Leaf mould

“ What it really consists of is decayed vegetable matter and it is always found forming the top soil of virgin, or uncultivated land. It is present in large amounts in woodlands where the falling leaves and surface growth lie on the ground, year after year, and decay and form what is technically known as leaf mould. We know how admirably it is adapted to the growing of house plants, and its value is often erroneously attributed to the plant food it is supposed to contain, but its great value is not so much in its food content as its influence on the soil with which it is combined ”

“ We suppose that the plants that have lived in past years have decayed to form a black material like leaf mould which stops in the soil, giving it a darkish colour. The more mould there is, the darker the colour of the soil. We know that along with this decay there is a great deal of shrinkage. As the black material is formed from the plant, it only extends as far into the soil as the plant roots go, so that there is a sharp change in colour about 6 inches below the surface (see also p. 2) . Like the plant the black material all burns away when the soil is heated sufficiently. ”

“ Old tan is certainly more preferable than mould, though either will answer the purpose. Let it be put in the frame the day before the seed is sown, and cover the bed up with a single mat at night, taking care to shut it down until the morning, that the heat may be properly drawn up. Take some forty-eight size [Pg 7] pots, and mix a quantity of leaf mould with a sixth proportion of road sand, not sifted fine. The sifting mould to a fine degree is an error too prevalent in horticulture, and ought particularly to be avoided, from its great tendency to bind. ”

“ Soil and its Preparation.—The Pea comes earliest to maturity in light, rich soil, abounding in humus: hence the practice of adding decomposed leaves or vegetable mould has a very beneficial effect. For general crops, a rich, hazel loam, or deep, rich, alluvial soil, is next best; but, for the most abundant of all, a strong loam, inclining to clay. For early crops, mild manure, such as leaf-mould, should be used. If the soil is very poor, stronger manure should be employed. ”

“ To be effective, it should be grown into strong clumps, which may easily be done by annually giving a top-dressing of leaf-mould; the older parts of the plant will remain perfectly sound and healthy for years. When it is desirable to propagate it, it may best be done in April, when the tufts should be carefully divided, and its short roots made firm in the soil by one or two stones being placed near. ”

“ These plants die every autumn. During the winter their decomposition produces a layer of leaf mould, in which a new vegetation of plants of the same species springs up again, and its rich growth mingling in its decay with that of the preceding year, the soil is thus annually raised by successive layers. ”

“ The seeds should not be covered with soil, or they will fail to germinate. Place a pane of glass over the pans, and set in a warm house or frame, where a temperature of about 65° can be maintained, and shade from the sun. As soon as the plants are large enough they should be pricked off into pans of light leaf-mould soil, « 133 » in which they may remain until large enough to be placed singly in pots. By divisions of the rhizomes. Also increased by cuttings, which strike freely in pots of sand and leaf-mould, and placed on a bottom heat of about 70°. ”

“ They need to be frequently sprayed and it is well to immerse occasionally the entire plant in water so as to wet the under surface of the leaves. The water ought to be tepid, and indeed for all plants in cold weather. To keep the dirt from falling out when the plant is plunged top downward, something can be wrapped around the pot. A mixture of turfy loam and sandy peat is best, but when not available, leaf mold or a rich mellow soil mixed with silver sand will do. ”

“ Wherever the forest has been undisturbed by fire, they have accumulated, by shedding their foliage through a long succession of ages, and by their own decay, a covering of vegetable mould from six to twelve inches deep, and sometimes from eighteen to twenty-four. This mould is the best of all soils, and eminently friendly to every species of vegetation. It is, indeed, no other than a mere mass of manure, and that of the very best kind, converted into mould; and so long as it remains in considerable quantities, all grounds produce plentifully. ”

“ If grown in pots, prepare a rich soil of sand and leaf mold. If impossible to get leaf mold, use a sprinkling of bone meal. Place some pieces of broken flower pots or pebbles in the bottom of the pots to drain the water off, or the bulbs will mold. ”

“ On that piece of ground I grew 11,000 quarts of strawberries to the acre in a year, the largest yield I had ever grown on that leaf mold. You can never get too much leaf mold. There must have been something else besides the leaf mold.
Mr. Alway: In case a crop does not give a satisfactory yield it may be due to other things than the soil, and until we eliminate the other possible causes we can't safely blame it to the soil. ”

“ Cutting into pieces only multiplies the pest; for each piece (Fig. 98) is already a plantlet, with its roots and with a bud in the axil of its scale-like leaf (either latent or apparent) , and with prepared nourishment enough to develop this bud into a leafy stem; and so a single plant is all the more speedily converted into a multitude. Whereas, when the subterranean parts are only roots, cutting away the stem completely destroys the plant, except in the rather rare cases where the root freely produces adventitious buds. ”

“ In such a situation plants grown in moss will thrive better than in garden mould, and possess the very great advantage of not causing dirt by the earth washing out of them when watered. The explanation of the practice seems to be this: that moss rammed into a pot, and subjected to continual watering, is soon brought into a state of decomposition, when it becomes a very pure vegetable mould; and it is well known that very pure vegetable mould is the most proper of all materials for the growth of almost all kinds of plants. ”

“ These plants, or the greater part of them, have a peculiar growth, particularly adapted to these regions, and fit for forming soil and mould on barren rocks. In proportion as they grow up, they spread into various stems and branches, which lie as close together as possible; they spread new seeds, and at last a large spot is covered; the lowermost fibres, roots, stalks, and leaves, gradually decay and push forth on the top new verdant leaves: The decaying lower parts form a kind of peat, or turf, which gradually changes into mould and soil. ”

“ Lift the plant carefully so as not to break the ball of earth round the roots, and fill in with mould round the sides. In order to supply water readily the pots must not be filled up to the rim. Pot firmly, and in the case of hard-wooded plants ram the earth down with a blunt-pointed stick; soft-wooded ones may be left rather looser. Give shade till the plants have recovered themselves. The soil used for potting should be moist, but not clammy. A rather light, rich loam is most suitable for strong-growing plants; peat for slow-growing, hard-wooded ones, like Ericas, Camellias, etc. ”

“ In fields, and uncultivated places, the surface-soil is almost as hard, and as coarse in its texture, as the sub-soil on which it rests; but in gardens which have been long in cultivation, the surface-soil becomes so thoroughly pulverized by frequent diggings, and so mixed with the manure and decayed vegetables which have been added to it from time to time, that it is changed into the soft, light, fine, powdery substance, called garden-mould. ”

“ Of course, the more quickly the leaves throw off water, the faster the fresh supply pushes up the stem.
If the leaves do their work more quickly than the roots make good the loss, then the plant wilts.
When a leaf is broken from a plant, it soon fades. Its water supply being cut off, it has no way of making good the loss through the leaf mouths.
Just as the air in a balloon keeps its walls firm, so the water in the leaf cells keeps the cell walls firm. ”

“ Coloring matter from the newly opened bolls, or from the soil, is washed into the floss by the rain, and while such spots or stains may be bleached out by the sun, the lustrous bloom never returns. Frost will make permanent tinges or stains, and the wind will frequently wrap the pendulous locks of fibre-covered seed about the stems of the plant or tangle them up in the leaves. ”

“ During the dissolution of the chalk, the insoluble matter, including a vast number of unrolled flints of all sizes, has been left on the surface and forms a bed of stiff red clay, full of flints, and generally from 6 to 14 feet in thickness. Over the red clay, wherever the land has long remained as pasture, there is a layer a few inches in thickness, of dark-coloured vegetable mould. ”

“ If grown in brown loam with a little sand, they will preserve their original colour; but if grown in swamp earth with a little mould of decayed leaves, they will become blue. The swamp earth and vegetable mould being more combined with aluminous salt than brown loam, is the cause of the change ”

“ In thick and level woods, protected from the wind, castings will never be removed as long as the wood lasts; and mould will here tend to accumulate to the depth at which worms can work. I tried to procure evidence as to how much mould is blown, whilst in the state of castings, by our wet southern gales to the north-east, over open and flat land, by looking to the level of the surface on opposite sides of old trees and hedge-rows ”

“ The mold or mildew which gathers on the surface of preserves is a plant of exquisite beauty when viewed with low magnifying power and by reflected light, for what appears to the naked eye only a soft, white, woolly crust, becomes a glittering forest of graceful stems and branches, standing like fine spun silver upon the dark background of the supporting surface. ”

“ It also occasionally produces a small stone which more or less resembles pumice-stone; also, less commonly, there is a leaf-like ball, which is oblong and of close texture. Further the oak produces on the rib of the leaf a white transparent ball, which is watery, when it is young; and this sometimes contains flies: but as it develops, it becomes hard, like a small smooth gall.
Such are the growths which the oak produces as well as its fruit. For as for the fungi [20] which grow from the roots or beside them, these occur also in other trees. ”

“ MOULD. (1) (O. Eng. molde, from a Teutonic root meaning to grind, reduce to powder, cf. “meal”) , loose fine earth, rich in organic matter, on the surface of cultivated ground, especially the made garden soil suitable for the growth of plants. In the sense of a furry growth, consisting of minute fungi found on animal or vegetable substances exposed to damp, the word may be either an extension of “mould,” earth, or an adaptation of an early “moul,” with an additional d due to “mould.” ”

“ In many parts of England a weight of more than ten tons (10,516 kilogrammes) of dry earth annually passes through their bodies and is brought to the surface on each acre of land; so that the whole superficial bed of vegetable mould passes through their bodies in the course of every few years. ”

“ We have often collected fine mould and composts upon the ground previous to planting, and trenched over the soil; we have carefully arranged the {253} rootlets, and packed in our prepared mould; we have noticed that mutilating the top of certain kinds of trees was very pernicious, particularly of the beech and the oak; we have invariably turned round the heaviest branches to the west; we have mulched and watered the first summer, and have hoed around the plants for years afterwards ”

“ A sandy loam, well mixed with leaf-mold, is their delight. We usually remove the top soil, and then take out and reject about twelve inches of the subsoil, making in all about twenty inches depth; return the top earth, together with enough compost of leaf-mold, sand, and thoroughly decayed manure, to fill it; plant about four inches deep, measuring from the top of the corm. When your plants are growing, examine every day; if you see a sawdust-like matter about them, they need attention. On searching, a perforation will be found in the stem. ”

“ When wanted to be brought into flower, the bulbs, if to be repotted, should have all the dirt shaken off and potted in soil composed of fibrous loam and leaf-mold, to which should be added a little sand. If the loam is a heavy one, place the pot in a warm situation; a spent hotbed is a good place. Water as needed, and as the flowers develop liquid manure may be given. If large clumps are well established in 8- or 10-inch pots, they may be top-dressed with new soil containing rotted manure, and as growth increases liquid manure may be given twice a week until the flowers open. ”

“ That all this nourishment is derived from the air is evidently shown by the formation and increase of mould in forests which have grown for centuries; this black mould is nearly all decayed vegetable matter, formed by the continuous fall and decay of leaves and trees, but which, instead of diminishing, increases. ”

“ The commonest kind of leaf, which therefore may be taken as the type or pattern, is an expanded green body, by means of which the plant exposes to the air and light the matters which it imbibes, exhales certain portions, and assimilates the residue into vegetable matter for its nourishment and growth.
119. But the fact is already familiar (10-30) that leaves occur under other forms and serve for other uses,—for the storage of food already assimilated, as in thickened seed-leaves and bulb-scales; for covering, as in bud-scales ”