On Jan 20, 4:38*am, "Dioclese" NONE wrote:
"gardengal" wrote in message

...
On Jan 19, 6:31 am, "Dioclese" NONE wrote:

Thanks for input on the hackberry tree inquiry.

Mother's yard was also covered with primarily pecan leaves and pecan
husks,
along with grass clippings and minor weeds. Used mulcher mower with bagger
attachment, and bagged all 20 bags of it in 30 gallon trash bags. She
wants
to leave it for garbage pickup. I'd like to take it all to my place and
allow it to anaerobically decay in a shaded area for a year. My soil is
terribly alkali on PH scale. Would pecan leaf and husk remnants help lean
it towards the other end of the PH scale?

--
Dave

While the leaves themselves may test out as acidic, they lose much of
this property as they decompose and approach an almost neutral pH.
This is true of pretty much any organic matter.....the process of
decomposition is a great neutralizer! And it takes a great deal of
truly acidic soil amendments to significantly alter pH anyway and that
tends to be a temporary fix at best, as most soils have large
buffering capacities and tend to return eventually to the status quo.
So the short answer is no, they won't help to acidify your soil to any
substantial degree.

Pecans also contain some juglone, a plant hormone that is allelopathic
in nature, discouraging the growth of certain other plants. Much less
of this is concentrated in the leaves or husks than in the roots, but
you might want to avoid using the pecan refuse until it is pretty well
broken down on any vegetable crops....these seem to be more
susceptible.

Otherwise, any leaf mulch is good thing!

-----------

Couple of more questions.
How about just spreading the resulting rot to the lawn?

In a raised garden scenario where I typically use purchased soil which is
sandy and almost benign of nutrients, okay there?
--
Dave

I think what you mean is cold or passive composting - just allowing
the leaves to sit in a pile and breakdown/decompose naturally - rather
than anaerobic. Passive composting is still an aerobic process - it
just takes longer to get a finished product than does active
composting. This is a pretty common activity used with leaves - it is
known as leaf mold (or mould if you live in the UK) and is an
excellent and very valuable soil amendment.

Which ever process you follow, I'd wait until the pecan refuse has
broken down a bit before applying it either in raised beds or directly
to the lawn. Whatever you apply to a lawn should be of a pretty fine
texture, otherwise you run the risk of smothering the turf grass and
creating fungal issues. And use a light hand!