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ScottRW

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When your tobacco is all harvested. And you are cleaning up your tobacco patch for spring planting, what do you do with the roots, till/grind/plow them into the ground or pull them out with the stalk ?
 

Jack in NB

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I chopped my stems into 18"- 2 ft chunks, pulled the roots with some dirt, and threw the lot onto my compost pile. My piles are about 3 years maturing, and all that debris is digested nicely by then.
 

ChinaVoodoo

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About the same as the above for me. I knock everything over and bury it all in autumn. In spring, I put the roots into the compost, and I chop up the stalks with my spade and turn them into the soil.
 

ScottRW

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I've been doing about the same as you guys, but just wondered if there was a better or more efficient way of doing things...... just a helpful hint, the dried stalks in late fall and winter make great kindling for starting a fire in a wood stove..
 

ChinaVoodoo

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I think, ideally, I would own a chipper, and run all the stalks through it and into the compost.

I do wonder if tiling it in would perpetuate a disease cycle.
 

deluxestogie

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If you should develop any significant disease burden, then I would suggest burning both the stalks and the roots, to minimize over-wintering.

Bob
 

skychaser

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I pulled mine, shook most of the dirt off and burned them.
That is the best thing to do if you have any diseases present. I till all mine in with a 3 point tiller and tractor in the fall. Then do it over again in early spring. By planting time is is all broken down to nothing. I heat sterilize all my compost that is used in the greenhouse, mostly to eliminate any weed seed. But if you have disease problem of any kind, I would heat sterilize it before putting it back in the garden.
 

JennyLeez

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ScottRW and that is what I did. I chopped the thick stems up and they are drying out in a back shed. Definitely will make great fire starters.
The roots were too large for my home compost so I took them to the local dump and added them to their composting :)
 
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