How Do I Deal With Live Oak Leaves?

[cjac9chris]

Hey Warm Season Folks,
I'm in north central San Antonio, TX and in my front yard I have 3 big Red Oaks.

They drop medium size, easy to mow leaves in the fall/winter. This year I mulched those into the lawn and also shredded them with a Worx leaf mulcher and added them to beds. That seemed to be a great approach.

In my backyard I have Live Oaks and they dump their little, waxy leaves in the late winter and spring. They're starting to drop now and I'm wondering what the best way to deal with them is?

They're too small to really mow into the lawn and probably too small to run through my leaf mulcher.

Should I just blow them into the beds? Leave them on the lawn? Blow, rake and send to the brush collection center?

Thanks in advance!

Chris

[MorpheusPA]

I'd leave them. I do leave them (I have a pin oak). Eventually they get chopped into the lawn, or blow off, or do whatever they're going to do without harming the grass or gardens.

[cjac9chris]

Good deal. Thanks, Morph! The pin oak leaves look similar to the red oak leaves to me.

[MorpheusPA]

We have oaks and sycamores (which are worse) up here, too. You can always let light leaf litter sit in the lawn or gardens, it won't do any harm as long as light and air can reach the grass. If it does get that thick, the mower will pick it up and mulch it.

If you can train yourself to ignore the mess (I can), so much the better.

[cjac9chris]

I think the tricky thing here is that with St. Augustine, I'll be mowing at 4". So there's no way it'll ever touch these leaves or even suck them up since they fall down through the canopy. I'm paranoid that it's going to choke the grass out.

Maybe dchall_san_antonio will chime in since I know he's been in the Live Oak/St. Augustine situation down here at some point? I don't know how to tag a member on here but hopefully he'll see this too.

[MorpheusPA]

It shouldn't be a problem--with Kentucky bluegrass, I mow at 3.5", so it's not exactly a Bermuda situation up here either. But David should be along at some point. I've seen him in other environs recently.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Sorry I took a break from lawn forums for awhile.
With St Augustine you cannot allow large leaf litter to cover the grass. Sycamore and traditional oak leaves must be blown off sooner rather than later. If not you'll see a fungus forming in the grass. The fungus can be cured with corn meal, but it's better to not get it at all.

As for live oak leaves in tall St Augustine, you have to keep them from smothering the grass. After the freeze we have a live oak that is dropping about 80% of it's canopy. That is unheard of. 5-10% is much more normal for the spring leaf drop on this tree. Today I used a leaf blower to move those leaves off the grass where they can be raked up and composted. If you can't see the grass under the leaves, blow/rake as necessary. OR, you could drop the mower to the lowest setting and mulch the leaves. Be prepared for a lot of leaf dust. I'm not doing that this year simply because the grass is stressed enough from the weather. Blow them away into the flower beds. I'll take a picture tomorrow showing where I've been and where I need to keep blowing. My battery died on the blower, and my wife took advantage of my break in making noise to call me away from that project.

[cjac9chris]

No problem - welcome back!

I hope your live oak makes it! Mine are behaving pretty normally but we definitely lost some other plants. Crazy times...

I'll blow them off - thanks for the tip!

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

The tree lost 80% of its leaves, but it is leafing out nicely. I'm sure it will once again be too dense to see through. I have it trimmed up as high as I can reach with a pole saw, so the grass underneath gets plenty of light.