Dead Sarracenia leaves

[jdallas]

I'm curious if anyone out there has ever tried using a compost additive made from composted Sarracenia leaves? Each year as we trim plants we end up with piles of dead leaves/pitchers and they always just get tossed to a burn pile. However, I've always wondered if making a compost out of them would make a good additive for Sarracenia or other bog species. I know the leaves have a very high tannin content, and they would contain trace minerals from all of the dead insect exoskelotons. Thoughts?

Jeff

[stevebooth]

Hi Jeff

This is one I have often pondered on myself, the conclusions I have come to, based on no tests or anything in particular, is that dependant on the quantity used obviously, is that they would add, probably, too many minerals and organic matter if used on a leaves off the plant recycled back onto the same plant basis, especially if it is kept in a pot.
I know that in nature the dead leaves would fall and decompose, or in other cases be burnt by fire and drop as nutrient rich ash, but not neccessarily all or in fact a large proportion of the neutrients would be returned to the adjacent substrate due to the action of wind etc. Isnt the purpose of the pitchers to absorb the elements that cant be derived from the surrounding ground.
In short I am entirely the wrong man to answer your question but like you I am intrigued to find out. I look forward to the forthcoming answers.
Cheers
Steve

[ICPS-bob]

I don't know about composting Sarracenia pitchers for adding to bog soil, but for years and years I have put the trimmed pitchers in my compost heap for recycling into the flower and vegetable beds.

[Aidan]

A relevant post from a similar discussion -

www.insektenfang.com/ipforum/topic/4695-the-big-clear-up-2011/page__view__findpost__p__20283

[jdallas]

Aidan,

Thank-you for the link. Good discussion. Gardenofeden sounded like the only one that has made compost from Sarracenia leaves, but it doesn't sound like anyone has made a compost just from Sarracenia leaves. It sounded like it was just part of his garden compost, and I know that regular garden compost is way too rich. I guess I'll experiment this year.

I also wanted to chime in on another subject I saw in that thread which is whether or not to clip all leaves off plants before spring growth resumes. For many years I was in your camp where I would only clip off totally brown pitchers and leave descent looking ones intact. I'm finding this depends on the species/hybrid quite a bit. We always leave leaves uncut on purpureas and psittacinas since they are more or less evergreen, and slower growers. Sparse growers like typical leucophyllas it's easy enough to to leave the still green pitchers. What I look for is how much sun will be able to get to the rhizome crown and new growth. On something like a leuco or a minor, it's no problem. With rubras and their hybrids, however, I always clip all the leaves off. They tend to grow in such dense mats that new growth doesn't form well if the previous season's leaves are left on the plant.

About three years ago I saw a dramatic example of how clipping all the leaves off can help the new growth get better sun. During the spring I'm away from the nursery at another job, and my partner manages the operations. I'm involved in Sarracenia maintenance during the early spring, but not the late. As mentioned before I do like to leave leaves on S. psittacina and hybrids only clipping off dead material. We had a sizable population that year of Scarlet Belles that needed trimming. Due to time and me not being there, they clipped them to the ground. I saw that, and was a little irritated. By the end of June, those plants were jaw-dropping. The had perfectly formed, colorful pitchers. Older plants in other parts of the nursery that didn't get trimmed didn't look as good.

In short I would say trimming Sarracenia isn't a "one size fits all" situation. Some benefit from having all of the previous season's removed more than others.

Jeff

[lochness]

I can agree that in the wild the nutrients from the leaves would be returned to the soil via ash or decomposition, but wouldn't much of that be washed away due to the high amounts of water that run through and over natural bogs? Whereas in pots or outdoor bogs, the nutrients would have more time to build up in the soil instead of being washed away? I throw my old Sarracenia leaves in my garden, so this is merely a hypothesis.

Of course, it could also be that if left to decompose on top of the soil at a natural rate the return of nutrients would be so slow that the plants would use them faster than they could build up in the soil, especially during spring and summer growth. This could even be beneficial to the plants as they flower and make new growth. The results of an experiment to test this would certainly be useful.

[Aidan]

Jeff - That topic is primarily about the clean-up of my collection last year (I'm still in the middle of it this year!) and the issue of composting leaves was an interesting aside. That said, though it would make life simpler to chop them all to the ground, I'm still firmly on the side of retaining live growth for the reasons stated. As with you and I, there are growers on both sides of the fence on this issue.