Diseased leaves should be taken to a waste collection station
Leila Mainla, a junior professor of horticulture at the Estonian University of Life Sciences, advises against composting leaves showing signs of disease or pests. She says not all fallen leaves need to be raked up in autumn.
Leaves with signs of disease or pests should not go into the compost but should be taken to a waste collection station, said Leila Mainla, a junior professor of horticulture at the Estonian University of Life Sciences, on the Estonian public broadcaster's programme Terevisioon. She explained that gardeners do not have to collect every fallen leaf in autumn.
Which leaves to collect
Mainla said maple and apple leaves should be collected first. Birch leaves can stay on the lawn, as they are small and vanish into the grass. If there is not enough time to gather all the leaves, oak leaves can be left until spring.
Diseased leaves
According to Mainla, taking leaves with signs of disease or pests to a waste station reduces the risk of plant diseases and pests spreading. As an example, she mentioned the horse-chestnut leaf miner, which is currently spreading. She said burning such leaves would be best, but burning plant waste is not allowed in the city, so a waste station is the only option.
Plant waste must never be dumped in a forest, since this also helps spread alien species, pests and diseases.
Large plots
If a plot is so large that raking all the leaves by hand is too much, a garden tractor can help. Driving over the leaves with it shreds them into mulch, which stays in the grass, rots down and becomes fertiliser for the lawn. Mainla described this as the more sensible option in that case.
