How to make nettle mulch. Why is it worth growing nettles in your dacha?
Vegetable and fruit plants need not only good care, but also feeding. And the gardeners march in formation to the store to buy chemicals. Do they know that the best remedies are under their feet? For example, the ubiquitous nettle is superior to all synthetic analogues as a fertilizer. You just need to know how to use it correctly.
Valuable properties of nettle
As a source of vitamins (C, K, A), microelements and valuable organic acids (iron, copper, potassium, nitrogen, manganese, etc.), this indestructible weed is widely used in home cosmetology, as well as in cooking, as additives to spring salads and green borscht and soups. For feeding vegetable and ornamental plants, nettle is especially valuable as a fertilizer due to its high potassium and nitrogen content. Moreover, it is equally useful for nutrition and for protecting plantings from pests and diseases. Experienced gardeners always stock up for future use. How fertilizer is prepared and applied - more on that below. First, it will be useful to learn how to use fresh nettles in your garden.
Fierce Protector
Her character, of course, is fiery, which scares many people away from her. Is it possible to use this particular property for good? For example, change your attitude towards the weed and leave it in a strip along the perimeter of the site like a hedge? It will be easier for uninvited guests to overcome a barbed fence than such a barrier. Well, if such an extravagant method is not suitable, you can mow the nettles and spread them under vegetable plants - tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes. Firstly, it is mulch, which prevents weeds from germinating. Secondly, it repels pests - leaf-eating insects and slugs. As it decomposes, nettle feeds plants as fertilizer. Many gardeners successfully practice mulching with chopped nettles, enriching the soil and protecting it from erosion.
How to prepare nettle fertilizer
The process is very simple. To reduce the bite, fresh or slightly withered grass should be chopped or chopped, placed in a bucket or barrel (it is advisable to use plastic containers, not metal) and filled with settled or rainwater. All this will ferment for ten to fourteen days. The smell, I must say, is not pleasant, so you need to determine the right place to prepare the fertilizer. With the resulting infusion, you can fearlessly water all plants, with the exception of beans, onions and garlic - for some reason they do not like nettle as a fertilizer. But such feeding is gratefully accepted by all others and even flowers, both garden and indoor. The fertilizer works very well on berry bushes - currants, blackberries, raspberries. You can water strawberries with nettle infusion. After such feeding, the plants literally come to life, their leaves become shiny and rich green, and the growth and ripening of fruits accelerates.
It will be useful to learn about another method of preparing nettle fertilizer. Grass and stems can be burned to produce valuable ash, which is several times higher in nitrogen and potassium than wood ash. This is such a valuable plant - the stinging nettle weed.
Probably no one will dispute the advantages of soil mulching compared to conventional loosening, cultivation and hilling. We are, of course, not talking about collective farm fields - we are talking about our native vegetable garden.
September 27th, 2016 at 1:28 pm
Thank you. Will you have white squash seeds?
September 27th, 2016 at 5:29 pm
October 5th, 2016 at 9:17 am
Good afternoon. Is it possible to mulch a cucumber bed with a forest substrate?
October 10th, 2016 at 4:58 pm
February 18th, 2017 at 1:08 pm
Hello! Please tell me, is it possible to mulch the beds with last year’s leaves and twigs from the willow tree? We live near a small river, there are a lot of willow trees, in the spring the area around the house needs to be tidied up, we rake away leaves and branches, and all this remains near the river, like a side. Can all this be used in the garden? I read that willow and oak have some kind of tannins, won’t they damage root crops and tomatoes?
February 20th, 2017 at 9:50 am
It is better to mulch with grass and compost the leaves.
February 28th, 2018 at 9:42 pm
Hello! I recently started reading your articles and watching your videos, everything is very useful and informative, better than any movie or TV... As for mulching with straw, my husband says that a neighbor covered his potatoes with straw in 1917 and the mice ate a lot of potatoes, they feel comfortable live under straw... What do you think can be done to prevent them from living in potatoes under straw?
March 7th, 2018 at 12:25 pm
Cats are the best defense, mole repellents also helped me, they didn’t scare the moles, but the mice didn’t touch the potatoes.
Almost all gardeners use soil mulching on their plots, which helps them fight weeds and reduce the frequency of watering, and in some cases serves as a fertilizer.
Article outline
Mulching the soil
Mulching is an inexpensive and simplest way to protect and care for the soil. In this case, the soil surface is covered with any suitable material, especially next to planted plants.
Why is soil mulching necessary?
- the soil remains moist and loose longer;
- plant roots are not exposed to hypothermia and overheating, that is, temperature balance is maintained;
- nutrients in the soil are not washed away;
- there is no hard crust on the soil surface;
- weeds die, especially annual ones, and weeds that break through the mulch are easier to remove;
- berries and vegetables do not come into contact with the ground, so they remain clean;
- under mulch, earthworms reproduce better, which has a beneficial effect on the condition of the fertile soil layer;
- If the mulch has decorative properties, then it is also simply beautiful, the garden looks very neat.
All of the above properties of mulch give the gardener the opportunity to relax more and not constantly work in the beds. Mulching materials are divided into types: organic and inorganic. Each of these materials is very good as a mulch, the most important thing is the correct choice of the area of application of this or that mulch, since one type is suitable only for beds, and the other, more decorative, for a flower bed.
When mulching is carried out, it is important to ensure that the mulch does not come into contact with the stem of the plant or the trunks of fruit bushes and trees. It is important not to cover the neck of the root; you need to retreat some distance from it. In trees, especially seedlings, this place is the most vulnerable, so it should be as open as possible and kept dry.
There is no need to try to start mulching as early as possible in the spring; it is better to wait until the soil warms up well. Under mulch, the soil temperature is always slightly lower than without it. And if you mulch unheated soil, then this factor will not benefit the plants; they will lag behind in growth.
At the end of the summer season, organic mulch will become an excellent fertilizer; you only need to embed its remains in the beds after harvesting, in the fall. This will improve the soil structure and enrich it with nutrients.
How to make mulch
To prepare high-quality mulch you need:
- mature compost – 1 part;
- crushed waste from the garden or garden - 2 parts;
- stone flour, wood ash, algae limestone - a little bit.
Mix everything well, mulch the soil, making a layer of 5 to 10 cm.
Briefly - what is mulch and why is it needed?
Organic mulch - how to make and use
The best materials for mulching are considered organic, so to speak, natural substances: humus, pine needles, tree bark, etc. Even wet newspapers or cardboard, laid out next to plants and sprinkled with soil, can serve as mulch, although not for long, since the decomposition process of such material occurs quickly.
It must be borne in mind that organic mulch, rotting and turning into fertilizer, can at the same time change the acidity of the soil. Therefore, the use of organic mulch should be treated carefully.
Sawdust or wood chips
It is better to mulch with sawdust or wood chips in those areas of the garden where the soil is rarely tilled and dug up, that is, in furrows or between beds, since both sawdust and wood chips will take 1.5-2 years for final decomposition.
This mulch is well suited for raspberry fields or for beds with winter crops, to which it is applied late in the fall. It should be noted that if the sawdust was somewhere in the corner of the garden for a long time, it had time to cake or “sour” due to lack of oxygen in the depths of the heap. Such mulch will not bring any benefit, but will only harm the plants. To avoid this, before use, simply dry this material, spreading it in a thin layer.
If sawdust, small shavings or tree bark are used as mulch, then nitrogen disappears from the fertile layer, as it is taken up by the wood mulch during decay. Of course, this negatively affects the plants.
To avoid nitrogen starvation of the soil, before scattering sawdust and other similar materials, you should water the soil, or dilute it in a bucket of water.
One of the important advantages of mulching the soil with sawdust is that slugs do not like to crawl on such a surface; they prefer smooth and moist ones. Accordingly, sawdust mulch solves the problem with slugs. But there is also a small drawback: sawdust and small shavings tend to cake over time.
This can harm plants - due to lack of air and excessive humidity, root and basal intertrigo may occur. Therefore, large wood chips are better suited for such mulch.
Straw mulch
Straw, like sawdust, also repels slugs. Moreover, it is better to mulch the beds with straw, and not with sawdust, laying it in a layer about 15 cm high. There is no need to be afraid that this will interfere with the plants in the future; the straw will settle to a height of 5-7 cm in a short time.
Straw mulch is very suitable for tomatoes and potatoes. It will help protect tomatoes from a number of bacteria that are in the soil, will prevent the bushes from becoming infected with early rot, anthracnose and leaf spot, and will save potatoes from their main enemy - the Colorado potato beetle. It is also good to mulch with straw and beds with basil, garlic, strawberries and blackberries.
Conifer bark for mulching
Mulching with tree bark is perhaps the most durable. The bark does not absorb water, so the rotting process takes a very long time. Due to its long lifespan, this mulch is best suited for fruit trees and shrubs; it is also good in any flower bed and berry garden. But such mulch is unlikely to be suitable for tomatoes because of its volatile substances, which will not benefit the tomato bushes.
The bark can be scattered under coniferous plants. They will enjoy the acidified soil that is obtained by mulching with bark. Quite often, mulch from the bark of coniferous trees is used to decorate the landscape.
Mown grass, weeds after weeding as mulch
Grass contains a lot of nitrogen and other useful substances that help plants develop fully. After weeding the beds, mowing the lawn or removing shoots, there is usually quite a lot of grass on the tomatoes. It should be dried in the sun for a couple of days, since, firstly, freshly cut grass serves as a haven for snails and slugs, and secondly, the process of rotting in damp grass begins very quickly, and then cover the soil under the plants with it.
Mulching cabbage beds with tomato leaves will drive away such a pest as cabbage whites from cabbage.
Raw grass clippings can be used to mulch the soil in the garden after harvesting, when the rains begin. In the period before the onset of frost, this mulch will have time to rot and turn into fertilizer over the winter. And one more plus: the soil in the garden will be additionally protected from winter cold.
Mulching with fallen leaves
It will be very good to mulch cabbage and beans with leaves. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants will also benefit from mulching with fallen leaves after the soil has warmed up well.
Needles, pine needles for mulch
Eggplants and strawberries are very fond of pine needles as mulch. Many people do not use pine needles for mulching, believing that the pine needles cause the soil to oxidize. But experiments have proven that when the soil is covered with a seven-centimeter layer of pine needles for two years in a row, the acidity of the soil does not change.
Coniferous mulch looks very beautiful on a flower bed, as do crushed pine cones or reeds.
Nettle for mulching
It turns out that nettle is not present in all gardens. This weed appears only on good soil, which is enriched with humus and well structured. In general, if nettles begin to grow in the garden, then you need to be happy: everything is in order with the soil in the plot!
This inconspicuous-looking weed contains so many useful microelements and vitamins, especially iron, that not every medicinal plant can compare with nettle! And in terms of nitrogen content, it is ahead of even mown grass, straw and peat, not to mention manure.
In the process of rotting any parts of this miracle plant, humus is formed, which is suitable for all crops. Mulching the soil with nettle gives amazing results - everything grows like sourdough by leaps and bounds. For mulch it is better to use young nettles(this is just the beginning of summer, when the mulching process begins).
Moss for mulch
Mulching with moss can only be done on non-acidic soil, as such mulch increases acidity. It is absolutely not suitable for strawberries and wild strawberries; these crops can simply rot on the vine. And for peppers, blueberries, radishes, raspberries and potatoes, such mulch is a godsend.
It is also good to mulch coniferous trees and some flowers, such as roses and azaleas, with moss. Seedlings of apple and pear trees can be covered with moss; this will protect them from excess moisture, since the moss will absorb it and give it to the plants during drought. In addition, moss is an excellent antiseptic.
Also, the use of humus, cake or sunflower husks and pumpkin seeds can be an excellent mulch for beds and gardens.
Advantages and disadvantages of different mulching materials
Mulching the soil in a greenhouse
Beginning gardeners are wondering: is it necessary to mulch the soil in a greenhouse? The answer is clear: of course, yes. Mulch retains its beneficial properties in the greenhouse. In addition, tomatoes and cucumbers, which are usually grown there, do not tolerate high humidity, since fungal bacteria quickly develop in the soil, which causes fungal diseases of these plants.
When using mulch, the seedlings are separated from the moist soil by a sufficiently large layer of mulch, which allows the plants to remain healthy throughout the growth period.
Using mulch simplifies the care of plantings, significantly reduces watering and significantly reduces tillage in the beds. Literally in a year you will be able to see the results of regular use of mulch - the soil in the greenhouse will become much more fertile and enriched with microelements.
How to mulch tomatoes in a greenhouse
Inorganic mulch
The most commonly used inorganic materials are:
- small pebbles and gravel;
- nonwoven materials for gardening;
- roofing felt;
- black film.
Mulching film
Many people use dark film in their gardens to control weeds and maintain soil structure. It should be spread on the desired area and secured with thick wire brackets, or lay boards, or simply sprinkle earth on the edges.
To plant a plant, you need to make cuts crosswise or in the form of a gap above the planting site and, having made a hole, carefully plant it. After this, pour thoroughly through the slits. The soil under film mulch remains moist for a long time, which significantly reduces the frequency of watering. But you need to keep in mind that with a long break between waterings, the soil under the waterproof material dries out, since rain does not penetrate the film.
If a perennial crop is grown under such mulch, for example, garden strawberries, then there is no need to remove the film every time at the end of the season. It can remain in the garden for as many years as strawberries grow in this place, that is, about three or four years.
True, film mulch has one significant drawback - since it is not subject to decomposition, there is no nutrition from it for the soil. Therefore, before laying it on the soil, it is recommended to mulch the beds with humus.
Everything you need to know about mulching the soil
HIGH-YIELDING TOMATO VARIETIES FOR GREENHOUSES: REVIEW OF GROUPS, HYBRIDS AND GROWING FEATURES Of the wide variety of tomato varieties offered to farmers and amateur vegetable growers, it is impossible to unambiguously recommend only some and ignore others, because the preferences of a particular person are subjective. And this is understandable: each of us has our own criteria for evaluating the tomatoes we grow, but everyone always chooses the most productive tomatoes for greenhouses. In areas with different climates, the conditions for cultivating tomatoes (even in farm greenhouses) are different, so the most popular are specific, zoned varieties, which enjoy well-deserved attention from most gardeners. - Indeterminate varieties are ideal for greenhouses - vigorous bushes form into one stem. - Determinate tomatoes for greenhouses require constant pruning of shoots. Each hybrid is prone to one of these 2 types of development, so we need to correct plant growth in time, starting right from the seedlings. According to the type of growth, TOMATOES are divided into 2 GROUPS: - with vegetative development, - with generative development. As a rule, well-known seed manufacturing companies provide the following starting information on the packaging: the main characteristics and individual characteristics of a particular variety. For low greenhouses for tomatoes with a standard (up to 2.5 m) ridge height, we will choose tall varieties of tomatoes with shortened internodes, and we will form them into 2 stems. When the bushes grow to the trellis, each shoot will already have 3 brushes. We will send out additional shoots from the seedlings under the very first cluster. Typically, tall and large-fruited tomatoes exhibit a vegetative type of growth. We plant seedlings of hybrids and varieties with this vegetative type of development with the first two racemes flowering in order to prevent fattening of the plants, which reduces the yield of tomatoes in the greenhouse. REVIEW OF VARIETIES ONLY FOR GREENHOUSE PURPOSE MEDIUM AND HIGH-GROWING YIELDING VARIETIES 1. Intuition F1 - with 1 stem and unlimited growth, a mid-season hybrid of truss tomatoes: only 110 days pass from the first shoots to fruiting. Round, smooth fruits weighing over 100 g do not crumble even after ripening, do not crack, and their high sugar content is ideal for canning and fresh salads. 2. Kostroma F1 is a two-meter mid-early hybrid, already 106 after germination we collect a friendly and abundant harvest of flat-round fruits weighing 150 g, and up to 5 kg per bush. This plant is resistant to viruses and changes in humidity and temperature. 3. Rosemary F1: within 115 days after sprouting, large (400g), pink, smooth fruits ripen for delicious salads. Their flesh is juicy, tender, and has a “melting” consistency. Productivity reaches 11 kg per plant. 4. Chio-chio-san - a mid-season hybrid with unlimited growth, hung with huge branched clusters, with 50 fruits on each. Pink, plum-shaped tomatoes weighing up to 40 g delight us with an excellent dessert taste and four kilograms of such fruits per bush. The variety is not susceptible to tobacco mosaic disease. 5. Blagovest F1 is a one and a half meter tall, early ripening hundred day hybrid. One plant produces 5 kg of round fruits weighing over 100 g each. 6. Verlioka F1 - one and a half meter, early ripening hundred-year-old with round fruits up to 100 g each and 5 kg per bush. This tomato is great for canning and fresh salads. As the personal experience of gardeners proves, the most productive varieties of tomatoes for a greenhouse are numerous: their list can include dozens of other hybrids and varieties of tomatoes, even for one region. INTERESTING NEW VARIETIES 1. Siberian F1 - a late-ripening, single-stem hybrid with unlimited growth produces a yield of up to 5 kg in 4.5 months. Its flat-round, smooth, aromatic tomatoes are unique in size - up to 2.8 kg, and their taste is harmonious, dessert. The plant is not susceptible to diseases such as cladosporiosis and fusarium. 2. Ural F1: This indeterminate tomato with unlimited growth for the Ural region will produce the first tasty, sweet tomatoes for salads in just 4 months. Up to 25 flat-round fruits weighing 350 g grow on 1 bush. 3. Shaolin F1 is a plant with a medium ripening period: after 115 days, the first large (up to 400 g), pink, beautiful tomatoes, intended for salad purposes, ripen on powerful low bushes. Their pulp is tender, juicy, as if melting, with an abundance of provitamin A. The average yield is 10 kg per plant. Kamchatka F1 is a one and a half meter mid-season (110 days before fruiting) variety with attractive and tasty round fruits weighing up to 150 g, stored for up to 2 months. The hybrid is resistant to all viral pathogens dangerous to these plants. All of these listed productive varieties of tomatoes for greenhouses have already been appreciated by experienced vegetable growers and are leaders in the sale of seeds, especially since they are not very demanding on care. GREENHOUSE RUSH TOMATOES (We collect their fruits with tassels, like grapes in clusters). This type is gaining well-deserved popularity. Breeders have successfully bred the following hybrids: Fatalist, Fan, Vladimir and others. FEATURES: - A valuable feature of this type is its high strength: we can transport the crop anywhere, but the tomatoes do not spoil or crack. - The fruits on the cluster are often the same size: 100 – 200 g. - Such greenhouse tomatoes with clusters are absolutely resistant to the diseases characteristic of these plants, so we do not have to spend money on purchasing various preventive chemicals. THE MOST POPULAR Of course, it is almost impossible to list all the high-yielding varieties of tomatoes for the greenhouse - after all, breeders delight us with their new achievements. Among them, De Barao red and Hybrid Ivanhoe F1 stand out. It is believed that these varieties in a greenhouse produce over 20 kg of fruit from 1 bush. DE BARAO - For De Barao, the norm is 30 kg per plant, and the record is 70 kg. - Even in open ground, this variety, under normal conditions and proper care, produces 10 kilograms per bush in the hot summer. - Its smooth fruits are of medium size with a weight of 150 g and are very tasty fresh and canned. - However, the hybrid is very demanding on the microclimate and grows poorly on infertile, heavy clay or loamy soils. - Breeders have pleased gardeners with original early varieties of tomatoes for greenhouses, which are not inferior in yield. But they have a different color, indicated in their very name: De Barao yellow, pink or black. SEMKO-SINBAD F1 One of the most popular early ripening hybrids was Semko-Sinbad F1. - In terms of early ripening, it is not inferior to the Hurricane variety, in which the first tomatoes turn red already on the 80th day from the seedlings pecking. - Ovaries on the plant are also formed without additional measures. Its inflorescence contains 8 red fruits weighing up to 100 g with an average yield of about 10 kg per 1 sq. m. HYBRID IVENGO F1 The new salad tomato surprises with its productivity: the fruits on its clusters are like on a well-groomed bunch of grapes. - All tomatoes are bright red and do not shrink closer to the top of the bush, providing excellent harvest without the use of growth stimulants. - The taste of the fruits of this hybrid is much better than other greenhouse counterparts, and the bush itself is large, with powerful thick stems. - Ivanhoe, with its high yield, practically does not get sick and is resistant to fungi, tomato mosaic, nematode, and verticillium. - Especially valuable for lovers of natural farming: it gives an excellent harvest without the use of chemicals. - And this variety actually has no disadvantages, only the price of its seeds is higher. And we won’t put tomatoes in regular jars - they are very large. ALHAMBRA Its excellent productivity is successfully combined with another advantage - the brushes do not refract. - The taste of tomatoes is excellent. - This variety bears maximum fruit in heated greenhouses from April to January, forming ten-meter vines. CARE OF HIGH YIELD TOMATOES We monitor the load of plants directly with fruits and regulate it in a timely manner, taking into account the characteristics of the variety. FEEDING 1. It is advisable to carry out agrotechnical regulation of the development of bushes only with their balanced nutrition. 2. Please note! Experience shows that it is better to limit nitrogen before the formation of the first bunch of fruit, especially in plants with vegetative development. 3. 1 week before planting the seedlings in the garden greenhouse, stop feeding them, and after planting, we will do the first feeding in 2 weeks. 4. During the growing season, we regularly add, as the instructions recommend, phosphorus and potassium (wood ash is well suited for this purpose, and to simplify the process of feeding plants, it is best to immediately add 2 large handfuls of ash into each hole immediately when planting seedlings), during flowering It is advisable to sprinkle the same wood ash around each tomato bush (this will also help protect the plants from verticillium wilt). Next, when the fruits set on the first two clusters, it is necessary to apply nitrogen liquid fertilizers for active growth of the fruits. During this period, we feed with a solution of mullein or bird droppings, and an infusion of weeds with an EM preparation is also good. 5. In case of excessive vegetation, we apply root feeding with a bright pink solution of potassium permanganate. 6. With accelerated generative development, we will make 2 feedings with fermented weeds - this will speed up the ripening of unexpectedly numerous fruits in cool weather. CARING FOR SEARCHES - Shoots will appear in a week, and we will reduce the temperature to +18C. - Water with warm, settled water once every 3 days. - To rid the sprouts of root rot, we use biological products. - When a true leaf appears, place the seedlings one at a time in plastic or peat pots. CARE OF PLANTS - We place seedlings in a row on the ground every 50 centimeters, and between their rows - 60 cm. - Please note! Seedlings of large-fruited tomatoes are placed in heated shelters 50 days after germination, and in unheated shelters in May. - Add 0.5 kg of humus into the hole. - We will tie up the overgrown bushes with a trellis, thrown over a 5 mm wire stretched along the rows. - Next, we simply twist the trellis with our own hands as the bush grows, water it, and after flowering, feed it with ready-made balanced organic matter 2 times a month. - We will tie up large-fruited tomatoes - these high-yielding varieties need such support. - We regularly remove shoots from the leaf axil. - We collect fruits that are brown, since their complete redness depletes the plant. CONCLUSION - Experienced gardeners experiment with several varieties of tomatoes at once, because a specific soil and region have their own productive hybrids. - When choosing varieties, we take into account the characteristics of the greenhouse and growing conditions. - Traditional and proven greenhouse tomatoes are good, but new varieties are more hardy and productive with easy care. - We buy large packages of the selected variety and plant half of the seeds; if the result is successful, we sow the remaining seeds for the next year.
Summer residents have long noticed: where nettles grow, there is fertile, healthy soil on which all crops, including decorative ones, grow well. You can plant your plants in such soil without any fertilizers and they will grow very strong and strong.
Benefits of soil under nettles
When decomposing, the leaves, stems and roots of nettle form neutral, thin humus. Next to or after nettles, the plants are very disease resistant. Many fragrant plants, under its beneficial influence, enhance the aroma (for example, mint - almost doubled), attracting beneficial insects that pollinate and destroy pests.
The ideal mulch is made from nettles
Nettle is rich in microelements, primarily iron. Even a small amount of nettle leaves significantly improves the quality of the compost. The positive experience of English gardeners using nettles as mulch is noteworthy: vegetable plants develop better and are reliably protected from slugs, aphids and snails.
Liquid fertilizer from nettles
The experience of European gardeners using nettle infusion as a liquid fertilizer is interesting.
Fill 0.5 volumes of finely chopped nettle into polyethylene, wooden (but not metal) containers, add water to a level 10 cm below the top edge of the container, cover and place away from housing (an unpleasant odor is released during fermentation).
After two weeks, the infusion is ready. For foliar feeding, it is diluted 20 times and sprayed on the plants, for watering at the root - 10 times.
Nettle infusion promotes the growth and development of most plants and heals the soil. But there are exceptions: garlic, onions, beans and peas do not like nettles.
In addition to nettle, infusions of a mixture of herbs are very effective: chamomile, shepherd's purse and horsetail (infusions of these herbs are rich in microelements), and comfrey quickly compensates for potassium deficiency.
Nettle will protect plants from aphids
The number of aphids increases sharply in dry summers. Fresh nettle leaves (1-2 kg per bucket of water) are infused for a day, after which the affected plants are treated with undiluted infusion - the aphids die from the effects of formic acid contained in the stinging nettle hairs.
Protection against late blight of tomatoes
It is known that spraying tomatoes with fermented nettle infusion (1 kg per bucket of water) prevents late blight outbreaks. Nettle can transform uncultivated, abandoned soils into suitable soils for crops.
Vitamin value of nettle
Nettle also heals humans. It saves you from a lack of vitamins in early spring: young leaves and shoots are used to prepare green cabbage soup, salads, purees, and side dishes. For the winter, nettles are salted, fermented, or powdered from dry leaves.
Young nettles are used to make pies filling
(preferably in a 1:1 mixture with sorrel). Cocktails with carrot and lemon juice are prepared from fresh juice. Nettle juice has long been used as a nourishing and healing agent in cosmetics; it is included in many creams, shampoos and balms.
