Homemade Leaf Mold Compost from Autumn Leaves and Wood Chips: Improve Soil and Add Fertilizer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7Td-3rXpFc&feature=youtu.be
Co-authors: Zhou Miaofei, Li Jiarong, Liu Chenwei, Zeng Xiaohua, Guo Xiaoshuang
Video translation
Hi, I am Stephen, developer to urban garden dot CA.
Hi, I'm Steven, the founder of CA City Garden.
A couple of week ago, we spoke about adding fertility over the winter using free and local resources to make a mulch layer.
A few weeks ago, I talked about using free and local resources to mulch the soil, which can increase soil fertility in winter.
The main component of that mulch layer was autumn leaves, after completing this in my garden and starting my hot compost, I had a couple of spare bags of autumn leaves.
The main ingredient of this soil mulch is autumn leaves. After making the soil mulch and hot compost, I still had several bags of leaves left over.
So in today’s episode, I thought i’d show you how I make leaf mold and some of the benefits that it can bring to your garden.
So today I want to share how to make leaf mold compost and some of the benefits leaf mold compost brings to your garden.
Leaf mold is compost that is made when fungi are responsible for the decomposition process of a high carbon containing material like autumn leaves.
Leaf Mold is compost formed by fungi decomposing high-carbon organic matter, such as fallen leaves.
The key benefit of leaf mold is when completed, it contains humus, adding humus to the soil helps alleviate soil compaction，improving root penetration.
The main benefit of leaf mold is the humus it contains after decomposition. Adding humus to the soil can alleviate soil compaction and enhance the penetration of plant roots.
Humus helps bring in air, water and nutrients into the soil while acting as a habitat for bacteria.
Humus can bring air, water and nutrients into the soil, and it is also a habitat for bacteria.
At a cellular level, humus is the hollowed out shells of once living cells that act as a sponge in the soil holding moisture and nutrients in place that would otherwise leach out.
More precisely, humus is hollow cell shells that can hold moisture and nutrients in the soil like a sponge; otherwise water and nutrients would be completely lost.
Leaves also come with a large number of essential and beneficial elements.
Leaves also contain large amounts of essential beneficial elements.
Trees take up the nutrients from the soil and subsoil and incorporate them into the wood and the leaves.
Trees bring nutrients up from the soil and subsoil and incorporate them into branches and leaves.
As the leaves fall in the autumn those elements are left in the tissue.
When the leaves fall in autumn, these nutrient elements remain in the plant tissues.
Last year we tested 4 common species of autumn leaves in my area including Birch, poplar, apple and russian olive. Maxiam analytics found that leaves have 10/15 commonly tested for trace elements that are essential or beneficial for plant growth.
Last year, we tested 4 common types of autumn leaves from nearby, including white birch, poplar, apple and Russian olive. Analysis by Maxxam (a testing company) found that they contain 10 of the 15 trace elements needed for plant growth.
The additional nutrients are easily incorporated into the nutrient cycle as the leaves break down.
When the leaves decompose, these nutrients enter the nutrient cycle.
This is important as the same elements from the parent material that originally formed the soil in my area has taken over 10,000 years to release nutrients to the soil and as the soil is close to chemical equilibrium slowing the process.
This is very important because the parent rock in our region takes more than ten thousand years to release these nutrients into the soil, and after modern soils approach chemical equilibrium, the nutrient release process has slowed down.
When this compost is done, it’ll have plenty of fungi within it.
When the compost is finished, it will be rich in fungi.
Once applied to the garden it’ll help support the populations of fungi that are already there and breaking down more complex molecules that bacteria simply can’t get to.
Used in the garden, it will strengthen the number and variety of fungi in the soil, decomposing materials with complex elements that bacteria cannot break down.
It can also help form mycorthizal relationships with plants helping them get to nutrients and water that are harder to reach in the soil.
It can also form mycorrhizal networks with plants, helping plants absorb more nutrients and water from the soil.
It is fairly simple to make fungi responsible for breaking down your leaves.
Getting fungi to decompose fallen leaves is very simple.
All you need to provide to make leaf mold is three factors: carbon in the form of leaves, fungi and moisture.
You only need to provide three things: carbon in the leaves, fungi and moisture.
The simplest method to make leaf mold is to take a carbon-rich source like autumn leaves and simply pile them in an area of your garden that will not be in the way.
The simplest way to make leaf mold compost is to obtain high-carbon materials, such as autumn leaves, and then simply gather them into a pile in a corner of the yard.
Usually you don’t need a nitrogen source. But if you do, it will speed up the decomposition process a little bit.
Usually you don't need to add nitrogen materials; adding them can speed up the decomposition process somewhat.
I keep a few handfuls of the completed leaf mold in order to add to the new pile helping to speed up. The inoculation of the new leaves with fungi， that will do all the tough work for me.
I usually keep a few handfuls of mature leaf mold compost and add it to a new leaf pile to speed up decomposition; inoculating the new leaf pile with fungi helps me complete this slow and arduous work.
Once you’ve piled your leaves, make sure to keep the pile moist as it breaks down and the fungi will do the rest. A few times throughout the summer if the pile is getting dry all water.
After the leaves are piled up, just make sure to sprinkle some water during the decomposition process to keep it moist, and the fungi will help you finish the job, especially by watering a few times in summer when the leaf pile is too dry.
It usually after a year your leaf mold is ready to go. Sometimes it takes two years.
Usually your leaf mold compost will be finished in one year, sometimes it takes two years.
However if a point appointed to the mulch layer as I often do, a completed leaf mold is not necessary. If dedicating an area in your garden for over a year for the production of leaf mold is not in your garden plan, but you still want to get the benefits of fungus in your garden. You may turn to products. Now these products are marketed as fungally dominated compost and they do usually have high concentrations of humous.humus
If, like me, you use leaves to mulch the soil, you don't need fully matured leaf mold compost.
If setting aside an area in your vegetable garden for more than a year just to produce leaf mold compost is not part of your garden plan, but you still want your garden to benefit from fungi, you can buy ready-made products.
These products are labeled as rich in fungi and do indeed contain large amounts of humus.
However the fungus that were you’re trying to apply to your soil is usually killed in the production and shipping of the product.
But the fungi you want to add to your soil are usually killed during the manufacturing and transportation process.
Even if you get it home alive, usually that fungus is not well suited to the microclimate of your garden. But don’t worry, almost all garden soils in the world have thousands of species of mycorrhizal and other fungi already within them.
Even if the fungi you bring home are still alive, those fungi are usually not well adapted to your garden's environment.
But don't worry, usually the soil in every garden contains thousands of mycorrhizal fungi and other fungi.
You don’t need to worry about going out and buying a product specifically for adding fungi to your garden soil. They’re already there.
You don't need to worry about going out to buy special products to add fungi to your garden soil; they are already there.
There is however a much easier method that you can make leaf mold in your garden.
However, there is an easier way to make leaf mold compost in your garden.
If you place your carbon-rich material like autumn leaves on top of your garden soil as a mulch，you will get all of the same benefits as it breaks down with improved moisture retention and reduced weed germination.
That is to place high-carbon materials (such as autumn leaves) on the garden soil as mulch; after they decompose, you can still get all the same benefits: moisture retention, reduced weed growth, and so on.
Using leafmold in the mulch layer or making it there will attract earthworms.
Using leaf mold compost as mulch or finding a corner to make leaf mold compost will attract earthworms.
Earthworms bring a number of benefits to your soil including aeration, nutrient breakdown, growth hormone addition, and the mucus they leave behind helps retain nutrients that would otherwise leach away.
Earthworms can bring many benefits to your soil, including aeration, decomposing nutrient materials, growth hormones, and the mucus they secrete helps retain nutrients and prevent them from being lost.
I usually apply leaf mold in the fall before I make the next year’s pile.
As I know many of you are not in areas that have access to autumn leaves other carbon heavy materials such as wood chips can be substituted.
I usually use leaf mold compost in autumn, and then make the next year's leaf pile.
As far as I know, many people cannot obtain autumn leaves, so they can also use other carbon-rich materials such as wood chips instead.
If you are planning on using wood chips we can use the research analyzing wood ash to give a general understanding of the nutrient value of wood chips.
If you plan to use wood chips to make compost, we can look at the analysis of wood chip ash after burning to understand the nutritional value of wood chips.
Researchers in Wisconsin found that wood ash contained 12 of 15 elements needed for plant growth.
Researchers in Wisconsin analyzed wood chip ash and found it contains 12 of the 15 elements needed for plant growth.
It’s been my experience that most municipalities and cities have wood chip piles that you can access for free or for very very cheap now.
According to my experience, most municipal governments and cities have wood chips, and you can get them for free or at a very cheap price.
Wood chips will take a lot longer to decompose and this is largely due to the climate that you live in, a good rule of thumb is between three to five years.
Wood chips take longer to decompose, three to five years, depending on your climate.
With that Say you can still add the wood chips to your mulch layer and they will release their nutrients over time directly into the nutrient cycle where they’re needed.
But you can still use wood chips as mulch, and over time they will also release nutrients in the nutrient cycle.
If you would like to get the same benefits of leafmold just a little faster, Worm castings can help you out. Worm castings are vermiculture from household organics including carbon containing materials such as newspaper and cardboard have high concentration of humus as well. You can even use autumn leaves in your vermicompost and combine the methods to produce a high-quality locally sourced worm casting.
If you want the same effect as leaf mold compost and want it faster, then you can use vermicompost. Vermicompost is worm composting, made from household organic waste including high-carbon materials such as newspapers and cardboard, and it also contains a high concentration of humus. You can even combine worm composting with autumn leaves to make high-quality local vermicompost.
If you happen to have extra leaves laying around, I highly recommend you invest in your soils fertility by making leafmold and applying it to your garden.
If you happen to have a lot of fallen leaves on hand, I highly recommend making leaf mold compost and adding it to your garden to strengthen your soil fertility.
Thank you very much for listening today, and have a wonderful day.
Glossary
Humus Humus
It is a specific organic matter of soil and the main component of soil organic matter, accounting for about 50%-65% of the total organic matter. In the nutrient biological cycle, after organisms die, their remains undergo a mineralization process and are converted into mineral nutrients. But biological remains are also not completely mineralized. Biological remains undergo a humification process and are preserved in the form of humus. That is, in the nutrient biological cycle, biological remains are converted into a nutrient storage reservoir of mineral nutrients, and humus will eventually undergo a mineralization process and be converted into mineral nutrients. The importance of humus is that when rainwater washes away mineral nutrients on the soil, and microorganisms have not yet decomposed biological remains in time to replenish them (microorganisms decompose biological remains very slowly), humus can release nutrients according to the soil nutrient concentration to replenish them, playing a positive role in fertility.
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E8%85%90%E6%AE%96%E8%B4%A8
http://www.chinesewords.org/dict/251598-171.html
Leaf Mold
It is soil produced by fungi decomposing the leaves of trees and shrubs. This kind of soil is generally difficult to decompose through bacteria because it is too dry, acidic, or low in nitrogen. Fallen leaves contain an extremely high proportion of carbon-rich substances such as lignin and cellulose (generally accounting for more than 70% of the total weight), so their natural decomposition process is very slow. In view of this, collecting and storing fallen leaves separately can speed up the decomposition of other materials. A simple method is to store the collected leaves in plastic bags (leaves with high pollution levels, such as those by roadsides, are not easy to choose), and after one to two years, open them and they can be used completely.
For larger-scale collection, you can use wire to enclose a collection space of one meter by one meter, and after collection is complete, cover it with cardboard or cloth to reduce air-drying. The whole process takes about one to two years to turn fallen leaves into nutrient-rich humus. When finished, it gives off a nostalgic aroma like an ancient forest. Although the proportion of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as fertilizer is relatively low, because it has a very high proportion of organic matter, it is ideal as a soil conditioner or mulch.
For definitions, see
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%85%90%E8%91%89%E5%9C%9F
https://www.maximumyield.com/definition/74/leaf-mold
Mycorrhiza
Did you know that many plants have their own gardens? However, unlike our gardens, the gardens of plants are entirely underground, and they are calledmycorrhizae, and they live with plants insymbiosisand mutual prosperity.
Mycorrhizaeare actually a kind offungus. They exist as tiny, almost or even completely microscopic thread-like forms called hyphae. The hyphae all interconnect into a mesh network called a mycelium, which can measure hundreds or thousands of miles. A single mycorrhiza's mycelium (note: mycorrhizae is plural) can in turn extend outward, connecting many kinds of plants (even plants of different species!), and even connect with other mycorrhizae to form something likea common mycorrhizal network.
In a common mycorrhizal network, it is hard to say where one mycorrhiza ends and another begins. Because of this vast network, one plant can connect to completely different plant species halfway across a forest!
Mycorrhizae actually connect with plants in two ways. One form, called ectomycorrhiza, simply surrounds the outside of the root. The other form, called endomycorrhizae, actually grows inside the plant body - their bacterial walls squeeze between the cell wall and the cell membrane (a bit like wedging between a bicycle tire and inner tube).
Under normal circumstances, you are unlikely to see mycorrhizae because they are too small. But every once in a while, something amazing happens: mycorrhizae reproduce and send out spore-producing fruiting bodies – what we call mushrooms! Some of these mushrooms are even edible, such as truffles or chanterelles.
Plants are great gardeners. Just as we fertilize our gardens, plants also feed their own mycorrhizae. Plants take in the excess sugar produced in the leaves through photosynthesis and send it to the roots. From here, the mycorrhizae can absorb it to sustain themselves. There is little sunlight underground, and even if it is present, mycorrhizae cannot harvest it like plants do because they lack the equipment needed for photosynthesis. The sugar from plants actually keeps mycorrhizae growing and alive.
Plants get a lot from mycorrhizae, mainly nutrients. Plants are able to obtain nutrients through their roots, but their ability is limited. Their roots need direct contact with the soil to absorb nutrients, and plant roots can only grow so small. Fungi, on the other hand, can become even smaller. Fungal hyphae can wedge between individual soil particles, almost covering every cubic millimeter of soil. This increases the surface area, enabling plants to obtain more nutrients than they could on their own. For many plants living under difficult conditions, they would not survive without mycorrhizae.
Mycorrhizae absorb nutrients such as phosphorus and magnesium and bring them directly to plant roots. Here, they exchange the nutrients they collected for some sugar. It is a fair trade, and both sides benefit. In addition, mycorrhizae can also help plants grow in other ways. Mycorrhizae can help protect plants from diseases and toxins. When plants shuttle sugar back and forth to different plants connected to the same common mycorrhizal network, mycorrhizae can also serve asa sugar delivery service. Perhaps strangest of all, common mycorrhizal networks can also serve asa means for plants to "talk"to each otherMethod– an internet made by fungi!
Mycorrhizae are a valuable part of ecosystems all over the world and can exist in some form in any ecosystem. In many places, entire forests and ecosystems simply would not exist without their mycorrhizal friends. Next time you take a walk in the forest and see a mushroom growing out of the ground, be grateful and remember that a whole world is buzzing beneath your feet.
http://www.untamedscience.com/biology/ecology/mycorrhizae。
Nutrient cycle
The nutrient cycle allows the energy of production and consumption among species in an ecosystem to be transformed, and finally remain in the system, that is, a repeating process in which nutrients enter the soil from the external environment, undergo various changes, and then return from the soil to the external environment. The transformation of nutrients in the soil is very complex and is controlled by various physical, chemical and biological factors. In the nutrient cycle, many energy transformations are very obvious, among which the most obvious and most important are the cycles of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, and other elements (such as potassium, etc.) also undergo this process. Nutrient cycles can be divided by rate into fast nutrient cycles and slow nutrient cycles. In an ecosystem, a small-scale cycle that can occur several times within a year is called a fast nutrient cycle, and a large-scale cycle that occurs once every several years is called a slow nutrient cycle.
Parent material
That is, the material basis of soil formation and the initial source of plant mineral nutrient elements (except nitrogen). Parent material is the weathered product formed by rock minerals on the surface of the Earth's crust through weathering. It is the material basis for soil formation and the skeleton composing soil. It is both different from soil and has a profound influence on soil formation and fertility development. Many properties of parent material are inherited by the soil, so it can directly affect the mineral composition and particle composition of the soil, and to a large extent governs the soil's physical and chemical properties, as well as the level of soil productivity. For example, weathered materials from granite, sandstone, etc. contain a lot of quartz, are coarse in texture, and have good water permeability; except for granite, which has a relatively high potassium content, they generally lack mineral nutrients. Weathered materials from basalt, shale, etc. contain few coarse quartz particles, more fine material, and are rich in iron- and magnesium-rich basic minerals; their water permeability is relatively poor, and their mineral nutrient content is relatively rich. Soil-forming parent material rich in calcium carbonate or other bases can neutralize more acidic substances in the soil, so the soil's chemical reactions are not likely to become acidic.
Subsoil
Located at a depth of 50-60 cm below the soil surface. Because it is located relatively deep and is little affected by measures such as tillage and fertilization, the soil is compact, material transformation is slow and steady, and there are relatively few available nutrients, so it is generally called raw soil or dead soil. According to the dictionary explanation, because subsoil is a compact sedimentary body, it plays a certain role in the soil's ability to retain water and fertilizer.
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