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Mulching around base of new trees with leaves

polbpolb Posts: 198
in Plants
Hi, I've just put some leaves around the base of some young trees I planted last year. I thought the mulch would supress weeds and eventually add goodness to the soil?? The leaves were from autumn last year and so are no where near leaf mould! Whilst doing this I noticed that some of the leaves had black spots on.

1 - Is it a good idea to put leaves around the base of young trees?
2 - Is it OK that some of the leaves have black spots? I've read different things online about this and I'm a bit confused..

Thank you!


Posts

  • Guernsey Donkey2Guernsey Donkey2 Posts: 6,713
    I would have put rotted down leaves i.e. 2 or 3 years of storing before using them.  If you dug in good rotten compost when you planted the trees, and splash a bit of fertilizer and water it in now that should be enough.  When we plant new trees we put old cut up carpet around the base of the tree - approx 1 metre wide to help to suppress the weeds.  Leave a few inches of soil closest to the trunk for watering and rain water to soak into the ground though.
  • DampGardenManDampGardenMan Posts: 1,054
    I've always used a permeable membrane with a thin covering of wood chips (just to hide the membrane). Always worked for me. Four or five years on, when the tree is well established, you can get rid of it if you want. Water well in the first two years in dry spells.
  • polbpolb Posts: 198
    Thanks, I have some permeable membrane covering a large area but there's about 1foot all the way round the base of each, so I just thought I would put the leaves down as an easy solution. Unfortunately I don't have any leaf mould as I've not long moved here. The trees seem to be doing well.

    So are the leaves with the black spot a bad idea? Should I remove them?

  • treehugger80treehugger80 Posts: 1,923
    the black spots are fungi, could be good, could be bad (most likely good unless they came off a diseased plant. so they will be fine, if liable to blow away in strong winds.
    i also wouldn't use carpet as weed suppression, they stick so many chemicals on them now that most allotments have banned them, try cardboard instead
  • polbpolb Posts: 198
    ok thank you. I'm guessing the fungi will be good! B)
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