Subject: Re: COMPOSTING AND WEED P

From: [email-masked] (Mark Walker)
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 1995 23:22:40 GMT

On 03-04-95 [email-masked] wrote to ALL... 
 
 b > Hi Jim,  I enjoyed reading your observations on the basics of active 
 b > composting, definetly some techniques that I hadn't heard before. Anyway, 
 b > I have a question about some material that went into my compost pile last 
 b > Fall. I had some wonderfull tomato plants growing last summer, and along 
 b > about August they developed a blight, which I understand is a mold of some 
 b > kind. After salvaging as many tomatos as I could, I shredded the plants 
 b > and added them to my Fall compost pile with the rest of my garden 
 b > leftovers. In the wet northwest where I live  I guess this tomato blight 
 b > is a common problem. I have since heard that if I add this compost to my 
 b > garden this year it may very well contribute to my tomatos getting this 
 b > blight again. What do you think?   
I know I am not Jim but if you don't mind I will jump in with what I know on 
the subject. If your compost pile is very active (HOT), and you turn it often 
you probably will not experience any problems because of adding diseased plants 
to it as theorganisms are normally killed during that process. However if your 
pile doesn't heat up right and you fail to turn the diseased plant material into 
the center of the pile while it is hot, you probably while stand a good chance 
of experiencing the same problem again. 
 
Mark 
[email-masked] 
 
... OFFLINE 1.34