Heads-Up: It's Time to Talk "Leaf Mulching"!

[umbo514]

Still lots of leaves to be processed here... todays winds have brought down a good amount of the remaining leaves. I will give it a day to dry up and attack them tomorrow. I mulched a large amount yesterday.

I am the crazy neighbor who is mulching 3+ times a week right now, but when should I consider to stop mulching? I ask because I will have leaves blowing on to my property till mid December from adjacent woods and neighbors houses and what not. I'm guessing when I see the processing slow down?

[andy10917]

When you don't think they will mat and suffocate the lawn.

[Green]

Speaking of matting, I'm just on the verge of it now in one area, and planning to bag and relocate the next round of leaves to another area that needs them (where there are less trees nearby). Other years, I went too late in the season and mulched too much into this area, and it got like paper mache after a while. I think I'm at like 200-300 lbs/K of leaves in that area so far this year.

One other thing I've noticed is that after a few rounds of mulching leaves, my lawn starts to look discolored faster...the leaves cause it to take on a less green look. Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe it's one of the signs that it's time to start slowing down in that area...

[andy10917]

Did you use a lot of synthetic fungicides this year? I had a year where the leaves broke down to nothing very quickly, which I think was related to the amount of rain (very wet Fall). Heavy fungicide use can delay the breakdown, especially if the leaves are brown/dry instead of colored and still soft.

[Green]

No. None in that area at all. The soil and landscape in that area has always been bad (sandy and sloped) but has improved a lot over the years. The leaves are mostly brown and dried out, though. Rain, obviously more than adequate the past two weeks.

[Smolenski7]

I read over the weekend that a lawn can handle up to 450lbs of leaves per 1K. That seems like a lot of leaves, not to be mulched in, the more the merrier in my opinion, but it seems like 450lbs of leaves would be several feet deep over 1K. Am I missing something, or are leaves just heavier than I thought?

[andy10917]

I never weighed them, but I know that between the 8 weeks that make up the foliage season, I get 24"-30" of leaves total. Those are from trees on the property and those that blow out of the woods on three sides. It's impressive, to say the least...

[Green]

If you've handled leaf bags that are stuffed full, you get an idea how heavy leaves are. A guy down the street who I think is a retired landscaper, has about 20 of those bags out for pickup. Some towns don't accept bags, and instead have people pile on the edge of their lawn and then suck them up with a truck. But what a mess all those leaves make. Not to mention possible P runoff. And it's so much easier to mulch them in. Even the 3-4 times today I bagged and relocated leaves for mulching elsewhere was easy to do because it was just a few bags.

For Andy, I've probably mulched about 1-1.5 feet of raw leaves into that area since Halloween. It needs to catch up now. I mulched a bit more in today, but tried to bag and relocate the bulk of them for mulching elsewhere.

[Ruxie88]

Seeking advice.

I have been mulching leaves since they started dropping ensuring matting doesn't occur. I mulched last Sunday. It is to dark when I get home from work, so I can't see how much decomposed throughout the week. We got 3-4 inches Thursday. It is all melted, so I got to see the lawn this morning. Not much decomposing of the mulched leaves occurred throughout the week and there was some matting possibly due to the snow. Unsure if microherd is done for the season?!? Mulched leaves were still a little wet so I lightly racked to loosen them up where matted, but left on the lawn.

My thoughts are to let them dry more today. Assess the situation tomorrow and either keep the leaves on the lawn or bag them.

[andy10917]

If they are dry enough, and if your mower is a mulching mower, just hit them again. As long as they're not blocking all the light, they're fine to leave over the winter - I've done it several years when it gets cold early, and it works out fine. Although they are much slower to eat the leaves, the cryophylic ("cold-loving") members of the microherd will get them.

[Ruxie88]

If they are dry enough, and if your mower is a mulching mower, just hit them again. As long as they're not blocking all the light, they're fine to leave over the winter - I've done it several years when it gets cold early, and it works out fine. Although they are much slower to eat the leaves, the cryophylic ("cold-loving") members of the microherd will get them.

Thanks Andy. I will mulch again tomorrow.

[umbo514]

4 hours of leaf work was done on Saturday. I noticed the lawn still had plenty of leaf mulch to process so I made the decision to bag with the mower the remaining leaves. I did not want to over do it. However, I couldn't handle wasting so much OM; so I plastic bagged all of it, and it was a lot! Now I have four finely mulched bags of leaves waiting for me behind my firewood pile. Spring / summer snack for the lawn.

[Green]

It seems to have been an above average leaf yield this year (but far below average with nuts). I pretty maxed out most of my lawn areas with the leaf mulching, and then switched to bagging in the last week or two. I think I mulched around 300-500 lbs into a 1.75K area (side front), and likely well over 1,000 lbs easily on the entire lawn.

[Green]

There are still leaf chunks from when I was mulching before it got too cold. They will break down in Spring. Hopefully they don't contribute to snow mold.