Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[pete <pete.rout@virgin.net>]

> Harvey
In the UK the advice on leaves is not to compost them unless you have a few.
We always make them into leafmould.
For those who don't know leafmould is made by the action of fungi and 
moulds in an anaerobic heap.  It is a cold process that can take two 
years to break down.
The heap of leaves is built up and watered if dry,(if you collect 
them in the rain or after rain they should be wet enough) and 
compressed down.  Alternatively place them in a plastic bag, tie the 
top loosely and puncture the sides of the bag.
To break them down quicker shred the leaves and they can also be 
strewn on the lawn and mown and the grass will help them break down quicker.
Leafmould can be used as a mulch on the garden after a year.
Bob Flowerdew who is an organic gardener and writer did some tests 
using leafmould in seed mixes and found that seeds seemed to 
germinate better.  One old book that I have on propagation said in 
the seed sowing chapter to put a layer of sieved leafmould in the 
seed tray to help germination.
Pete


> Bruce, could you elaborate of the production of your leaf mould. It
> sounds as if you are making it as a pure "leaf meal" as opposed to using
> the leaves as the carbon component in composting? Do you do any further
> processing other than heaping it and letting time and the microbes and
> fungi do the rest?
>
> Have you used the leaf mould to make seed starting mixes? I noted that
> you use it in place of peat moss for soil improvement. I abandoned peat
> moss years ago for my seed starting mixes, because of sustainability
> concerns. I now use coir (short fiber coconut husk) instead, but would
> sure like to come up with a local alternative that doesn't require
> shipping from the other side of the planet.
>
> The wine caps--did you inoculate the chips with a purchased spawn kit,
> or did they volunteer? I've tried to get wine cap stropharia going twice
> now with purchased spawn, with no luck. (Ironically, though, several
> volunteered last year, the first I'd ever seen here.)
>
> ~Harvey

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