Most owners of summer cottages think every year about whether it is worth filling the beds in greenhouses with snow or not. The answer to this question is clear – it is necessary. The snow cover that falls on the ground with the arrival of winter can reliably protect it from drying out and frost. Snow, promptly thrown into the greenhouse, helps protect numerous microorganisms necessary to maintain fertility from freezing. The soil, saturated with melt water in the spring, is reborn, saturated with useful substances and allows you to get a rich harvest in the fall.
Which greenhouses can you put snow in?
In closed greenhouses, including arched ones, bare areas of land devoid of snow cover are much more likely to suffer from exhaustion and dehydration, which entails the need to frequently change the top layer of soil. This can be avoided by filling the empty ground with a thick layer of snow.
It is necessary to throw snow in the following types of greenhouses in winter:
- polycarbonate;
- film;
- glass.
If the design of the greenhouse does not provide for the possibility of removing the roof or protective materials from the walls for the winter, manually throwing snow inside will help to quickly awaken the soil in the spring, which will allow you to start sowing a few weeks earlier.
How to sleep correctly and in what quantities
The snow cover should not be removed from the beds - the garden needs such a blanket, otherwise it can provoke the death of other garden plants. It only needs to be collected from row spacing. Snow from snowdrifts formed after cleaning paths or roofs is also suitable.
Around the perimeter of the greenhouse, a space of about 90–100 cm in width is cleared. That is, there are plenty of places from which you can take snow. And this amount is quite enough for a standard greenhouse.
- The use of such snow has triple benefits:
- Paths cleared of snow will dry out faster in the spring.
- The foundation of the greenhouse will warm up faster, and the snowdrifts will not break through or deform the covering.
- The soil in the greenhouse will receive enough snow, be saturated with useful elements and thaw faster.
Important! An indispensable condition is that the snow mass must be clean.
It is advisable to throw snow into the greenhouse in several approaches, distributing it evenly around the perimeter. Each time add 20–50 cm; As a result, a cover 50–80 cm thick should form. Then the beds will be provided with a sufficient layer of snow cover.
You should not make the layer too large - in this case, the ground will thaw for quite a long time, which will delay the planting work by 7-10 days.
You should also not compact the snow cover. In this case, the main property of snow is violated - air permeability.
Did you know? A snowflake contains only 5% ice structures and 95% air. Therefore, in a snowdrift, air comes first, which determines the most important characteristic - thermal insulation.
- Having learned why snow is needed in a greenhouse, some try to “freeze” the soil more strongly and open the room for the whole winter. This is strictly forbidden, because:
- Strong gusts of wind (which are not uncommon in winter) will negatively affect the condition of the structure. It will lose its elasticity or will not hold up at all. The windows and doors will have to be repaired in any case.
- If the doors are open, animals will get inside, which can either settle there until spring or simply make the room dirty. That is, in the spring we will also have to solve this problem.
From what month should I apply?
The optimal time for throwing snow into the greenhouse is considered to be January and February. This should not be done in December, since the soil must be properly frozen in order to destroy pathogens and pests.
However, first of all, you need to focus on actual weather conditions. In a snowy year, you don’t have to rush to lay snow on the greenhouse beds; this can be done at the end of February. And on the contrary, if the winter turned out to be poor in precipitation and very little snow fell, you should go to the site and collect it as early as possible.
When is it necessary to fill up the snow?
You need to start throwing snow mass into the greenhouse as early as possible. But some gardeners claim that the best time to fill it up is February.
In any case, when the outer layer reaches 80–100 cm, it is time to pour snow drifts inside.
If there is little precipitation, they should be thrown in immediately, forming a layer gradually.
Learn about effective ways to strengthen greenhouses for the winter.
What consistency of snow is suitable?
Loose and light snow is optimal for laying. When throwing it, it should not be compacted - dense snowdrifts will melt much more slowly when it gets warm, which may lead to the need to postpone planting plants in the greenhouse indefinitely.
It is important to consider that before making a decision to cover, you should assess the condition of the site and the proximity of groundwater. Excessive humidity, artificially created during the release of melt water, can lead to the formation of an impenetrable swamp, due to which it will not be possible to plant plants in the ground any time soon.
Benefit or harm
Snow cover has a positive effect on open ground:
- The dense layer acts as thermal insulation. The root system is protected from freezing, young shoots are “sheltered” from the wind. Beneficial microorganisms living in the soil do not die from the cold.
- "Supplier" of moisture. Melt water acts as a source of nutrients, promoting the active growth of shoots with the onset of heat.
A greenhouse, unlike open ground, is deprived of the opportunity to receive food from the outside due to partitions. If you do not add snow to the greenhouse in winter, with the onset of a thaw you need to take care of irrigation and fertilization before planting.
Why do we throw snow in the greenhouse?
The main reasons prompting summer residents to add snow to their greenhouses are:
- Creating a natural air cushion that allows you to protect the soil from freezing and can protect wintering plants from sub-zero temperatures. Soil left in the pre-winter period without natural shelter (mulch, fallen leaves, etc.) can harden during frost to a state close to stone. At the same time, the process of moisture evaporation does not stop even in the most severe frosts, which significantly increases the density of the soil and reduces the productivity of the land. Freezing also leads to the death of beneficial microflora, which in the natural environment is restored extremely slowly. Throwing snow into the greenhouse prevents this problem as well.
- Slowing down microbiological and chemical processes occurring in the soil. Snow in this case acts as a natural preservative.
- Melt water is one of the best sources of moisture in spring. Its special molecular structure awakens the earth faster and allows you to quickly prepare the beds for planting. Under its influence, seeds germinate much more actively, take root better and proceed to growth more intensively.
- Snow cover effectively protects the top layer of soil from erosion.
Benefits of snow
But this recommendation does have many positive consequences. The snow cover that covers the ground with the arrival of the cold season helps protect it from excessive dryness and freezing. That is why it is worth throwing more snow into the greenhouse - it will protect all the beneficial microorganisms of the soil cover from freezing, and they are extremely important for increased soil fertility.
And when spring comes, the earth will be saturated with melt water from this snow, which will enhance its degeneration and fill it with a large amount of beneficial substances. Melted snow is the best source of moisture necessary for the earth. The structure of its composition gives weakened soil the opportunity to quickly awaken from winter rest and prepare to grow new plants. Under the influence of beneficial substances from melt water, any seeds quickly adapt to the soil, take root better and develop more actively until the harvest ripens.
By creating a natural air cushion that protects the ground from deep freezing, the possibility of a more successful wintering for perennial plants increases. During the winter cold, the soil is left without the natural strength in the form of shelter from fallen leaves and sometimes hardens from severe frosts so much that it can resemble stone. Under all these conditions, the evaporation of moisture continues to occur as usual, without looking at the thermometer. Due to this phenomenon, the density of the soil composition greatly increases and the productivity of the land decreases.
Important!
This freezing process can lead to the death of beneficial microflora, which under normal environmental conditions is restored over a long period. Such soil will lose its fertility more and more every season, even if you water it with water, which every gardener begins to use only in early May.
In this way, it is possible to restore the vital functions of the soil and activate the work of bacteria, but this will happen extremely slowly compared to beds that were once covered with snow.
Snow cover also plays the role of a natural preservative, which helps slow down all chemical and microbiological processes. This is the best way to preserve the upper layers of the earth from erosion.
Is snow needed in a greenhouse in winter?
There is an opinion: supposedly, even in winter, heated greenhouses are so warm that the soil in them simply cannot freeze. This is actually a misconception. The air there does not warm up in any way in winter. So, although the temperature there is higher than outside, it is not so much as to protect the soil. Without snow cover, the soil will freeze and freeze.
If the ground did not freeze, then almost any crop could be grown in a greenhouse in winter. This does not happen only under one condition - if a constant positive temperature is maintained inside by additional heating. Then there is no need to throw snow.
So why throw snow into the greenhouse in winter and protect the soil from excessive freezing? The ground not covered with snow actively evaporates moisture. Due to the lack of shelter, it begins to dry out, becoming dense and hard as stone. Such soil will have a significantly reduced moisture capacity, air exchange will be greatly impaired, which means that in the future the plants will feel uncomfortable.
Photo: Covering the ground with snow will give you many benefits.
In addition, as the soil freezes to a greater depth, in addition to harmful microorganisms, beneficial microorganisms begin to die (which does not bode well). The death of beneficial microorganisms will lead to the land becoming less fertile, and the applied mineral and organic fertilizers will take longer to convert into compounds available to plants. Fertilizers will provide less and less benefit to plants; their parts will simply settle in the soil.
So, five important advantages of snow in a greenhouse in winter:
- significant savings in soil moisture;
- natural, natural protection of the soil from freezing to great depths;
- protection against erosion, an obstacle due to which the soil does not lose microelements beneficial to plants;
- snow cover is a brake on the occurrence of undesirable soil chemical processes;
- when the snow melts, it will also supply the greenhouse soil with the microelements it contains. Many people know that melt water is soft water; it contains microelements that are beneficial for plants. Therefore, it is better to water them with it. Snow will enrich the soil with moisture and even increase its nutritional value for plants. They will grow and develop much faster in the spring and will produce excellent harvests in the summer.
Photo: When the snow melts, it will supply the soil with microelements.
