Hello GC Organic Folks, I had the pleasure of venturing into a relatively dense forest and bag a gallon or 2 of what seems like leaf compost. The soil itself was covered by this year's leaves, had a few live plants growing in it (cold sub freezing winter temps as we speak), and has a rich dark color. The soil is wet from the melted snow and has a very loose texture. I also dug up soil that was directly under dead wood that inhabited by pill bugs (woah, they were crawling everywhere). This soil is from the top 1-3" of the forest. How do I determine the quality of the soil and whether or not it is in fact leaf compost? I gave it a smell and it just smells like dirt... The goal is to use the soil/leaf compost as a % of top soil on no tills and/or mix in the worm bin to produce super vermicompost. Please see the picture below.
When it dries, it turns grayish. Could this just be dirt? It's also rather clumpy now as it's wet beyond field capacity - most of the snow has melted in the area.
I've never seen actual leaf mold compost first hand but i think it's safe to assume that if you're finding fluffy black soil under leafy trees, then that would be leaf mold. Whatever it is looks great to me. I would use that as a small portion of your peat portion of the base soil, throw in compost, or to mix in with bedding for the worms. I was pulling out rotting logs today that have been at the edge of our property for god knows when. They got covered in fir needles for so long they were basically buried. I took a pic ax and pulled them out but a lot of it was so decomposed. I grabbed a shovel and started scooping out the wood and the soil around it was dark brown but the wood was the reddish brown fluff. I don't know if that helps you compare.
Is there a lot of undergrowth in the forest? What information of forest is it? Mountain? Woodland? Sent from my ADR930L using Grasscity Forum mobile app
The more I look at it, the more it looks like just dirt... The medium was gathered from a patch of woods in a trail that has been around for at least 20 years in a metropolitan area. There isnt a whole lot undergrowth in this area besides large trees... I planted all sorts of stuff in a soil sample -- a number of beans, flax, buchwheat, wheat -- are are growing well within the last week. Not sure if this provides conclusive results to determine whether or not its leaf compost.
I added water last night and it DID indeed turn to mud. Is outdoor " dirt" essentially useless, even considering the possibility that it may have a diverse microbe population? Perhaps using it as an ingredient in teas and dumping it is an option?