Composting healthy potato plants

[KMARKSnr]

Hi all,
On our site everyone takes their potato remains down to the compost bay and leaves it all for the council to remove.(once a year)
We are only a small site of about 11 plot holders,and the rubbish/composting bay lies less than 70yds from any of us.
My question is this - would it still be a "cardinal sin" to try composting my own "healthy potato haulms",in my own composting bay?

Regards,
Mark.

[Johnboy]

Hi Mark,
I regret to say in my eyes it would be a cardinal sin. My policy has been to burn it all and to date I have never had blight. Sounds good but now I have not grown main crop spuds on my vegetable plot for a number of years. For over 50 years I burnt it all and made sure that there were not any spuds left in the soil to grow on as volunteers the following year.
Spuds carry a number of things that are not knocked out by the normal composting process so if by chance there were any nasties last year this year you are going to spread them over your entire plot. Unwise in my opinion.
JB.

[Geoff]

I only grow earlies and second earlies. The earlies never seem to get any foliage disease before we finish them. I plant in early March and am about a third of the way through them now. I compost all the tops from these. I have had some blight on the second early Charlottes some years but usually protect them with copper and again compost most of the tops, anything that looks a bit dodgy goes to the bonfire site well away from veg garden. At this time of year I have a lot a grass mowings and not much to mix them with so potato tops are very welcome for this. I usually get given some manure most years and the potato rotation is where I use some of it so they don't come into contact with fresh compost so perhaps this is why I don't have a problem. I can't see composted potato tops (I always remove the old seed and little potatoes) doing any harm deep down under runner beans and sweet peas - you just need to remember which heap they are in.

[PLUMPUDDING]

If there is no sign of disease I compost everything (except the potatoes themselves) I've never had blight on potatoes or tomatoes and compost the lot. I'm gardening on the same land my father tended for 60 years and either I'm very lucky or the composting process kills all the nasties off.

I don't use any herbicides or pesticides and just try to keep everything well fed and healthy.

[Colin_M]

Interesting. I've heard different people come down on either side of the fence on this one.

Some people say that since blight is caused by airborne spores, there's so much in the air anyway that "not-composting" your own won't guarantee you won't get it. Others have pointed to bad practice by inexperienced gardeners leading to an increase in the level of spores that are around ......

I'm interested in one point made by JB - can you run us through some of the other nasties that can arise through recycling potato material?


Colin