Chris - Winter cleanup?

[ademink]

Chris - I've seen SO many arguments for both sides, I thought I would ask the expert. Do you remove the dead leaves on the hosta (mine are currently mush) in the fall or spring?

I've seen a lot of people talk about removing the "dry" leaves. Mine are rarely dry. They are more mushy and make me concerned about fungus/blight/etc.

Thanks for your thoughts!

[Chris_W]

Hi,

There are a few things to consider when cleaning up - don't do it too early as you could be passing diseases among the hostas, so definitely do it some time after you have had a complete killing frost. Whether that is in the spring or fall is up to you I think, and your schedule.

But also fungus and bacteria are a concern. If you have issues with these things, then clean up in the fall would be best in order to reduce the disease pressure in the next growing season.

The leaves can give insects, slugs, and voles places to hide, but the leaves also act as a mulch to keep the ground more evenly frozen in the winter and protect the crowns a little.

When I weigh the pros and cons, myself, I think fall cleanup is better. Around here the leaves wither away, dry up, and we get a brutal northwest winter wind off our fen that blows all the leaves away so the hosta area is mostly baren. Then in late winter we clean up any of the other leaves that remain. Here it is more about us having time and about the ground being mostly frozen so we can walk through the rows without damaging things or settling the growing areas too much.

So I say it is up to you, just try to get things cleaned up before they are pips coming up in the spring garden.

[ademink]

Excellent - thanks for taking the time to respond!

I think I'll evaluate my leaf litter and if I have a ton of it in the area, I'll remove the mushy leaves. Very little litter...and I'll leave them.

Have a great winter! Looking forward to visiting next year!

[kHT]

ademink, no expert when it comes to hostas but I can tell you from what we grow here it is best
to keep your property as free of leaves and wilted plant material as possible. Especially molds and
blacken plant material. Sorry but no leaf mulch here!! I deal with leaves blowing in all the time and
if you take a serious look at them, you too would get rid of it. A good feeding in early spring is better
then leaf mulch and a lot safer. Compost your leaves and make sure it gets hot before putting it back
out. Molds are a concern when folks have allergies to them. Then there is the fir and pine needle mulch
that folks allow. That makes the soil acidy and again allergies!!

[ademink]

Thank you for your feedback - I appreciate it!