posted 8 years ago
Fascinating!
I'd love to see you do an experiment. Could you catch enough of those night-crawlers to populate a worm bin? And then, feeding your worms a heavy diet of the Ailanthus leaves in question, get them to create a supply of worm castings. Once you have enough of the worm castings to heavily amend some potting soil, it would be easy enough to run a simple comparative side-by-side trial. Plant a variety of seeds in pots --- half in the worm casting amended soil, and half in your control group (unamended soil).
Let the seeds germinate (if they will germinate), let them grow, and then compare the results.
My hunch is that the digestive process would substantially remediate the toxic qualities of those leaves.
"The rule of no realm is mine. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, these are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything that passes through this night can still grow fairer or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I too am a steward. Did you not know?" Gandolf