Composting Dead Tomatoe Plants

Hi Guys, while extending my veg patch today I noticed some dead tomatoe plants in the greenhouse with a few rotted tomatoes and dry leaves. I decided to put these on my compost heap as well as some of the thin twigs. I was just wondering if its ok to do this, It's my first attempt at making a compost heap and don't want to ruin it. It's a council compost heap and has in it some veg on the bottom and shredded paper on top followed by my dead tomatoe plants and more veg, it's not even one third full yet. I also gave it a little soak with water.

Will this ruin my heap?

Thanks in advance.

 

You can put most organic matter on a compost heap sausage, but there are a few things I tend to be careful with.
The old tom plants are fine just as long as there was no diseases present when they died last year, some diseases can be passed on unless the heap really heats up well. A bad one with toms is blight.
So any old plant material that shows signs of problems is best burnt or destroyed.

 

Ok thanks for the info, The tomatoes were very healthy last year so hopefully there won't be a problem but i'll certainly look out for diseases on plants in the future before I compost them.

 

The other problem with composting dead tomatoes is that if there were any fruit then you will get Tomato seedlings coming up everywhere!

 

Damn i didn't think of that. There were a few of last years rotted tomatoes now covered by dead grass and paper and hoover dust.

 

About tomatoe plants carrying diseases, Can these diseases be passed on to other veg that aren't tomatoe plants?

 

It can cause a type of blight in potatoes, too, so maybe other types of Solanum might suffer? I think pepinos are solanum.

 

As always, thanks again for the excellent advice!

 

Hi Sausage. Never thought of putting hoover dust in my composters! Anybody any thoughts on this?

 

I did after someone recommended it on GC and now I have a batch of compost full of Lego,K-Nex and Barbies shoes!! :rolleyes: :D :D Hopefully, it'll give the kids something to do in the garden!! :D :D

 

lol, yeh I too was recommended by this forum to insert my hoover dust.

 

Hi everyone my computer broke so I've been without one for over 2 weeks whilst it went to be repaired and just when i needed it the most,as this year of trying for the first time to grow veg i have been glad of the advice from the forum and have really missed you guys, so was quite lost so to speak. Now some of my tomatoes which were doing quite well in the conservertory have wilted and died, not through lack of water but perhaps i did wrong in sowing them in seed trays and maybe there isn't enough compost for them, i have put some more round them today so will have to see what happens, do you think it could be tomatoe blight that i have been reading about? and my potatoes which were sown in late feb have come through after earthing them a few times although they were only in one tyre so perhaps not enough soil so have put another tyre on top. When will they be ready to dig out?
I made a mistake and sown my kidney beans in march and my neighbour said i would have a job getting them out of the house as they are quite tall now. Up to now my successes have been my peas and red onions plus the kidney beans which seem to being doing quite well.
Have tried to get another advadtar as someone else has now the same one but it wouldn't let me on the site so will try again another time.
Hope you can help with my questions.

 

I wouldn't have thought tomato blight likely as the plants are inside. Symptoms of blight would be stunted plants and yellowing. I usually sow tomatos singly in small containers so that they have some depth of soil to start with. Take one of yours up and look at the roots, it may be that the bottom of your trays is dry? It sounds as if they are big enough to be potted on any way if they recover.
The potatos won't be ready until the foliage has grown large and flowers appear, so you'll have to wait, I'm afraid! Usually the tops start yellowing and dying off, then you can dig them up.
As for the Kidney beans, did you pinch the tops out as the were growing to make them bush out? You could try putting them outside during the day to harden them off. Do they need potting on too?
The danger with veg, inside is that they can get leggy. I'm going to plant mine out soon, if we get a late frost I've got fleece at the ready.
Don't be put off by failures, you've even got time to plant more tomatos or buy little plants if yours don't recover!
Lots of Luck!