Topic: Can I compost......

[simhop]

Have posted on the edible board as well as not sure where was best, sorry for duplication.
Probably due to poor weather conditions and no greenhouse my tomatoes suffered blight and I removed more rotten than red, however it was my first year trying with them so not overly disappointed. A greenhouse is on the xmas list. Anyway I presume that it is not ok to compost the plants damaged but what about the growbags that I used - is it ok to chuck the contents onto the compost heap or would the disease have spread down to the roots.
Thanks for ay advice,
Simon

[Palustris]

The spores from blight drop from the plant leaves on to the soil to overwinter. I would not recommend using your grow bag stuff on the compost heap.

[growmore]

I am sorry to hear about your blight.Especially as it was your first year.Blight does seem to thrive in damp weather conditions  if it is any consolation You may not see any at all next year.
I agree with Palustris I wouldn't want to use the plants for compost heap and would burn them..
But it poses an interesting question how does one dispose of grow bags etc which have had blight infested crops in them?..
I believe the spores do stay in the growing medium for quite a while..
I know heat will kill spores but how do we heat treat say 7 growbags..compost heap maybe but it needs to be a hot one
I think putting quite a lot of growbags on it would soon cool it down.
Could we  sterilise it with something lke jeyes fluid ?
Does any one know? cheers ..Jim..
 

[Hugh_Jones]

I doubt whether Jeyes Fluid would do the trick, but I suspect that Armillatox would do it, although it would be difficult to prove without labaratory tests on the results.

Howver, a wallpaper steamer/stripper applied to each growbag in turn would probably be able to raise the temperature sufficiently for the purpose, although careful monitoring of the temperature with a soil (or oven)thermometer would help.  This is little different in principle from the old fashioned soil steam steriliser which I have had for nearly 40 years and still use occasionally

[simhop]

So heat kills it but what about cold - it gets down to about -17 here in Winter - that should kill any spores????

[john_miller]

Our temperatures of -30C don't seem to bother it, it is endemic here and arrives every year in August. I imagine that now that it is endemic in Europe even composting, or not, your old plant parts will not make a great deal of difference to whether you get infection or not as there will be so much infected plant remains left undisturbed by others that the infection reservoir will be huge. I seem to remember reading somewhere that deadly nightshade is a symptomless host and I'm sure there is enough of that around to keep the fungus proliferating on it's own. Anyone seen anything contrary or confirming?

[Palustris]

Also read somewhere that heating peat (I presume your Growing bags are peat based, most of them are) causes it to become poisonous to plants. Just a vague memory so not sure about it, but worth checking.
If you do use a steam stripper to sterilise material, I found it easiest to spread the stuff out on a concrete area about 2 to 3 centimetres deep. Don't know about getting rid of fungal spores, but it did clean out vine weevil grubs and eggs as well as slug and snail and sciarid flies too.