mineralized, and there are no more dangerous secretions.
It should be noted that manure contains not only microelements important for plants, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, manganese, and sulfur. There is also copper, zinc, manganese, cobalt, boron, urea and even molybdenum. At the same time, the half-life processes of manure are also associated with the release of by-products, for example, ammonia, methane, which can be destructive for garden crops.
A big mistake gardeners make when they add fresh manure to the soil, continues the agronomist. - If such manure is buried in the ground, and it contains a lot of nitrogen, potassium and methane, then the roots will simply burn, since the temperature of the fresh mass reaches 60-80 degrees. The plant will become weak, sickly and eventually die. But such manure can be scattered on the surface of the earth, and in natural conditions it will gradually be processed, absorbed deep into the soil, and the earth will be well structured. But half-rotted manure can be used for digging - little methane is released, and the process of decay is successful.
Organic quality
Manure can be bedding and fresh. Litter manure consists of solid and liquid excretions of various domestic animals and bedding made of peat, straw, and sawdust. The composition, structure and fertilizing value depend on the type of animal and bedding material.
Manure on a peat bed is richer in nitrogen than manure on straw, says Pertsev. - However, in the Volgograd region you can rarely find peat litter. But bedding made of grass, straw and sawdust is no less useful. When manure decomposes with all these elements, it becomes more valuable. Such a “layer cake” with the addition phosphate fertilizers called compost. It is advisable to place it in the sun and mix it with a pitchfork or shovel for three months, then it will turn into enriched manure. And after two or three years, such compost will become combined humus.
Content and quantity of microelements in different forms manure is different. It depends on the soil and nutrition - what grasses specific animals fed on, what pastures they grazed on. For example, in the Surovikino region, the soils are alkaline, they contain little copper and zinc, and, accordingly, there is a small amount of these components in feed and animal manure. And if you add these elements separately to garden and vegetable crops, then feed them to birds or animals, then they will appear in their organic matter.
You should always take into account the recommendations of science, which has revealed that manure must be applied to the soil once or twice every three years, says Mikhail Pertsev. - Then the land will be fertile, and the plants on it will be able to bear a rich harvest.
Marina VLADIMIRSKAYA.