Fan leaf clippings in soil

never understood it, highway to huge problems pest or fungus... clean and tidy is only way !

Great way to encourage pests, pathogens and diseases.........pure laziness with no benefits.

It's refered to as chop and drop and it's great for raised beds and bigger container, organic/living soil grows that can turn over top dressing efficiently. Or for beds with worms as well. It feeds your mulch layer yes, which feeds your microbes, increases your brix etc..also keeps the temps down on your top soil but can lead to pest issues and mold if your Organic matter content gets too high. Then you'll want to add more digestive bacteria like LABS to help break it down or some Kashi blend is really amazing for living soil.

Natural break down. composting essentially. It'll break down and turn into nutrients for the plants. It's only of benefit if you are using living soil really aka using microbial life in your soil. In coco or peat forget it. Guys that grow organic in living soil just use that soil again and again so they dump discarded plant material right in the soil to break down and become food for the microbs which shit that food out and that's the gold that the plants absorb.

There is no benefits truly. By the time it takes for it to break down, and turn into Mycelium. You need a few weeks. And you need 2be on enzymes but the risks of mold go way up with leaving leafs on your sub unless you got good air flow. Which should move all over your plants body. Dead leafs can attract bugs. When they die they release a smell that will attract munchers + they make more you got pests. Generally sometimes if I see old leafs and good Fungi you leave it. You notice the dif. Mold is green, and bud rot is bad.. but? There's lots of benifical fungi. I had FPP. and lil yellow mushrooms grew and lots of yellow fungi down the sides of my pot. At the end of ripening the plant had eaten the entire lot. What was left was remnants of yellow Fungi that turned white and last bits of Mycelium was left Killer bud. But, back to your point. Look for good Mycelium reaction from dead growth. Generally there's a nutrient in every line that helps break down broken roots and so ppl cam reuse soil. Just something to break down the old dead growth to beni fungi and that's it. (Oh and top up your soil. As reused soil clearly won't have nutrients. So I use Mega worm on my reused soil. Or worm castings ppl use. Its like staring of with new soil. Much cheaper also when you go through 1000L per c

I think these people are probably using living soil most likely buddy as thats the only reason i can think of doing this if you have damp leaves at the top of your soil its going to cause mold and give nasties a place to live as well as giving off a alot of carbon. this could be a reason too but I would assume its the latter. Best of luck buddy someone else might have a better answer :D