[erainn]

With tomato plants cast down with blight there was nothing for it but to dig out and put in the compost bin, right? Or is that a big no-no? As a beginner to growing veg I would welcome some guidance on this as three plants were added, but now I gather it's not a good idea to compost affected plants. Will my compost be rendered unuseable or will further decomposition remove/dilute any blight left on the plants? I am burning those left, but would not like to waste a good load of compost. Thoughts, experience very welcome

[azubah]

They say not to put diseased material in the compost heap, but I have always put my potato haulms and rotting tomato material in and never had any problems with it.
I would avoid putting clubroot or onion white rot in there though. Compost heaps are made of rotting plant material so I don't worry about it too much. Who is to know which fungi or bacteria are there?
I do tend to grow blight resistant potatoes, however, and ventillate the greenhouse well.

[Salmo]

Blight can only live in live material so composting is OK.

[Growster...]

With blighted stuff, there aren't many places to put it other than the compost heap, so you have to do that really.

Although we've got a huge - very untidy - communal rubbish heap, (on an overgrown plot, which should be cleared, and rentred out by the parish, but isn't), the spores, viruses etc can flourish to their heart's content.

I'd take a chance, build a good heap, keep turning it, and expect to see some proper home-grown compost, hopefully cleaned from all the nasties.

It used to be like that didn't it?

[sunshineband]

I don't put the actual potatoes or toamtoes in that have been affected, but all the haulms go in and this doesn't seem to have been a problem.