Fungi for Leaf Mold

Hello,

I live on a 1/4 acre lot with lots of maples and oak. I am super appreciative of their leaves, but am overwhelmed with the sheer quantity of leaves they drop each fall.

I am trying to find more ways to use the leaves and how to decompose them faster. So far I am shredding them and putting them in piles and mulching the garden beds with them.

Does anyone know of a fungus I could purchase/find that I could inoculate my leaf mold with to make it decompose faster?

Does anyone know of another good use for all these leaves? There are so many!

Thank you,
Warren

Warren,

You might try mixing oyster mushroom spawn with leaves shredded as finely as possible.  Maybe add some soil, compost or manure, both to add some nitrogen and to add bulk & moisture retention.

My parents have an ever growing leaf pile.  I gave them some wine cap spawn I had left over.  They mixed the spawn in the center and just let it be.  The center of the pile is cratered now.

Might give it a try,

Eric

While collecting leaves look for rotten tree branches that have signs of decomposition. Add to leaf mold mound by breaking up in to smallest pieces.

Please to Remember to Take some and Lave some But do not Take the very best.
The limbs are there to continue the tree life cycle.  Be Kind to the Tree

Please to. Remember that the process for Fungal dominated compost / leaf mold takes a long time.
The speed up using nitrogen sources tends toward bacterial dominant compost. Which is good and needed.  One should be able to blend fungal dominant compost / leaf mold with the hot compost (bacterial dominant) to source the best microbe plant supplement.