what to do with them?

[rainbowgardener]

Half the jerusalem artichokes in one of my front flower beds got some kind of fungus (it continues to RAIN so much), leaves all turned black and drooped. So I pulled them, to try to keep it from spreading (not that anything will kill the stuff, the tubers stay in the soil and come back just fine next year). Anyway, I know I shouldn't put the pulled ones in the compost pile, because of spreading disease, especially since my compost doesn't always run super hot. But I hate to just trash them. Is there anything else I can do? Would doing the drowned weeds thing still spread disease? What about the activated compost tea (which I've never tried, but I've been reading the on-going thread with interest)?

thanks!

[applestar]

Do you have a fire pit? Why not burn them, THEN put them in the compost? That's what I did with suspect apple prunings. I just stuffed the lot under the domed fire screen and lit them on fire, waited for them to dwindle then kept feeding the fire until everything was burned to ash.

[rainbowgardener]

I do have a small fire pit. Some year I want to get a bigger one. These things are a bit woody at the bottom, but not really like apple tree branches, a lot of the plant is pretty green. Maybe if I let them dry out (if we quit getting rain long enough for that to happen) they will burn... Not a bad idea.