Troubling anyone?

Iall Bob cruises the web for anything that will help us on our allotment adventures and came across something that seems to be quite wide spread down on the allotments throughout the country and I wonder if anyone is also having probelms with their veg plots.

It seems that there are tracesof a herbicide called aminopyralid in manure which was originally applied to grazing areas and subsequently ate by cows and horses by way of hay or just normal grazing methods and their commercial feed. Now it appears to be still active in the manure that is then used on veg plots and small amounts will effect potatoes, tomatoes, peas, beans, carrots, lettuce and related crops quite badly by them not being able to grow quite as strong as they should and people have been advised not to eat these crops.

As you can well imagine it really is a nightmare for an allotment newbie to take on thankfully our plot hasn't been worked on for 10 years so our ground should be safe, but now that we know this about manure I don't want to use any I would rather play safe and use other things to bring the soil on.

What do you guys think? Hel.xxx.

 

Hi Helen,If you take a look at Steve's {Plotty} update you will see that he mentioned it last week and put up some links all about the problem.You might have to go into Archive to find last weeks update.

Luckily,me and Mr Kandy compost all our kitchen waste,lawns clippings plus all what the Guneia Pigs produce so havn't got that problem,but I feels sad for all those people who have taken the time to grow their plants from seed and have now lost it because of the problem.I have sent the link to all my allotment friends as they hadn't heard of the problem either.

I think from what Steve was saying on his update that it could be up to two years befroe the ground is safe again and a ban has been placed on their allotments of manure until it is deemed safe to have fresh stuff delivered to their allotments....

 

" What do you guys think?"

I think:

The onus, and therefore liability, is on the farmer to make people aware that the manure comes from grass treated with aminopyralid / Forefront. The instructions that come with it are very clear on this point.

Clearly it hasn't been happening though, and a farmer buying Hay / silage from another farm may not be aware they used the herbicide. Same rule applies though, the Hay producing farmer should have told the buyer, and he should then be careful about how the manure is disposed of.

See also http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=15248#post208127

 

Sorry about that John I kind of did a double thread there didn't I? Whoops not intended!:o

It's really worrying for us being new and all but it makes you feel like you're banging your head against a brick wall sometimes doesn't it?

It seems things will be better just making our own compost at least that way we will know what's going in and from where...well one hopes we do.Hel.xxx.

 

Do you have a brown/garden bin collection in your area? Maybe you could arrange to take the material from some other houses (flats with no gardens etc perhaps?), for composting, and reduce the the council's collection cost whilst boosting your compost production.

What happens to the stuff the council collect? Can you buy their composted result cheaply? (Which raises the question about whether it is safe / reliable etc)

 

"I had thought about helping myself in the middle of the night to their garden waste"

That is just SO sad ... I think I might have to do that myself!

"Seriously I bet that the council will throw a load of red tape my way if I approached them to see if I can do this above board"

If I had a flat and you wanted to take my compost away in return for a few fresh veg I reckon we could strike a deal and not bother to tell the council!

"I think leaf mould takes longer than 6 months to rot down so this might be a longer term solution"

Yes, it will, but once you have got past the first "lead-time" you have a continuous process.

I just chuck it all in the compost heap - kitchen stuff, weeding-results, lawn mowings, autumn leaves. (Actually, not quite like that. The grass and leaves I pile up, and then mix in when I have enough other material to add a layer to the heap. My grass heap is very shallow - so I have the maximum area to spread the mowings over, if the layer gets to thick they go into anaerobic gooey-mass mode of course)

 

Bob's going to use some comfrey etc. to aid us down on the allotment the other guys down there are not too keen on that idea due it's tendency to self seed but we were thinking about blocking 14 (at least I think it's called that) which doesn't have this problem.

Don't get me wrong the guys are wonderful but are not really open to 'greeny ways' but hopefully we will show them that there is more than one way to skin a goat!:D Hel.xxx.