Kitchen Garden Forum

According to "Which", who noted distorted leaves and flowers on tomato plants when they were using the B & Q Organic Living Tomato Food product, laboratory testing showed the product was contaminated with the herbicide "clopyralid". This is a powerful herbicide licensed to be sprayed on grass including lawns.
A possible route for contamination could be that the manufacturer of the "organic" fertilizer, bought in grass clippings that had been sprayed with "clopyralid", and used them in the manufacturing process.

This highlights the danger of using "clopyralid" on home garden lawns. Any grass clippings used as mulch or compost will cause the same damage to sensitive edible plants. Make sure that you read the label very, very carefully before you apply any chemicals to your lawn!

That is interesting because another B & Q product caused this kind of strange or stunted growth on my tomatoes, but this time it was their compost with extra fertilizer. The only tomatoes that didn't suffer were the ones that I had planted deeply in the bottomless pots and quickly grew good root systems that reached into the soil in the border that they were standing on. I've pulled the ones out that were badly damaged and their roots had hardly grown and stayed in the B & Q compost. I'm sure it was something in the compost.

Clopyralid is the herbicide that caused lots of problems in the composting industry in the US. It is similar to aminopyralid but is available to amateur gardeners as an active ingredient in lawn weedkiller such as Verdone+ Symptoms are similar to aminopyralid poisoning.

I understood that a company who may have been B and Q withdrew some of their compost from sale last year as an ingredient was council green waste which was thought to have been contaminated.

Was the compost you used bought last year PP?

glallotments wrote:Clopyralid is the herbicide that caused lots of problems in the composting industry in the US. It is similar to aminopyralid but is available to amateur gardeners as an active ingredient in lawn weedkiller such as Verdone+ Symptoms are similar to aminopyralid poisoning.

It's always been my understanding (and I'm sure it's on the instructions) that the first clippings taken from a lawn treated with Verdone should be destroyed, never composted, to avoid contamination. While Council composting schemes are laudable, there is always the risk of one or a few gardeners being a little cavalier about what green waste they put out for collection. In the days before centralised composting, any transgressions with garden chemicals would be largely confined to the perpetrator's own garden. All that has now changed.

That's right Felix it still has those instructions - but now the green bin system is operating people don't really treat it in the same way as they would their own compost. It becomes a repository for diseased plants and anything people don't want to consign to their own composting even though lots of good composting material is in there as well. There isn't a way of monitoring what goes in. And then again we have learned from experience that not everyone reads a label.

A friend of mine was going to start a community composting scheme until I mentioned this pitfall and the potential fall-out from having a contaminant in compost that she would be seen responsible for.

Some time ago, I posted about the problems that I have been having with my greenhouse tomatoes this year. The only thing different with my method this year is the compost, own brand from a major retailer, not going to say who, just in case! I am convinced that what has happened to my tomatoe is something to do with some form of weedkiller contamination, are these companies buying the 'base' for their product from the same supplier? I have hardly any tomato plants left now, chile peppers have been affected to a lesser degree, and cucumbers and potatoes planted in the same stuff not at all. Interestingly, any fruit that formed on the plants before the y started dying have not been affected?
Regards, Essexboy.

EssexBoy - Check your tomato symptoms with the photos on my webpage http://glallotments.co.uk/ACManure.aspx
These show the damage typical of hormone weedkiller contamination. There could be other things that isn't as it ought to be with your compost such as poor mix of nutrients etc. Hormone weedkiller damage has specific symptoms such as ferny distorted growth and cupping of leaves etc.

I bought the compost early this year, so it could have been from last year's batch if they hadn't sold it all. Anyway, I will be reverting back to my usual mix next year and not try experimenting with alternatives again.

Have you complained to them PP. These people shouldn't get away with selling rubbishy compost - it seems to be happening more and more lately!

No, I've not complained although I know we should. It took a while for the effects to become clear and by then I didn't have the bags to give batch numbers etc, and also I've not been in a frame of mind to have any hassle.

It is simpler just not to use it again.

After all this furore about contaminated compost I'm beginning to get increasingly wary of using any commercially bought stuff although I can't produce anywhere enough for my sowing & planting needs> Because of the carelessness of those who will toss virtually anything, (regardless of what herbicide it has been treated with) into their green recycling bins, or the council's Green recycling bins, I won't take advantage of our local Council's day for collecting free compost either. Is anybody on here confident enough to recommend a brand or brands which they feel will be safe to use?

Composts that are least likely to have been contaminated are probably those made from peat, but these are now very difficult to find.

realfood wrote:Composts that are least likely to have been contaminated are probably those made from peat, but these are now very difficult to find.

Are they

I've had no problem buying them, I hope it long continues. There seem to be so many threads associated with problems from peat free concoctions - variability seems to be a serious issue. Much of what I've bought this year has come from Wickes and it is quite good stuff.

Gentlemen, i think, what Realfood might be getting at is, that a lot of the well known brands are now mixing a percentage of composted green council waste or wood fibres with the natural peat.