Great info on the difference between young/old leaf mold. The older stuff is a rich dark humus with abundant fungal/microbial life, whereas the younger material is just inoculated crumbly leaves. The best leaves in my area are Maple and Birch, I harvest every year, stack it, and let it sit over winter until the next summer. The slow snow melt really helps the breakdown, and come spring the microorganisms really start going to work!
you can also use it as bedding in worm farms. It will take a little longer , but I put plenty in my farm for winter and find its ready in about 3 months( which is quite normal for other material over winter)
Excellent information. It's also a excellent ammendment to a finished compost pile. The microorganisms and fungi in it will spread through the pile making the finished material even better:) Cheers from Victoria Canada
Great video ,👍 You could use that kind of wire formed into a metre wide tube, no need to builld a frame. you can also make compost in same way, makes the "turning" part of making compost easy, just roll it over.
@@SpicyMoustache I appreciate the reply, thank you. I learned of the technique and was part of building such a pile at a soil biology workshop. We also unrolled a matured compost, I believe it was ready in three months partly due to the once a week roll-over (sub tropical climate.
Are you using this to cover your beds for the winter or just as an amendment? Love your content man! I've already instituted some of your stuff on my farm. Thanks, mate! 🙏
Still running through all your content. I have to say thanks, and keep it up. Learning a lot. I am a little perturbed by the undesirable leaf types, because I really mostly have acacia around me. But then I though, our bossies (bushes) would be just as good, so I am going to see if I can use leaf mould from the Guarrie and September bushes. I must say, for us in the arid areas, leaf mould is hard to find in a ready state. Our nearest forests are pine or eucalyptus :| My main target use is for the JADAM JLF
Thank you very much for the support! As long as you have a small amount of those leaves, I think it would be ok. However, if you can avoid it would be better. I bet it must be hard to find it at a ready stage
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I just recently removed about a 55 gallon drums worth of decomposed leaves from the concrete floor of an old barn. It's beautifully black and fluffy with a bit of sand. I removed as much of the leaves as I could until I wound up with a fine soil. Guess what? It's mostly decomposed walnut leaves. That was a lot of work to save this pretty black dirt. Could I still use it to amend my flower beds?