Soil calcination method and other methods of soil disinfection

The soil contains not only nutrients, but also toxins, microorganisms, eggs and larvae of pests, and their metabolic products. In order not to harm plants, especially seeds and seedlings, it is necessary to calcinate the soil purchased and taken from the garden, as well as use other disinfection methods. This will give the plantings a good start and protect them from diseases and pests during the most important period of their life.

What is it for?

Any soil (including specially prepared compositions for growing seedlings or various types of house plants) may contain many dangerous components, including the following:

1. Causative agents of fungal infections, bacteria dangerous to plants.
2. Adult insects, their eggs and larvae.
3. Contaminants that entered the soil from the environment during transportation, preparation and packaging of the mixture.

Also, mixtures for nurseries, hotbeds, greenhouses, and land on which previously there were objects that could contaminate it and make it unsuitable or dangerous for growing planting material, fruit or indoor plants should be disinfected.

Soil disinfection methods

There are several methods for cleaning and neutralizing soil, some of which are suitable for use at home, while others can only be used outdoors, with special training and at least minimal experience working with hazardous substances.

Thermal

High temperatures are detrimental to most pathogens, so this method is widely used when treating soils for planting seedlings and houseplants. Each method of thermal exposure has its own pros and cons, which must be taken into account when growing plants.

Calcination

This is the simplest, fastest and most effective way to get rid of all microorganisms and pests in the soil. Moreover, we are talking not only about pests and pathogens - high temperatures in the oven during calcination destroy everything - both harmful and beneficial microorganisms. As a result, the output is not soil, but a dead substance, harmless, but not useful to the plants.

For calcination, the soil is poured onto a baking sheet in a layer of no more than 3 centimeters and kept in an oven heated to 200 degrees Celsius for at least half an hour.

Steaming

To preserve beneficial microorganisms in the soil mixture and try to destroy the maximum possible number of harmful bacteria and fungi, as well as kill insects, calcination should be replaced by steaming. This can be done in several ways:

1. In the microwave.
2. In the oven.
3. In a water bath over an open fire or on an electric stove.

Any of these methods involves adding water to the soil at the rate of a standard glass of 250 grams per 5 liters of soil mixture. In a microwave oven, specially designed dishes are used; processing lasts up to a quarter of an hour at the maximum heating level. In the oven, you can use a pan or a baking sleeve, not forgetting to poke several holes in it for steam to escape, otherwise it will rip the bag and splash the contents all over the “insides” of the cabinet.

For a water bath, the soil is not wetted, but poured onto gauze folded in several layers. It is placed in a sieve or colander placed over a container of boiling water. The procedure lasts 15 minutes with constant stirring of the earth.

Steaming cannot completely sterilize the soil, as with steaming, so it is supplemented by pouring the soil with a solution of a fungicide or folk remedies, for example, a strong solution of potassium permanganate.

You can also soak the soil in boiling water, close the container tightly with a lid and let it cool until it cools.

With the help of cold

Thermal effects involve not only exposure to high but also low temperatures. In winter, you can partially disinfect the soil by naturally freezing it, but this requires low temperatures, which do not occur in all areas of the country.

You can also freeze seedling or purchased soil in small quantities in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator. This will require a temperature below 18 degrees Celsius. However, even under such conditions, some pathogens will remain, and many of them are generally adapted to extremely low temperatures. So this method is also best combined with additional processing - chemical or biological.

Chemicals and preparations

It must be taken into account that chemical compounds have a pronounced effect and negatively affect the state of beneficial soil microorganisms, which indirectly affects plant health. Therefore, these types of disinfection are used in extreme cases, when steaming and other methods cannot be used, for example, if it is necessary to clean large areas of open ground or soil in large greenhouses, hotbeds, greenhouses.

Such an effect is used no more than twice a year, and plants can be planted in treated areas only after six months or even a year.

Bleaching powder

This is a powerful disinfectant, like other chlorine-based products, but it can only be used on plants that can tolerate the presence of this substance in the soil. Treatment is carried out at the rate of 200 grams of bleach per square meter of area.

Formalin

Disinfection with formaldehyde is effective, but is risky for human health, and therefore requires the use of personal protective equipment, as do other chemical methods. The ground is watered with a solution of 250 milliliters of 40% formaldehyde per bucket of water. This is the proportion per square meter.

TMTD

This is a fungicide - a contact seed protectant, so it can be safely used right at the time of sowing or before planting. Its active ingredient, thiram, suppresses the activity of fungi in the soil and on planting material within 48 hours.

Biological disinfection

Biological tillage can be considered the safest. It is not as effective as calcining the soil, but it populates it with beneficial microorganisms, improves the composition and structure, and the introduced microflora can suppress the development and reproduction of pathogens.

"Trichodermin"

This is a fungicide of biological origin that destroys phytopathogens by displacing the more aggressive fungus Trichoderma. It not only competes with harmful microbes for the substrate, but also parasitizes them, and also poisons them with its waste products.

"Baikal EM-1"

This liquid concentrate of a group of microorganisms living in the soil is useful for any soil, as it restores their natural balance, inhibits pathogenic microflora, improves the composition of the soil, that is, it acts as a disinfectant, fertilizer and stimulant at the same time.

"Alirin-B"

A biological preparation for combating a wide range of soil and plant infections is capable of cleaning soil from pathogenic microorganisms due to the activity of the bacterium Bacillus Subtilis. It is used independently or in a complex of actions, for example, after calcination.

"Fitosporin-N"

The environmentally friendly fungicide copes with dozens of plant diseases without harming others, so it can even be used in indoor floriculture.

Folk remedies

The advantages of folk remedies are their availability, low cost and harmlessness to humans and the environment. However, they have low efficiency, so they are used in cases where other methods cannot be used for a number of reasons. They can also serve as a complement to thermal methods of exposure - calcination, steaming, freezing.

Potassium permangantsovka

A dark purple solution of potassium permanganate has a weak disinfectant effect, but it saturates the soil with useful substances - potassium and manganese.

Garlic solution

Garlic contains phytoncides that heal the air and soil.When using such a product, it is possible not only to destroy pathogens, but to scare away new ones and drive away pests already living in the soil.

Ash infusion

This folk remedy is often used in dachas and garden plots, since it also has a double effect - it not only disinfects the soil, but also enriches it with a valuable element - potassium, which increases productivity.

How to process and with what after different crops

The choice of technique depends on the amount of soil to be disinfected and the crops grown. If we are talking about several liters of soil for seedlings, then it is easier to use calcination or other thermal effects, and then enrich the soil using biological agents, for example, EM preparations.

Features of holding at different times of the year

Treatment in the fall can destroy precisely those pathogenic microorganisms and pests that annoyed the planted plants in a particular area. You can choose the most suitable remedy, for example, treatment with targeted or broad-spectrum fungicides, or use something radical like formaldehyde or bleach. It is better to apply biological agents in the spring, 1-3 weeks before sowing or planting crops.

Common mistakes

Most often, gardeners and gardeners, as well as lovers of indoor floriculture, go to extremes:

1. Or they ignore disinfection altogether.
2. Or they are doing it too zealously.

In the first case, the soil can harm the planted flowers and vegetables, and in the second, the result is dead, non-viable soil on which nothing grows.

It is important not to forget that after calcination and other disinfection methods, the purified soil must be “populated” with beneficial microbes. For these purposes, preparations such as “Siyanie”, “Baikal” and other biologically active agents are better suited.