add leaves to soil in fall?

[Ricky Shaw]

Maple leaves good? I've put a layer on some new raised beds for next year's squash and melons. Agree with Ted, tomatoes go best in containers, the level of control is far superior to in-ground growing.

[ContainerTed]

Yes, maple leaves are fine. I use them in large quantities because I have so many maple trees here. Most are hard maple that yields a lot of "Curly Maple" wood. It's also good firewood. While I agree that containers give more "control", putting the plants into the ground gives more tomatoes and larger ones as well. Biggest in a container for me was about 24 ounces (Giant Tree). I've easily exceeded that with many common varieties.

Do a google or Bing search on "Juglone" and it'll give you a better understanding of which trees are dangerous to your gardens.

[pecker88]

I picked up 5 of the paper yardwaste bags, dumped them out in the yard (how counter-intuitive is that!) then mowed over them with the rider.

I used my leaf/yard sweeper that pulls behind the mower to sweep them back up. I think I lost about a 1/3 of the volume after chopping them to bits with the mower, the sweeper couldn't pickup up the tiny pieces.

Anyway, I got about 10x 5-gal buckets worth of chopped up oak and maple leaves; tons of acorns also. I added to a 20x5 ft raised bed, then turned it over with a shovel. There is TONS of organic matter now, esp. since I had mulched with straw this season.

I have greens and potatoes planted in the other 30x5ft bed, so I can't mulch that side, will be interesting to see how the soil compares come spring.

thanks for all the advice.

[PureHarvest]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n9OhxKlrWwc
Do not fear if you can not till or shovel it into your spot.
Just pile it on now. It's how it works naturally just look around the woods.

[greenthumbomaha]

You are still growing potatoes? Do you store your potatoes in the ground? I finally pulled mine about 3 weeks ago.Tops were still green but I was anxious to eat them and didn't want to chance them rotting.

- Lisa

Originally Posted by pecker88

I picked up 5 of the paper yardwaste bags, dumped them out in the yard (how counter-intuitive is that!) then mowed over them with the rider.

I used my leaf/yard sweeper that pulls behind the mower to sweep them back up. I think I lost about a 1/3 of the volume after chopping them to bits with the mower, the sweeper couldn't pickup up the tiny pieces.

Anyway, I got about 10x 5-gal buckets worth of chopped up oak and maple leaves; tons of acorns also. I added to a 20x5 ft raised bed, then turned it over with a shovel. There is TONS of organic matter now, esp. since I had mulched with straw this season.

I have greens and potatoes planted in the other 30x5ft bed, so I can't mulch that side, will be interesting to see how the soil compares come spring.

thanks for all the advice.

[pecker88]

Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha

You are still growing potatoes? Do you store your potatoes in the ground? I finally pulled mine about 3 weeks ago.Tops were still green but I was anxious to eat them and didn't want to chance them rotting.

- Lisa

I ordered some seed potatoes from burpee in early July thinking I'd plant on Aug 1st in the greenhouse. I finally got them on Oct 1st, and planted immediately. I thought they would do fine since I have a propane heater out there. Even with the 70-80s weather in Oct, they never came up.

I have the heater set on 40 at night, still didnt' matter. I dug one up yesterday and the sprout was only 1/8" long, so they would def. rot before they grow.

Lesson learned, potatoes planted on Oct 1st in zone 5b in heated hoop house doesn't work.