Question about leaf compost

[Hayron1088]

Hello everyone. So my parents have a leaf pile…it has at the minimum 40 years of leaves dumped there. Oak, maple, tiny branches, etc. if I dig down it’s pure humming as if you ask me! Filled with all kinds of life too. What can I use it for?

 

[CelestialNurseries]

Hello everyone. So my parents have a leaf pile…it has at the minimum 40 years of leaves dumped there. Oak, maple, tiny branches, etc. if I dig down it’s pure humming as if you ask me! Filled with all kinds of life too. What can I use it for?

Make some IMO1.

 

[Azimuth]

Hello everyone. So my parents have a leaf pile…it has at the minimum 40 years of leaves dumped there. Oak, maple, tiny branches, etc. if I dig down it’s pure humming as if you ask me! Filled with all kinds of life too. What can I use it for?

You could mine it and sell it. That is some seriously good stuff, and is called leaf mold.

Unlike a normal thermophilic compost pile, leaves compost down in a cold fungal process.

Leaf mold is made with a fungal breakdown process as opposed to the bacterial process we use in normal composting. This is a cold process that takes time, rather than a hot process as with most compost.

The process is quite simple. Pile up a bunch of leaves, ideally at least a meter square and high, wet it thoroughly, and let it sit for a while. Like a couple of years. This is not a quick process. The breakdown can be speeded up with the addition of turning and adding high nitrogen items but then you're back to a more bacterially dominated end product. So, time it is.

I use it in place of peat moss as the base of my grow mix.

Celestial mentioned IMO1 which is first step of a process in Korean Natural Farming to increase microbial activity in your soil.

Some of us are using it in an experiment to combat mold and bud rot late in an outdoor grow Experiment thread here.

 

[Hayron1088]

This leaf pile is over 40 years old and roughly 25 ft tall and atleast 120ft long and 70-80 ft wide

 

[SmokingWings]

This leaf pile is over 40 years old and roughly 25 ft tall and atleast 120ft long and 70-80 ft wide

Using it as one of the basic ingredients in making a potting mix as @Azimuth mentioned.

Or using it as is and mixing it into a clay based garden soil or a sand based soil. In clay it helps break it up so the clay does not get as hard as concrete in the dry months. And, In sand it helps to retain some of the water that would run through.

 

[Hayron1088]

Ok so my soil mix is peat moss, worm castings, Craft blend, aeration(usually perlite or pumice) and I little bit of coco coir(mostly bc that’s the base of my worm bin). So knowing that, how much of this can I use and how often?

 

[Azimuth]

Sounds a bit like the Coot's Mix.

I use the leaf mold as the base of my mix in place of the Peat moss. I did an experiment that I documented in my thread below. I also use it as a mulch on top of my pots, a good inch or two, and I keep it moist, I also use it for JMS (Jadam Microbial Solution).

ALM

So, it's leaf raking mowing time in these parts so you know what that means. That's right, time for some more experiments.

This round will feature something I hope will prove an effective alternative to Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss (CSPM) for me. Specifically aged leaf mold (ALM).

Leaf mold is made with a fungal breakdown process as opposed to the bacterial process we use in normal composting. This is a cold process that takes time, rather than a hot process as with most compost.

The process is quite simple. Pile up a bunch of leaves, ideally at least a meter square and high, wet it thoroughly, and let it sit for a while. Like a couple of years. This is not a quick process. The breakdown can be speeded up with the addition of turning and adding high nitrogen items but then you're back to a more bacterially dominated end product. So, time it is.

I started my first batch a couple of years ago in two 32 gallon garbage cans, wetting the leaves as I filled the containers. The same result can be had by filling black garbage bags with leaves, adding water, poking some holes with a pitchfork for aeration and drainage all around, and then sticking them somewhere out of the way for Mother Nature to do her thing.

It turns into a dark, almost black, crumbly, humusy end product. In my research I found many references to using it as an alternative to CSPM, so I wanted to see for myself.

EXPERIMENT 1:
My first experiment compared its wicking ability to that of Coco and CSPM. I dried each sample, screened them each to normalize particle size, filled my little propagator containers, set them in a bottom watering container and noted the time it took to fully rehydrate each sample.

Coco - 90 minutes
ALM - 12 hours
CSPM - complete failure (or at least I'm still waiting 3 days on)

Conclusion:
Although Coco was the fastest, the ALM proved to be able to rehydrate a fully dry container, and the CSPM didn't wick at all. To be fair, it probably would have fared better if not bone dry, but many of us let our medium dry out between waterings so I thought that would be the best thing to test.

I suspect many of those who oppose bottom watering have a CSPM based medium and this experiment shows why they may have been unimpressed.

EXPERIMENT 2:
My second experiment was to compare the water holding ability of the three mediums. I used 16oz by volume (dried) of each, weighed them and then oversaturated them in 32oz of water overnight to get them thoroughly soaked. Then I drained the standing water and weighed them again.

CSPM and Coco are often touted for their ability to hold water so I wanted to see how ALM would stack up.

MED. Starting Ending
ALM 98 grams 511 grams
Coco 49 grams 495 grams
CSPM 90 grams 469 grams

Conclusion:
The ALM held more water than either of the other two! It's starting weight was slightly higher than CSPM but that could be explained by the medium itself as it is not uncommon to have small bits of twigs mixed in.

Also it was interesting to note that after the overnight soak, the ALM had a froth of bubbles covering the surface showing some really good microbe activity, while the other two understandably had nothing going on. ALM appears to be very Jadam friendly!

So, it would seem that ALM is a quite suitable alternative to either of the other two without some of the downsides.

Coco is good but comes frome half a world away and can cause issues if not thoroughly rinsed. It also has a reputation for holding onto to certain nutrients causing lockouts if not addressed in the nutrient mix.

CSPM is extremely hydrophobic when dry and difficult to rewet if allowed to go dry, and in the process has very poor wicking ability which can lead to dry pockets throughout your medium.

ALM wicks reasonably well, holds a good amount of water, and adds life in the form of microbes to your mix. Leaves are also what I feed my worms so it would seem to be a good way to sustain a worm population in my pots. The downside is you have to make it yourself as it is not commercially available and it takes a loooong time (a couple of years) to do so. But it's free, so there's that.

So, based on these two experiments, I'm sold. But, as with all my experiments, I'll try it on my houseplants before testing it on my ladies, and I repotted a variety of plants this weekend to see how they like it. I used equal parts of ALM, perlite and worm castings.

And, as with all of my experiments, I look forward to my plants not dying overnight.

 

[Hayron1088]

I’m gonna let all this “soak” in So much amazing info here! I went out and grabbed a 5 gallon bucket full so I can test the waters. I have two Durban Poison that somehow got aphids so once that is cleared up I’ll be trying them in this mix. Thank you so much for you time and this info has already been proven a million times over. I’ll be back very soon with input!

 

[CelestialNurseries]

I have two Durban Poison that somehow got aphids

It's very easy to get Aphids and very easy to get rid of them. Ants even carry aphids around and will plant them on your plant to farm them.

 

[Hayron1088]

It's very easy to get Aphids and very easy to get rid of them. Ants even carry aphids around and will plant them on your plant to farm them.

I think they came on my aloe that I put in there with them. Treating with neem and so far so good. Really excited to start this leaf mold journey. I’m still learning the basics but will prove beneficial for myself and others on a budget.