[punkrokka]

It's time for me to dig up my first batch of plot potatoes and I'm not sure whether to compost the left over plants or not due to conflicting advice.

What does everyone else do?

[Noodles]

I always compost mine and never heard any advise not to  :blink:

[DD.]

If you do a forum search on the words "potato" and "compost" you'll find the jury's out on this one!

[mumofstig]

I thought it was ok unless blighted , no worse than putting peelings in surely?

[scabs]

Mine have gone in... 

[beansticks]

Personally,i never put anything to do with spuds in my compost bin,learnt the lesson a few years ago.Mine are bagged and taken to the refuse centre.

[Stevens706]

If they are healthy I compost them

[Noodles]

Personally,i never put anything to do with spuds in my compost bin,learnt the lesson a few years ago.Mine are bagged and taken to the refuse centre.

What happened? I thought that it was perfectly safe to compost them as long as they are blight free?

[Salmo]

Blight cannot survive on dead material. I think you can put your tops into the compost but make sure any small potatoes are removed or crushed. The real no-no is putting blighted tubers in which may survive the winter and then sprout as a source of blight infestation next Spring

[lovemyveg]

I compost the used potato plants, shopping off the root end, as long as they are healthy.  I have learnt by my own mistakes, not to compost peelings or pieces of raw potatoes.  Last year I did this and I had white tuber like growths in my compost which were springing from the eyes on the peelings.  Maybe this would not have done the garden any harm, but I did not want potatoes popping up everywhere, so I picked as many of them out each time I used the compost, which was rather tedious. 

[carrotlovers]

I've always broken off the haulm and composted this. Never put peelings or whole potatoes in the compost bin, as they start to sprout again in the heat. You then end up with a potato plant in your compost bin......

[Babstreefern]

Our allotment has a skip solely for "green" which means you can put weeds in.  I put my spud tops in, cabbage roots (I put any leaves in my compost) and tomato plants, as they are related to spuds.  Everything else goes in my compost.

[Jakell]

 My potato plants are producing such a huge mass of foliage that it would be a great shame not to produce compost from it. Of course, if I get blight I will have to reluctantly dispose of it ( My allotment is next to woodland, anything diseased gets thrown in there).
 I am growing Sarpo Axona so blight should not be a problem.

[BobandJack]

Jakell would you not be better burning diseased material rather than throwing it in woodland?  Lots of diseases are spread by spores which could mean whatever gets thrown there will come drifting back to you plus you might be having an adverse effect on the woodland plants.

[Jakell]

Jakell would you not be better burning diseased material rather than throwing it in woodland?  Lots of diseases are spread by spores which could mean whatever gets thrown there will come drifting back to you plus you might be having an adverse effect on the woodland plants.

 I have considered this, but burning that amount of green foliage in a short space of time is an extremely tall order. I have enough on burning my dried stuff (If you let blighted foliage dry first it will immediately form masses of spores.

 I don't think the woodland plants are in any danger from any diseases from my garden, they are tough wild plants which laugh at our soft, inbred sappy plants. If anything they get a nutritional boost from the organic matter.

 The bit of woodland where I throw my stuff slopes steeply away from my allotment, and the wind blows down the valley perpendicular to my allotment. So there is minimal risk of stuff coming back. The only way to be sure  is to immediately bag the diseased foliage (don't leave it around for a few days) and physically remove it. I also think it is a shame not to let all that organic matter return to the soil somewhere.