mcaren, This is a greatly debated topic. Kimmsr, myself, and many others see no good reason to throw away organic materials. Some other people are really afraid of their compost and are likely to spend money to buy plastic bags so they can bag up their organic matter to throw away and then the will go purchase sterilized organic matter in more plastic bags to put on their gardens and compost piles. (I personally see this as silly and I can't afford it anyway.) You have several choices of how to best compost your "diseased plants", 1-live recklessly and just throw it on the current pile. 2-Start a new pile for your diseased stuff and that way you can make sure the new pile reaches sufficient temperatures to deal with the new additions. (This way your current pile can be put to rest and ready to use come spring.) Using a seprate pile for this season's stuff will let you decide if you want to be selective about when/where to use that particular compost and you can also let it age longer. Since you seem to be having fungus problems, corn meal might be a good addition sprinkled into the compost pile to promote good fungus that will help control the bad fungus you are having trouble with. Again, since you say the are seems to be surrounded and teaming with these problems, throwing away some of your garden plants isn't likely to make a dent in the spore load around your garden. You are better off creating more compost that can help grow stronger plants which can hopefully withstand the problems.

I would be tempted to put a stick or other marker where this interesting growth is and when next turning the pile, looking to see if that part of the pile looks any different. Just curiosity.

Also, It is also common knowledge that one should not add diseased plants & weeds to the compost pile is a bit of an overstatement although given some of the posts here, I can see why you may think that. In truth, many of us composters routinely include both simply because the process of composting corrects/kills/decomposes those problem materials. Just as it does in nature. Now I would assume that said leaves are unfit for composting. If infected leaves are not usable then how is one to guarantee that no diseases are transferred to the pile without excluding leaves from the mix all-together? No, honestly those leaves are fine for composting - for most of us - and the composting process is your guarantee just as it is in nature, where all those leaves are composted naturally. Nature is full of bacteria and fungus yet if you take a walk in the woods sometime, you'll note all the rich organic matter and the lush growth that results. ;) Some folks, for their own personal reasons, simply have many more "rules" about composting that most of us old-time composters do. Compost whatever you feel comfortable using but please don't let those so-called "rules" discourage you or over complicate the process for you. Dave

Okay everyone, here's the update on my ash-fungus (this is my new name for it). I turned the pile again on Friday and did notice that the middle was drier than I would have thought. The ash-fungus was almost completely gone (still a few pockets). As I was rebuilding the pile, I thourghly wet it down again, thinking the whole time that the concept of "a damp sponge" is really elusive and open to interpretation because I had thought I'd wet it sufficiently before. Oh well...moving on. Like I said the middle was a little dry but smelled good, like "earth" so I was pretty happy, however the bottom smelled like "poo" and was totally mucky! I did get it all turned and after much admiring went inside. Later that night it started to rain....and rain...and...you get the point. All day Saturday, same thing. This morning...same thing. So now I should have plenty of water :-) My question now is: When would you turn it again? Soon to try and dry it out some now or wait until the surface dries a little on it's on and then turn? One of these days I'll get this right. Val