I am very supportive of composting, but have had a problem that I need help with. I grow corn on several acres of land. The township puts leaves on that land to help the ground, but one field hasn't been right ever since. The corn stalks on that field grow yellow, not green. Any suggestions?

This problem is a little out of my league, so I called the Rutgers Soil Testing Laboratory and they suggested two possibilities. Their first piece of advice is exactly what you would expect from a soil testing facility: have your soil tested for Ph and nutrients if you haven't done so recently.

They said that, generally speaking, adding organic material such as leaves to your fields would add nitrogen to the soil-which is a good thing. Your crops need nitrogen to grow. In the short run, however, the composting process can actually tie up some nitrogen. This is why it makes sense to have your soil tested for the basics.

If something simple like that isn't the problem, they mentioned the possibility that the leaves added to your field may have been allelopathic. Allelopathy is a naturally-occurring chemical defense mechanism that some plants use to fend off other plants from growing too close, thus competing for sunlight, water and nutrients. If the leaves added to your field were from black walnuts, or to a lesser extent from trees in the hickory family, that may be what is causing your problem.

You should contact your municipality and tell them you are concerned about the possibility that allelopathic leaves were put on your field. Find out if they can identify what type of trees the leaves came from. Also ask them if they can help getting your soil tested.

For more information on purchasing a low-cost soil testing kit, contact your county's Cooperative Extension Office. A directory of offices for the state of Pennsylvania can be found online at: http://www.extension.psu.edu/CountyList.html

An "Ask GreenWorks" reader also wrote in with this helpful advice:

...Your answer to the corn farmer was not entirely correct. Yes, the yellowing stalks could be an indication of nitrogen deprivation. When
carbon-rich materials are added to soil, that can tie up the nitrogen. Leaves are a carbon-rich material. Carbon-rich materials (leaves, woodchips, sawdust, straw) should be thoroughly composted (totally decomposed) BEFORE being incorporated into the soil.

Carbon-rich material is slow to decompose on its own (up to two years for leaves), and will decompose faster if mixed with a nitrogen-rich material. The township may want to look into implementing a compost operation that would mix nitrogen-rich materials such as grass clippings or agricultural manures with the leaves, and then offer that finished compost to the farmer instead of the raw leaves. Or the farmer should compost the leaves in windrows and not add them to his soil until they are finished composting.

Walnut leaves are safe to use in compost as long as they are thoroughly decomposed. (The decomposition process breaks down the juglone, which is the alleopathic compound.) Walnut wood, however, should not be added to compost, as it takes a very long time to decompose the wood and break down the juglone.

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