[TheBattman]

I completely pull up all I can of my tomato plants and BURN them. If you compost the old plants, you will likely carry over any diseases (whether your plants showed symptoms or not). The worst of all of those diseases, in my experience, is the tomato blight. It is a virus that can live dormant in soil for years. If your plants didn’t get very stressed, they may very well have blight but didn’t get overcome by it. Composting them would insure that the virus is carried over.

[Psalm 73]

Hmmm, never thought of that.
I compost damn-near everything (except meat and dairy) - get about 14 wheel-barrows full of dark soil every spring.
Of course, I do get tomato plants sprouting all over the place.....

Funny, I see more conservatives compost and recycle than I see liberals - and we're supposed to be the planet-killers.

[Vigilanteman]

Agreed. And it isn't just the disease fear. It is because tomato plants are woody, fibrous and don't break down easily. They do, however, burn pretty well when dry.

[Black Agnes]

Bad plan. Much bad juju.

Other posters are correct about viruses and diseases living over and being spread to your entire garden next year. I separate out all my nightshade compostables (tomato, pepper, eggplant and potato) and put them in an entirely different part of my yard. And, make sure that it doesn’t drain in or near where I have my gardens.

Beware.