Do you know why trees in primeval forests can grow healthily without human care? The answer is simple: it's all thanks to the soil cover! After each leaf fall season, a layer of soil cover will be formed right under the tree, from which the tree can protect and care for itself. Let's learn about the meaning of soil cover below.
What is land cover?
Land mulch is a layer of material covering the soil surface, usually made up of organic materials such as leaves, branches and bark. Organic mulch decomposes relatively quickly so it must be added and replaced regularly. Many growers also mulch the soil with rubber mulch or other synthetic materials to increase durability, but this method does not provide as many benefits as traditional methods.
Benefits of mulch
1. Heat and light insulation for land:
Culture has the ability to prevent environmental temperature from affecting the soil, helping to keep the soil warm in winter and cool in summer. Stable temperature and no light are necessary conditions for a healthy root system and a diverse microflora.
2. Keep the soil moist:
By insulating the ground from light and ambient temperature, water will evaporate at a much slower rate than normal, which helps the soil maintain a more stable moisture level from top to bottom. In addition, farmers also save time and money because they rarely have to water their plants. For the development of roots and microflora, stable humidity is as important as stable temperature.
3. Protect microflora:
Microorganism is most active in the top layer of the soil, so a mulch layer in this position is extremely important. Soil mulch not only protects the microflora from environmental factors such as temperature, light and humidity, mulch also acts as food to nourish the microflora, this is why mulch Decomposes very quickly and must be regularly replenished and replaced.
4. Add nutrients to the soil:
Microorganism on the soil surface continuously breaks down the materials of the soil cover into smaller substances that will eventually become nutrients for plants. In nature, trees take nutrients from the ground to develop their parts, then fall back to the ground and are decomposed by microorganisms for reuse, this process repeats over millions of generations. creating an extremely complex but also extremely perfect ecosystem.
How to create ground cover
Mulching is beneficial for both indoor and outdoor farming, so we always encourage everyone to do it. To perfectly simulate the natural environment, you should spread a layer of organic fertilizer (compost, vermicompost, etc.)vv) onto the soil surface before covering with organic materials. The coating should be 5-7cm thick for maximum effectiveness. You should use branches and leaves left after each harvest to cover the soil for the next crop. However, these branches and leaves are usually not large enough and will decompose before the harvest ends, so store branches and leaves. Fallen leaves and flowers from other plants in your garden or buy them to continuously replenish or replace mulch.
You can also intercrop with legumes to have an abundant source of mulch material, and at the same time add a large amount of nitrogen to the soil thanks to the special features of these plants. . For example, after each cannabis harvest, we will sow blue pea or alfalfa seeds on the soil, after about 2 months, cut them off and use them to cover the soil before starting the next cannabis cultivation season. When growing legumes, we do not need to pay too much attention to the farming environment, so you will not spend a lot of time and effort.
Notes when implementing
- Do not mulch the soil with materials made from walnut or cedar bark to avoid causing negative effects on the soil environment.
- Do not use treated mulch materials to avoid toxins dissolving into the soil
- Do not cover the soil with branches and leaves of plants that have been infected with the disease because these materials may still carry pathogens.
Whether you are new to the profession or have experience in farming, mulching is still a job that should be done regularly. This job is very simple, does not take you much time and brings so many benefits. In addition to protecting and nourishing plants, mulching also makes your garden look much neater and cleaner and I believe this will make you love your garden more, from which the cannabis plants will be cared for. More careful care leads to more successful crops. Try mulching and observe the results!
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