Gardeners - Incinerated haulms - compost?

[Dave-G]

Thinking ahead can't seem to find a Google result specific enough. 

The question is: Potato haulms: conflicting results about putting them in the compost - but what if I incinerate them first - what of the ash?

I'm considered getting a garden incinerator rather than just ditch them. I do two stage composting, first gets started in a pallet type boxed stack then when its under way empty out the black commercial compost bin that has completed compost and start again on an annual basis.

[oowee]

No idea Dave but this weekend I had a visit from my friend nicknamed Dr Death. She is an anthropologist and has spent much of her life studying death and in particular body disposal. She has been advising on natural composting of bodies lookint at the speed or otherwise with which the body decays. She was fascinated by the buried deer heads in my compost pile, all at various stages of decomposition, and insisted on pulling each of them out. 

Sorry to derail 😶

[TIGHTCHOKE]

3 minutes ago, oowee said:

No idea Dave but this weekend I had a visit from my friend nicknamed Dr Death. She is an anthropologist and has spent much of her life studying death and in particular body disposal. She has been advising on natural composting of bodies lookint at the speed or otherwise with which the body decays. She was fascinated by the buried deer heads in my compost pile, all at various stages of decomposition, and insisted on pulling each of them out. 

Sorry to derail 😶

My you have a way with the ladies!

[oowee]

24 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

My you have a way with the ladies!

It was nothing compared to the look of horror on my wifes face when she Dr Death started to pull out the heads. 

[Walker570]

Well if that is the case then all the acres and acres of potato tops I ploughed in after lifting back in the 50s must have poisoned the ground ...  chop them up, sprinkle on some ...small amount... of general fertilizer and let them rot.   Of course if you include any small spuds on the roots, then they will grow.    I used to put a couple of big spades full of sheep muck in a plastic drum and add water.  Used to add three or four pints of this mixture to my compost and it all got dug in eventually.

[islandgun]

3 hours ago, Walker570 said:

Well if that is the case then all the acres and acres of potato tops I ploughed in after lifting back in the 50s must have poisoned the ground ...  chop them up, sprinkle on some ...small amount... of general fertilizer and let them rot.   Of course if you include any small spuds on the roots, then they will grow.    I used to put a couple of big spades full of sheep muck in a plastic drum and add water.  Used to add three or four pints of this mixture to my compost and it all got dug in eventually.

We used to take the tops off with a forage harvester before harvesting earlies, Even potato peel will send up a a strong plant in the compost heap

[DoolinDalton]

I would think that after leaving the potato haulms (never heard that word before) a year in a compost heap, assuming it's there with other compostable stuff like grass, food waste, etc, then the heat, worms and bacteria will break down most things.  As islandgun has just said regarding potato peel, you should get some fine spuds from the heap!       

[Rim Fire]

people don't use the green off potatoes incase they got blight and other disease and it will be spread into the compost.

 

[peck]

You do not say WHY haulms should not composted, is it because they are poisonous or that they do not break down or is there another reason.. 

[derbyduck]

for what its worth I compost the tops  in 1ton bags ,same with tomato plants they all go in along with old cardboard, grass cuttings,it shredded mail and turned out plant pot and owt else that rots down , its covered over and left for a year or more,  then put into an old bath and mixed up with my tiller and then stored in another 1ton bag to be used when needed for potting compost with a bit of growmore added .

Edited June 17, 2020 by derbyduck

[Walker570]

13 minutes ago, derbyduck said:

for what its worth I compost the tops  in 1ton bags ,same with tomato plants they all go in along with old cardboard, grass cuttings,it shredded mail and turned out plant pot and owt else that rots down , its covered over and left for a year or more,  then put into an old bath and mixed up with my tiller and then stored in another 1ton bag to be used when needed for potting compost with a bit of growmore added .

Brilliant.  Yes, topping spuds prior to lifting with the fancy new potato lifters came in, but I'm talking early 50s when we used a spinner which chucked tops and spuds out on top for the pickers to collect up and put into bags.  Back in the days of spud picking week off from school in October when the back door of our farmhouse would be a line of kids wanting a job.

Ten bob(50p) for the week was a lot of money back then.

As said , if you get a few plants grow on your compost heap then harvest the new spuds and enjoy.

[Dave-G]

1 hour ago, peck said:

You do not say WHY haulms should not composted, is it because they are poisonous or that they do not break down or is there another reason.. 

Good point:

Whilst still not knowing about the effects or value of adding the incinerated ash to compost, I'd read some google results about blight infecting compost and spoiling next years spuds when used which quite surprised me because as Neville says - the tops were ploughed back in when I went 'tater pickin' as a young teen in the 60's. But to be fair - they werent composted so that might somehow concentrate any tendency to blight.

There is such a lot of growth it seems such a waste to keep ditching it every year. I have about 40 plants - grown in small sand/gravel, dog food and compost bags this year because I have lost so many in other years due to insects that live in the lawn boring into them to lay eggs. It seems that using borders round the edges of lawns are prone to the issue from pests that live under grass. Same also destroyed most of my attempts at carrots in the past.

[amateur]

8 hours ago, Walker570 said:

..........Ten bob(50p) for the week was a lot of money back then.....

TEN BOB!

In the tiny Yorkshire village where I lived in the 50s, I was paid, I think 6d for a day's work. Admittedly I was only 6, but even at that age I recognised that it was a pittance

[derbyduck]

On 16/06/2020 at 14:00, oowee said:

It was nothing compared to the look of horror on my wifes face when she Dr Death started to pull out the heads. 

I was scrating about in some compost this afternoon and found two woodcock skulls one complete the other missing lower beak .atb DD

[Benthejockey]

19 hours ago, Dave-G said:

Good point:

Whilst still not knowing about the effects or value of adding the incinerated ash to compost, I'd read some google results about blight infecting compost and spoiling next years spuds when used which quite surprised me because as Neville says - the tops were ploughed back in when I went 'tater pickin' as a young teen in the 60's. But to be fair - they werent composted so that might somehow concentrate any tendency to blight.

There is such a lot of growth it seems such a waste to keep ditching it every year. I have about 40 plants - grown in small sand/gravel, dog food and compost bags this year because I have lost so many in other years due to insects that live in the lawn boring into them to lay eggs. It seems that using borders round the edges of lawns are prone to the issue from pests that live under grass. Same also destroyed most of my attempts at carrots in the past.

Potato cyst nematodes or wireworm if I remember my btec potato agronomy. Wire worm is after grass and the nemeatodes are after repeatedly planting potatoes in the same spot. That's why they only grow them in the same field every 4 or 5 years. 

[Walker570]

Wireworm has always been a problem but blight of course is controlled by sprays these days on commercial potato fields and they still plough in the haulms BUT spuds will not be grown on the field for maybe three or four years afterwards.....wheat, barley, rape then back to potato.   I don't know if you can get spray for home grown.  Back in my younger years they were just bringing in sprays and I remember one field being treated with some stuff hich turned my wellies orange and they warned not to take the dogs in the field for at least a week.

I think if you try to burn the tops then your neighbours are not going to be well pleased.   We used to cut our seed potatoes in half with an eye on each slice and dip the cut side in slag, a form of powdered fertilizer which sealed the cut and prevented disease.  Don't know if you can still get that but a good sprinkle on the tops when put in the compost bag would certainly deter any nasties, it used to sting like hell in a cut on your finger. 

[SpringDon]

Burning the tops will kill the blight so will be safest. Composting the tops is not considered safe and particularly bad if you use the compost in a greenhouse because blight will thrive in those conditions and infect tomatoes.

Having said that, in some areas blight is omnipresent anyway. Best to avoid it is plant earlies and hope the weather is favourable. Most modern commercial potatoes have the tops sprayed off  before harvest even if they having been spraying for blight.

[derbyduck]

just had a full Huttons blight alert  for today and tomorrow ! its  a mine field this veg growing malarkey LOL

[Dave-G]

On 16/06/2020 at 13:31, oowee said:

No idea Dave but this weekend I had a visit from my friend nicknamed Dr Death. She is an anthropologist and has spent much of her life studying death and in particular body disposal. She has been advising on natural composting of bodies lookint at the speed or otherwise with which the body decays. She was fascinated by the buried deer heads in my compost pile, all at various stages of decomposition, and insisted on pulling each of them out. 

Sorry to derail 😶

I don't see that as a derail, more an eye opener that animala might contribute to the decomposition of plants - which I have never considered.

[Dave-G]

Thanks for all the replies chaps.

Yes wireworm is a big problem in the garden, the neighbours too - found as I've done a makeover for them. Slugs are also a problem that I've unsuccessfully tried sorting with nematode treatment but now go out after dark occasionally with a torch and scissor them in half.