Just wondering how everyone is handling their peony pruning this year. Are you almost done or are you just getting started? What do you do with your peony prunings? I used to dispose of all my prunings in the trash due to the spread of disease. That used to be workable when i had less than 100 bushes and the bushes were young and did not have many stems. This year will mark the 6th and 7th year for half of my peonies so all of them have 20 stems or more per bushes. Disposing in the trash is not possible. I have never done this before but this year will be the first that I will chip my prunings in areas of the garden where peonies are not grown. I hope that the chipped prunings will not spread any disease. I will find out next year. I would love to hear what you all do with your peony prunings.

Up until now I've bagged them up, did pretty much 1 bed/week so there wasn't a huge amount at one time. At the new place I'll probably burn the waste, probably most efficient and as long as I wait until Oct there are no burn bans.

I bag them and put in the yard waste together with other weeds which is taken by city. Cut only the one I am dividing this year, so most are still intact. Probably another 2-3 weeks before I do the rest. Do nothing until they look unhealthy/diseased. May be drying them and burning will work if it allowed in your municipality. It is prohibited in Toronto.

Yes, I wish I can burn mine but my municipality also has a burn ban.

Liz, do you cut them in small pieces before putting them in the bags? How many bags of prunings do you think you dispose in a year?

Alex, does your trash company charge you a per bag fee for the yard waste? My township does have a place where we can dispose yard waste. I have been hesitant in using it. Due to these prunings being diseased (PM and maybe botrytis), I don't want some unsuspecting person picking up partially composted peony prunings and bring the diseases back to their gardens.

I have a couple of peony gardens that were mowable. I have my mower set to 3 1/2" and it works just fine. I have never had any disease problems that I can connect with doing this.

However, most of my gardens are no longer mowable, so i cut them down and burn after they dry out. I am rural, so i can do that.

City does not charge for yard waste, but some people are buying those yard waste paper bags. I use plastic reusable containers and they are fine. Yard waste supposed to be treated by high temperatures, so generally I felt safe when I was getting city compost. I stopped doing it once I realized how much time I spent sifting thru it trying to get rid of all plastic there. I am buying bagged manure or something similar now.

I will cit stems in 2-3 weeks and burn them with other garden stuff which has been accumulated during the year.

This thread reminds me to cut my Itoh peonies down. Some herbaceous peonies have already disappeared.

Karen, I normally put out a 50 gallon bag every week for 3-4 weeks during this season. This year's will be consolidated into 1, maybe 2 weeks as the roots will be boxed up to move. At the end of this season the only peonies left in my gardens will be those that will be left with the house when we sell so just divisions of those going to AL!

Meant to say those 50 gallon bags aren't all peony foliage, it's any weeds in the beds as I'm cutting them back as well as I get a lot of dandelions, nettles and such since we don't treat the prairie grass around the beds.

I have a different opinion. Fungi, mold and microbes are everywhere. While it might be good to move the peony foliage away from the peonies, carting it off or burning it might be over-kill. Soil scientist and composting scientists are saying that we need a balance of microbes and stuff, not a complete absence of bad stuff. A bunch of greenish peony foliage might heat up a compost pile, especially if you could add some browns to it too.

Personally, I would do whatever is easiest, but piling foliage up with cardboard layers and just letting it sit for over a year should be just fine from what I read.

One soil scientist said that you get in trouble if you only have browns or greens and let it sit, if you have a mix, it works. I'm guessing even pine straw or bark with the peony foliage would work too.

Our previous owners just piled stuff up at the wood line and was it lovely dirt there!

We make our own compost and have enough greens for it without peony foliage. And even burning the leaves does not eliminate fungi in the garden. Actually burning is much easier than making a compost. Another thing is rules in the neighborhood.

Peonies seem to live a long life even without human help...

I did not even know to cut foliage down, so I just left it for the past 3 years and it has been mulch for the peony. I suppose it might build up and bury the peony, except the ducks dig under the mulch. I will cut it down this year, just because that one has Peony Spot badly, but again, I just thought that was what peonies looked like as summer progressed. Don't know what I 'll do with the foliage yet, I'll decide at the time since we are rural and I have several good options.

Thanks everyone for your responses!

I would like to burn mine if my township does not have a burning ban. I think that is the safest way to dispose the prunings. The second best is to take and dispose of the prunings somewhere that is far from the peony beds.

Frank and Annie, I am glad to hear that your peony prunings (both mowed down or left on your peonies) have not caused major disease outbreaks. I feel more reassured now that my chipped prunings won't post significant risk of disease to the peonies in the garden. I have too many peonies growing close together so I don't think I can leave the foliage and stems on them without risking disease outbreaks. Mowing down sounds wonderful! I wonder if this is what the commercial growers do. Unless they have a large tractor that cuts and collects the prunings at the same time to dispose them somewhere else.

During the 2018 APS convention in OR we visited Oregon Perennial Company. They had a pull behind tractor attachment to burn off the fields.

I like it. I have always wanted a flame thrower. This could add a new enjoyment level to gardening:)

Certainly not a flame thrower or a pull behind tractor attachment but I got this from Amazon:

Frank, after a long or particularly frustrating day, my husband comes home and gets his "weed dragon" out and goes to it. He burns and burns to his heart's content!