Hello
with regards to tomato and potato blight foliage.

I have read that all foliage should be put into the dustbin and other
advice to put in compost heap as blight only over winters on green plant
material.

What opinions if any do you folks have.

TIA ..........................leslie



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Leslie wrote
with regards to tomato and potato blight foliage.

I have read that all foliage should be put into the dustbin and other
advice to put in compost heap as blight only over winters on green plant
material.

What opinions if any do you folks have.


http://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/profile...ato_blight.asp


--
Regards
Bob Hobden

In article ,
"Bob Hobden" writes:
| Leslie wrote
| with regards to tomato and potato blight foliage.
|
| I have read that all foliage should be put into the dustbin and other
| advice to put in compost heap as blight only over winters on green plant
| material.
|
| What opinions if any do you folks have.
|
| http://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/profile...ato_blight.asp

That still promotes the old wife's tale that it isn't safe to
compost blighted plants - that is quite simply wrong. Blight in
the UK CURRENTLY overwinters only on living material (typically
potato tubers, and possibly native Solanum species).

The reason is that spores produced by a single strain do not
overwinter, and it needs a sort of sexual stage to produce ones
that do. Currently, this has not been demonstrated to occur in
the UK. In this, Wikipedia is more reliable than the RHS - though
I am basing my statement on academic papers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytophthora_infestans

Yes, it's safe to compost blighted plant material, provided that
you ensure that any potato tubers in it do not survive composting
and, to a lesser extent, the blight spores are not spread from the
material on the compost heap.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"Bob Hobden" writes:
| Leslie wrote
| with regards to tomato and potato blight foliage.
|
| I have read that all foliage should be put into the dustbin and
other
| advice to put in compost heap as blight only over winters on green
plant
| material.
|
| What opinions if any do you folks have.
|
| http://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/profile...ato_blight.asp

That still promotes the old wife's tale that it isn't safe to
compost blighted plants - that is quite simply wrong. Blight in
the UK CURRENTLY overwinters only on living material (typically
potato tubers, and possibly native Solanum species).

The reason is that spores produced by a single strain do not
overwinter, and it needs a sort of sexual stage to produce ones
that do. Currently, this has not been demonstrated to occur in
the UK. In this, Wikipedia is more reliable than the RHS - though
I am basing my statement on academic papers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytophthora_infestans

Yes, it's safe to compost blighted plant material, provided that
you ensure that any potato tubers in it do not survive composting
and, to a lesser extent, the blight spores are not spread from the
material on the compost heap.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

That's twice we agree today!

"Nick Maclaren" wrote
"Bob Hobden" writes:
| Leslie wrote
| with regards to tomato and potato blight foliage.
|
| I have read that all foliage should be put into the dustbin and
other
| advice to put in compost heap as blight only over winters on green
plant
| material.
|
| What opinions if any do you folks have.
|
| http://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/profile...ato_blight.asp

That still promotes the old wife's tale that it isn't safe to
compost blighted plants - that is quite simply wrong. Blight in
the UK CURRENTLY overwinters only on living material (typically
potato tubers, and possibly native Solanum species).

The reason is that spores produced by a single strain do not
overwinter, and it needs a sort of sexual stage to produce ones
that do. Currently, this has not been demonstrated to occur in
the UK. In this, Wikipedia is more reliable than the RHS - though
I am basing my statement on academic papers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytophthora_infestans

Yes, it's safe to compost blighted plant material, provided that
you ensure that any potato tubers in it do not survive composting
and, to a lesser extent, the blight spores are not spread from the
material on the compost heap.

I would not take the chance, it's simply not worth the risk composting any
diseased plant material.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden

In article ,
"Bob Hobden" writes:
|
| Yes, it's safe to compost blighted plant material, provided that
| you ensure that any potato tubers in it do not survive composting
| and, to a lesser extent, the blight spores are not spread from the
| material on the compost heap.
|
| I would not take the chance, it's simply not worth the risk composting any
| diseased plant material.

As a statistician, that sort of thing makes me despair!

You bend over backwards to minimise a negligible risk, but I will bet
a guinea to a farthing that you completely ignore much more serious
ones.

For example, even just with composting, you should never compost
UNCOOKED plant material that has come from outside and might have even
been in contact with plant material. Yes, that does mean cooking any
paper bags or cardboard that you have bought vegetables in before
composting them :-)

And you shouldn't do any gardening in the same clothes that you have
handled external plant material, or without washing your hands.

As far as blight is concerned, you should search and destroy all
other plants of the Solanaceae in your garden, both in the winter
and frequently during spring. In fact, it would help to do it in an
area around your garden, though that is a trifle illegal :-)

Seriously. Those are all greater risks.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
(Nick Maclaren) writes:
|
| And you shouldn't do any gardening in the same clothes that you have
| handled external plant material, or without washing your hands.

On second thoughts, that one's a bit dubious.

Replace it by never importing any soil or compost (including around
the roots of plants) without sterilising it ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote
"Bob Hobden" writes:
|
| Yes, it's safe to compost blighted plant material, provided that
| you ensure that any potato tubers in it do not survive composting
| and, to a lesser extent, the blight spores are not spread from the
| material on the compost heap.
|
| I would not take the chance, it's simply not worth the risk composting
any
| diseased plant material.

As a statistician, that sort of thing makes me despair!

You bend over backwards to minimise a negligible risk, but I will bet
a guinea to a farthing that you completely ignore much more serious
ones.

For example, even just with composting, you should never compost
UNCOOKED plant material that has come from outside and might have even
been in contact with plant material. Yes, that does mean cooking any
paper bags or cardboard that you have bought vegetables in before
composting them :-)

And you shouldn't do any gardening in the same clothes that you have
handled external plant material, or without washing your hands.

As far as blight is concerned, you should search and destroy all
other plants of the Solanaceae in your garden, both in the winter
and frequently during spring. In fact, it would help to do it in an
area around your garden, though that is a trifle illegal :-)

Seriously. Those are all greater risks.


I appreciate that Nick, I know I am being illogical and unscientific but all
my life I've had experts tell me things only to do about-turns a few years
on, so in the case of diseased plant material where the possible long term
contamination of my soil is at stake I will always be cautious.

Besides which, knowing my luck, I'd get the mated strain that can
overwinter.
--
Regards
Bob Hobden

On 16/07/08 14:57, Therefore wrote:
Hello
with regards to tomato and potato blight foliage.

I have read that all foliage should be put into the dustbin and other
advice to put in compost heap as blight only over winters on green plant
material.

What opinions if any do you folks have.

TIA ..........................leslie


On my allotment, the experienced guys always leave the haulms to dry
off and then burn them. Or they bag them up, take them home and dispose
of them through the Council garden waste collection bins.

They never put them on the compost heap. They just think that it is not
worth taking any risks.

Ed

On Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:10:24 +0100, Ed ex@directory wrote:

On 16/07/08 14:57, Therefore wrote:
Hello
with regards to tomato and potato blight foliage.

I have read that all foliage should be put into the dustbin and other
advice to put in compost heap as blight only over winters on green plant
material.

What opinions if any do you folks have.

TIA ..........................leslie


On my allotment, the experienced guys always leave the haulms to dry
off and then burn them. Or they bag them up, take them home and dispose
of them through the Council garden waste collection bins.

They never put them on the compost heap. They just think that it is not
worth taking any risks.

Ed

I agree, not worth the risk. I don't grow potatoes, but many many
tomatoes. I get plenty of compost material from weeds etc to risk
adding known diseased material. Blighted toms go to the council.
However as the spores are wind spead, like the poor it will always be
with us. Better to plan for horticultural methods that make you (a
little) less susceptable. That's possible with tomatoes, not really
with spuds admittedly. With toms, I have found that Dithane 945 does
seriously retard the infection.

N