leaf mould
I'm a bit of a compost freak but haven't made any leaf mould yet and this
year decided I would. I know that you put them in a bag for about a year. Is there anything else I need to do? Also, will any leaves with black spot or other fungal or viral problems, be ok in with other leaves as it's so hard to separate everything in the garden especially when the leaves are wet.If everything breaks down properly, will these just be killed off or not? Liz |
leaf mould
I'm a bit of a compost freak but haven't made any leaf mould yet and this
year decided I would. I know that you put them in a bag for about a year. Is there anything else I need to do? Also, will any leaves with black spot or other fungal or viral problems, be ok in with other leaves as it's so hard to separate everything in the garden especially when the leaves are wet.If everything breaks down properly, will these just be killed off or not? Liz I think some people will advise you to keep the leaves that have been tainted with black spot out of your compost. However, black spot is usually only a real problem with weak plants. You'd be better off spending your time feeding your plants and generally looking after their condition rather than worrying about black spot (IMHO). Roses are the most likely plants to get it and even spraying with fungicides is unlikely to eradicate it if plants are less than completely healthy, though they are unlikely to die from being infected with black spot alone. I'd also add that if you've already got leaves with black spot on, the spores are already in your garden, and even if they aren't they will probably find their way in from elsewhere anyway. As far as killing off the fungal spores during composting is concerned, it's unlikely to happen unless you have a large compost heap that heats up. The same goes for roots of some weeds, weed seeds, etc. Personally I'd say compost away, but as I said, others may differ in their views. I actually wonder whether you can use anything from your garden and compost it safely as you have black spot, and the spores will be all over the place. I'll be interested to read any other views to see what they think of this. All the best, and happy composting. Dave. |
leaf mould
In article , Alan and Liz
writes I'm a bit of a compost freak but haven't made any leaf mould yet and this year decided I would. I know that you put them in a bag for about a year. Is there anything else I need to do? Also, will any leaves with black spot or other fungal or viral problems, be ok in with other leaves as it's so hard to separate everything in the garden especially when the leaves are wet.If everything breaks down properly, will these just be killed off or not? My father used to collect up autumn leaves and fill a tea-chest with them. He would then put a couple of inches of good soil on top of the leaves as they warmed up and use the tea-chest as an over-winter propagator for seeds or cuttings. Once the contents had done their job they would be spread over his very productive allotment. -- Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs. |
leaf mould
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leaf mould
David.
I couldn't agree more with the latter remark, but would like to make an observation on the former! Living in Plymouth where the air is exceptionally clean (except for atomic radiation) roses have always been subject to savage attacks of blackspot *except* where they were grown very close to roads (for instance the 'islands' separating dual carriageways) There they may well have grown somewhat stunted - but still very florifulous - but I never saw 'Blind Pugh's Curse' on them. I'd hazard a guess that it was the almost constant flow of carbon monoxide across their leaves. In my own gardens, and treated better than a mother in law, I have always fought a non stop battle with the damn spot. John It's possible that sulphur monoxide which is one of the chemicals emitted from vehicle exhausts acts as a mild fungicide. Sulphur powder is used as such and has been for many years. The carbon monoxide is unlikely (as far as I can work out) to have much effect on the fungi, but may do. Interestingly though, sulphur deficiency in the soil affected many plants before the industrial revolution. Sulphur can be added to make soil more acid and treat lime induced chlorosis and is used by plants directly too, as far as I remember. The industrial revolution pumped tons of sulphur into the atmosphere which came down with the rain and to some extent diminished the extent and severity of this problem. The interesting point is that with so much effort being put into reducing sulphur dioxide emissions from cars, etc. lime induced chlorosis is likely to become more of a problem again, though probably not for many years. Hoping that this is interesting, and not too controvertial! Dave. |
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