Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: juvenal on November 24, 2016, 12:58
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What makes the best leafmould?
Any leaves to avoid?
There a wild cherry out front shedding bright yellow leaves that my wife says take many years to rot down....
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It depends how long you want to wait. I make mine over a two year period with two bins. I'd avoid thick leaves like holly but keep in mind you will need a lot of leaves to make a useable amount of leaf mould. If you fill the bin you'll need at least another two or three lots of the same size to top it up with as they rot down. You can keep them in bin bags with holes in so that the process gets underway.
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I've started a stack of beech leaves in black poly bags, advised by one of our local garden club members these rot down particularly well, he's been doing this for some time.
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All the leaves will rot down in time (except the plastic ones from my next door neighbor's fancy plants). I put mine in a chicken wire cage. I put some soil on the top when its full. Then next year I turn it over into another cage, then finally I turn it into the compost heap.
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I asked a lecturer from our local horticultural college about leaves from horse chestnut trees. He's generally in favour of leaf mulch but suggested it was a disproportionate effort for them because of their leaf stalks, which are v waxy and take even longer to rot down. There's also the point that the leaves are infected with the leaf miner, and the leaf mould bins would take up too much room.
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RHS website shows:-
All leaves and conifer needles will eventually break down into leafmould. Some leaves, such as oak, beech or hornbeam, break down with little assistance and produce an excellent quality product.
Thick leaves like sycamore, walnut, horse chestnut and sweet chestnut need to be shredded before adding to the leafmould pile, as they are much slower to break down. Alternatively, they can be added to the compost heap after shredding.
Evergreens such as holly, Aucuba and cherry laurel, are better shredded and added to the compost heap, where they will break down faster than if added to the leafmould pile.
Conifer needles will eventually break down, but may take two to three years to decay. Conifer hedge clippings are better added to the compost heap than used for making leafmould.
Pine needles are worth gathering and placing in a separate leafmould pile as they produce acidic leafmould, which is ideal for mulching ericaceous plants, such as rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, Pieris and blueberries.