A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Can I use

the tomato plants, okra plants and other vegetable garden plants in the compost pile?

Yes and no...

If you have plants, say like the tomato plants
show signs of the wilts, *were the leaves
die from the ground up or have leaves with brown
circle's that then engulf the leaves*
The answer is no, cause those disease's over winter or carry over in the winter, in the compost pile..*no matter how hot it gets'*
to my understanding..
Even some powdery mildews may survive..
It's best to burn them actuall...

but if you have no problems on them or
with them then by allll means use 'em...

As a general rule, I don't compost nightshades (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, tomatillos, potatoes) or cucurbits (cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, gourds) at all. I DO compost corn, beans, peas, and kitchen scraps. Also, lol, very important..don't compost rotted tomato fruits..you'll get more volunteer tomato plants than you can deal with.

Hope that helps,
Julianna