Left tomatoes on ground - mushy, smelly mess!

11 years ago

So, I pulled my tomato plants up a few weeks ago right before our first freeze. I left them on the ground, planning to go back to them the next day or so. Well, that didn't happen, and now I have a mess!

The temps have rebounded in to the 70's, and these tomatoes have been on the ground for a few weeks. When I try to pick them up (the actual fruit, not the plant), they are a mushy, smelly, pulpy mess. There is absolutely no way I will be able to get them all up - they just fall apart when I try - they are not firm anymore - more like stewed tomatoes :-(

The area where they are is in the yard, not the vegetable garden. So the good news is that I won't be planting anything where they are. But my question is, should I do anything to them now while they lay on the ground? I have cleaned them up the best I can, but there are lots of pulpy, squishy tomatoes on the ground molding and smelling bad. Will they just decompose into the grass? Is there anything I can/should put on them at this point?

Thanks!

Jennie

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Comments (2)

labradors_gw
11 years ago
I wouldn't worry about it. You will probably have zillions of tomato volunteers springing up there next year, but since you don't plan to grow tommies there again, all you'd have to do is hoe the area or pull up the seedlings if you don't want them.

Linda
PupillaCharites
11 years ago
^^^^agree; if you can handle the smell, there shouldn;t be anything to make people sick in it. I'd save the cat litter for the kitty box and not use it on the tomatoes. If you want and the ground isn't hard, just hoe the mushy parts under now, or bring a wheelbarrow full of sand/soil from elsewhere and cover the especially offensive parts, or speed them on their way by dispersing them with the hose.

If you can't remove them though and the plants were diseased and something like gray mold sets in, that's too bad, maybe best just to chalk it up as an organic experiment and leave them to solarize, ferment/rot, the natural way.

PC
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