Contaminated Manure

[glallotments]

Hi Helen,
Can you scrape off any manure pieces or is it all dug in - if you can remove some of it do that.

Before you plant anything can you rotavate or dig over to add some air into the soil as this will speed up decomposition..

The courgettes, squash, pumpkins, sweetcorn and brassicas that were grown in the affected area all grew without any problems. The potatoes that were initially badly affected did in fact grow through the problem and recovered although we didn't fancy eating them as we had plenty of potatoes elsewhere on the plot. The area manured that was manured was set with potatoes to really improve the soil structure. I have to say though the soil wasn't really improved by this manure for some reason. We did eat crops from plants that showed no ill effects but that was our decision and I wouldn't presume to tell anyone else what they should or shouldn't eat.

[HelenH]

Thanks glallotments for your advice. Unfortunately all the manure is well dug in and impossible to scrape out. But I'm still going ahead with planting the brassicas and sweetcorn. In fact, the few cabbages I planted a couple of weeks ago are romping ahead.

davew mentions the peculiar, curled up growth of nettles next to the heap of manure. I've noticed that this has happened to the nettles growing adjacent to the heap of surplus manure in our garden. The odd growth must be as a result of the contaminated manure since its an area where nettles always grow, and the manure we have is quite rotted down.

[Johnboy]

Hi Dave,
With the Tomato plants they seem to be fairly advanced in growth and you applied a mulch of what amounts to fresh manure and the side shoots which are at a very tender stage curled up. I am of the opinion that was because of excess urine in the manure which has come into contact with the tender growth which has caused them to mutate.
Are we dealing with coincidence here? I still think the top growth difficulty was due to over heating. The shame is that you have cut the foliage off the tops now so we will never know if they would have recovered. The plants will put out further side shoots and you can allow the plants to grow on by using the strongest of the side shoots produced from the axils below the stopped point. If you have already removed these side shoots the are very likely to regrow. Lets hope.
Growmore on it's own will not cause the problem that you have with the Beans but as with the Tomatoes the Beans are pretty well advanced in growth and if the damage was from contaminated manure I would expect to see abnormal growth affecting the entire plant. Lets face it the only way that the contamination is transferred is through the sap drawn by the plant well that sap feeds the entire plant not just the tops or by direct contact underground.
I am of the opinion that the damage to the Beans is not caused by contaminated manure but by something else.
JB.

[glallotments]

Managed another slot on local radio. This time it was a live broadcast so avoided being edited. At least it corrected the message being given out by their gardening expert. If anyone affected does feel they can help publicise by contacting their local radio stations and newspapers - every little bit of publicity helps.

Already emails are coming in from people affected who until now have been totally unaware of the problem.

I can't understand why the CRD are not pushing garden centres to publicise the issue and maybe even posters at garden shows. I did email and suggest this but no response!

[realfood]

Sadly, our allotments in Glasgow are affected by contaminated manure. After inspecting several allotments, the contamination starts by affecting the growing tips of potatoes, beans and tomatoes, even though the plants may have been growing normally for several weeks.

[glallotments]

Just been sent this information:

5 June 2009 Extract from - Minutes of the 337th meeting of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP) held on 12 May 2009

5. Agenda Item 5: Applications for the use of ‘Forefront’ and ‘Runway’ (now known as ‘Mileway’) water in oil emulsion formulations containing 30 g/l aminopyralid and 100 g/l fluroxypyr, as an agricultural herbicide and horticultural/industrial herbicide on grassland and amenity grassland [ACP 7 (337/2009)]

5.1 Members considered the applications for the re-instatement of approvals for products containing aminopyralid.

5.2 Members agreed that the applicant had taken all reasonable steps to manage manure contaminated with residues, through the proposed stewardship campaign, training and monitoring. However, there was some concern about the practicalities of the programme which would need to be addressed and closely monitored as part of the stewardship programme.

5.3 Members noted that aminopyralid was persistent in ground water, and that further confirmation of the effect of irrigating vulnerable crops from ground water sources was required.

5.4 Members were also concerned that approval in Europe could result in UK stewardship measures being by-passed. Further information was requested from the applicant about the level of approval and stewardship requirements across the EU

5.5 Subject to satisfactory resolution of these outstanding questions, members were minded to advise Ministers to re-instate approvals.

Full minutes on ACP website http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/acp.asp?id=2691

[glallotments]

Sadly, our allotments in Glasgow are affected by contaminated manure. After inspecting several allotments, the contamination starts by affecting the growing tips of potatoes, beans and tomatoes, even though the plants may have been growing normally for several weeks.

RealFood - can I add you to my victims list http://glallotments.co.uk/Manure4.aspxand have you checked with your supplier to see if he/she is aware of the problem.

[davew]

i can't belive that they are trying to get this reinstated after all the trouble it's causing they is no way they can control this and stop the manure reaching allotment holders and gardeners.
my beans which had tightly curled up top leaves look to be getting better the leaves are now starting to open up has anyone seen this before ?

[glallotments]

Our potatoes grew through the problem last year but the beans were a write off! Maybe it depends on the concentration of the manure around the bean roots. Are all the beans recovering or just some plants?

[davew]

it looks like they are all starting to recover some allmost look normal again.

[glallotments]

That is strange Dave as I haven't heard of beans recovering. Broad beans do grow but on our site never produced any flowers and the leaves were folded up as if in prayer. Our runner beans just stayed small and shrivelled all season never growing about 15cm (6").

If the beans are recovering I'd go with JohnBoy in that it could be something else.

Did you get an opinion from the RHS?

[HelenH]

Apologies if this has already been covered in an earlier posting that I may have missed. But I was wondering why the contaminated manure problem is a relatively new one. Does anyone happen to know if aminopyralid is a new chemical because up until last year, I've never experienced any problems growing veg on ground treated with manure obtained from our local farm. Helen

[glallotments]

Hi Helen
Yes it is a relatively new herbicide. I think this is about its third year.

I suppose for a while it may have taken some time to link the cause to the effect. When people started to spot a common thread. With us it was when several of us on the same allotment site had the same problem and we had all bought manure from the same person.

[HelenH]

Hi glallotments - thanks for that information.

Regards
Helen

[davew]

Hi glallotments
unfortunatly i didn't get a reply from the RHS as i didn't know that you needed to be a member first and it's nearly £50 a year so i'm still trying to work out whether it's worth joining or not.
the beans are continuing to recover but i've had a strange development in the polytunnel, the 2 tomato plants that look to have been affected have been dispossed off and i've got 2 new ones and they are both showing exactly the same signs as the previous ones and they have definatly not had any manure on them, unless there is somthing in the compost....i'vr used a couple of different ones, b&q growbags and Mircle Grow compost.
i'm fairly sure this is not heat damage as it's been cool latley and my polytunnel as been well ventilated.
my test beans are just starting to show now so i'll see what happens to them.