Rotting dungy leaves

[bupster]

I have a load of leaves that were sat on top of my manure pile under the tarpaulin - they haven't disintegrated at all but I think they're too gungy now to be put in a leaf mould cage to rot down. Can I use them as a mulch for anything? Spuds or beans or something?

[bupster]

[Tee Gee]

Leaves particularly if not mixed with other matter can take up to two years to rot down into a usable leaf mould.

[goodlife]

If you have currant bushes..give them feed eg. blood, fish and bone and then mulch with your leaves...
You could mulch you beans with them but no doubt there is some slugs too...
I would only use it under something tougher..raspberry...?

[Robert_Brenchley]

I use loads of leaves as mulch when I run out of grass cuttings. There's no 2-year wait; the worms take them down in a few months. On the other hand, I've dug leaves in and found them looking exactly the same after a year!

[Eristic]

too gungy now to be put in a leaf mould cage

Why?

I would have thought "gungy" is just a stage of decomposition exacerbated by anaerobic conditions while under the tarpaulin. I would fork them up a bit and stick them in the current compost receiving container and let nature take its course.

[bupster]

I was given to understand that leaf mould is produced by the action of air on the decomposing leaves, which is why chickenwire container type things are good, and why they might not decompose if you dig them in. So now they've been sort of stuck together with sticky manure they're a bit too gungy for the air to get at them properly. For the same reason I was a bit chary of sticking them in the compost, but as they are gungy they'll hold together well enough to make a mulch. Am going to bung them on the spuds and under the fruit bushes I think for the moment. Unless anyone has better ideas?

[Columbus]

Hi Bupster.  :)

I grow pumpkins on top of  pallet cages heaped full of leaves with some added horse muck.

They don`t get any other growing medium except lots of water and do really well. After the harvest I dig in the leaf mould however it looks (sometimes black and crumbly and sometimes lumps of brown leaves) and refill the cages with fresh leaves.

So leaves get one year only and I use the space on top to grow pumpkins.
On one occasion pumpkins on top of a compost heap (not leaves) started to go yellow and I watered them through sunken pipes full of lime,
they recovered in a couple of days and again produced a good crop. I don`t grow for size I grow for numbers as most of them are given away for carving, and I still have enough to make soups and chutney.

Col

[bupster]

That's a fantastic idea. Do you layer the horse muck and leaves or is it muck on top and leaves underneath?

[Columbus]

nothing that scientific.  :)

I make regular pallet cages full of fresh leaves in the autumn and before planting the next spring I make a hole in the top and stuff it with my best muck and comfrey mix. The pumpkin plant goes on top of that.

The leaf mould pile gets really warm in the middle.

Col