The the leaves of maples on our street seem to be covered in mould. Is it safe to put these leaves into the compost? I noticed such mold on a lot of maples with large leaves in the last few years. What is happening here?
My understanding is that the powdery mildew on maples is both everpresent in our area, showing up every summer, and also quite specific to maples. Therefore no point trying to reduce the sources of infection with so many acres of native and infected maples all round us. Different forms of powdery mildew apparently attack different types of plants, so that we aren't risking our other garden plants with applications of those maple leaves. In addition, the compost pile will replace the mildew organisms with many thousands of different microbe species that are helpful in our soils...so I would compost without hesitation.
