lots of great ideas in this thread. Another one would be using them to make leaf mold. It’s a very slow process, basically just cold composting the leaves by themselves and takes a year or two, but leaf mold has a huge CEC, is a fantastic source of humus, and retains something like 5x its weight in water. Just food for thought 
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What is CEC?
And food for soil!
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Cation Exchange Capacity - the ability to hold on to and exchange nutrients (of positive electric charge) in soil. It’s like your soil’s gas tank. The bigger the tank, the more fuel it can hold
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There was some bags sitting for a year or two at least first. In There is mostly white mold around the leaves but a Good bit of some yellow mold as well, maybe what you’re talking about? I’m so used to hydro I keep gettin scared with all these molds and poops
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I just realised your leaves were stored in plastic bags, sounds like they were decomposing anaerobically. Methinks leaf mold is an aerobic decomposition, it ends up looking like compost and good dirt with white mycelium running through the partially broken down bits
at this point I think it might just be better to compost it like the other posters mentioned, I’ll bet it breaks down nicely after cooking for that long already and it will make good rich fertilizer
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A lot of these bags are fresh some were extra from the year before. Not sure if it makes any difffernce but these are compostable bags that are all ripped a little. Either way I’m definitely cookin this stuff In a big nice mixed pile in the sun.
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I’d suggest 2 books about soil:
Teaming With Microbes
The Intelligent Gardener
Both of these books cover different aspects of organic growing. Teaming With Microbes covers the living aspect of soil and compost, keeping everything happy and diverse. The Intelligent Gardener is more about soil composition and mineralization for healthy harvests and soil life, although it’s mostly soil and soil testing/amending. They’re both available as audiobooks which is nice if you’re into that.
I’m going through both of these processes in my garden. Not building compost per se, but hindsight, wish I made my own compost knowing what I know now from those two books.
Here’s my journey, you can see how deep this rabbit hole goes 2023 "Field of Dreams"
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a quick word about the “teaming with” books - the whole elaine ingham crowd has an unhealthy (and imo unscientific) obsession against anaerobic microbes. Take those bits with a hefty heap of salt and explore EM-1, JADAM, and KNF to round out your views a bit more
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Definitely noticed that tinge against anaerobic, but felt like it was a fantastic introduction to the world of microbes and compost. Opened up the rabbit hole for me.
Thanks for the link I’ll check it out! 
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I bought some really cheap “outdoor potting soil.” It was mostly cow poop and other organic stuff, but wasn’t completely composted. After sitting in the bags for a year though, I was able to make good soil. Last summer it caused all kinds of problems with my grows though.
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I only use our compost pile, which is huge, in our veggie garden. Garden is very large at
60 x 120. I use a riding mower on our yard which is about 3 1/2 acres. The first cutting of grass clippings is done after our dandelions are finished flowering for our pollen gathering friends, bees.
As the summer progresses, I add layers of algae skimmed off our pond. I spend around 4 to 5 hours per week skimming algae from the pond, and by adding to the compost pile it helps the composting process as digging down into it gets to some very warm mix. In the fall, again with the riding mower and bagger system, I add a bunch of leaf mulch. Of course we throw in some garden refuse over the year as well. The following year, a few wheel barrels full of the composted stuff gets spread around in the garden before It gets tilled into the soil. I believe the algae in my situation is the key to the composting process.
For a couple years, it was just a spot to dump the grass clippings from mowing our huge yard, and then once I started adding the algae in layers, discovered it worked wonders in our veggie and fruit trees garden. Hand crushed egg shells and coffee ground are kept separate and actually applied when planting and again, small amounts on the ground by each starting plant in the garden, including the fruit trees.
I’ve never used any of this material inside, just our garden, but having seen the results of what it does for our veggie garden, have given it some serious thought.
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As I turn my compost pile in late fall early winter, I’ll dig out a 3 gallon bucket ful, with a good sealing lid on it.
Then for my sized indoor garden, I’ll fill both halves of a 2" tea ball strainer, close it, hang it into my 10 gallon, watering tote, the day before I want to use it. I’ll grab a beaker of water add some molasses, 1-2 teaspoons worth, helps feed the biologicals in the compost.
In winter, I’ll zip tie a 1/4" air tubing, either, no bubble stone, or just open end tube, connected to an air pump, and let it bubble simmer.
It will STINK after the 2nd, 3rd, day, so mix up what you can use.
That stuff is TEAMing with life!!
I also throw the spent stinking mass(from the strainer) into my used medium tote, that will become usable medium later on.
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This is one of my favorite things about making compost teas when I use the Boogie Brew 2-part mix with added frass and Oly fish compost along with a scoop of my recycled dirt. After straining through a mesh tamis on a pot elevator set over a 5G bucket, I take the tamis strainer and knock all that solid matter into my soil bins. I think it’s one of the best things I do for my resting/recycling dirt, seems to perk up the digestion of leaves and stems dramatically, and I figure adding in my own dirt to the tea brew helps select and turbocharge the micro life in my dirt more specifically.
I think this stuff is awesome, very transparent sourcing and recipe since they open sourced it and you can either buy their premade or buy single ingredients to mix your own, but it ends up being cheaper to get their mix if you’re a little indoor guy like me.
“3-lbs; brews approximately 50 gallons of full-strength tea.
6-lbs; brews approximately 100 gallons of full-strength tea.
16-lbs; brews approximately 280 gallons of full-strength tea.
(Dilute to suit, approximate ranges vary from 1:2 to 1:5 or may be applied at full-strength).
Boogie Brew® Heavy Harvest© Compost Tea (Burlap Brew Bag Included)
Choose size:
3 LBS - $33.99
6 LBS - $57.99
16 LBS - $99.99
Do you need a Chlorine Filter?:
Yes, please add a Boogie Blue Basic Filter - $20.00
Yes, please add a Boogie Blue Plus Filter - $49.95
FREE SHIPPING. STARTING FROM: $33.99”
For anyone who needs to decompose a large amount of plant matter quickly, I would say the easiest way to make a mountain of leaves and clippings into compost would be make a barrel of this kind of tea and spray it over the pile, along with some rock dust and some beneficial inoculants,
specifically Pseudomonas fluorescens and Bacillus subtilIs which produce cellulase, the enzyme that breaks down cellulose fiber. And you can inoculate liginase-producing fungi by finding logs with white or brown-rot on them, that’s the best thing that breaks down the lignin that holds together the cellulose in plant fibers.
ISRN.BIOTECHNOLOGY2013-985685.pdf (1.0 MB)
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Hey Dirt_Wizard, that does look like a decent product for sure. I popped that link in my list.
I found this:
I’m using this stuff, for my indoor worm bins, in my kitchen scrap bucket. I did a side by side using some in my rot box (spent spinach blister) some without, in another rot box. I mean, it’s hands down different in less than a weeks time. AND, it really reduces smell, almost knocks it out. The bucket we keep under the kitchen sink never smells now, and it has some sprinkled in it after I empty it out.
All the best to your grow!!
webe
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Oh that’s good to hear, I see that stuff at the store and I’ve considered it, along with the Quoddy Lobster (and crab shell) Compost from Coast of Maine, a bunch of folks on here seem to swear by it for soil conditioning and compost starting, I think @mainerJ was talking about it recently and had me thinking I should grab a bag next time I’m at the grow store, but I just bought the Neptunes Harvest lobster and crab shell straight up to compost myself.
I was skeptical about the near-cult following this stuff has but after using it for a while, I gotta say it’s like super compost, it seems to get my soil bins heated right up with just a cup full mixed with my dry amendments and EWC:
It somehow smells like pure death and also not bad at all?
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the soil conditioner i referred to you was the coast of maine bumper crop. it is made by coast of maine under license from mastery nursery. the bumper crop from master nursery had questionable analysis of the ingredients used. the coast of maine bumper crop clearly states on package that it is coast of maine product. and is a solid product, all plants love it.
https://coastofmaine.com/product/bumpercrop/
i also have the dr earth compost starter to give a try in the spring i gots all kinds of leaves and garden / plant matter to compost up and should make my own would cost a lot less than buying it.
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Hello,
one thing every organic grower MUST consider is the rot-state of the leaves (or other parts of plants). Rotting works with various fungi which could trigger root-rot of our seedlings. About 15 years or so, I used rotten leafs of the prior year and this stuff infected EVERY seedling (20 in total) with root rot. So, rotten leaves must be humus first (which could take 2-3 years) before it could be used.
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I mulch with dry leaves whenever I have the opportunity. It’s usually 80% broken down by harvest but I haven’t experienced any fungus issues. I live in a dry climate though…
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Since we lived here, I’ve been raking up, traps full of leaves, then trapping them under some garden wire, and along with all the other ornamental shrubs and small trees, spent flower beds, everything grown on our property, stays here.
The very last 40 - 50 feet, along the back fence, was lost to being swampy during half the year. So, I started composting plots, that move every other year, across that swampy area.
Now, you can see an elevated 15’ x 50’ portion that is our gardening area, some areas, it’s about 2’ tall now, most of it 1’ - 2’ raised up, swamp gone now.
This year, I stuffed contractor bags full of leaves, and added 1 cup of the Compost Starter, that is just Alfalfa, kelp, and some biological digesters microbes, and a gallon or 2 of water, closed them up and waiting for spring, to see what state there are in.
If the leaf matter, has not turned to a compost state, then in early, spring time, then I will add a huge dose of dinosaur vomit, to each leaf bag, and resealed up for another 2 months, but we’ll see.
My idea, to take half my red worms, ( and catch some additional wild reds) I’m raising in the basement to start an outdoor worm colony, as EWC, (earth worm castings), is now a $1.00 a pound, and climbing. I love growing with the stuff, so I’ll make some to off set my costs.
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