Plant Notes -- Edith on Leaf Miners

by Edith Isidoro-Mills -- Last year was another year when the cottonwoods and poplars were infested with leaf miners.  If you didn’t burn your leaves last year or compost them in a “hot compost” pile then these leaf miners are still in your garden and certain to infest your trees again. The leaf miners, though less evident are still with us but they are now living as pupae encased in cocoons attached to dried leaves, hoses, rocks, gardening tools, and anything they landed on when they completed their journey from the leaves to the ground.  In fact, some of these larvae never made it to the ground before they attached themselves to other leaves with their cocoon. These cocoons appear as papery, somewhat round patches, with horizontal fibers attaching them to leaves and various other objects. The most popular option locally is to burn the leaves but these leaves could be building good soil if properly composted in a pile that reaches temperatures between 130⁰F and 140⁰F for an extended period of time. To get compost to reach temperatures between 130°F and 140°F it must be intensively managed.  This requires building a pile of weeds and other organic matter such as dead weeds, grass clipping and manure to a size no smaller that a cubic yard. Then not adding to it but instead keeping it moist but not soggy.  Check it regularly for moisture.  It should be moist and spongy in texture.  When checking it for moisture you should use a pitchfork to aerate the pile.  Matted down compost becomes anaerobic and smells bad. Shredding the leaves before adding them to compost will help speed the composting process.  Organic materials high in nitrogen such as coffee grounds, fresh grass clipping, vegetable scraps from the kitchen, and livestock manure will also need to be added to get ideal conditions for a hot compost pile. In fact, a hot compost pile is where any raw manure you acquire should go before it is ever spread in your garden.  That is because raw livestock manure is full of weed seeds that were in the feed the livestock consumed.  Just because weed seeds have been passed through an animal’s digestive tract doesn’t mean the seeds have been killed.  In fact, some seeds need to be treated with acid similar to that found in the digestive system of animals in order to even germinate. This mixture of shredded organic matter, vegetable kitchen waste, and manure should be monitored daily.  Water should be added as needed to keep the composting material moist and spongy but not soggy. Soggy compost becomes anaerobic and smells bad. Part of compost monitoring involves using a long compost thermometer to check the temperature in the center of the pile and recording it daily.  If moisture levels are not too high or too low but temperatures start to drop off, then the pile is ready for turning. This is when you completely stir this pile up to mix less broken-down components of the pile with the completely broken-down components of the pile. Then continue monitoring the pile as before until it is of uniform texture and no more recognizable leaves, weeds or vegetable kitchen scraps remain.  Once the pile has reached this stage it is ready to be spread in your garden. Compost can be made using fewer intensive methods because eventually it all breaks down into components suitable for soil amending.  However, the composting process will take longer to complete.  Worse yet; the weeds and undesirable insects will continue to thrive because the pile did not get hot enough to kill them!       Never miss the local news -- read more on The Fallon Post home page. If you enjoy The Fallon Post, please support our effort to provide local, independent news and make a contribution today.  Your contribution makes possible this online news source for all things Fallon.