This time, as reported by Connie Mehmel, WSU Chelan County Master Gardener:
“Compost made with livestock manure is an excellent soil amendment for vegetable gardens. Compost improves soil structure, provides nutrients and helps optimize soil pH. However, gardeners should be aware that cow and horse manure sometimes contains residues that can damage certain plants.
I recently visited the garden of a friend who had noticed discoloration and deformity on tomato and pepper plants after mulching with composted manure she had obtained from a nearby farm. The damage appears to be caused by residual herbicide.
The herbicides of concern are aminopyralid, clopyralid and picloram. These chemicals are used to control broadleaf weeds, including some toxic plants. They are sold under various trade names for use in pastures, commercial turf, residential lawns, grain crops, certain fruits and vegetables, and along roadsides.”
You can read the rest here.
This is never going to end until this stuff is banned.
Here’s a video I did on the topic of Aminopyralids in compost:
Check out my Aminopyralids archive for a lot more information on this dangerous poison.
*h/t Meal Bla for the article.
You can have greener thumbs by this weekend!
2 comments
Ouch. We have brand new cow pastures just up the road. Watched them install the fence. Wondered how they got the grass looking so great so fast, then, when they fenced the other side of the road, I saw a sprayer parked at the corner for a couple days. Three days later when I drove by, in the scrubby pasture… all the little knee-high oak trees were brown, and all the grass was still green. I think Grazon is probably what they’re using. :( Obviously, the manure isn’t going on anybody’s garden… it’s staying right there in the fields. But you can see where it’s run off past the fence in a few places, after the rain. The plants are brown all the way down to the ditch. I wonder about downstream effects.
Oh dear. That is awful. It is very persistent stuff.
Comments are closed.