Tomato plants for compost.

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prcastle Bethany, OK(Zone 7b) Nov 22, 2004

I have just pulled all of my tomato plants and want to know if they would be OK for compost.
There are some small green ones left. I usually mulch my neighbor's leaves with every thing else.
This year we have about 20lbs of green tomatos which we put in brown bags for the fruit to ripen.
Any suggestions.?

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darius So.App.Mtns., United States(Zone 5b) Nov 22, 2004

Why not? I always put mine in, but chopped the thicker stems.

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DaveA Watertown, WI(Zone 5a) Nov 22, 2004

Tomato vines compost just fine. Personally I like to just mound the garden 'refuse' on the beds at the end of the season rather than put them in a compost pile outside the garden, but that's just me. I figure most of the benefit of compost in the garden comes not from the nutrients, but from the action of the worms and microcritters in the soil. I figure it works best to let the area I will garden in get that benefit as the material is decomposed on it.

Anyway, the answer to your question is that it is perfectly fine to compost tomato plants. If your plants were diseased I wouldn't do it though as you are unlikely to kill the pathogens in your compost pile unless you have a large, steaming hot pile that you turn frequently.

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