How wary should I be of tomato/eggplant vegetation in my compost?

[Mamasan]

At a community garden, our master gardener has forbade any nightshades in the compost...any greens from peppers, tomatoes and eggplants are taken out to the city waste. But I've heard of others who are not so worried.

What is the concern for these plants in the compost...do you also avoid them? And, If you add them, have you noticed any problems with your compost?

 

[Chuck]

I never put them into my compost pile because of the possible harmful fungus and/or virus they might contain. I burn them and if there is enough ashes to make it worthwhile I might add the ashes

 

[marlingardener]

I think I may just be lucky, but I put pepper and tomato plants chopped up into my compost pile, and have never had any disease problems. I can't say anything about eggplant because we haven't grown it for the last two years.
I check plants to see if they are disease-free, and then chop them up and put them in the compost. If they looked like they had a fungus or had shown any signs of a virus, I certainly wouldn't add them to the compost. It seems this is one of those "common sense rules" situations!

 

[Beth_B]

I've heard that advice for years and have never put vegetable garden waste generally into compost..I have enough lawn clippings and downed green leaves to add "green" to the pile as it is.
Generally blight hasn't been a problem - until this last year when it was really bad here. I piled all my susceptible plants into my fire pit not too long ago and burned them.

 

[headfullofbees]

Late blight can only survive on living tissue.
If your plant is not infected before it dies, you can compost it.
Similarly, club root fungus affects ONLY the roots; you can compost other parts of the plant, like sprouts leaves, for example.

 

[Mamasan]

I never put them into my compost pile because of the possible harmful fungus and/or virus they might contain. I burn them and if there is enough ashes to make it worthwhile I might add the ashes

That's a great idea, thanks!

 

[purplepen88]

I've never heard of forbidding tomotoes, eggplants or peppers in the compost. We have a city green bin program and I know it takes all house and garden compostable food items. There is no restriction on which food scraps can go in. Good to know if I start my own compost.

 

[headfullofbees]

If your compost gets hot, as it should, it will kill fungi and other pathogens.