This year I have had excessive growth of tomatoes, peppers, etc, and have a problem getting rid of the waste. I hate to put them in the garbage, and have had problems in the past composting the 1" stems. Is it OK to just bury them under the garden, or will that encourage bugs? Will crop rotation handle that problem?
- Pete

If you didn't have any disease or serious pest problems burying them will be fine.
If you have a way to break up the stems they will compost just fine. (shredder, mower, stump and a hammer)

My compost bins are set up as 5 bins and what I do is put the vines on the bottom and then add the grass
clippings to the top of them and keep addind to hat pile . Next spring all tha tpile is then turned to the next empty bin the top goes on tthe bottom and bottom ends up on topthe vines and other thick stems are usually composted.

I get a pretty bad case of blight on my tomatoes (peppers and eggplants seem unaffected by this particular strain) so I don't compost any of the plants or fallen tomatoes. My soil is probably loaded with the stuff, but I feel better not adding more "blight germs" to it. I have a small burn pile out back where old tomato plants and buckthorn from around the homestead are placed. About January I have a little bonfire.