Hiya, I’ve been campaigning about aminopyralid for a little while now and I’m running a website campaigning. I’m really pleased that people like you and I (and others) are publicising this issue.
In the course of the work I’ve done so far I’ve been in touch with many people including scientists and legal bods. I agree with what you say about the testing, part of the problem is that small traces barely picked up in chemical analysis are enough to damage crops.
But I disagree with you regarding legal action. Individuals have the right to legal redress and in our legal system the person who sells you the manure is legally liable.In the case where only a delivery charge has been made, or no charge has been made, there is no opportunity for legal redress through the small-claims court. While the supplier might be themselves innocent, they in charge need to take action against their own suppliers, and so on up the supply chain.
I agree with you that this is a far from ideal situation which is why I am currently investigating legal precedents. However, action against anyone other than the supplier of the manure would be a lengthy, and costly, legal battle.
As regards disposal of the manure, there is no coherence between government departments, and while PSD is telling people to dispose of their manure in the manner you describe, the environment agency has in fact suggested that as the manure is contaminated, anyone who wishes to spread it in this way needs a license from them, even if it is a home gardener, even if it is their own land. As for disposing of it to anyone except the original supplier, you would need to use a registered waste contractor at your own expense.
It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? Do you ever feel like you’re trying to swim through treacle? That’s how I feel with this blimming aminopyralid.

at our site HADDOCKS WOOD ALLOTMENTS in runcorn we stopped getting manure in a number of years ago and left it to the individual plot holders themselves,because we found that we were getting lots of horse tails or mares tail depending were you live and these persistant weeds can last for years i know they are not in the same class as the current problem ,but it highlights the different side affects that can happen when you start inporting manure.

frank willcock chairman haddocks wood allotments ass.

Thanks John,

Great news about this problem, we are lucky with our supply it is from a sole horse sanctuary that has not sprayed his ground. We will carry out the test suggested.

I know I have been on before about Allium leaf minor which is prevelant in the Black Country, fearfully it is spreading further afield. Our latest treatment is Bug Off or Provado this needs to be sprayed on the crops in february and again in March, for winter alliums, and September/October for leeks and onions. Hope this helps.

Thanks for this information and all the work you have done.

Indeed a GREAT many thanks.

Do you know who arranged for the suspension? I would like to write to them.

Zanonni

Kerry, without getting into the legal situation, my arguement is that ordinary stable owners and dairy farmers who unwittingly supply contaminated manure to gardeners are as much a victim as the gardener.
Taking them to court will result in them deciding not to bother in future. So I ask that people do not exercise their right.
As for the government with conflicting advice etc.. well children might learn new words if I said what I think!

Brilliant, great news! Thanks from me too John, all your efforts are much appreciated.

What I did find disheartening on my own allotment, was that although the so-called officials knew about it, absolutely NO notification has been circulated to the plot holders!

… One comment I got from the allotment shop was “well be organic, make your own compost!” … Hardly helpful when one would have to wait a few years to reap the benefit!!

Zanonni, the suspension was announced the same day that Conservative MP for Worthing, Tim Loughton, asked questions about it to Phil Woolas (Minister for the Environment). It was the second time in a week that Woolas was forced to answer questions about it in Parliament. Coincidence? I suppose that depends on how cynical you are…

John, I fully understand what you are saying, but some people have incurred significant costs that they simply cannot afford because of this, and they have the right to redress. I would not personally go to court, but I have the luxury of still being able to put food on the table. It is only fair that people know they have the option. And any supplier who is an innocent party in all of this has the right to redress from their suppliers, too, and would have to exercise that right to not be out of pocket.

And I know that is a pretty rubbish situation, which is why, as I said, I and a lawyer are working extremely hard to build a case proving that ultimate liability rests with Dow. It’s not impossible, just tedious hard work. Anyway, I don’t want a row about this, because as far as I know we’re all on the same side

I know what you mean about hearing kids learn new words… I’ve heard a lawyer and a doctor swear when talking about it, both in relation to the latest letter from DEFRA regarding it.

Hi there John, Ive lived on farms, and kept horses for many fortunate years, and also given away manure. The thing is IF you buy in straw to bed your horses on, the person you bought THAT off may or may not know it’s origins. Also, the feed, hay, and haylage fed to your horses, may be from several different places, and some middlemen, i.e. Feed Merchants, may not know the source either. I agree totally with you John, that it would probably be unfair to sue the person who has helped you out with free or cheap manure, as you say, the only outcome will be that they will burn it instead, or spread it on their own land if they are sure of it’s origins.

Usually you would be aware of any herbicides that have been applied to land your animals are grazing on, however, horses are often grazed on rented land, etc too.This also applies to cattle / sheep / goats etc. The opportunities for this herbicide to arrive on our allotments are endless, and I shall certainly be following your tomato test myself, if, infact I use any manure on my plot. I took it over this Jan, and it hasn’t had anything on it apparently for years, and my crops (touch wood) are coming off lovely.

I add chicken manure, and seaweed, and am very pleased with the results.

im 63 years and have always used manure and my mother befor me ,i used it last year as i always do and i could not understand why i was not getting good crops and i thought that it was blight as did a lot of us allotment holders did ,but as we have found out its this herbicide ,the manufacturers need shooting, ive lost over 300 bulbs i put in my flower beds and its stoped my grape vine from flowering my wistera did not put out any new grouth and my cues are just not growing ,the rest of my plot is terrable nothing is growing ,in my greenhouse i grow carrots in boxes and my parsnips thay are ok and i have not put any manure in where my freanch beans are only from last year and SO FAR thay are ok ,but my butternut squash have not flowerd neather has my secound lot of peas ,i am not going to use manure again im useing chicken manure now for my winter veg on ground that i did not add the manure people that have any manure over need to take it and dump it outside the owners homes that make this poisen.val

Thanks for bringing this to the wider gardening community. I wondered why all the carrots we had grown this year were horribly deformed. I grow on raised beds and had added manure in quantity to this particular bed when I set it up a couple of years ago.

I had had some issues with parsnips last year – I then stuck to salad veg not realising the issue. I thought it might have been some poor quality topsoil, little did I know the manure was the culprit!

In February I bought 4 bags of B+Q’s ‘Farmyard Manure Soil Improver’ for some raised beds I am making, before finding out about aminopyralid. Luckily, I hadn’t used it soI did the tests – growing broad beans in pots, and the ones in manure are deformed.
I went back to B+Q and found that the ‘Farmyard Manure Soil Improver’ had been withdrawn. I asked why, and they did not know so I gave them some information about aminopyralid I had printed out.
They refunded my money without question, but why haven’t they announced a product recall? I wonder how many thousands of gardeners have poisoned their garden plants with this ’soil improver’?

I have just recently acquired an allotment and told not to put manure on the site because of the problem it has been causing. I understand that cows lie on this, so is our milk being tested accordingly? I bet its not.

We recently spent a couple of weekends with our kids s**t shovelling from the local stables. It went onto every bed and in the compost bins. Just to make sure, we bedded our potato trenches with the stuff.
We’ve got the contaminated stuff.
All the spuds are like your photos. We are based in Brighton. The stables are shocked that they have been given dodgy hay and a little put out to say the least as they have just got rid of a massive amount of manure to other allotment holders and gardeners. If anyone out there is looking to take this further – to Dow – please email me (Take the ‘X’ out of the email address – this is done to minimise spam being sent) SPAMMYEMAIL1X@yahoo.com

To Patrick, I do believe you have a legitimate claim against B+Q if you were to take it further. Contact your local Trading Standards Office at the Council and DEFRA to see if they are interested in confirming the contamination.

Last year (2008) the potatoes on my allotment were affected by aminopyralid contaminated manure, some varieties more than others particularly Maxine and Pentland Javelin. I grow several heritage varieties which are difficult to obtain as fresh seed, so I save seed. This year the potatoes grown from saved seed are showing all the signs of contamination. The ground that they are grown on is not contaminated. I have seen no warnings about this. Those potatoes grown from fresh seed are free from the effects.

I was given some horse manure from a local stables and yes, I’ve got contaminated and deformed peas, beans and potatoes. I cannot blame him, and he’s assured me he doesn’t spray his grazing, but does buy in winter hay and fodder.

I am so FURIOUS that all that money and very hard work is wasted and the knowledge that I’ll have to buy everything from the supermarket this year — 10 miles away! Every raised bed I’ve constructed is now poisoned with this stuff.

I have lots of plants waiting to be planted out and wondered whether it might be worth digging in my homemade compost in a layer for growing them in, out of contact with this evil stuff. Dow Chemicals should be class action sued and I’m more than willing to contribute to a legal fund.

Kerry, please can you get in touch ‘off website’. I should very much welcome a chat as you seem to be at the forefront of this (no pun intended!).

I bought hay for my horses from a farmer who used Forefront and put the manure on a large garden by the trailer load! I now have damage to beans, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, but also to other things and a lot of contaminated ground. The signs are classic for Aminopyralid damage, but I am awaiting results of a lab test.
I am late on the scene, and want to catch up before launching myself into action! I have experience of handling major litigation.

i work an allotment in SE London and was aware last year of aminopyralid damage to neighbouring holders’ plots from manure delivered by local horse owners. This year, noticing that broad-leaved weeds were growing on the pile I thought the herbicide had broken down or was very localised in the pile. I risked applying the manure to my allotment. I fear that cucumbers and butternut squash seedlings have been affected as they are showing abnormal growth. The prospect of ruined soil is terrible. Does anyone know of any advance on the class action front as this seems the only answer?

Just for information.
It looks as if the ACP may recommend that the licence for aminopyralid be reinstated.
I’m not sure whether I am allowed to post a link but if so try visiting
http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/acp.asp?id=2691

Julia, we were affected with this last year and found that squashes, and related crops were not affected. I suppose sedlings are different but are you sure that it is connected with the manure?
Maybe send a photo to the RHS to see what they think.

I have had large numbers of seedlings fail in a well known brand of multipurpose composts this year. Particularly affected were tomato seedlings whose leaves were narrow, distorted and did not grow well. Many other small plants including begonias, impatiens, and cucumbers seemed unable to grow properly. I think this is probably the hormone weed killer coming through into the commercially produced muti-purpose composts. How much longer and further is this problem likely to persist and spread… especially if Dow Chemicals are allowing it to be sold again.

This just makes me sick. I live in Missouri USA and look forward to my vegetable garden every year. Only my tomatoes appear to be affected, but I’m not about to eat anything at all from the same bed where there is an affected plant. When I bought the compost I spread it through both of my raised beds. Most of my crop lost (I have 2 other small beds that have cucumbers, watermelon and herbs so I will get something…but no good veggies!)… I’m ready to pull everything out of both beds and try something to ensure that I can use these beds again next year. However, your suggestions on what to do are for before you till it into your garden bed. Is there anything I can do or use (preferably organic) to shock the soil to rid it of this poison? Or am I just out of luck growing anything there again?

I am a newcomer to this problem of Aminopyralid. As an organic gardener for the previous 25 years, I have always collected horse stable manure from a local stables and either composted it or spread the well-rotted manure around my veg and fruit plot. I did not have any problems last year with potatoes or tomatoes, other than blight, which seemed to affect many gardeners.

This year, my potatoes and tomatoes had curled leaves and stunted growth, something I’ve never witnessed before. I thought a late frost had nipped them, and left them to carry on growing, but most did not recover. On researching my problem on the internet I’ve found the problem to be widespread from 2008 onwards, with many gardeners reporting the same problem as me.

I hadn’t dug the manure in this year, but spread it across the plots as a three inch thick mulch and planted through this. I now intend to rake it all up and dispose of it and any residue I can’t rake up will get dug in.

Sprouts, calabrese, sweetcorn and courgettes seem to be unaffected and are growing well in the mulch, but I will rake this up too.

My raspberries are stunted, only a few large berries and they haven’t ripened properly.

I am devastated that my organic plot is now contaminated and the food I’ve grown is very suspect and I’m not sure whether to eat it or not. If anyone does start a legal fund against Dow Chemicals, I would willingly contribute with cash.

As an aside, how do we know if food labelled “organic” from major supermarkets is not contaminated with Aminopryalid? I assume many growers will have used stable manure for their crops just the same as us amateur growers.

I am also a victim of the noxious chemical, after 10 years of organic gardening my compost heap has now been rendered useless.. does anyone know the name of the company that manufactures/distributes this foul substance?

hi there my husband and myself use leaf mould for our allotment, it opens up the soil nicely and everything seems to be comming along nicely

I am in my 4th season of allotment growing and have been developing a ‘no dig’ way of growing. I have been exceptionally thrilled with my results until this year. Two things have really bothered me.
1) because I grow my potatoes on top of the manured ground and cover them with straw they are in direct contact with the manure and I have lost my whole crop from 1st earlies to late mains. Not only was the foliage curled, very stunted and exceptionally slow growing if it grew at all; but the potatoes were just like little beads clustered around the stem arising from the seed potato. I also lost dahlias, and my beans and peas were distorted and stunted.
2) More worryingly is the effects I noticed in my allotment wildlife.
My usual scenario is an abundance of worms, followed my moles who run up and down the rows devouring worms and slugs with the result that my soil is moist, friable and the manure well incorporated at harvest. To the point of looking almost life a seedbed. There has always been a few frogs and toads taking refuge under the damp straw during the day and even the occasional vole (last year I accidently disturbed a whole family who immediately grabbed tails and ran off in convoy to the next row, where I left them until the end of harvest)

However this year there was a total absence of any sign of the worms taking the manure down and when I finally removed the straw and manure there was no sign of worms in this area when I gave in and dug the soil. (the ground was wet and there were plenty of worms in non manured parts of my plot)
There was also an absence of frogs and toads or voles under the straw, which I usually have in abundance also moles seemed to avoid this area too even though they have been active elsewhere. When I peeled back the straw the manure looked like it had been spread that morning. It still lay on the surface in the same condition as it had been spread last Novemebr.
Since raking it off the surface and rotavating what was left I am happy to say the worms are returning and I only last week I disturbed a frog hiding under a little pile of straw.
My problem now is that I do have about 3 tons of the stuff stacked up from February’s delivery this year. I think I will just leave it sit in it’s heap for another couple of years and then to a test patch, or perhaps I will leave a couple of my beds fallow and spread some of it on these each year until it is fully incorporated. I am undecided about this.

Sheila

If you contact Dow via their Manure Matters web site they may be able to arrange collection and disposal.

We have three horses and purchase bedding and hay from elsewhere. Three horses produce quite a lot of good muck and every winter our veg patch and greenhouse are liberally dressed with muck.

2009 turned out to be a complete and utter disaster. Two 30′rows of early potatoes (International Kidney) produced only 1lb of spuds and loads of long fern-like curly tops. Tomatoes were exactly the same in appearance. Runner beans were very late cropping and produced only a very modest crop indeed and every row of peas died off after being planted out. Our only success were onions. Our local Path. Lab. advised me that the symptoms were the classic signs on damage from Aminopyralid.

Although Dow Agro has told me that things should be OK after 12 months, I am wondering just how long it will be before I can plant with confidence.

I just hope that this chemical is not re-released for use – especially when in this Nanny State of Europe, we are all denied access to many things which were totally safe and had proven track records.

Anyone want 150 tonnes of well mucked top soil?!!!

Dig for Victory!

There is still time to make your point as the reinstatement of the stuff hasn’t yet been announced. Elsewhere on this site at http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/586/aminopyralid-contaminated-manure-again/ is a link to the epetition on the PM’s website. Also try to get your MP to join mine, Tom Watson, who is doing his best to get the stuff permanently off the market.

Thanks for all your very useful advice. Can anybody tell me however do contaminated vegetables affect human swhen they are eaten? Anybody want any horse manure!!!

Our allotments in Shrewsbury were new back in May, previously being pasture. We recently bought in manure from a local agricultural college which uses an anaerobic digester to treat the muck prior to being sold. They also stated that they have never used aminopyralid on their cattle feed that is grown ‘in-house’. I hope this is so as our members have now spread over 32 cubic metres over various plots. Time will tell!