That is a very sick sunflower.
It’s sick because of “Grazon” or possibly “GrazonNext,” a popular herbicide glowingly recommended by the University of Florida for broadleaf weed control in pastures.
Here’s the deal: Grazon or other Aminopyralid-containing herbicides are sprayed on pastures because they don’t kill grasses, only plants such as horse nettle, pigweed and blackberries. Then after application, the cows, horses and other animals graze on the grass, ingesting the herbicide which passes undigested through their systems and into their manure.
The manure can be composted for a year or more and it will STILL kill your garden.
The picture above came from my friend Luzette, owner of Buffalo Girl Soaps. She came over to my booth at the Union Street Farmer’s Market in Gainesville last week and told me that she had no idea what was happening to her garden this year.
“Everything is all messed up for some reason. I added a lot of horse manure – we can get tons of it – and I planted like usual…”
“Grazon,” I replied. “Your garden has been poisoned.”
I hate this stuff. I utterly hate it. I lost a thousand dollars of plants a few years back and poisoned a decent amount of my young food forest, setting it back for years and whacking some of my trees. There’s an olive tree in my front yard that is shorter now than when I planted it.
It was poisoned by Grazon in a load of cow manure.
Grasses also take up the toxin, meaning that adding straw or hay to your compost is now no longer a good idea. Many, many fields are being sprayed.
AVOID ALL MANURE on your garden unless it’s produced by your own animals and they are not fed with hay from outside your property. All manure should now be considered potentially deadly to your garden (with the possible exception of Black Kow – I have yet to hear a bad report about them so I’m assuming they’re screening for Aminopyralids).
Here are some more pictures from Luzette’s ruined garden:
The cantaloupe plants, she reports, looked okay but the fruit were small and hard.
The peppers show the tell-tale leaf curling caused by Grazon damage:
And these beans are goners:
Even blackberry brambles are showing serious signs of damage:
In my book Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting, I dedicate quite a few words to this evil stuff. I don’t hesitate to call it Satanic, since it utterly perverts God’s design in nature.
I have no idea how to fight the poisoning of manure, which has traditionally been the mainstay fertilizer of organic gardeners, but I do want you to know that I won’t stop writing about it and trying to save as many of your gardens as I can.
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107 responses to “More Victims of the Satanic Grazon Herbicide”
Thanks for this information!
Once a garden is contaminated, how does one correct the problem?
Good question. Adding a lot of crushed charcoal helps, as does growing a crop of grain (corn, wheat) to pull up the toxin, then cutting and taking those plants somewhere else to dump them. My garden beds took about two years to return to health and I added a lot of charcoal. Tilling the soil helps increase the breakdown as well.
Time is the true key… a lot of it is just waiting for the stuff to finally break down in a few years. When perennials and trees get hit, though, they never seem to regain their vigor and grow out of it.
When you went through this did you try any fungal remediation?
No, we didn't.
I was told grazon has 3 yr Half-Life. I put manure in my potting soil that had sat behind my barn for over 2years. It killed everything nightshade and stunted the rest. Thankfully, i didn’t till it into the soil like my neighbor. This is sad because I live next to horse stables with never ending manure.
Yeah, it’s terrible that you can’t use all that manure. This stuff really makes me angry.
Did you lab test it or is just one of those I think this is it?
No need for a lab test. The results are obvious via observation. It is a distinct pattern of leaf distortion.
Do you think any hay is safe- peanut hay or alfalfa-as they are not really grasses. I really would like to use my horse manure, but have to supplement with hay.
I think both of those would be fine. It's the grasses that are the danger.
How about test growing a small crop of various plants before adding the compost to a larger garden.
It would take planning and room but you could grow a small patch with a certain compost pile, if no damage then that pile is "cleared" for further use. If you get damage you just let the contaminated pile set until the stuff breaks down, just repeat the test every year. Only use a certain pile after it has been shown uncontaminated.
Having horses, manure is important part of justifying their expense. About 2 years ago my garden wasn’t up to par, gardening call in radio show told me the answer, I switched to alfalfa (peanut hay not available). Removed old manure compost pile, started fresh, no more problems.
Good call!
Two questions. Where do you get your information on who uses what? What do you know about Timberline sold at Lowes? I use their cow manure/compost frequently.
Unfortunately I’ve learned the hard way and our steers were grazing on a paddock sprayed with grazon.
Not sure if you’re vegetarian but would that meat be suitable for human consumption?
A lot of the meat we eat probably has some Grazon in it. I haven’t heard of issues, but my trust levels are low. I doubt your steers would be worse than any steak you might buy in the grocery.
Is there anything else that could cause the pepper's frizzled leaves?
My whole crop of peppers started to look like this after a wicked battle to save them from a horrific white fly infestation and then subsequent fungal problems. They are planted in a soil that is used by my local organic upick farm and grows all kinds of weeds (that all look healthy,no frizzle).
In my desperation to save the plants, I picked fungus damaged leaves, sprayed with soap, neem oil and drenched with Epsom salt for root strength. Followed with worm castings to fertilize and deter white flies. So now my peppers have doubled in growth, albeit with funky looking leaves on the datils and cachuchas. The lemon drops look normal now and both cachucha and lemon drops are loaded with flowers , datils are still too young to flower. Fingers crossed that this was more a fungal issue than grazon? What do you think?
Omg, just lost 3 different batches of tomatoes repotted with lots of beautiful compost made with a partial amount of my daughters horse poop. As they said, super hot composted and a year later used in repotting the tomatoes in the greenhouse. All started dying 1 day later. Found out grazon was used where she pastures her horses. :( :( evil is right! Turns manure into poison.
That’s awful – thanks for sharing, though. Gotta get the word out. Miserable stuff.
This is an interesting post. I have mulched and composted with hay that I absolutely knew was sprayed with Grazon and it didn’t affect anything so far as I could tell (I was ignorant and didn’t know any better). How did you trace the root cause problem to Grazon and not some other issue?
The characteristic twisting of the new growth makes it obvious once you’ve seen it once. Aminopyralid inhibits the cell stacking function of the plant, causing fractal-like distortion. Some plants, like melons and greens, are a lot less susceptible. Others, like beans, tomatoes and eggplant are very sensitive. Grasses, such as corn, won’t show any problems at all. I have a big post coming up on Tuesday from a gardener who lost a lot of tomatoes to Aminopyralid – stay tuned.
[…] Saturday I got a comment from another gardener on my post More Victims of the Satanic Grazon Herbicide asking about a garden he mulched with hay he knew to contain the […]
Are the vegetables produced from this soil safe to eat? My instinct is no, but I worked so hard on my soils that it is very discouraging not to be able to harvest.
yeah, I’m on here as I’m experiencing herbicide damage. I live in East TX, and it has become so contaminated. The stables nearby love to bring manure to all the farmers and gardeners, and I tried some. no bueno. I’m surrounded by “old timers” that are completely clueless. I’m watching my neighbor mix this manure into his garden and with his tractor. He sure can drive a tractor but has no clue about soil.
Dang it. That’s terrible.
We had a raised bed that we thought could have been contaminated with cow manure from cows grazing on Grazon treated pasture. Grew pumpkins. In it last year . Had a bumper crop. My wife planted cantaloupes in it this year. My ? Is it it safe to eat from a garden patch that has been contaminated with grazon? In other words if the fruit looks fine ; could their be any trace elements that could be harmful? Little extreme I know, but just curious .. I agree with you …it is evil. My research on it has convinced me to go back to bushhogging for weed control. Damn stuff stays around toooo long. Scary
I haven’t been able to find out if there are any health effects related to it, but I don’t trust it.
If your wondering if something still has grazon. Plant an eggplant. It will curl up fast. Melons are less noticeable. I’ve eaten stuff from plants affected by grazon and I feel fine. Can’t recommend it but when your entire crop is that way, it’s hard not to.
I contacted DuPont and told them what is happening. They sent pdf of warning label. Thanks.
I have also read that many people have contaminated their gardens by buying straw from unknown sources that had been treated with grazon. Just using the straw stunted their garden.
Yes – I had a friend destroy a lot of hard work in her garden by mulching with a load of rotten hay.
We have about 80 acres in pasture. Four years ago our co op started a spraying program. Having horses grazon was recommended. I was told it was safe for the horses to stay in the pasture while it was sprayed and even ok for the horses to eat while still wet. I was never told not to compost the manure. Two years ago I started composting manure out of the pasture, this year I started giving it to friends. What a ***** mess. I spent a lot of time with a shovel collecting the manure, turning it, and delivering it to friends. I’ve had two contact me about their gardens and problems they’re having. One of them asked if we were using grazon. This is going to cost me a great deal of time and money to fix. Some are small raised gardens and I’m going to go in and remove and replace the soil. Some are larger, up to an acre, I don’t know what we’re going to do. I’m open to all suggestions. Thanks
I am so sorry, Michael. It’s horrible, horrible stuff – it shouldn’t even be legal. Most farmers don’t know how bad it is.
One thing that helped us was adding crushed charcoal to the beds. It takes up some of the poison. Another option is just to tell everyone to plant corn or grains for a couple of years. Removal is usually the way to go, though.
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Well, I’ve been a victim too. I lost my entire tomato and pepper crop that I grew from seed. All that hard work is destroyed. I sprayed Grazon on my fields the last two years and useg the composted manure for the garden and everything died except my cucumbers. I don’t know what I should do now. I could dig all the beds out and start over but what will I use for a natural fertilizer? Also, I’ve started collecting the manure and moving to a different pile. I did not spray the fields this year (and never will again) but will this years manure be contaminated too? I just dont know if I should take the chance. Any advice is helpful. I seen the info about charcoal, where do I get that and how do I apply it?
I guess you didn’t read the label.
In my book Compost Everything I have a lot of fertilizer ideas. Cottonseed meal works, compost tea, diluted urine,blood meal, etc. There are options. For charcoal, I just burned brush then extinguished it when it was all half burned and black, then crushed and mixed that into my beds.
My garden is infected also. Is it safe to eat anything from this garden.
David, I’m not sure but my cucumbers are fine and we have been eating those. I guess I did’nt want it to be a total loss.
Good ? Mr Lunn. One I have asked several times with little results. We used manure that came from cows grazing on pasture with Grazom. Just used it for flowers and pumpkins. We now have some beautiful cantaloupes growing, but wonder are they safe to eat?
I haven’t had any luck finding out toxicity, unfortunately. I ate some of the produce I harvested, but most of it I chucked.
We planted our new garden after building up the soil for 2 years with our horse manure, which we have used on other gardens for 20 years. Everything was knarled, twisted and the tomatoes were virtually leafless. We thought it might be too much rain in the spring, so we planted again. Same issue with okra, beans, tomatoes. After calling my county agent, he knew immediately what it was. We gave up. I am so disgusted! Is there nothing out there that will break down this horrible chemical? After doing some research, there have been farms all over the US and Canada that have been contaminated. Dow/Dupont, whoever makes the damn stuff needs to be sued. Yes, they put a warning label on it but we didn’t get on on the rolls of hay we bought.
They should be made to invent something to neutralize this horrible chemical.
I suggest a class action suit but they would just defer back to the label. If they gave a damn about this country, they would find a cure for this horrible contaminant. Susan in GA
Absolutely. The stuff is evil. It is DowAgrosciences fault.
It breaks down eventually if turned into the soil, but it is an absolute plague.
My veges won’t grow in my contaminated compost… but other garden plants seem unaffected. Do you think it would be Ike to use the contaminated compost on a patch of lawn? Or will this then contaminate the grass clippings?
The grass clippings will be contaminated, but not as much. I would probably just throw it away.
David,
Thirteen months ago I was poisoned by Dow Grazon Next when a fitting on my sprayer cracked and sprayed the herbicide all over my back. I had ordered a very mild spray for thistle with a 14 day half life called Du Pont Forefront to use on my hay field. When I went to pick it up the dealer gave me Grazon Next. I objected but he said this is just the same stuff just made by Dow rather than Du Pont. So I believed him and took the product. I woke up the next morning after spraying with my eyes swollen shut and my legs so swollen I couldn’t wear shoes. 2 days later my system tried to push the chemical into my colon for elimination and then it killed all my digestive bacteria. Nothing would digest. I couldn’t sleep because when I would lay down I would throw up. I had no bowel control. The whites of me eyes turned orange. My back looked like I had been shot with a shot gun with every square inch forming an oozing bloody sore. My blood picked the toxin up out of my skin and poisoned every organ in my body. My blood felt radioactively hot and I could feel every heart beat like a pounding drum. I have had 21 blood transfusions in the last 25 weeks and still cannot get it out of my system. It bonds to your blood and organ protein and you cannot filter it out of your system. It’s toxic half life is 1.5 years. My doctor said I will probably need weekly blood transfusions for 4 years before the toxicity breaks down. I called Dow and the EPA. No one knows how to treat it. After 12 weeks and coming very close to death I found a Hemotoligist that had experience treating herbicide poisoning. He said there are only 3 treatments. The first 2 must be administered within 2 days before the 2,4,D bonds to the blood protein, but for me, after 12 weeks, that was no longer an option. The only treatment left is dilution. You remove the toxic blood and replace it with clean blood. This treatment has kept me alive but the treatment is slow. One pint at a time. After 1 year of treatment the toxin is still now killing peripheral nerve tissue by pooling in my hands and feet. My feet are almost completely numb. It has deteriorated my optic nerves and eliminated my ability to taste sweet. This is the Herbicide from Hell. Don’t use it, don’t get near it. If you even get a small amount on your hands you will feel like you are coming down with a bad flue. Warn others. The great crime is that now that Dow has purchased Du Pont, they have changed the name on the Grazon label and are now calling it Forefront. Forefront was the mild thistle specific spray from Du Pont that I thought I was getting. Now that Dow changed the name to increase sales because Forefront was very popular, others are getting the really toxic stuff thinking it is the old mild thistle spray. Farmers are spraying it on their hay for thistle thinking they have a product that is only toxic for 14 days when in fact it stays highly toxic for 1 and 1/2 years. The Grazon lable says you cannot sell the hay the same year you spray it. There was no such warning on the Du Pont Forefront lable. In fact, it said you could graze it 2 weeks after spraying. If you buy hay ask if it was sprayed that year and what with. Changing the name on the label was a very foolish and dangerous move by Dow. Warn others before this becomes a disaster. If you graze cows on a pasture or hay sprayed with it, realize that it doesn’t break down and if you eat the meat you will be poisoning yourself. Beware!!!
Wow, Gary – that is an absolute nightmare. Thank you for sharing your story.
I will start praying for your recovery.
I don’t know if you will see this many years later I hope you are doing better, I wanted to share this in the hopes it would help you or anyone reading this. Look up Karen Hurd’s bean protocol. She saved her daughter from pesticide poisoning using soluble fiber like psyllium husk and beans, it binds to the toxic bile being excreted by the liver. Usually 95% of this bile is reabosrbed but using the soluble fiber some of it is excreted in the poop.
My husband was using an herbicide on a football field and spilled some on his back. He was recently diagnosed with polycythemia and has to give blood every three months to reduce his red blood cell count. I hate herbicides!
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David,
Thanks for all the great info. My garden this spring (2019) was ruined by Grazon contaminated manure. I have replanted in a new area successfully. But…I put a lot of that same manure around my fig tree. The tree is doing great and is apparently unaffected by the stuff. But will the figs themselves be dangerous to eat? Will they pull the Grazon up into the fruit? Please advise if you (or anyone else) can. Thanks! Philip Neal
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I’m quiet friendly with my local farmer, my wife and I are new to gardening but were very keen to make a start on our’s. I asked our friend (the farmer) about weed killers, ones that only target weeds not grass. He offered us some Grazon, it was already mixed and I never saw the packet. I stupidly took the product and sprayed our garden, before planting the fruit trees. After spraying, I read about how long to leave it before planting the trees, I thought it would be similar to roundup. Boy was I wrong. We are in the middle of week one and the weeds have started dying, only 2 year, 51 and half weeks to go until we can plant our fruit trees.
Really sad how stupid I was to spray a chemical on our land without reading about it first. I think the farmer was trying to help and just didn’t know what he was offering. It unexpectedly rained really heavily about 10min after I sprayed, what effect might this have had?
If Dow are going to sell this product, governments should force them to produce a neutraliser.
Some of the stuff may have run off, but it’s remarkably persistent. I’m sorry, Matthew. It’s awful.
We were soooooo ignorant! We quit using straw on our garden years ago because it was all no-till, sprayed with glyposate to dry down before harvesting. Stunted my garlic one year. We switched to hay, purchased from a local good-ol-boys feed store, imported from nearby Tennessee because there’s not a lot of hay available here in the mountains. Things went fine for a few years. Until 2019. We had beautiful tomatoes, raised from seed. Planted about 70 in our high tunnel. A few weeks later, we mulched with hay we purchased. Within a few weeks, I started noticing strange growth–curled leaves, nearly naked stems, fasciation on some stems, cherry tomato branches with hundreds of blossoms. At first I thought it was disease but finally realized it was toxin and the culprit probably the hay. We did get some crop but quit selling to our customers who expect organic produce. We removed the hay and hoped all would go well this year. Three weeks ago, we planted our 2020 crop in the same place. Now I really feel stupid. I didn’t see your post when I researched last year, and didn’t learn about Grazon. A post by U of Georgia sent me looking for Grazon info today and I saw your title from 2015. Our tomatoes are, of course, already showing symptoms. We’ll limp through, but not sell. Our one hope is that I planted our determinate tomatoes in another space outside the tunnel. This space also had some hay mulch which killed my pole beans last year, but it was not under plastic and after removing the contaminated hay, it was exposed to rain all winter. I don’t yet see any sign in these tomatoes, but they were planted two weeks later. Two days ago, I took all my “leftover” tomato plants and made a row out in the open garden where no hay mulch was used. We usually plant tomatoes in tunnels due to blight. I am also planting all of my leftover pepper plants out in the open, uncontaminated garden. Jeez. Our tunnel’s plastic is old. If my determinates do okay in the flushed soil (now recovered with plastic hoophouse), we will be sure to remove the plastic from the high tunnel and let it flush out next winter. I just hope that does it. Sickening.
I am so sorry.
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We are feeding our horses hay for the winter, and the farmer verified that he sprayed it with Grazon. Between the contaminated manure and the contaminated hay the horses have spread around the pasture, there is no question that the grass that grows in the spring and summer will be contaminated as well. So, even after the hay is long gone, the manure will probably still be full of poison. I have tried picking up after them, but it is too much work for one old lady with back problems to keep up. My question: Will we ever get to a point where we can use any of their manure as long as they are on this pasture?
I read one article that stated that Grazon never breaks down but instead only leaches from one body to another. I hope that’s not accurate, but it is a worrisome thought.
Unfortunately, it seems that every farmer in my neck of the woods uses this toxin and feels good about it. Some even advertise it as though it is a selling point. It’s not that easy to get through to people when they see this horrible poison as the answer to their problems. Anyway, thanks for the warning or I undoubtedly would have ended up yet another victim.
The soil microorganisms eventually break it down. It took a couple years for our gardens to stop showing symptoms. I’ll bet it takes about that long. You can always test the manure by mixing it with some soil in a pot and planting tomatoes or beans in it. If they start to get twisted and warped as they grow, it is poisoned still.
To clarify, I am asking about their future manure once they are eating the grass from the pasture they are currently in. Will a time ever come when when the manure is safe to use if I can’t keep the old manure picked up and thrown away?
Well, unless you all are vegan or vegetarians, you are probably toxic yourself by now. They don’t just feed horses hay! Dairy cows, beef cows, goats, you get the picture. It’s in the food supply big time.
You’re right.
it’s my understanding Dow Chemical slightly changed the composition of Grazon in the mid-2000s, and they too were surprised at the effect tainted manure had on plants. I think a subsidiary even sold batches of tainted manure in places like Lowe’s etc. I’d used grazon-sprayed cow pasture manure for years w/ Great success until 2016 (I think it was).
Do you think that alfalfa pellets generally fed to rabbits might be contaminated? I worry about using them any more.
Alfalfa is one of the broad leaved plants this herbicide kills so it should be safe. Best of luck. If you are still concerned you can plant some beans in a pot with potting soil and alfalfa mix. If there is a problem the beans will show it immediately.
I’m a hay producer and have horses, and I love Grazon. Unlike many herbicides, it controls several poisonous weeds, such as horse nettle, very effectively. Hay producers who use it on their fields to produce hay that is not used by themselves are going against the label. I do not spray Grazon on any of my fields for this reason; I only spot spray patches of dogbane hemp or horse nettle if it exists.
I do spray Grazon on my pastures. This is desirable for me because the ‘summer manure’ is what gets spread onto my pastures in the fall when the horses come off pasture. The residual effect is desirable so as to not reintroduce weeds from manure into the pasture.
In the late fall, winter, and early spring, my horses eat hay I produce from my fields and that is not treated with Grazon. This manure is ‘winter manure’ and is what is used on the gardens. We do not experience any issues with it.
This is the trick to using Grazon. I never advertise my hay because I have regular buyers, but it has occurred to me that it would be a good idea to advertise it as NOT treated with Grazon.
It doesn’t have to be Satan if you have a system in place like I do.
Yeah, well – most people aren’t paying that much attention. It’s seriously nasty long-term and we are mad as hell that it’s in almost all the manure and hay we can get for our gardens now. Taking the easy way out by spraying death is a terrible way to farm.
I was thinking about using Grazon on my pasture but am having 2nd thoughts. My question is what to I use to get rid of pig weed, bitter weed, and the worst being recently discovered Horse nettle. And please do not say the vinegar, dish soap, salt mixture. I tried this and it killed the grass and the weeds weakened a bit but then made a full recovery with no lasting effects. I do have goats but they don’t eat bitter weed and Horse netted is toxic to them too. I’m not against spot spraying with something that would have little residual effect to my soil. Trying to dig up the plants would be just major time consuming. Also I’m in my 60s and also have vertebrae fusions so digging is not an option…
I would crop the grass in the right season to control them. Grazon is such horrible stuff. How did people deal with the weeds before 2007? An old guy told me it was timing.
Those companies should be sued. It’s disgusting how they get away with poisoning our planet and food supply.
Yeah. If the government wasn’t full of self-serving leeches, something would get done about it.
Thank you for this warning. I was thinking of using Grazon on the wild blackberries on my block, so Googled Grazon. You have saved me a lot of heartache! Looks like I’ll be pushing it out with the tractor and burning it instead.
Good choice. It’s wretched stuff – thank you for writing.
David, is there any chance that tilling in activated biochar into a new garden bed that was grazon sprayed cow pasture last year would actually sequester the toxin and hold it in the soil longer? I don’t want to have this poison around for the next century.
It helps, yes – I did it after my beds got hit. Another friend had the tomatoes in an affected bed get less damage in the areas where she’d put biochar.
Thank you for your warnings on YT and here David. We were going to go pick up a truck load of cow manure from local farmers this springs to help build this years compost production, now we wont go that route and we will be getting your book. Thank you for being a watchman on the wall.
Thank you for the warning. You think you are doing everything right and they slip in something as destructive as this. Thank you also for your Florida survival gardening book. I learned about plants I didn’t even know existed.
Thank you, Mary. I agree – it’s crazy the ways we can get hit. Heck, even our tap water has poisons in it now.
@DavidtheGood heard on Jess Sowards’ channel that you also had soil issues… will be watching you and Jess @rootsandrefuge farm regarding remediation. Really want to plant my fall garden but can’t do it with the purchased Black Kow waiting to be used. I’m thinking my rabbit will be earning his keep in coming weeks! Financially I cannot afford to do this again. Somewhat relieved to know what it is- when I heard of Jess’ issues I was like PHEW, it isn’t me! But now am much more upset about our collective food systems and how hard it is to break away from them. Thx for the info! MUCH appreciated.
Wish I had run across this page or some warning before – and that it was a requirement that all products be tested for and certified grazon free. Had a very health crop of tomatoes and peppers going – until I made a fatal mistake and purchased bale hay for use as cover mulch as the days got hotter. Would have never thought wheat hay could be bad for plants. Due to its long half-life, can see this further exacerbating the coming national (and likely world) food crisis.
I know – it’s insanely frustrating. The stuff is everywhere.
I have planted heirloom tomatoes for the past 8 years. I plant them in 30 gallon smart pots due to my rocky soil. I place the pots on top of straw but do not use the straw as mulch. I always used Happy Frog potting soil but switched to Dr Earth potting soil this year due to availability and cost. My tomatoes are showing signs of contamination (penciled leaves, small curled leaves, stunted growth). The source of contamination is either from the straw or from the potting soil. I get my straw from a local stable supply store. Could my plants get Grazon contamination because the smart pot sits on the straw. Could the Dr Earth potting soil be Grazon contaminated? I’m going to contact the sources of my straw and potting soil. I have just become aware of this poison and am furious that it can exist and is being used.
This just obliterated my friends garden, she’s a first time gardener and so used her well rotted horse manure, i had no idea horse manure could contain such a wicked ingredient. My heart is absolutely broken for her and I’m very perturbed this herbicide is actually legal to spray in Canada! This is horrifying to think all of our food crops could be wiped out because of this, and how many years will it take to dissipate this poison?
I am so sorry. It’s horrible stuff. It will probably take a couple of years.
I put 10 bags of Black Kow compost on my raised beds this year. Also bought 2 cubic feet of Black Kow potting soil to start seeds. I had germination, but growth stopped at about 2”, in spite of heat mat and grow light. Finally hardened off what I had and planted outside – late! Very wonky weather in Upstate NY this year. Nothing growing well – even the direct sown seeds like cucumber and lettuces. Green beans sown in ground are producing. Transplanted tomatoes (@ 2” high-in ground and the only location with no added soil or compost) are starting to grow. Have never experienced anything like this! I know weather is a contributor, but I am certain there must be an issue with the Black Kow products this year. Never had an issue before this.
Thx Linda Corbi for you post. I’m thinking the same with the Black Kow manure. Couldn’t even get my beans more than 3 inches, planted well before drought conditions. Used same quality seeds in a NH garden where we used local horse manure- it is also in drought yet is lush and full of produce, giant zucchini- everything is growing. My suburban raised bed garden in MA is a hot mess, regularly watered, sprouted but just never took. Even marigolds look weird. Grazon is a nightmare! Can’t afford to do this again :(
It will likely take a lot but Chlorine Dioxide mixed in water at 10-30ppm could alleviate this contamination, not sure about Grazon but it obliterates glyphosate…
Would be curious if it will help the plants recover, it has wonderful detoxing qualities for both plants, animals, men and women
Friends, You all need to get a lawyer and begin a Class Action Lawsuit against the manufacturers of these products. A lawsuit against the maker of glyphosate was successful. The immense distress, grief, and inconvenience caused is staggering, not to mention the financial expenses. If I am not mistaken Grazon contains 2,4-D. Is not this related to Agent Orange and Dioxins?
I received contaminated mushroom compost this year and thought I had a truck load of gold. I put it on all my raised beds. Needless to say my tomatoes, green beans and peppers were all effected. My plants did eventually “recover” and I got a few tomatoes and peppers. My question is do I eat them???! Of course Dow says, “sure, it’s not harmful!” But, like Satan, I don’t believe them. What have others done with produce that actually grew in contaminated soil? I’ve decided to throw out all my tomatoes with tears in my eyes.
I ate some, but wasn’t sure if I should have. I trust nothing these companies (or the government) say anymore.
So is there a safe way to stop pigweed in a horse pasture, maybe a safe ? pre-emergent …. or is fire or constant bushhogging the better way? Thanks in advance.
Hi. I am considering purchasing topsoil from a local place that has soil that alfalfa was grown in. Do you forsee any complications with this?
Probably wouldn’t have Grazon in it, but I don’t know what else might be sprayed on alfalfa fields.
Do you think mushroom soil would have this contaminate in it as well. I usually get a few loads every few years to top dress my garden, now I’m skeptical of even doing that. I don’t understand why they are permited to sell something that will end up in our food chain. It’s just so sad
Yes, it’s possible as mushroom compost often has rotten hay or manure in it. I would do the bean test for Grazon, as I do in a recent video.
Grazon’s 2 key ingredients break down after a few days in the soil. There is no way these ingredients stay constituted after they kill their target plant. This site is hearsay, MAGA misinformation.
You are a liar.
Once charcoal has absorbed the Grazon, what happens then? Does it stay there? Do I have to collect the contaminated Charcoal? How? Charcoal is also recommended as moisture buffer, absorbing and releasing moisture. Together with Grazon?
Thank you David for getting this information out!
I made a decision to add compost to my garden in March 2023. I kept hearing/reading about how it would benefit the soil. After working the compost into our large garden (4800 sq ft), a new smaller garden (950 sq ft), plus an area of the yard that we’re converting to native grasses, flowers and herbs (500 sq ft), I planted 86 heirloom tomatoes and some peppers all that I started, beans, squash, zucchini, okra, pumpkins, and sunflowers. Within 7 days I began seeing the new growth on the transplants curling. The germination of the direct sown seeds was 5-10%. Those that did germinate were severely affected. The squash appears unaffected. Some of sunflowers and okra were affected. That was in early May. Thankfully, had not planted native garden. We removed 12 inches of dirt from the entire 500 sq ft area and replaced with uncontaminated topsoil. That area was then planted and is fine.
The person who had the compost had sprayed Grazon 2 years prior and didn’t think it would be an issue. Wish I’d known. Lot of tears and extra work. However, I’m grateful I’ve not noticed any illness in me from working in the contaminated soil. What has grown and produced has not tasted normal. I planted corn in the 950 sq ft area and about a third of the 4800 sq ft garden. Can’t bring myself to eat it now even though it looks great.
We will probably till the two larger gardens this fall and plant grass. I do not want to put all the work in and take a chance on it again. Such an expensive mistake on my part for not asking the right questions. I had no idea such a toxic chemical with such a long half-life existed or would be allowed to be used in any country.
David, I cannot thank you enough. We moved from Alaska to begin to build a small farm from scratch in eastern Tennessee. I had read something about this in Mother Earth News, most likely something you wrote, a few years before the move. But by the time we got here and began building up the yellow clay soil, I couldn’t remember the name of the active ingredient or the brand name of the herbicide.
We hired a local guy to bring us a dump truck full of aged manure. He insisted that that is what he had brought us, but it didn’t look or smell right. There was a ton of sawdust in it, which obviously cows don’t eat. Sawdust really locks up available nitrogen in the soil while it is breaking down and we needed it NOW. It ended up being spent mushroom compost. We got it in the fall to be the beginning of a monster compost pile (big dreams need lots of compost). After figuring out what it was, we decided to let it sit for a full season to let the sawdust /nitrogen break down. Also with the hopes we wouldn’t introduce fungal diseases to our new orchard and garden. Thank God for that sawdust and the delay it caused. Didn’t think of herbicides. We used black kow that first season. At the end of season two, we began considering using the “manure”/mushroom compost and were struck by the complete lack of weed growth when we expected the mound to be covered by a weed jungle. We used some to fertilize some other baby trees but then we began to finally wonder why there were no weeds in that pile. Then I remembered that M.E. News article. Delayed mental acuity… we were spared the worst of the poisoning because it was only applied to a few trees before our brains belatedly kicked into gear. The apple tree leaves curled soon after and now five years later, while most of the trees are 15 feet tall, those few trees are stunted at three feet and have slowly died or have been removed. I’ve noticed some of the replacements are not doing much better. If the new ones fail we’ll need to dig out the holes and replace the soil. Our native soil is so lousy. We have to be able to add fertility without resorting to chemicals and options are limited or so expensive as to be being out of reach. My partner brings home old hay from local farmers after relentless questioning. Same with manure. Most of the time people don’t know what we’re talking about. So now we keep our compost on the backside of a hill where run off won’t potentially reach our orchard or garden. We let it sit and Jim mixes it with the tractor from time to time to ensure reasonable distribution. Then the year before we plan on using it and before we distribute the compost around the property, we look and see how happy are the weeds growing on the piles. So far so good. We’ll try the bean test.
I think we’ve been fortunate because we live in an economically depressed area and the grazon is expensive. I know some hay farmers only spot spray problem areas to save on costs. This logically means the contamination might not permeate the entire hay field or even an entire bale of hay, or, based on what the cattle eats that all the manure is contaminated, or contaminated equally. Which is why Jim mixes it. One reason is dilution. The other, if the compost is partially contaminated how can we know which part is safe and what is not. All we know to do is to minimize. This is such an imperfect solution to our screaming need for compost. As we’ve gradually been accepted into the farming community we find people with cattle (we always avoid horse manure as weed seeds pass through their digestive tract intact causing way too much work weeding) that grow their own hay. Those cattlemen know exactly what’s on their hay. (All bets are off during drought and hay crop failures. Everyone is buying hay at that point.,) Always try to find good sources from honest people that know the history of what their livestock eat. It’s not a formal thing or farmers wanting to keep crazy records. They just know their fields and the fields of their friends and what is or isn’t sprayed on them. These farmers are few and far between,but there are still some out there that are paying attention. Sorry this is so long. Hopes it helps.
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