Do you compost tomato plants & bad fruit?

**Two_Sheds** · 07-10-2010, 03:51 PM

Yes I do, even blighted ones, but then I am slovenly. I get the odd tomato coming up but it doesn't bother me.

**rustylady** · 07-10-2010, 04:31 PM

I would compost the lot. If you have rogue plants coming up it's easy enough to pull them out. Just like the other weeds (after all it has been said that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place)

**Nicos** · 07-10-2010, 04:40 PM

Just make sure there is no blight on the toms.

Rogue tomato plants are brill....they seem to do better germinating outside than my pampered seeds indoors

I've never noticed other fruit plants growing from rotten fruit.

Oh- I fib.....either melon or courgette seeds germinating...no idea which cos they never grew on enough to fruit!

Never had a baby apple tree growig and I've composted tons of apple cores and pips in my time!...strange that- they maybe can't cope with the heat????

**Madasafish** · 07-10-2010, 04:52 PM

I compost everything, blight or not.

Not that we've had blight for 2 years...

**chris** · 07-10-2010, 06:29 PM

I've been bunging everything in and weeing on it. No idea what they neighbours think, but hey ho, my garden

It gets really hot - I've seen steam on cold nights, and condensation inside the dalek.

**rustylady** · 07-10-2010, 06:40 PM

Originally posted by chrismarks View Post

I've been bunging everything in and weeing on it. No idea what they neighbours think, but hey ho, my garden

It gets really hot - I've seen steam on cold nights, and condensation inside the dalek.

How tall are you Chris?

**coreopsis** · 07-10-2010, 07:51 PM

Originally posted by chrismarks View Post

I've been bunging everything in and weeing on it. No idea what they neighbours think, but hey ho, my garden

You can always say that you're marking your teritory

As for composting-bad fruit yes,blighted stems-no.

**Suky** · 07-10-2010, 09:27 PM

Originally posted by chrismarks View Post

I've been bunging everything in and weeing on it. No idea what they neighbours think, but hey ho, my garden

It gets really hot - I've seen steam on cold nights, and condensation inside the dalek.

Just can't persuade my menfolk this is a good idea

Do have a bucket in the shed for me tho' (sorry Mum, it's along walk back indoors)

**OllieMartin** · 07-10-2010, 10:02 PM

Originally posted by chrismarks View Post

I've been bunging everything in and weeing on it...

Note to self: Must remember to wee on the compost more, been slacking off and using the 'facilities' recently. If God wanted us to wee in toilets he wouldn't have invented nitrogen-loving plants.

**coreopsis** · 07-10-2010, 10:27 PM

I think there was a thread about weeing on compost somewhere on the forum...
BTW,why nobody designed(yet)compost bin for ...ahem... ladies use?

with a nice lid at the top(lid down most of the time of course)

**Paulottie** · 08-10-2010, 12:43 AM

Mmm...what a charming turn this thread has taken....and back to the topic

In some things Admittedly I can be slovenly too but I do burn all blighted tom plants. The spores don't die unless your compost heap is really hot...However potent you think your personal liquid activator is.

Frankly I don't know why I bother as I still have problems 4 out 5 years.

**Two_Sheds** · 08-10-2010, 06:51 AM

Originally posted by Paulottie View Post

The [blight] spores don't die unless your compost heap is really hot...

Blight spores can only survive on living material. I'd argue that composted plants aren't alive.

"The pathogen over winters in infected seed potatoes ...potatoes left by the sides of
fields, or ... from tubers left in the ground."

"composting may leave the haulm exposed, which will allow blight spores to spread until the green material dies. If composting is the only option, the infected material should be placed under the top layer in the compost"

[Or under a dalek lid

]

source: The Potato Council

**womble** · 08-10-2010, 06:58 AM

I have composted everything, included blighted ones for 9 years. The heat will kill it, the plants will be very dead in the bin, which will kill the spores anyway as they need living material to survive, or the heap will freeze over winter, which will kill blight.
Seems pretty comprehensive to me.

**chris** · 08-10-2010, 07:25 AM

Originally posted by rustylady View Post

How tall are you Chris?

I'm not tall at all, 5'8 odd? Trick is to nip it in the bud before the "arc" looses too much trajectory.

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