Black Walnut leaves

I am new to composting and a baby in gardening in general. I read that black walnut leaves were not to be used for composting because their poison would remain. My yard is filled with oak, wild cherry, and walnut trees. The leaves do not keep themselves separated! Oh how I hope I can use my leaves!

Mmmm - Black walnut has a growth inhibitor in it, which is great if you want to use it in a space where you want no plants, but even as a mulch it could harm your plants .... I'm sorry, you might want to try Google for a method of denaturing the inhibitor, I just don't know what it would be. It's one of the few plants I know of that carry that strong of an inhibitor - you're not supposed to use the sawdust or anything.

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If you do a search of this forum you'll find that some people use Black Walnut leaves in their compost with no problem. I was concerned about them and some certain maples which are also allelopathic, but I compost them now. You might let the pile go a longer time to be on the safe side, but sooner or later, almost everything breaks down. Only certain plants are intolerant of juglone anyway. You could google lists of juglone tolerant / intolerant plants to find out if yours might be susceptible or not... maybe a non-issue.

edit: typo

This message was edited Jul 4, 2007 10:06 AM

Thanks for the replies! I am new to forums as well and was excited as a child on Christmas morning. I now have more information to research!

i think it affects certain plants like tomatoes.