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Soil, Compost & Mulch

Liquid amber tree sticker balls?

16 years ago

I harvest sticker balls from Liquid amber/Sweet gum trees

and put them in empty ice cream and milk cartons to use as fire starters in my wood stove in the winter time. But many still end up appearing in the leaves that I stock pile to mix with greens for the compost pile. I don't have a shredder and I am afraid the balls will take forever to break down. Any experiences or suggestions to share? Thanks. Wobur

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Comments (4)

solanaace
16 years ago
Half of my mother's yard was beneath one of these. I picked them out of the compost whenever I could, because they seemed to take a couple of years to break down.
Kimmsr
16 years ago
The proper conditions will speed the digestion of these up just as it does Walnuts, Acorns, and all the other seeds and nuts. If you bury one of these in the soil and keep that soil relatively moist how long before you see a new tree sprouting from the seed?
Walnut, Acorn, Liquidamber, Osage Orange seeds I have plunked in the ground germinate and grow the following year, and the Walnuts and Acorns that have ended up in my compost have been digested in about a year.
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habitat_gardener
16 years ago
You can try using them as snail/slug barriers. I knew someone who gathered them to put along the property line from a snail-haven yard to keep the snails on the other side. I've also tried collecting them and making a barrier -- not sure how effective it was, but now that they've broken down (from a couple years' use as mulch), I am noticing more snails.
hibiscus909
16 years ago
They do take a long time (Liquidambar). If you have a pile that you are gonna let sit a long time, you'll be fine. Otherwise, you'll end up having to pick them out when you harvest the compost. Or just them partially composted.

s.

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