How To Make Leaf Mold Compost at Home Step By Step? (Beginner’s Guide)
Leaf Mould Compost Is a Rich Source of Nutrients For Plants, In fact Its The Fertilizer That Nature Has Used for Million Of Years For Making The Whole Earth Green. So In This Post, We WIll See How We Can Make Leaf Compost At Home Step By Step, So lets Begin.
Why To Make Leaf Mould Compost? Is It Useful?
Leaf Mould Compost is An Organic Fertilizer Made From Dead & Dried Leaves of Plants, Bacteria decomposes The Leaves & Turn Them Into an Absorbable Form, & Its Called As Leaf Mould Compost, Leaf Compost & Even Black Gold.
It Contains Allmost All Plant Required Nutrients Like Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorus, calcium, Zinc, iron, Magnesium etc. So Overall leaf Mould Compost Can Be Only Fertilizer That You Can use Over Your Whole garden For all Plants.
Making Leaf Compost At Home Is Very Easy, Even A Beginner Can Do This, & Its a fun Thing To Do As Well.
What is The Right Time To Make Leaf mould Compost?
You Can Make Leaf Compost at Home, Over The Whole Year Whenever You Like. But The Best Time Would Be Summer Or Springs, When The temp is a Little Warmer, Its Because The Bacteria Which Drives This Whole Process Of Decompostion, likes a Warm Condition To Work Faster. Hence Your Compost Will Be Ready Soon. But still You Can make Leaf Compost Whenever You Like.
How To Make Leaf Mould Compost?
For Making Leaf Moulds at Home, You Can Follow a Few Easy Steps.
Step. 1 – Collecting Leaves…
First Step is To Gather All The dead & Dried Leaves. You Can Collect Them From a Nearby Park, Or At Your Home, You Can Also Use Green Leaves Or dried Leaves Whatever You Like. Make Sure The Leaves Are Not Infected of pests, Or Insects. If They Are, Put Them In The Sun Until They Are fully hard & dry.
Step. 2 – Preparing Compost Bin…
Next Step is To Prepare The Composting Bin, You Can Use any Container that is Big Enough, It Could Be a Clay Pot, Or a Plastic Basket etc. Its Better If They have Pores in it, because More Areation Means better & Faster Composting.
Also Make Sure It Have Drainage Hole To Drain The Extra Moisture. Or You Can Place Such a Basket At The Base of The Container.
Step. 3 – Adding Microbes Media…
Now Simply Prepare The Base by Adding Some Paper Pieces, & then Some Compost Or Soil. Both Have Bacteria That Is Important For The Decompostion. After Making a Layer, Now We Can Add Over Main Ingredient That is The Leaves We Have.
Try Not To Add The Branches In This bin, They Decomposes Very Slowly.
After A thick Layer of Leaves, Now You can again Add the garden Soil Or Compost, Whatever You Have.
Step. 4 – Going Layer By Layer…
& This Way, Go Layer By Layer & Make Multiple Layer of Leaves & Compost On Top Of One Another.
Once Your Whole Compost Bin Is Full, Now Cover The Top Layer With Soil. Soil Will Keep The Smell of Decomposing burried Under it.
Now Water The Whole Material Frequently. Moisture is The Initiater of The Decompostion, So Make Sure of It, Whenever The Upper Soil Layer Looks Dry, Make it Moist. Keep This Container in a Shaded Area, Away From Direct Sunlight, But The Area Should Be a Little Warmer. & Our Composting Is Done.
After 15 Days….
Within a Few Weeks, You Will See That Your Composting Material Is Settling Down In The Bin, That Means The Lower Material is Decomposing Which Results Into This Compressing. If You Like You Can Add More Leaves Over This, Or Just Keep The material Moist & Wait.
After 67 days….
After around 2 to 3 Months, The Material Will Settle Down a Little More & At This Time The Base Material Would Be Ready, But We Will Wait.
After 114 days…
After around 3 to 4 Months, Your Leaf Compost Would be Fully Ready, You Can Check That By Some Digging, In Summers, It Takes Around 3 Months, But In Cool Areas, You Should Wait Atleast 4 Months.
The Ready To Use Leaf Mold Compost Would Be Dark & Porous, Without Any leaftouts of The Leaves. Its Like a Black Colored Porous Soil.
You Can Harvest This Whole Leaf Compost Into a Separate Container & Store it Forever. Just Keep The Leaf Compost in a Dark & Air Tight bag.
How To Use it For Plant?
For Applying It On a Plant, Loose The Upper layer of Soil & Add The Compost. Use a Handful For a 6 to 8 Inches Of Pot & Double The Dose For a Double Size Pot & So On. Mix It Well With The Soil & Water Thoroughly.
You Can Also Buy a Ready To Use leaf Compost From This Link. But Homemade Is Always Better. This way You Can use The leaf Mold compost Every 2 Weeks In the Growing Season of a Plant.
On What Plants Leaf Mould Compost Can Be used?
You Can Use leaf Mould Compost on Almost All Type of Plants, Either its a Flowering Plant, Indoor Foliage Plant, Vegetable Plant, Succulent or Cacti Or For Seedlings. Just Balance The Dose Properly. For cacti & Succulents, You Should use This fertilizer, Its Made At Home & Works Amazing. Simply Checkout the Article Added Here.
What are it’s Benefits?
Leaf Compost have Many Benefits For Plants, Like Its low In Nitrogen, so It Wont Cause The Burning of Leaves. Its a Mixture of Essential nutrients, & It Can Be Used for Variety of Plants. It Almost have a Neutral Ph etc. For Learning About The Benefits of Composting In Details Follow the Article Added Here.
So Its all About Leaf Mold Compost, One Thing About this Is That It cant Be use regularly, As Plants Also requires Trace Elements, & Leaf Compost Is Not a Source of Trace elments, So For That You Can Use seaweed Fertilizer, Which Will Improve The Color & Size Of Flowers, make Vibrant Colors of Foliage House Plants & Grow Healthy & Big Size Vegetables on Your Plants, So Here is a Guide, Must Check It Out.