Contaminated Manure

[oldherbaceous]

I thought i would just bring this topic back up, to see if this problem will rear it's ugly head again.

As people will either have, or soon have crops coming through.

[tracie]

Hi All,

I think this problem is going to surface in a big way this year.I have some of the contaminated manure as have a couple of other people on our site, but we only know of the problem because of this forum and were able to identify the problem.

Many people will be planting out their crops and blaming the seed or something else for their crop failure because they are not aware of the problem.

My friend went to see the supplier of our manure, the farmer knew nothing about it and was still using it on his land, which I think is the most worrying of all, why do the farmers not know of this problem!.

I am hoping that since the manure has been spread on my beds since October and dug several times that hopefully some of the chemicals would have disipated by now. As for my pollytunnel I have planted a couple of trial tomato plants today and will wait to see what happens.

I only can hope that the contamination is not too bad and that I will get a least something this year, but I will not be using and manure again.

Tracie

[glallotments]

Sorry to be a bit lapse but I received an email from what was the PSD a couple of weeks ago, giving me the following information.

The Pesticide Safety Directorate has undergone reorganisation and from 1 April 2009 is known as the Chemicals Regulations Directorate. Click here http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/home.asp for their website.

Click here http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/garden_home.asp for advice on use of chemicals by the home gardener

Following on from the contaminated manure problems of last year - the CRD have published a postcard giving advice on the use of manure. Click here http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/garden.asp?id=2541&link=%2Fuploadedfiles%2FWeb%5FAssets%2FPSD%2FManure%5FPostcard%2Epdf to download. Remember that it is still very possible that contaminated manure is still in the supply chain so great care should be taken when obtaining manure.

If you are a member of an organisation and would like to obtain copies of the postcard for distribution , there is information on how to obtain a free supply of postcards click here http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/garden.asp?id=2541.

They automatically sent me a batch which I am distributing. They told me that they were sending some to garden centres etc but couldn't demand that they were distributed. I wonder how many garden centres will bother! It would be interesting to ask if any have received any information wouldn't it.

The CRD guy also wrote "At the moment, all the aminopyralid products remain suspended from use,and this is unlikely to change for the time being".

Tracie - can you PM me giving details of your whereabouts and a bit more info so I can add you to our victims list? http://www.glallotments.btik.com/p_Victims_of_Contaminated_Manure.ikml

[glallotments]

It's a concern that it seems some farmers are unaware of the problem and are continuing to use herbicides that are causing these problems again. It is one thing to have to be cautious because of residues left from last year's spraying but if spraying with suspect chemicals is continuing - as appears to be the case - then we are in for a long term problem.

I have started a new page on my website http://glallotments.co.uk/Manure4.aspx in order to list anyone affected this year so please email me if you are a 2009 victim so we can get some idea of how the problem is developing.

A CRD spokesman has told me that any cases of farmers still using suspended chemicals will be followed up if information is passed on to them.

[glallotments]

Another victim (or rather victims) I'm afraid http://www.glallotments.btik.com/p_Victims_2009.ikml

If you live in the Brighton area and have had manure from a stable then I suggest you check up with your source

If anyone else has a problem if you PM me I can pass on the email address of the person at the CRD who has contacted me. I hoped it wouldn't be necessary but I have set up a page for this years' victims' experiences. So if you are affected and email details to me I will add you so we know whereabouts the problem is! Let's hope it isn't as bad as last year!!!! No consolation for those affected I know.

[Geoff]

glallotments : I wondered if you have ever picked up any bad reports about Council green waste compost? As this article says http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... on-compost it could potentially contain residues.

[glallotments]

Geoff
I have had no contact with anyone who suspects that green waste has caused a problem but must admit that I am wary about it. Clopyralid which is in some lawn treatments used by amateur gardeners can have the same affect as aminopyralid but I think it is a bit less persistent. The treatments usually say not to compost grass clippings for X number of cuts after treatment.
I think some councils decide not to supply their green waste compost to the public as they say it isn't up to horticultural quality. It's only heresay and stuff I had read on the net though so may or may not be fact!

I suppose you have to be wary when the public could be putting anything into there green waste bins!

[glallotments]

Just an update.
This weekend we noticed some volunteer potato shoots growing on the area of our plot that was most badly affected with herbicide contaminated manure last year. The worrying thing is that some of the shoots are displaying the leaf curl symptoms of herbicide poisoning.

We have planted dahlias in the bed which is another very sensitive plant - we were aware when we planted them that we could lose them and we do have duplicates elsewhere on the plot. We thought the dahilas would give us a good idea of whether we could garden this area again without fear of contamination. As yet the dahlias seem OK.

Already emails are coming in to my website giving details of people who fear they are this year's victims. http://glallotments.co.uk/Manure4.aspx
On Sunday someone apparently someone rang the expert gardener on our local radio station giving details of a problem with his raspberries that seemed to implicate a manure problem but the response given was that last year it could have been contaminated manure but as this problem had now 'gone away' then it must be something else.

I personally didn't hear the programme but I have emailed the radio station to say that this information isn't correct.

It's a worry that even professional gardeners are still unaware of the problem or are under estimating it. I still haven't been to one garden centre where any information is available. I wonder if anyone else has or has anyone visiting garden shows seen any reference to taking care when buying manure?

[davew]

hi all, this is my first time here this is only my first real year on my plot as the last one was spent clearing it.
it looks almost certain that i've got a load of contaminated manure, i had one drop of a farmer that has been used all over my plot which appears to be ok as everything looks fine including potato's.
the second drop however looked totally different it looked much better more rotted i would say i've used this on my bean beds and the bean grew fine for a wheil but now they are about 12" tall the top leaves are tightly curled over also a couple of my tomato's have got similar leaves.
i've also noticed that where the manure was dropped the nettles and docks that are growing there are starting to curl up.
i've ready that if it's contaminated which i don't know for sure yet it's best to spead it out and dig it in but i have 8 ton of it
i've aslo got this in my polytunnel but only on one side the plants are in pots with the bottoms cut out with manure in the bottom, they are cucumber, pepper, chilli, aurbergine, and courgette none of them are showing any damage, do you think i could maybe repot them or will i have to destroy them, any advice greatly appreciated.
here are some pics of my beans and tomato plants.

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/3131/img0273i.jpg

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/6920/img0276t.jpg
dave

[glallotments]

Really sorry to hear this Dave.

Don't spread it to anywhere that hasn't already been affected.
If you still have it in a pile then you need to have it removed. Contact the farmer and ask him whether a herbicide has been used. If he hasn't then ask him to contact his silage or hayledge supplier. The advice is to try and get the farmer or your local council to remove as much of it as possible.

If it is impossible to remove the stuff then advice is to keep turning the soil to aerate it so that the plant matter breaks down quicker.

You also need to contact DOW manurematters@stewardship.co.uk and the Chemical Regulatory Directorate if you pm me I'll let you have the contact address of the person I have spoken to. I'm sure the RHS would also like an update.

The information is that this stuff doesn't pose a risk to human health so if you don't mind eating crops that have been subject to the herbicide (and that is a decision that only you can really make) we found that squashes, courgettes and sweet corn grew with no problem - we didn't have a problem with brassicas either but I'm not 100% sure that they would be OK

With your permission I'll add you to my list of victims on the website as I often refer the CRD to this.

[glallotments]

Forgot to mention the polytunnel.
Can you pop some sort of barrier under the pots so the roots of the plants don't come into contact with any soil containing manure.

If possible and you could remove the pots so you could scrape out any manure first that would be even better.

I'm not an expert by any means but this is just based on what I know about the stuff from my experiences and those of others who have contacted me.

[glallotments]

RE The distorted volunteer potato shoots.
I had an email from DOW saying that it is most likely that the tubers that were left in the soil had residues contained in them which has been absorbed last year. It will depend on whether only the volunteer potatoes are affected or whether the dahlias planted in the same area succumb.

Raises some more questions though doesn't it?

[davew]

i've only got the manure in 2 bean trenchs on my plot so i suppose i could dig as much out as i can, i've been down to the plot tonight and lifted my pots and scraped out the manure i'm sure there will possibly still be a small amount left but most is now gone.
yes please do add my name to your list of victims ,as to contacting dow i'm assuming that i need to wait untill i'm sure it's contaminated, is there anyway of telling other than doing the bean test?
we are going to speak to the farmer at the weekend but we have had several loads from him before and not had a problem so i think that the problem is not with him, maybe his food supplier.
one thing that is a bit strange is that about 5 people got manure from him on the same day and it's only my pile where the nettles and docks around it are dying.

[peter]

Perhaps HE has sprayed the field where the manure was heaped and your load was at the edge of the heap and caught a good dose?

[davew]

possibly, we are going to speak to him at the weekend to see what he says and ask him if he will take it back, i really don't want to be stuck with a 8 ton pile of toxic manure.