I plan to enrich my perennial beds this fall with shredded leaves. Some of the leaves I plan to collect are from Norway maples that are infected with tar spot. In the Northeast, it's been pretty bad this year; some of the maples are nearly defoliated.
Just wondering if I should be worried about using the tar spot-infected leaves.
Is anyone else out there using fall-shredded leaves as an amendment to perennials beds?
Thanks,
David
Tar spot
I googled maple tar spot and came up with it as a fungal infection. What I saw said that it depends on the weather in the spring whether the fungus will grow on the leaves - or not. As long as the tree isn't defoliated several years in a row - the trees should be OK. As to using the leaves to mulch - I think that is iffy - if the weather is OK you won't spread the fungus again - if not - spotty maples again. Composting them in a fairly hot compost pile would be safer - getting rid of the all together would be safest. I use leaves to mulch with all the time as I like acid loving plants. I have a leaf shredder that I run them through just to break them into little pieces for my bulbs to grow through. Before I did that I had tulips spearing swamp maple leaves - ugly. I am even picking up leaves dumped on a vacant lot last Fall for the worms and worm castings they turned into over the spring and summer.
Thanks for the information. I think I'll avoid using the spotted maples. They would be from a neighbor's yard, but I guess it makes sense to avoid the risk. Soon, there will be plenty of leaves from other trees.
I have a few follow-up questions:
-What kind of shredder to you use?
-How thick do you spread the leaves?
-Do you till the leaves into the soil, or leave them on the surface?
Thanks!
I have a shredder that the previous owner left in the garage. Pick up one at a tag sale unless anyone else posts a recommendation. I am from the school of use up everything that you have - so I pile it on. I'm too lazy to till the leaves into the soil - but I encourage worms to do that for me. (I also toss vegetable scraps out to feed the worms that eat the leaves.) If a plant is delicate - it gets more mulch than the hardy ones. The first year I put a plant in it gets more mulch than in following years. I hope someone that likes measurements will post some answers for you - I'm pretty much SOP (seat-of-my-pants). What I have read is that the real purpose of mulching is to keep the soil from freezing and unfreezing. The freezing unfreezing thing gets the plants all excited and ready to grow then freezes their nubbins off - better that they remain frozen until it is really spring. I do pull the mulch back a bit in the spring - if it isn't all worm-tilled into the soil.