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K-State Turf and Landscape Blog

Tag: leaves

What to do with all those leaves?

(By Jared Hoyle, KSU Turfgrass Research and Extension)

I always like the changing seasons.  The cooler nights and mild days make great cool-season turfgrass growing weather.  Everyone has been aerifying, fertilizing, mowing, and seeding.  Everything is starting to turf green again from the past couple hot and dry months.

But with fall comes the leaves.  I really like the changing colors of the trees but shortly after they fall and make a mess.  So what does that do to your lawn.  Here is a great article by Ward Upham (KSU Research and Extension Rapid Response Hotline) that explains the best way to handle the leaves that fall on your lawn.

https://blogs.k-state.edu/turf/tree-leaves-and-turfgrass/

 

Tree Leaves and Turfgrass

(by Ward Upham, KSU Research and Extension)

It’s that time of year again. Leaves are rapidly falling from deciduous trees so it’s a good time to stop and think about options for handling the litter. Although a scattering of leaves won’t harm the lawn, excessive cover prevents sunlight from reaching turfgrass plants.

Turf left in this state for an extended period will be unable to make the carbohydrates needed to carry it through the winter. There are options for dealing with the fallen leaves other than bagging them up and putting them out for the trash collector. Composting is a great way to handle the refuse. Compost can then be used in the vegetable garden and flowerbeds. If you do not compost, you can mow leaves with a mulching mower and let shredded leaves filter into the turf canopy. (A side-discharge mower also will work, but it won’t shred the leaves as thoroughly.) This method will be most effective if you do it often enough that leaf litter doesn’t become too thick. Mow while you can still see grass peeking through the leaves.

You may wonder whether this practice will be detrimental to the lawn in the long run. Research at Michigan State University in which they used a mulching mower to shred up to about one pound of leaves per square yard of lawn (one pound is equal to approximately 6 inches of leaves piled on the grass) for five consecutive years, found no long-term effects of the shredded leaves on turf quality, thatch thickness, organic content of the thatch, or soil test results (pH, nutrients, etc.). If you mow leaves and have a cool-season lawn, it makes sense to be on a fall nitrogen fertilization program and core-aerate in the fall (things you should be doing anyway). If you have a warm-season lawn, you can still use this technique but wait to fertilize and core-aerate until next late May or early June. (Ward Upham)