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Post by nofeargardener on Mar 29, 2011 21:57:14 GMT -5
ok...I've got a dumb question... On this forum and on another "phorum" I'm a part of, folks have talked about using leaves as mulch for your tomatoes - and how it's like super juice fer yer maters. I'd honestly never heard of that before. I've used grass clippings, and straw, but I'd never heard about the benefits of leaf mulch. I may have missed it somewhere (sorry if I did), but can someone tell me about leaf mulch and why it rocks so? My neighborhood just put out bags of the stuff for spring clean-up. Holla! and Thanks! ;D
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Post by txdirtdog on Mar 29, 2011 22:52:58 GMT -5
Ok, first off - the old saw about the only dumb question is the one not asked. Well, I'm relatively new at the leaves thing, but I'll give it a shot. Hopefully some of the more knowledgeable ones here will add to what I say. I started last spring. I grow my plants primarily in the gumbo clay that we have here around the Houston area. I was tired of buying amendments to add to the soil. This clay eats amendments very fast. As I was expanding my garden every year, this was getting prohibitively expensive. When I found out about the leaves on a forum, I decided to try it. I started too late last spring to make much of a dent, but this spring I noticed where the leaves were, the soil was better (better tilth, darker, a little less clay-ey). This fall/spring I have been gathering bags of leaves whenever I am out and about. I lost count, but well past 300. I layered it on the garden about 2 feet thick. I tilled it in this spring. While I still have a lot of work to do, This is the best soil I've had to work with yet when it came time to till. I currently have my tomato plants (roughly about 60) heavily mulched in fairly high rows. I also have my walking paths mulched about even with the row mulch. This is a jump start on next year. My water requirements so far are way down. Tthe clay is holding the water better - a big bonus here in Texas. Weeds are suppressed pretty well. I still have to pull some seriously obstinant grasses and weeds, but not many, and they come out really easily. Now to the 2nd best part: Oak leaves (most common here) NPK = about .8/.35/.15 Horse manure NPK = about .44/.17/.35 Various types of leaves have differing NPK values, but all are decent numbers (I would stay away from types that have juglone (sp?) such as black walnut myself). The NPK value will not make itself apparent this year, but it should next year after this years' leaves break down. The tomatoes I have planted this spring where I amended with leaves last spring and again in fall - tilled this spring - are extremely happy. I have baby maters setting throughout. Shouldn't be too awfully much longer before I have my first Sungold F1 and that plant is loading up. I am doing other things as well: more foliar feeding; mixing blood meal, bone meal, greensand and long strand spaghnum moss in the planting hole; and putting mater starts in a minigreenhouse instead of under lights until plant-out time. However I do believe the leaf amendment is playing a very strong part in my success so far this year. This is my first year to have my tomato patch (what I call) smoking along. I am an extremely happy camper. Now to the best part: Can you say free? Besides, you meet really interesting folks while leaf raiding. And it keeps it out of landfills. I pretty much haven't experienced a downside to it. Hope this helps.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2011 23:39:44 GMT -5
I've never seen leaves described as a super mulch, but they are better than other mulches for quickly ammending the soil because earthworms eat them. Much of the mulch will be gone by the end of the season. They also pack down when wet and smother out weeds pretty well. Be careful using them in hot sunny weather because they can accumulate heat and cook young plants and lower leaves, especially if you mulch with matted wet leaves from a leaf pile. I ended up having to cover my leaf mulch with grass clippings to save my peppers from scorching.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2011 9:27:44 GMT -5
I don't like to use a layer of leaves as a mulch. I prefer to turn the leaves into the soil lightly--slightly incorporating the leaves into the first 2-3 inches of soil. This gives me a layer which is half soil and half rotting leaves. It creates aeration in the soil, attracts earth worms, provides moisture retention and assists the plants in creating mycorrhiza fungus in their roots (necessary for good uptake of nutritious elements from the soil). One year I planted some beans in sandy soil amended with compost and manure. I also planted some beans with the same amendments plus the top layer of soil having rotted leaves incorporated. The first batch of beans were a flop, the second batch did very well. (I didn't use inoculate. The rotting leaves were a good substitute for inoculate.)
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Post by nofeargardener on Mar 30, 2011 10:18:05 GMT -5
Thanks everyone! You guys RAWK!!!!
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Post by coppice on Mar 30, 2011 12:12:05 GMT -5
I dunno if leaves are a super fertilixer. They and grass clippings are soft to the hand (and plant stem). Some plants don't like scratchy mulch.
Their (leaves) numbers aren't all that much better than compost--like in the order of 1-1-1.
All that said I really like a soft mulch of leaves or grass clippings. Prefer it in fact.
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Post by redneckplanter on Mar 30, 2011 18:59:09 GMT -5
like tdd said.....its a real soil helper builder tonic fer us down here. our gumbo is like concrete when dry.a swamp when wet. when trying to cover a lotta ground with mendments? like tdd said gets spensive quick........ i've been at it 2 years....roughly.the front garden and back with the full yyear of rotting/breaking in factor is proof positive to me that its da good stuff. soil is rich black humousy. plants are doing mui primo. on anotherforum we've talked about composting.....LEAVES GLORIOUS LEAVES..........lol drenching...composting christmas trees ect...ect...... ya'll need to ask paquebot about his super elixer for his tomatoes.....smiles or what he likes about leaves...smiles he turned me ontoo leaves a while back..... and i am a leaf raiding machine........lol this year i added 12 big round bales as a supplement.....to the megapile.i have about 5-6oo bags in the hay rotting. will be nuclear soil next year.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2011 17:46:46 GMT -5
Only 5 or 6 hundred bags Red? What'd you do take a week off or somthin'?
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