In areas where water stagnates, moss almost always appears. Many summer residents try to remove it mechanically, but with the onset of the new season, the weed reappears. Why is this happening and how to deal with moss?
Why is the land on the site overgrown with moss?
There are four main causes of moss:
- waterlogging and poor drainage,
- poor lighting and poor ventilation,
- excessive amount of applied fertilizers,
- increased acidity of the soil.
How to get rid of moss?
As soon as you find moss on the site, the following actions should be taken:
- Significantly reduce watering, and in the case of a large area of green land, completely stop it. Sand can be added to the site, this will help improve soil drainage.
- Make a couple of grooves into which excess moisture will drain.
- Increase aeration (ventilation) - the site simply needs to be dug up or pierced with a pitchfork so that air gets into the deep layers of the soil.
- Dig up the earth with lime at the rate of 50 kg per one hundred square meters of land to reduce the acidity of the soil. Adding wood ash or dolomite flour to the site will also help reduce acidity.
- Apply complex fertilizers (nitrogen and ferrous sulfate) to combat moss. The reason why the weed is actively growing is an overabundance of phosphorus fertilizers. It is they, introduced in excessive amounts into the ground, that can provoke the rapid spread of moss.
- Reduce shade by trimming the lower branches of trees.
What to do if no way to deal with moss helps?
If the above methods of struggle were ineffective, it is necessary to replace the soil in the fall. For this you need:
- remove the top layer of soil, not less than 0.3 m thick;
- treat the remaining surface with quicklime;
- after a day, the lime must be extinguished with ordinary water. The surface of the soil on which the lime has been extinguished must be very carefully whitewashed;
- leave the soil in a whitewashed state for two to three days;
- after the site has dried, bring in and lay a new, fresh soil.
How do you know if the soil in the area is acidic?
You can check the acidity of the soil on the site with special devices and improvised means.
Soil analysis in the laboratory
You can do the analysis in the agrochemical laboratory. To do this, you need to collect samples at several points on the plot: dig the soil from a depth (approximately 15–20 cm) and take a handful of earth from the bottom, middle and top from a clod. Mix all soil samples and pour 300–400 grams into a bag.
Litmus paper
Take a few handfuls of earth, fill it with rain or distilled water and stir until the earth turns into a liquid porridge. Wait 15 minutes and mix again. After 5 minutes, a liquid forms on top of the slurry, to which litmus paper must be applied.
If the paper is dyed in:
- red color, then the acidity of the soil is high;
- orange color, the acidity is medium;
- yellow color, then the acidity is weak;
- green color, then the acidity is neutral;
- bright green color, then the soil has an alkaline composition.
Soil acidity meter
Acidity can be measured with a soil acidity meter, which is available from specialized gardening centers and stores.
cabbage juice
You can check the soil for acidity with cabbage juice. To do this, pour a little juice into a clean cup and add a couple of tablespoons of earth there. Wait 30 minutes and check the resulting color of the solution.
Purple means that the soil is neutral, pink means that the soil is acidic with a pH level between 1 and 7, a lighter solution indicates an even more acidic soil.
Vinegar and soda
You can check the acidity level of the soil using vinegar and baking soda. To do this, put a few tablespoons of earth in two different containers. Add vinegar to one of them, if a lump hisses, this will mean that it is alkaline. Acidity is determined after adding soda to a container with earth diluted in water. If it starts to hiss, it will mean that you have acid earth. If the soil does not begin to sizzle in any container, this means that most likely the pH level in your area is neutral.
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