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Soil, Compost & Mulch

Can I use leaves which have mildew on them for composting?

16 years ago

I am totally new to composting and have been building a tumbling composter which is almost ready to load with brown and green waste materials. I live in the Pacific Northwest of the US. About a month ago on a wet afternoon I raked up 7 bags of red maple leaves and stuffed them in large plastic bags. My plan was to keep them there until I was ready to chip them with my lawn mower and then put them in the composter with newly cut grass and perhaps some rabbit manure. When I emptied the leaves on a tarp I discovered they have begun to mildew. I have more leaves than I need for now and planned on drying these in the garage and then chip them and bag them for future additions to the composter.

Here are my questions? Can I use these leaves with mildew on them or should they be discarded? How long does it normally take in the winter to fully compost this mixture?

Thanks!

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Comments (3)

whip1 Zone 5 NE Ohio
16 years ago
use them, it's all part of the natural decomposing process.
softmentor
16 years ago
yes, you certainly may use them. And if it were me I would just pile them next time, not bad them. I don't like using plastic bags any way, but since you are not in a hurry (bagged them for later) why not just pile it and let it work on its own, even if its not as fast. For that mater, I think tumblers are a lot of extra effort too. Just pile everything, or even better yet, just spread it out where it's going to wind up in the end.
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I'm not a pro at this, but I will try to help a bit. If you take a leaf and look at it, you don't (Maybe you do) but leaves are cast on the back side so that the 'veins' are 'embedded within the leaf. So you need to make a mold of the leaf, as if you were casting it the first time. I have used kids modeling clay, rolled out to about 1/4 " (small leaf) pressed the backside of a leaf into the clay, and carefully cut around the edge of the leaf. Then I carefully removed the leaf. I lightly -Very lightly sprayed the 'clay leaf' with Pam cooking spray. I then proceeded to apply my silicone in THIN layers. (You can smooth with an icecube) It tends to be slippery from the oil, but you can get it to work. IF the silicone sticks to the clay, it can be gotten off with a bit of dishsoap when you wash the mold when it is cured. Takes awhile for the silicone to set up, especially if it is too thick... OR If you have a leaf done, and painted, oil it up and apply the silicone. That works too. You really have to try and experiment.....making a POP leaf isn't the easiest thing to do......but it can be done with patience. spray your leaf with Pam then Brush on a thin layer of POP. Let it dry and keep adding layers. Removing the leaf from POP has always been my problem Good Luck...... Marcia
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I should mention, also, that I tried to mulch with straw this past summer, which is closer to what Ruth Stout did with her hay. However, the hay and straw are at a premium in Iowa, even old, moldy bales, and so it is cost prohibitive. I could only afford one big, round bale, which covered about 1/5 of my garden. Then my sister lent me the Back to Eden video, which made me decide to go the route of free wood chips from the tree trimming company. I have been reading your posts about using wood chips, and it seems they are fairly mixed about whether using fresh chips are a good idea or not. If I spread the chips on in the fall, will they be "safe" by spring?
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Got Mold!!!! you are getting garden gold. It's already composting. If you can mix it & especially if you can mix fresh HM in it it will be great compost. Don't make making compost get overwhelming. As it is, it will become compost. You can speed up the process by mixing & fluffing to get air for the "bugs", bacteria, worms etc. so they can multiply quicker. Adding the HM will feed the microbes, worm etc. & make a richer compost. Fresh HM will help it heat up, specially if it has the urine (nitrogen source) mixed with it. Grass clipping will need mixed in but also help heat it up. Try to keep it DAMP, not wet. Mix it every 2 weeks or so, in 6 weeks it should be usable in a garden. More browns, like old leaves, straw, cardboard etc & you'd have the perfect mix but not necessary for it to break down. What you have already will be compost, faster if mixed add the HM if you can. Mother Nature will make it compost even if yo do nothing, fun to help her though. Mix & keep Damp, not wet is key.
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Every spring I rake away heavy layers of wet, matted leaves that look awful. Not only do they look bad but they suffocate everything underneath them. I have mostly maple, oak and ash...am I doing something wrong? Yes, you are removing the best natural mulch. ;) It is one that is also far more effective than wood chips at keeping down weeds and it replaces itself every year instead of you having to do all the work of replacing the wood chips every year. But if you don't like its looks just put your wood chips on top of it. To plant annuals just move the leaves aside, plant and put the leaves back in place. Any perennials will come up right through the leaves. Leaf mulch doesn't suffocate anything underneath it - instead it feeds whatever is there, stabilizes the soil moisture levels, and blocks the light that the needs need to sprout. Dave
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Kimmsr
16 years ago
Compost them. There are some people that would suggest any plant material that appears to be diseased should not be composted but I have done that for years and found that plants growing where that compost has been spread are much less likely to develop that plant disease than plants growing where no compost has been used. What you see most likely is part of the process Ma Nature uses to help keep organic matter from piling up around us and would not have any affect on live plants anyway. But a couple of years ago Black Tar Spot was a big problem with many Maple leaves and people wondered about composting those leaves and those that did found that it did not contribute to a larger infection of BTS among Maples the following year and plants growing where that compost was used did not get it (BTS is something that only affects Acer, Maple, species) and there was no problem, just as there will be no problem if you compost those leaves.

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