Soil question

Just Piddling 8/14/2015, 9:56 am

Along my drive way I have a mixture of oaks and pecan trees. Before and since I have lived here all the leaves have been just sitting and decomposing.During the spring I collect night crawlers by the hundreds if I want them.

This morning I was gathering some leaves and discovered that under the leaves the dirt is so loose I can dig it bare handed. Caused by decomposition leaves and the night crawlers.

My question is how can or should I use that soil? I want to look at it as worm casting but not sure if that is right.

Let me know what you think.

By the way it is dry and crumbling now. No rain for a while.

Thanks
JP

CapeCoddess 8/14/2015, 4:46 pm

Personally, I would add some of that good stuff to my compost pile. It sounds like a great innoculant.

CC

**Scorpio Rising** 8/14/2015, 6:03 pm

Ditto, compost jump start!

Just Piddling 8/14/2015, 7:09 pm

I posted this question earlier and it showed up under Everything Else. Not sure how that happen. If a moderator moved it that's fine but will try again here.

This will be a shorter version. I type really slow with one finger.

Anyway I have a spot along my drive way that leaves collet ever fall and slowly decay away. When we get rain I can pull the leaves back and get all the nightcrawlers I want. Today while gathering some leaves I noticed that the soil underneath the leaves was very loose and I could easily dig down several inches with my hands 6plus inches.

Could and should someone treat the loose soil as worm casting and what would you do with the material?

Had two replies on the other section and they seemed to lean toward adding it to my compost pile.

My thought is that it is already composted but I'm not sure.

Any and all thoughts welcome.

Thanks
JP

Just Piddling 8/14/2015, 8:23 pm

Thanks for the reply guys.

I was leaning toward adding it to my compost. The way I see it the material is already composted.

Wonder how it would work as a top dressing.

Marc Iverson 8/14/2015, 9:02 pm

Sounds like you've got leaf compost, not worm poop ...even though there's surely worm poop in it.

I wouldn't expect it to be as nitrogen rich as manures are.

Just Piddling 8/14/2015, 9:12 pm

Marc Iverson wrote:Sounds like you've got leaf compost, not worm poop ...even though there's surely worm poop in it.

I wouldn't expect it to be as nitrogen rich as manures are.

After reading your reply it dawned on me. I think you are exactly right.

Think I will harvest some of it for future use.

**sanderson** 8/14/2015, 9:47 pm

Leaf compost can be one part of blended compost mixture. Nice and moldy and wormy.

**camprn** 8/14/2015, 10:41 pm

Just Piddling wrote:I posted this question earlier and it showed up under Everything Else. Not sure how that happen. If a moderator moved it that's fine but will try again here.

Thanks
JP

Hi JP. I did indeed move your question to the everything else category as it is not specifically about SFG. I have now combined both of your posts into one.

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