Can You Compost Diseased Plants?
Composting is both a natural and cultural practice.
In wild ecosystems, expired material is decomposed and later its nutritious components are taken up by other plants. Humans have picked up on this practice, and have used it for our own benefit for centuries.
But what defines healthy compost?
You can view compost health from its efficiency in decomposing organic material – in other words, the ecosystem health within the pile itself.
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You can also view compost health from the perspective of live plants – how will plants’ health be affected by using it?
Compost carries valuable resources for crops in your garden or small farm, most notably in the form of nutrients and beneficial microbial life. It also offers overall positive effects on soil health compared to certain other agricultural management practices.
It can also carry dormant forms of plant pathogens that cause disease.
Plant diseases caused by pathogens are becoming more variable around the world, partly due to an increasingly fluctuating climate.
In my lab at The Ohio State University, we study species of the water mold Phytophthora, which often produce spores that can overwinter, becoming nearly impossible to obliterate from affected fields.
Many other pathogens evolved similar tactics for persisting outside of hosts. These adaptations can potentially allow pathogens to persist in compost.
On the other hand, some methods can help control pathogens. It can quell numbers of pathogens so they’re reduced to undetectable levels, depending on the species.
There are far too many plant pathogens around the globe to cover in
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