Knowledgebase

Compost leaves with gull leaf desease? #570649

Asked June 15, 2019, 4:08 PM EDT

My neighbor and I have hackberry trees. His tree has gull leaf desease and the leaves fall into my yard all summer and fall. I guess my tree will get it too. I don’t think this will kill the trees, but I want to compost the leaves if I can. I avoid composting all the leaves in my yard since the gull leaf leaves are mixed throughout the other tree leaves around that land in my yard. Hate to be missing composting all the leaves if it is ok to compost the gull leaf ones! I read some leaf desease are ok to compost, but could not find out about gull leaf desease and composting. Can I compost the gull leaf deseased leaves from the hackberry tree? Thank you very much.

Frederick County Maryland

Expert Response

We think you might be referring to leaf galls, which are not uncommon on hackberry trees. There are two types of native insects that live in association with hackberry trees and cause the galls to form. Refer to our webpage for more information about leaf galls in shade trees. https://extension.umd.edu/hgic/topics/shade-tree-galls

It would be fine to compost the leaves in your regular compost. 

Christa

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