Contaminated manure & compost - weedkiller destroys tomatoes, potatoes, beans etc

John

Oo-er. What a bummer - to try and go organic, only to find you've imported some persistent traces of hormone herbicide. So far, my stuff looks OK but thanks for the warning.

 

Criminal, downright criminal.

I have grown really inimical to herbicides of all kinds after the farmer who bordered on my old garden sprayed my ground with a universal herbicide (twice). Imagine waking up one morning, going out, and every single plant has gone orange and dead. The second time this happened the hedges were high and screened the rest of the garden a bit, but the first time I lost everything, grass, shrubs, creepers, roses.

I am not saying that every farmer in the world is such an idiot, far from it, but the simple truth is that you cannot expect 100% of people to behave responsibly. You give them this kind of chemicals, there will always be an idiot using it in a stupid way.
And, as is clear now, these chemicals often have long terms effects that the producers did not take into account. If that stuff finds its way into manure and compost do you really believe that milk and steaks from these cows are not affected? I am not saying that all agriculture should go organinc tomorrow, I am aware of the economical difficulties. But more information and more attention is desperately necessary.

 

"these chemicals often have long terms effects that the producers did not take into account."

FWIW the instructions for this herbicide, Forefront, are quite clear about this:

"Manure and Slurry Management

Do not use animal waste (e.g. manure or slurry) from animals fed on grass treated with Forefront, of fodder resulting from grass treated with Forefront, on susceptible crops e.g. peas, beans and other legumes, sugar beet, carrots and umbelliferae, potatoes and tomatoes, lettuce and other compositae, or land intended for growing such crops.

If grass, hay, silage, manure or slurry is exported off your farm, it is your responsibility to inform the recipient of this information"

 

It doesn't look like these instruction were much use.
It's like selling guns with a label saying "warning, letal weapon". The producer has cleverly put himself above any legal responsibility, but I still think that selling such stuff in a system that is not prepared to consistently punish its misuse is criminally *dangerous*.

 

"It doesn't look like these instruction were much use"

Absolutely agree. My local farmer has a huge pile of manure on his pad for me (he had hoped to deliver 6 months ago, the pile is bigger now:thumb but luckily I'm armed with this knowledge and I can ask him whether this herbicide has been used; 6 months ago I would not have been so lucky. If it has I'm sunk, because I haven't budgeted for any other source of material:(

 

I follow Plotty's {Steve Partridge} updates in the Edible Gardening thread and the links have been put up on his website about this problem.I have also sent the links to all my allotment friends

I have been using my own home made compost for a number of years as well as leaf mould that I make because I was unsure just what chemical residue might be in the manure from the local farmers.:(

I am sorry that you are having problems with affected crops and know how you must be feeling.I would be gutted if it was me because I know what effort goes into sowing the seeds and nuturing the crops before we even get round to eating them

 

I apologize for my first rather rash statement about producers (not they are always beyond blame in such problems, but sometimes, by mistake, they may be innocent,lol).

Long time ago I came to the conclusion that when buying chemicals for gardening and agriculture you should provide a "chemically aware person" licence, which you should only get after a decent course and reasonably strict test. It would not solve all problems, after all people take driving licences and still make accidents. But it would improve things a bit (despite the evidence of accidents still happening I wd not like to live in a world where everyone can drive without ever taking a driving lesson in their life). Utopia, I know. But it would make sense :(

 

No apology needed. Someone aint doing their job of passing the message from the manufacturer along the chain!

"chemically aware person" - farmers have to have that, AFAIK. Certainly for a farm hand to use a crop sprayer s/he needs to be certificated, or is that certified?!

 

Do they?! England is such a civilized country. In Italy we are Neanderthals.

 

Absolutely agree. I posted the details because I wanted to balance the argument that the manufacturer might not have tested the product carefully.

Putting aside any Organic debate for a moment: reading the product details it sounds like a miracle product - it will kill docks and even clover in pasture, which I'm sure must be a neat trick for the farmer. It breaks down on contact with soil, but it binds to plant material, so until any plant material it has bound to has broken down the active ingredient is still there - which is why, I assume , it can travel through a cow and stay active in the manure.

I don't know the answer because, as you say, farmers will sell, or contract, the hay from their pastures. For the unfortunate people effected someone is liable - there is an onus on the farmers and intermediaries to has passed the warning along the line, and someone obviously has not done that.

Awareness will help (bit late though, of course) so that people buying manure can ask if Forefront etc. has been used.

 

I agree, but

"The farmer may have unwittingly contaminated his grassland when he spread slurry or manure from another farm or fed his animals with hay or silage from elsewhere"

that farmer should have been informed by the farmer he got it from - the instructions on Forefront say "If grass, hay, silage, manure or slurry is exported off your farm, it is your responsibility to inform the recipient of this information".

Of course that hasn't happened, otherwise there wouldn't be a problem!, but I reckon it does create liability, and probably negligence - although that's no consolation to anyone effected.

I'm not one for trying to sue the council because I was stupid enough to trip over a paving slab, but a public execution now and again puts others on their toes!

FWIW I read somewhere that rotavating is the best way of getting rid of it. The active ingredient needs to come into contact with the soil (maybe some air too). When the chemical is bound to plant material (e.g. bits of grass/straw in the manure) it is still active, so a pile of manure is going to take a long time to become inactive. Mixing with soil, and mixing often [how often? sorry, the article didn't say, or I don't remember], will neutralise it.

Hopefully your problem is restricted to just the pots you used it in, it must be soul destroying for anyone who spread manure over their whole plot.