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Leaf Mould

Can you compost leaves that are infected with diseases such as Black Spot, Rust, Powdery Mildew etc. Also will seeds such as Sycamore rot down among the leaves or germinate.

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  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,888

    I'd stick them into mine, but only you can tell how bad the infections were. I've found sycamore, and even acorns tend to germinate IN the compost bin, due to the heat, they grow a few inches, and then just die and rot down due to the lack of light.

    Devon.
  • Dave MorganDave Morgan Posts: 3,123

    I wouldn't put any diseased leaves into a compost bin, that is unless you are 'HOT''composting.. Normal compost bins don't get hot enough to kill the spores responsible for the disease.

  • Good question. Don't know the answer, but I'm collecting local leaves that tend to blow onto my driveway and bagging them up. I'll avoid the sycamores I expect.

  • I don't know the answer - but I used to be given  bin-bags of leaves swept from the local school playground, many covered in black spots.  All went onto my leaf-store pile and by December I covered the heap with a plastic sheet.  Two to three years to fully compost (gardening involves a lot of patience) but the second year the heap was adjacent to the first one, and in year three I was using the first heap leaving space for that years leaves.  I would never add rose stems or leaves (they go to the council recycling).  I have used this system for more years than I care to remember and have never had a problem or seen any disease introduced into my garden (except the year we all got tomato blight, and that was nothing to do with leaf mould).

    I'm sure somebody will tell me that's all wrong.....but it works for me.

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