Humus: what is it, what does it consist of and how to make it 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 its 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, you can saturate the poor soil with all the microelements necessary for the growth and development of plants. Humus is easy to do with your own hands. All the necessary ingredients for this can be found in any farm.

What is it made of?

Before preparing humus at home, you need to find out what is included in its composition. The composition of humus, as a rule, includes the following components:

• Leaves.
• Cattle manure.
• Bird droppings.
• Straw.
• Hay.
• Weeds from the plot.
• Ash.
• Remains of fruits and vegetables.
• Kora.
• Wood sawdust.
• Special additives to accelerate plant growth.
• Branches of trees and shrubs.

It can be said that all parts of the plants that grew on the site, as well as cattle manure, can be part of the 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 fertilizer. But this alone will not be enough. Also, you can not do without bird droppings and cattle manure. Otherwise, instead of nutrient fertilizer, you can get silage or rotten grass, which does not bring any benefit to plants.

What can not be used for processing into humus:

• Chemical.
• Infected plant parts.
• Food of animal origin.
• Seeds from weeds.

If cattle manure is used, then the animals must be he althy. 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 prepared at home, you need to know exactly in what order to arrange the layers.

• Plants. The first layer is the remains of plants. It should be no more than 15 cm. If this layer is larger, then the decay process will be slower. All parts of the herb can be used, except for the seeds. Otherwise, they can germinate and then you have to deal with weeds. The first layer of grass should be sprinkled with earth mixed with lime.
• Straw and hay. Thanks to straw, deciduous and all other layers are saturated with oxygen. Straw creates a porous structure and binds moisture in the humus. Before spreading hay or straw, it must be thoroughly crushed. Mulching with humus with the addition of hay to ensure oxygen access to the roots of plants.
• Leaves. The leaves must be dried before preparing the humus with your own hands. If this is not done, then they will clump together. Leaves are mixed with other plant debris and spread in a thin layer.
• Sawdust. To prepare 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. Tree bark contains a large amount of nitrogen. But to increase its concentration in the compost, you need to mix the bark with chicken manure, cattle manure or urea.

How to make humus?

At home, you can get humus from the following components:

• Food waste. The preparation of humus is not complete without food waste. They contain many nutrients. But to prevent their decomposition, the waste is mixed with solid material to provide access to oxygen.
• Manure and droppings. From manure, the most nutritious humus for plants is obtained. It contains a large amount of nitrogen, which helps to accelerate the growth of crops. It is desirable to sprinkle it with soil from above.
• Paper. Before laying paper when preparing manure with your own hands, it must be coarsely cut and moistened in a decoction of herbs. Herbal decoction can be prepared from nettles. There are a lot of nutrients in the nettle, and the paper absorbs them during the soaking process. Mix wet paper with another solid material. Otherwise, it will crumple.

How to make manure humus?

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. Sheep, cow or horse manure will do.

We prepare humus as follows:

• Manure for humus must be taken fresh. It contains more nutrients.
• To put together 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 manure).
• In order to accelerate decomposition, biodestructors can be added to humus. It could be Baikal-M or Radiance. They contain bacteria, which accelerate the process of decay.
• Regularly humus should be watered (but not poured). It is important not to let it dry out.

You can use humus when you can not see the individual parts. The mixture should be of a homogeneous consistency. The smell of the finished humus should be like that of damp earth. And the color is brown or closer to black.

How to quickly make humus from leaves?

Must from the leaves is also prepared with the addition of manure. Straw, paper and other plant residues can be used.

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.
• Because the leaves are poor in micronutrients, they must be mixed with food waste or sawdust.
• Put bird droppings on the foliage layer.
• Periodically, the humus needs to be watered. If a large number of midges appeared 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 damp earth, then it is too dry. You can fix the situation by adding water, potato peels or fresh grass.

Plants are mulched with them 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 homemade humus so that it does not lose its beneficial properties? The best way to store is a box. How to make a humus box?

Humus storage box:

• You can put together such a box from any unnecessary boards. You can pour sawdust on the bottom or leave the box without a bottom, and immediately put humus into it.
• You can lay slate or greenhouse film on top of the container. Moisture that falls 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 should slide out. This will make it easier to take humus for soil application.
• Must 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 under 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 box. The earth and the humus itself should not be too wet, but should not dry out either.

It is not advisable to place fertilizer containers next to trees. Very soon, trees can direct their growth towards composting. And then all the nutrients will go to their growth.

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