Kitchen Garden Forum

peter wrote:Sought advice from a friend with farming links on what mechanical means one should used to remove brambles from a dorment Allotment Site, I think when she asked the man with a tractor that she simplified the question to how would you clear a field of brambles and the answer in full was:

"The brambles I would spray off first with Pastor/Forefront and leave 2 weeks before pulling through with a plough/chisel plough or discs."

Pure irresponsibility!

I can find no mention from Dow that aminopyralid products kill brambles.Sounds like a case of "spray on what you've got to hand". I suspect this type of behaviour will keep the aminopyralid problem alive for many years to come

Farmers who adopt this sort of line are not that likely to bother about the guidelines.

Hope you read this here JB as Peter wants the latest posting to be free of comments - it will be locked when he is able to do this.

I originally thought of burning the affected manure but it was actually the consultant from DOW who said this could be illegal. Maybe it is the fact that they haven't done any testing on what happens when it is burned or maybe it would come under the disposal of illegal waste. I think there is something in law about manure only being 'legal' if it is dug into soil for cultivation purposes.

The general recommendation from DOW is for farmers to dispose of it is to spread it on grassland (in theory it shouldn't be coming off the farms in the future!)- and I know what you may be thinking something to do with circles?

For any gardeners it is a case of have it removed or dig it in and let it decompose.

I had an email today from someone who has had his manure collected - anyone else managed it? If you have did you get any idea of the person who was collecting's understanding of what to do with the collected manure. If you haven't yet had your manure collected have a chat with the person doing the collecting when it actually happens and see what he/she has to say.

Just to elaborate on the above as I now have permission from the person who sent this information to pass on some of the contents of his email.

He was concerned by the apparent ignorance about the issues shown by the people doing the collection and tried to explain some points to them.

The farmer who collected the manure had been given a load of paperwork telling them what they could do with the manure, and what they couldn't, but hadn't read it as it was quite a big list.

The farmer was going to spread the manure on barley. He appeared to know very little about why he was collecting the manure or what the problem was but had been paid what he called a substantial amount to collect it. He thought that people having been affected by the problem must have been given quite a large amount of compensation and that people must have kicked up quite a stink to get the stuff collected at all.

It would be interesting to compare what other farmers collecting manure have to say.