Chicken droppings as fertilizer
 Chicken litter

To grow a good crop of crops, it is necessary to constantly replenish the soil with nutrient reserves, which it gives along with the crop. Otherwise, the upper fertile layer will be exhausted. To take something, you must first give something away. In this case, endlessly harvesting without saturating the soil with substances is a thoughtless and careless attitude towards our landowner.

Both mineral and organic fertilizers can be applied to the soil. It is better to do it in a complex. However, mineral fertilizers are expensive. As an exit, you can use organics prepared in a certain way. Pets are the organic nutrients. - manure and for example chicken dung.If you keep in your backyard or in the country, chickens, geese, ducks, turkeys, better fertilizer than the litter from this poultry for plant nutrition is not found.

The composition of chicken manure

The main components of chicken manure are:

  • nitrogen compounds;
  • phosphorus;
  • potassium;
  • calcium;
  • various macro and microelements;
  • lime;
  • phosphoric acid;
  • magnesium;
  • sulfur;
  • potassium oxide;
  • biologically active compounds;
  • other elements.
 Chicken litter in a bucket
Chicken litter in a bucket

Poultry manure contains several times more phosphorus than cow dung, it contains up to 2% of nitrogen, which is three to four times more than in the above-mentioned organic fertilizer. Ammonia compounds in it are so concentrated that in pure form it is impossible to bring this organic matter into the soil directly for plant nutrition.

How to collect and store

Due to the fact that the chicken litter contains a large amount of gases (methane, ammonia), there are special techniques for its preparation, storage and incorporation into the soil.

As a rule, chicken manure is collected from the chicken coop along with a small amount of bedding (straw). If chickens are kept in a free-form way in an open-air cage, then you can rake it together with a small layer of earth. Specially no cleaning is done. The most common storage methods are:

  • In a heap in bulk;
  • Compost heaps or pits;
  • Dry granules or powder.

The first storage method is the easiest common, but it gives the least effect. With this method, chicken manure when cleaning the chicken coop is simply raked in a heap and put in the corner of the garden or garden plot. At best, cover with a film until it is applied to the soil. The main disadvantage: litter dries quickly, forming lumps and layers. In addition, in the drying process, it loses most of the nitrogen in the form of ammonia.

 A pile of chicken litter and a girl with a pitchfork
Pile of chicken manure

The most acceptable and reasonable way to store litter at home is preparation of compost heaps or pits. This is done in the following way: a small layer of litter (10-15 cm) is spread on straw bedding 15–20 cm thick. Next, alternate layers of what is at hand. This may be peat, land, cow dung, straw again, etc. All this forms as a heap or folds into a hole, hermetically covered with a film on top to enhance anaerobic processes and increase the temperature inside the heap or well. After three or four months you can check the contents. If the compost is ready, it is introduced in certain proportions, as discussed below. To speed up fermentation and processing You can use EM drugs that contain bacteria in a concentrated form.

The third way to store litter (dry granules or powder) is used mainly in the factory. Dried at a temperature of about 600 ° C, the litter is freed from pathogens and weed seeds. In addition, the dry mixture does not have a specific smell. Buy fertilizer made in this way can be in stores. The packaging is convenient - from a few hundred grams to several tens of kilograms.

What plants are suitable for?

Chicken litter as a fertilizer suitable for almost all crops: cereals, vegetables, berries, fruit trees. The exception is onions, garlic, other greens during active growth. Of vegetables, excellent response to the introduction of litter cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant. In berries and fruit trees, there are no exceptions to the positive effect of their use.

 Vegetable beds
Vegetable beds

Table of norms for the application of fertilizers for various crops, t / ha

Culture name litter
dry litter natural moisture from compost heaps or pits
cereals 3-4 8-12 7-9 18-22
potatoes 3-4 9-13 8-10 20-24
root vegetables 5-6 12-16 9-12 25-30
vegetable crops 6-8 20-25 12-17 30-40
berry 8-10 20-25 17-20 40-50
fruit 10-12 25-30 20-25 45-55

 

The consumption rate can vary from 1 to 50% depending on the culture, stage of plant growth.

Application of chicken droppings in granules, how to breed

 Chicken droppings in granules
Chicken droppings in granules

To make a dry manure in granules, it is first diluted in any container with water. (barrel, bucket). The proportion is kept at 1:25, unless otherwise written on the packaging when purchasing fertilizer. Be sure to insist for 50-70 hours. Fruit trees fertilized in pristvolny circles. Vegetables are watered directly on the beds.It is advisable to wash the leaves of the plant when the solution gets on them. Sample application rates are shown in the table above. Watered with this solution 2 or 3 times per season.

If in doubt, what rate of fertilizer to make for a particular crop, it is better to give the plant less than more. In the first case, the situation can be corrected due to the frequency of introduction, and in the second, the plant can die.

How to use dry bird droppings as fertilizer

Dry litter can be applied in two ways:

  • If it is very fine fraction or powdered, it can scatter on the soil in the fall in the winter in moderate quantities (about one and a half to two times more than it would take for growing plants). In this form, dry droppings can also be made in the wells for vegetables, shrubs or trees. The consumption rate is shown in the table.
  • Fertilize with a solution. Just as in the case of the use of granules, first it is diluted in any container with water. The proportion is kept at 1:25, unless otherwise written on the package. Insist for two to three days.

How to use litter from compost heaps

Before applying the fertilizer stored in the above way, you need it dilute in the tank. A bucket for this purpose is not suitable. Need to pick up a vessel with a volume of 20 liters. Litter litter should ferment longer. This will take more time. Compost heaps are almost ready to use. It is enough to insist on the water for several hours.

 Litter litter
Litter litter

Can also apply technique spreading it on the site. This is done in the autumn after harvesting all crops. In spring, with melt water, the main part of the nutrients gets into the soil. The remaining solid mass will serve as an excellent tool for structuring the soil itself.

Advantages and disadvantages

The use of chicken manure when growing crops has positive action:

  • On the structure and properties of the soil: is an excellent baking powder. In addition, it saturates the fertile layer with nutrients for microflora and plants. Due to the introduction of manure into the soil, aerobic and anaerobic processes are enhanced;
  • On the plants themselves: they take additional nutrients in a form that they can digest for building up green, tuberous or fruit mass (depending on the crop);
  • For terms of fruit ripening: we get an earlier harvest;
  • In terms of duration of use it as a fertilizer introduced into the soil for two to three years;
  • On pH recovery soil;
  • To increase plant resistance to disease.

In addition, chicken manure is cheaper than mineral fertilizers. Therefore, in part, can replace them.

However, this substance has one drawback. Since the concentrated litter contains many elements, its excess in the soil adversely affects the growth and development of plants, up to their death. Therefore very It is important not to overfeed vegetables, berries and other crops..

Like any substance, it can be both a medicine and a poison. The same applies to chicken manure as a fertilizer.

Nature itself gives us the means and methods for its provision. It is not necessary to use “chemistry”, to invent genetically mutated organisms for our life and development. It is important to rationally use the available wealth, not forgetting their replenishment through reproduction.