Arctic-tundra soils They are found in northern regions subarctic zone. Their formation occurs under vegetation of polar willow, sedge and forbs. In low-lying areas, they form under moss and sedge. In most cases, these are loams.

Preparing the Ground As with any good storyline that (I hope) has a happy ending, you have to make a plan of action and follow it step by step. scenarios with

Soil right see Filiation.

Soil drainage Soil drainage - done for agricultural, sanitary or construction purposes. Soil, constantly saturated with water, which does not allow fresh air to the roots of plants, produces only reeds, sedges and other aquatic plants, and a large excess

The contrast was enormous. It is not known what we liked about this eight-hundredth plot in gardening, it was not visible from under the snow in winter. We could only guess: what would we get - a swamp or just a lowland. Or maybe you're lucky, and all these young pines grow on dry mossy sand? Well, of course, miracles don't happen, and we didn't get the sand. In the spring, snow was surprisingly lazy off our swamp, and until summer the old stumps kept pieces of ice in their rotten core. And nothing can be done about it.

But how strange: the soul rejoices all the same. You walk on white moss, it squishes under your feet, and your eyes have already found a bump with lingonberries, are already looking at the sluggish, last year's cranberries, are already admiring the blossoming rosemary bush. And what is the air in our swamp! It smells of pine and pine resin, smells of peat and mushrooms and, of course, blooming heather and wild rosemary.

The site is at the very edge of horticulture, reliably closed on all sides by young pines, the most solid of them are as thick as a set-up. It also has one mature spruce and two "century-old" pines. My husband was always very fond of conifers, and in this case he took under his wing all the pines growing in our country, all that will not be affected by future construction, they should smoothly fit into the future garden, and that same cranberry meadow will go under the garden ... "Well well, agronomist, go for it! " The main thing, in my opinion, is not to lose optimism and not part with good mood under the pressure of reality.

When I, winding prospecting circles around the site, plunged almost waist-deep into a peaty boggy window, I almost immediately decided that there would be a decorative or catchment pond. The water was very high, and the heavy rains this year did not help it to go away. I kept repeating everything like a tongue twister: peat soils have high acidity, they are water and air permeable, accumulate and retain moisture well, contain nitrogen in a form that is difficult for plants to access.

A husband with a chainsaw in his hands was reclaiming a site for a future road and a house, and I still wandered restlessly through "our swamp". Even a cowardly thought flashed through to call the editorial office: save, help! All this talk about drainage, reclamation, deoxidation is certainly good in theory, but in practice it only causes a feeling of confusion. It's eight hundred square meters with a hook, and everywhere ankle-deep water, well, almost everywhere. After all, an ordinary gardener most often comes across peat in the form of compost or mulch and even respects this material very much. Peat is able to make the heaviest soil loose and beautiful.

But what if there is no soil? Not at all. Thus, having admired the site outside, I began to get to know it from the inside. My husband dug a meter-long pit-hole, there was almost at the very bottom some kind of mud, not clay, no, not loam, but some kind of dusty gray sand, more like silt. The chairman of horticulture said that it was, they say, quicksand, but refused to explain its properties in more detail. Water oozed from the walls of the pit and, in the end, stopped about thirty centimeters from the surface of the soil. Well, then the ditches will work, and that's good. The green bloom on the bare surface of the peat spoke not only of increased acidity and humidity, but also that this peat is rich in various salts, which, unfortunately, are not available to plants in this type. But how do you get them?

What is generally known about peat? It is known that it is formed from not completely decomposed plants. Lack of oxygen, which, in turn, appears due to excess water, prevents the plants from decomposing to the end. It would seem, what is easier, dry the swamp and you will get almost black soil, but no! Many bog plants contain antiseptic substances, phenols, which suppress decomposition processes. Moreover, these antiseptics are capable of acting both during the life of marsh plants and after their death. An example of this is the well-known sphagnum moss, which is still successfully used in the construction of log houses, to protect wood from decay. In ancient times, sphagnum was used even for dressing the wounded as an antiseptic, and the peat mud itself was used for treatment. skin diseases... Scientists claim that swampy areas consume carbon dioxide even more than forests. But for all the amazing healing properties of moist peat soils, it is not at all easier for a gardener and gardener if he is the owner of such a site.

It is worth deciding what kind of peat is on my site. It is usually subdivided into three types: low-lying, riding, and transitional. If you have the same problem, then you need to make sure what kind of waters feed the peat, what is the relief of this area and what plants prevail on it. The water that feeds the peat differs in the degree of mineralization. The poorest water is atmospheric precipitation, much more "nutritious" is groundwater, as well as the waters of rivers and streams. The vegetation of raised bogs is very unpretentious and, therefore, is able to grow on the poorest peat - these are sphagnum moss, pine, "hare's legs".

But on low-lying "fat" peats grow more whimsical: birch, alder, green sphagnum and other mosses, as well as sedge. If the vegetation on the site is mixed, as, for example, mine, then this is transitional peat.

Modern science based on peat offers technologies for obtaining more than a hundred types of products: from feed yeast to fuel. But in practice, especially for a gardener, all peats are so different in their own way. chemical composition, has only one thing in common - the place of their birth is a swamp. Of course, peat bogs serve as a natural biological filter, of course, when applied, peat is able to improve the physical and chemical properties of the soil, it is even able to regulate the humus balance. But all this happens when it is mixed with other components.

I clarified that the content of mineral forms of nitrogen available to plants from low-lying peat is 1-3%, and from high-moor peat - up to 14%. Partially accessible forms of nitrogen account for up to 45%, all the rest is in the composition of humic compounds of peat and is inaccessible to plants. All my searches for the ideal way to "activate" the peat have led nowhere.

I only learned that the peat ammonization method was used on a production scale, in which not only acidity decreases, but also polysaccharides decompose. This method consists in the treatment of peat with anhydrous ammonia - ammonia water. As a result, the activity of nitrogen compounds in peat increases, along with this, the activity of humic compounds increases in it, giving it the properties of a plant growth stimulator. This method is used now mainly for the production of peat-ammonia fertilizers and some humic growth stimulants, using special equipment, personal protective equipment and rather toxic compounds.

Of course, it would be great to turn peat into literal living earth but alas. For the gardener, there was and remains only one way to activate peat - composting, preferably with organic fertilizers, and the obligatory reclamation work. Air and organic nitrogen are what makes my site truly alive. Of course, I want to, just itchy hands, plant and fruit trees, and ornamental bushes, but not allowed. We'll have to make mounds for planting, but for now I brought the loam car, and my husband put me a greenhouse.

When at the beginning of June the tomato seedlings in it just rose and the second brush began to bloom, a neighbor came to me from the same area - a swamp, just across the road. “I don’t know what to do in such a swamp,” she said, “there’s no place to sit, such dampness.” I was about to answer her that everything is not so bad, why, they say, sit, there would be a desire - to look for a way out, but then she went into the greenhouse and, looking at the flowering tomato bushes, sadly said: "And I'm looking, that you have already planted the cucumbers. " "Yeah," I said uncertainly, "but still more tomatoes."

How much in our life depends on ourselves, how we perceive this or that, with what mood we get down to business, with what thoughts we grow our garden. Knowledge is extremely important, but the desire to receive it is much more important. Finding and being confident that things will work out may not be exactly as planned, but it will work out well. But ahead of me is the arrangement of the garden on the hills. There are already thuja crumbs in pots, bought by my husband for the occasion, for laying a thuja alley. White turf and Thunberg barberry with red foliage, cinquefoil and spirea flaunt. Still in pots, but already there, in the swamp, in the future garden, they get used to the microclimate. And they will grow because peat is like a starting material and great soil can come out of it. I hope that in the winter my site will go completely different.

I will tell you about all my successes and mistakes in detail, and I hope that there will be more of the former than the latter.

A. Kremneva, an agronomist who does not lose optimism

Swamp soils the most common in the tundra and taiga-forest zones. They are also found in the forest-steppe and other zones. The total area of ​​bog soils in the taiga-forest and tundra zones is about 100 million hectares.

Swamp soils are formed as a result of waterlogging of land or peat of water bodies. The bog process of soil formation is characterized by peat formation and gleying of the mineral part of the soil profile. It develops only on condition of excessive moisture.

Peat formation occurs with the accumulation of undecomposed or semi-decomposed plant residues as a result of poorly expressed processes of humification and mineralization of vegetation. The consequence of peat formation is the conservation of the elements of ash nutrition. It consists in the fact that nutrients absorbed by plants, due to low mineralization of plant residues, do not pass into forms available for other plant generations.

Gleying is a biochemical process of converting iron oxide into ferrous iron and occurs under the action of anaerobic microorganisms that split off part of the oxygen from the oxide forms of compounds.

There are three types mineral nutrition swamps- atmospheric, atmospheric-soil and alluvial-deluvial. Depending on the type of nutrition and the conditions of formation, upland, lowland and transitional bogs are formed, differing in both the composition of vegetation and soils.

Upland swamps are formed from transitional bogs or by direct waterlogging of the land by atmospheric or soft groundwater. Bogs are usually located on flat, poorly drained relief elements with poor soils. The content of nutrients dissolved in the water of raised bogs is very insignificant, therefore, in such conditions, vegetation that is extremely undemanding to nutrients develops.

Lowland swamps are formed in low relief elements, when the land is swamped by hard groundwater or peat of water bodies. In such waters, there is a sufficient amount of nutrients, therefore, grasses, sedges, green mosses develop well in low-lying bogs, black alder, birch, willow, etc. from tree species. In this regard, there are green-moss, alder, sedge low-lying bogs. other.

In the process of development, lowland bogs develop into other types of bogs. This happens because the upper part of the peat, when growing, gradually breaks away from the hard groundwater and plant nutrition begins to be carried out due to soft atmospheric precipitation. In this regard, the composition of vegetation changes and the lowland swamp turns into a transitional one.

Transitional swamps are formed from low-lying ones or are formed directly during waterlogging of land, when moistening is carried out alternately by hard and soft waters. According to the composition of vegetation, transitional bogs occupy an intermediate position between upland and lowland ones, approaching more to the upstream ones. Transitional bogs, in turn, with further development are even more detached from the groundwater and turn into upper ones.

The transformation of reservoirs into swamps occurs in stages.... At the beginning of waterlogging, silt is deposited at the bottom of the reservoir, which is brought from the surrounding heights by melt snow water and atmospheric precipitation. This silt is mixed with silt that gets into the water when the banks are eroded. As a result of these perennial deposits, the reservoir is gradually shallowing.

At the second stage, the reservoir is inhabited by planktonic (suspended in water) organisms, mainly algae and crustaceans. After dying off, they mix with silt at the bottom of reservoirs, increase the total mass of sediments and further contribute to their shallowing.

Simultaneously with the second, the third stage also occurs - the shores and coastal belts of water bodies are overgrown with vegetation, which is attached to coastal and bottom sediments. After dying off, the plants sink to the bottom, decompose under anaerobic conditions and form peat.

Due to the deposition of peat, a gradual shallowing of the reservoir occurs, the vegetation moves further and further from the coast to the middle, which eventually leads to its complete overgrowth and peat formation. Finally, the last, fourth, stage comes when the reservoir turns into a grass or sedge swamp.

The peeling occurs the faster, the shallower the reservoir and the calmer the water in it.... The process of formation of swamps is widespread in the zone of glacial deposits, where there are many small lakes, streams and rivers with slowly flowing water.

Lowland bog soils have a neutral or slightly acidic reaction, contain a large amount of nitrogen, high-ash, with low moisture capacity. The soils of raised bogs, on the contrary, are acidic, contain much less nitrogen, low ash content, but very moisture-consuming. The soils of transitional bogs have intermediate properties.

Lowland peat possesses the best physical and chemical properties: it has a high degree of decomposition, its ash content reaches 25% or more, the nitrogen content is 3-4%, the reaction is weakly acidic. The phosphorus content is relatively low and varies widely - from 0.15 to 0.45%. All peat soils are poor in potassium.

High bog peat characterized by a lower degree of decomposition, its ash content does not exceed 5%, it is poor in nutrients, the reaction is highly acidic.

Peat of all types of bogs has a high absorption capacity, but the degree of saturation with bases in lowland peats reaches 70-100%, and in high-moor peats it does not exceed 15-20%. Peat is characterized by a very high moisture capacity, but it is especially high in high-moor peat - 600-1200%. With an increase in decomposition, the moisture content of peat decreases.

Swamp soils are classified according to two characteristics.: by belonging to a particular type of bog, and within the same type - by the thickness of the peat horizon. On the first basis, bog high and bog lowland soils are distinguished, and on the second, peat-gley and peat soils. In addition, the genus of transitional bog soils, which are similar in properties to the upland and lowland bog soils, are distinguished in the type of upland bog soils.

Peat and bog soils are widely used in agriculture: peat as a source organic fertilizers, and bog soils after cultivation are like agricultural lands. In its pure form, low-lying peat, well decomposed, is used as a direct fertilizer. High bog moss peat is used for bedding in cattle yards. Subsequent composting with lime, phosphate rock and others mineral fertilizers improves its quality as a fertilizer.

Most valuable for reclaiming the soil of lowland bogs... After draining and carrying out cultural, technical and agrotechnical measures, they become highly productive agricultural lands, which are used for arable land, hayfields, pastures.

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Peat soils, their improvement

There is an opinion among the people that such soils seem to be of little use for growing vegetables and berry bushes, but after two or three years of their development, most garden crops can be grown on them.

But the approach to the development of each type of peatland should be individual.- depending on what type of swamp was previously in this place.

Peaty soils are very diverse in their physical properties. They have a loose, permeable structure that does not require special improvement. But they all contain little phosphorus, magnesium and especially potassium, they lack many trace elements, primarily copper.

Depending on their origin and the thickness of the peat layer forming them, peaty soils are divided into lowland, transitional and highland.

Lowland peat bogs, often located in wide hollows with a slight slope, are most suitable for growing garden and vegetable garden plants. These soils have good vegetation cover. Peat on such peat bogs is well decomposed, so it is almost black or dark brown, lumpy. The acidity of the peat layer in such areas is weak or even close to neutral.

Low-lying peatlands have a fairly high supply of nutrients compared to transitional and especially high-moor peatlands. They contain a lot of nitrogen and humus, since plant residues are well decomposed, the acidity of the soil is weaker, they have enough water, which must be diverted into ditches.

But, unfortunately, this nitrogen is in lowland peatlands in a form that is almost inaccessible to plants and only after aeration can it become available to plants. Only 2-3% of the total nitrogen is in the form of nitrate and ammonia compounds available to plants.

It is possible to accelerate the transition of nitrogen to a state accessible to plants by draining the peat soil and enhancing the activity of microorganisms that contribute to the decomposition of organic matter by introducing a small amount of manure, ripe compost or humus into the soil.

High-moor peat bogs are usually excessively moistened, since they have a rather limited runoff of rain and melt water. They are highly fibrous, since they do not have the conditions for more significant decomposition of plant residues. This leads to strong acidification of peat, which explains its very high acidity. Such peat bogs are light brown in color.

The nutrients in high-moor peat, which are scarce in any peat soil, are inaccessible to plants. And soil microorganisms that contribute to the maintenance of soil fertility are often simply absent in them.

When laying gardens and vegetable gardens on such soils, high costs are required for their cultivation. In order for such soils to become suitable for growing garden plants, lime, river sand, clay, rotted manure, and mineral fertilizers must be added to them.

Lime will reduce acidity, sand will improve the structure, clay will increase the viscosity and add nutrients, and mineral fertilizers will enrich the soil with additional nutrients. As a result, the decomposition of plant residues of peat will accelerate and conditions will be created for the cultivation of cultivated plants.

And in its pure form, high moor peat can practically be used only as bedding for livestock, since it absorbs slurry well.

All types of peaty soils are characterized by low thermal conductivity, so they slowly thaw and warm up in spring, and are much more often exposed to return frosts, which delays the start of spring work.

It is believed that the temperature of such soils on average during the growing season is 2-3 degrees lower than the temperature of mineral soils. On peat soils, frosts end later in spring and begin earlier in autumn. Create a more favorable temperature regime on such soils there is only one way- by draining excess water and creating a loose structural soil.

Peat soils in their natural state are almost unsuitable for growing garden and vegetable garden plants. But due to the presence in them of a large amount of organic matter, they have a significant "hidden" potential for fertility, all four "keys" from which are in your hands.

These keys are lowering the water table, liming the soil, adding mineral additives and using organic fertilizers. And now let's try to get acquainted with these "keys" in a little more detail.

REDUCING GROUND WATER LEVEL

To remove excess moisture in the area and improve air mode peat soils very often have to be drained, especially in new areas. It is, of course, easier to do this in the entire garden area at once, but much more often you have to do this only on your site, trying to create your own local simplest drainage system.

The safest way to arrange the simplest drainage is by placing shovels in grooves two bayonets wide and deep drainage pipes, pour sand on top of them, and then soil.

Much more often, instead of pipes, branches, cut stems of raspberries, sunflowers, etc. are placed in drainage ditches. They are covered first with crushed stone, then with sand, and then with earth. Some craftsmen use for this purpose plastic bottles... To do this, they cut off the bottom, screw the plug, make holes on the side with a hot nail, insert them into each other and lay them instead of the drainage pipe.

And if you are very unlucky and you have a site where the groundwater level is very high and it is rather difficult to lower it, then there will be even more worries.

In order to prevent further contact of tree roots with these very ground waters, you will have to solve not one, but two "strategic" tasks at once- to reduce the level of groundwater on the site as a whole and at the same time to raise the level of the ground in the place of planting trees by creating artificial mounds from imported soil. As the trees grow, the diameter of these mounds will need to be increased annually.

SOIL OXIDATION

Peat soils are of different acidity- from slightly acidic and even close to neutral (in peat bog lowland soils) to strongly acidic (in peat bog soils).

The deoxidation of acidic soil is understood to mean the introduction of lime or other alkaline materials into it to lower its acidity. In this case, the most common chemical reaction of neutralization occurs. Lime is most often used for these purposes.

But, in addition to this, liming of peat soils also enhances the activity of various microorganisms that assimilate nitrogen or decompose plant residues contained in peat. At the same time, brown fibrous peat turns into an almost black earthy mass.

At the same time, difficult-to-reach forms of nutrients contained in peat transform into compounds easily assimilated by plants. And the phosphorus and potash fertilizers introduced into the soil are fixed in the upper layers of the soil, are not washed out of it by groundwater, remaining available for plants for a long time.

Knowing the acidity of the soil in your area, alkaline materials are introduced in the fall. The dose of their introduction depends on the level of acidity of the soil and for acidic peat soils, on average, about 60 kg of ground limestone per 100 sq. square meters, for medium acid peat soils- on average about 30 kg, for slightly acidic- about 10 kg. On peat soils, in terms of acidity close to neutral, limestone may not be applied at all.

But all these average doses of lime application vary greatly depending on the value of acidity, especially on acidic peatlands. Therefore, before adding lime, its specific amount must be clarified again, depending on the exact value of the acidity of the peat.

A wide variety of alkaline materials are used for liming peat soils: ground limestone, slaked lime, dolomite flour, chalk, marl, cement dust, wood and peat ash, etc.

MINERAL ADDITIVES

An important element of improving the physical properties of peaty soils is their enrichment with minerals.- sand and clay,- which increase the thermal conductivity of the soil, accelerate its thawing and intensify heating. Moreover, if they have an acidic reaction, you will have to add an additional dose of lime to neutralize their acidity.

In this case, the clay must be applied only in dry powder form so that it mixes better with the peat soil. The introduction of clay into the peat soil in the form of large lumps gives insignificant results.

The lower the degree of peat decomposition, the greater the need for mineral supplements. On heavily decomposed peat bogs, 2-3 buckets of sand and 1.5 buckets of dry powdery clay per 1 sq. meter, and on poorly decomposed peat bogs these doses should be increased by a quarter.

It is clear that such an amount of sand cannot be added in one or two years. Therefore, sanding is carried out gradually, from year to year (in autumn or spring), until they improve. physical properties soil. You will notice this yourself from the plants you grow. The sand scattered over the surface is dug up with a shovel to a depth of 12-18 cm.

INTRODUCTION OF ORGANIC AND MINERAL FERTILIZERS

Manure, peat-manure or peat-fecal composts, bird droppings, humus and other biologically active organic fertilizers are applied in an amount of up to 0.5-1 buckets per 1 sq. meter for shallow digging for the rapid activation of microbiological processes in peat soil, contributing to the decomposition of organic matter in it.

To create favorable conditions for plant growth, it is necessary to apply mineral fertilizers to peat soils: for the main tillage - 1 tbsp. spoon of double granular superphosphate and 2.5 tbsp. tablespoons of potash fertilizers per 1 sq. square meter, and in spring additionally- 1 teaspoon of urea.

Most peat soils have a low copper content, and it is in a form that is difficult for plants to access. Therefore, the introduction of fertilizers containing copper into peat soil, especially on acidic peat soils, gives a significant effect. Most often, copper sulfate is used for this purpose at the rate of 2-2.5 g / m2, previously dissolving it in water and watering the soil from a watering can.

Good results are obtained by the introduction of boron micronutrient fertilizers. Most often, for foliar feeding of seedlings or adult plants, they take 2-3 g of boric acid per 10 liters of water (1 liter of this solution is sprayed on plants on an area of ​​10 square meters. M).

Then the peat soil, together with the mineral soil, manure, organic and mineral fertilizers and lime poured on top, must be carefully dug to a depth of no more than 12-15 cm, and then slightly compacted. This is best done in late summer or early autumn, when the soil dries up significantly.

If it is not possible to cultivate your entire site at once, then master it in parts, but by adding to them all the above amount of mineral additives and organic fertilizers at once, or first filling the planting pits with loose, fertile soil, and in subsequent years carrying out work on cultivating the soil in aisles. But this is already the worst option, because it is better to do all this at once.

On already developed peat soils, there is a gradual decrease in the thickness of the peat layer by about 2 cm per year due to its compaction and mineralization of organic matter. This happens especially quickly in areas where the same vegetables are grown for a long time without observing crop rotation, requiring frequent loosening of the soil.

To prevent this from happening, cultivated peat soil in garden, and especially in garden plots, needs an annual additional application of organic fertilizers.

If you do not do this, then every year on your site there will be a gradual irreversible destruction of peat (its mineralization), and after 15-20 years the soil level on your site may be 20-25 cm lower than it was before the development of the site began, and the soil will become waterlogged.

In this case, the soil on your site will no longer be fertile peaty, but infertile sod-podzolic, and its physical properties will greatly change for the worse.

To prevent this from happening, among other things, as mentioned above, a well-thought-out system of crop rotation, saturated with perennial grasses, must constantly operate on your site.

In the future, it will be necessary to import and apply annually either a sufficient amount of organic fertilizers (10-15 buckets per 100 square meters), or other soil.

And if there is no manure or compost, then green fertilizer can help out. Sow and bury lupines, peas, beans, vetch, sweet clover, clover.

V.G.Shafransky