sweetgum seed pods?

[lyra1977]

Our yard is full of them, and I am assuming they will compost but will take a long time to break down. Or will I have sweetgum saplings sprouting out of my compost pile?

Please pardon my ignorance as I'm just a beginner I did search the forum first to see if this had already been asked

[rainbowgardener]

Apparently no one really knows the answer to that. I imagine whether or not the sweet gum seeds survive to sprout in your compost pile depends on variables like how hot your pile runs, etc.

I understand that if you have a sweet gum tree, you have tons of the things, so it's a question of what to do with them, but they don't seem like ideal subjects for the compost pile. Tough and woody and will as you said take a while to break down. And the meantime they are spiky and not fun to bump into when you are trying to get to the broken down compost around them.

But off hand I don't have any better suggestion for what to do with them; I understand not wanting to just throw them away (there is no such place as "away" ! )

[applestar]

I have a sweetgum tree overhanging my back fence where I gather the bulk of my leaves, so I always have sweetgum balls in my compost. I can say that they don't break down well, but the nooks and crannies seem to make perfect apartments for soil denizens. This time of the year, if I unearth them in my garden where unscreened compost was put in, there are earthworms inside most of them. I gleefully put the composted sweetgum balls in the bottom of large containers. Sometimes, though, slugs hide in them

I have several sweetgum volunteers, but only one could have come from compost. Being only 6~8" tall and on the ground, their fall leaf color after the first frost is always startlingly red and really pretty (I don't notice the same coloration on the trees for some reason). I'm waiting to see if I'm going to want to transplant them somewhere.

[lyra1977]

Thanks for the replies! I've heard that sweetgum trees are a great thing to plant at a house you don't plan to stay in...if you leave before the tree is 10 years old you won't have to rake the gumballs

Yesterday I had decided to just leave them in the compost pile and that even if they didn't break down quickly they wouldn't hurt anything. The ones I dig up from the yard that are from past seasons have always lost their spikes, so at least I know the compost heat will make them less painful

[applestar]

I know a lot of people don't like Sweetgum because of the prickly balls, but my kids and I were really happy to find out that it's a larval host for the gorgeous pale green Luna moth. Every year, we hope to see one but so far no luck. (I think it's because Gypsy moths, Tent Caterpillars, and Fall Webworms also like this tree and the spray programs are decimating them... )

A few years ago, in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, DH found one on the ground while hiking and carefully brought it back for us to see. Good 10 years or more ago, they came to the Moonflowers we planted by the front porch. I plant Moonflowers every year but haven't seen one recently.

[ernsppw]

I have several sweet gum trees on my property also. I run gumballs and all through a shredder and use it in my leaf compost. I just used a half finished batch for mulch in my raised beds and not a gumball in sight. If you have a way to grind them up and use hot compost method I think that's the way to go.

[MockY]

The one large sweet gum tree I have on my property sheds an incredible amount each year. I make a game out of it with my children as we collect them, but they don't end up in the compost. Instead, they make great embers in the firepit. And it gives me great pleasure to see them burn after all the hurt they cause me and my family's feet each year.