Sapropel as a fertilizer: reviews of gardeners

Since ancient times people who cultivated land and cultivated various plants on it have tried to increase the yield and its quality. Living along the banks of such large rivers as the Nile, the Euphrates and the Tigris, the ancient agricultural civilizations used bottom sediments to improve and enrich the soil composition. It was in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia that sapropel was used for the first time as a fertilizer. It was brought in and plowed into the soil after the harvest was harvested.

Modern gardeners and gardeners are also concerned about what to "feed" the land, so that there are a lot of vegetables and fruits, and that they do not contain any harmful nitrates, nitrites and other consequences of applying the achievements of modern chemical science. As they say, everything new is a well-forgotten old. Perhaps, what helped the ancient inhabitants of the Mesopotamia and Mesopotamia to receive rich harvests, will serve us? In this article we will try to figure out what sapropel is - what it is, how, when and why it should be used.

What it is?

Sapropel is a natural natural product, formed naturally on the bottom of fresh water bodies. The remains of plants and animals that descend to the bottom surface are decomposed by the action of microorganisms living in a medium with a low oxygen content. As a result of physico-mechanical, biochemical and microbiological processes, a stable slurry forms over time, which, in addition to organic constituents, includes various inorganic components and mineral impurities.

Where and how is it produced?

Sapropel reserves on the territory of Russia are many, primarily in the Central and Far Eastern districts. In addition, many different lakes located on the territory of the North-Western, Ural, Siberian economic regions also store its reserves.

For the extraction of this natural raw material, both special machinery and dredgers are used, raising it to the surface. Then they take it ashore, dehydrate and process, obtaining sapropel (fertilizer) or other products.

Types of sapropel

It is customary to subdivide this natural raw material into four large groups:

• granulated;
• Loose;
• pasty;
• liquid.

Sapropel as a fertilizer is most often used in granular and loose form. In bulk, it is used for growing on an industrial scale a variety of crops, planting greenery of settlements and the formation of various landscapes. The largest fraction of free-flowing sapropel is used to restore land on which there were landfills, locations for drilling and mining operations, and ore dumps.

Granulated fertilizer applied to the soil has a longer effect on plants and is used for growing vegetable, cereal, flower plants and root crops.

Pasty and liquid sapropel is used for remediation works on large areas, before planting crops.

What is included in the composition?

Sapropels can have a wide variety of origins, but it determines the acidity, the degree of mineralization and the quantitative content of nutrients and organic substances.

Sapropel consists of two parts - mineral and organic. Extracted in different places, it has a different ratio of these parts and chemical composition. Depending on the content of organic substances, sapropel as a fertilizer can be:

• Mineralized;
• Mineral-organic;
• Organomineral;
• Organic.

In the organic composition of sapropel, scientists found not only humic and biologically active substances, amino acids, growth biostimulators, but also various vitamins. In the mineral part there are micro- and macro elements.

Does it work or not?

In many forums devoted to gardening and gardening, you can find about sapropel reviews, to put it mildly, not the most positive. However, there are also those that, after reading them, there is a desire to find a store and buy this miracle fertilizer. What's the matter, why such a difference? After reading and analyzing the information, it can be concluded that negative reviews of gardeners are mainly related to the purchase of a fake, imitation "under sapropel."

It is unlikely that something will grow on the bed, which laid heavy lumps of some substance, similar to plasticine, with a musty smell of bog and gray-brown color with impregnations of red clay. In the event that when buying you convinced that it looks like sapropel as a fertilizer - you were deceived. In the best case, it is silt from the bottom of an unknown reservoir with an incomprehensible composition, and not a useful natural fertilizer.

In fact, the sapropel looks like a greyish-gray powder that looks like ash, only with larger particles. Today, sapropel is also produced in compressed form (tablets or briquettes). Feedback positive and enthusiastic is associated with this, extracted and processed in an industrial way, fertilizer.

How to apply fertilizer?

Improving the mechanical structure of the soil, increasing its moisture capacity and aeration is all about sapropel. Method of application in plant growing Depends on the type of soil, although to improve the physicochemical characteristics it can be applied for autumn digging into any soil.

So, lime sapropel can be used instead of dolomite flour to lower the acidity level of the soil. Calcium, which is in this fertilizer, neutralizes acid and enriches the soil with organic and mineral substances.

In addition, sapropel can be composted with manure or slurry, or mixed with various mineral and organic waste. The introduction of sapropelic fertilizers facilitates the purification of soils from various pathogens and plants.

With this fertilizer, the soil composition for the seedlings can be improved by mixing 1:10 with ordinary soil in a proportion of 1:10. If you deposit sapropel into the hole before planting the seedlings or seedlings, they will easily take root and grow faster.

During the conducted field and laboratory studies it was found that the yield of most crops after sapropel in the soil increases several times.