Comments on: What to do if you have Aminopyralid Contaminated Manure

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:23:30 +0000

Oh, one more thing. I did have my soil tested (not for this chemical though) and the test revealed that there was no ‘activity’ in the soil. Everything was dead ~ no electricity. All of the levels were off the chart low.

I spoke with a farmer’s market and they told me what they thought I needed to do to the soil after looking at the report (this was before I believe it to be this chemical), So far ~ like I said, things are beginning to break the surface.

I guess I’ll know within the next month or so.

Linda

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:17:05 +0000

Well, I’m glad to finally know the truth! Not knowing anything at all about composting, raised bed gardening, home gardening or manure, I started a costly project in my backyard. NOTHING came out of my garden. The peas were mangled, the carrots were nothing, the cucumbers (which would have been MANY) all turned grey and dropped off the vine when each of them reached about 1 inch in length. Butternut grew and then turned black for no reason. No lettuce came up except that which tasted so awful you couldn’t eat it. Kelp was horrible. The bugs multiplied.

I had no idea what was happening until I read about it on this site. I don’t know if I can even remove it, so I guess I’ll try micro-organisms and see if it will do anything next year.

I had already planted my winter crop, which ‘appear’ to be sprouting OK. But, who knows until the plant starts to either mature or bear fruit.

I’m not certain that it is fit to consume even if I did get decent fruit.

Does anyone really know?

Linda

By: Eleanor

Eleanor — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:22:16 +0000

Having read Les’s comment, I’ve had a similar experience with peatfree potting compost that I bought from Lidl this Spring. I pricked out about 400 seedlings into it and 99% died. Lidl offered me double replacement plus £10 which altogether came to about £30 (I took money rather than replacement!) However I still have 4 sacks of it and wondering whether what I could use it for. I won’t risk it on veg or young plants, but considering using it to mulch herbaceous borders or fruit trees.

I’d be very interested to know if anyone else bought this stuff, or if anyone can suggest what to do with it.

I realise that my problem is minuscule compare to the terrible losses that others have suffered with the aminopyralid, and I am horrified to hear that Dow is continuing to market it. I cannot believe that the licence has not been withdrawn. The system is completely crazy – there are really useful substances such as fungicide derris and weedkiller ammonium sulphamate, which I believe are acceptable in organic agriculture, but not licensed and therefore unavailable!

By: David Crabbe

David Crabbe — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:19:24 +0000

I left a couple of comments up last year as, along with so many others, I fell foul of this awful stuff. Anyway, I continued to turn the ground over winter and early spring and then took my chances with onions, broad beans, and potatoes. Putting the weather to one side,the crops performed well without any signs of leaf or tuber distortion. So the advice to “turn, turn and turn again” to neutralise the aminopyralid appears to have worked. The daily deluge which we seem to have had since the beginning of May here in the east of Scotland is, of course, another matter; never experienced anything quite like it.

By: Les

Les — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:01:56 +0000

Since this outbreak occurred some years ago, I have avoided using farmyard manure. This year I have grown tomatoes, chillies, bell peppers and melon in buckets in my greenhouse, using only a well-known brand of commercial “multi-purpose compost” purchased from a local garden centre in Leeds. All crops failed and were gnarled and distorted. Has anyone else had similar troubles “using multi-purpose compost” ? Is it possible that my multi-purpose compost is contaminated with Aminopyralid ? All my beans, potatoes, brassicas etc., grown outdoors using my own organic compost thrived…

By: AJ

AJ — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 10:26:42 +0000

Gloria – there’s always a chance that it hasn’t been tested so just beware.

My update – we got ours removed, and spent days raking it all out where we could, lost all the spuds last year, loads of rare beans and the plot looked a sorry mess.

We rotavated it in when the beds were cleared, and this year some crops did ok, but some were shoddy – including swedes which look absolutely dreadful. And the beans again, horrible curly leaves, none climbing where they should, the pods going manky brown far too early. Even green manures were not germinating in the soil.

Neighbour dug up all his plants and replanted where he could, but he has lost his whole soft fruit collection. Which was half his plot.

I can see another year where we have to expect some crap crops; thus 3 years this will have affected out plot.

And the guys that took our manure away for £500 for each lottie they cleared and we got zilch.

And the farmer is still selling the manure. Nice.

By: Gloria Lamb

Gloria Lamb — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:37:08 +0000

I may be a bit slow hear but if you buy farmyard manure in bags from a garden centre are they still likely to be contaminated or will they have been tested?

By: John

John — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:33:49 +0000

Ann Owen – I’m so sorry for you. It really is awful. I think it’s self-evident that there are always people who don’t read the small print and ignore the rules even if they do (me included).
The only answer is to ban this chemical but I don’t think we’ve a hope in hell. DOW have invested a fortune in it and ordinary gardeners and even small scale commercial growers just don’t have the resources to make it happen.
DEFRA seems to be far too cosy with big money for my liking.

By: Ann Owen

Ann Owen — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:05:10 +0000

Well, the problem certainly hasn’t gone away! While new regulation states that aminopyralid containing herbicides can no longer be used on fodder crops, we’ve just realised that we’ve fallen foul of contaminated manure. So for all the regulaton in the world, if people don’t abide by it, it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.
We’ve got the classic sympthoms in our small market garden: pale, prominently veined, twisted, curled up leaves on sunflowers, potatoes, tomatoes, aubergines, cape gooseberries, capsicums, all beans and peas.
This means a loss of thousands of pounds for us, and a lot of heartbreaking work of scraping off tons of top dressed muck, compost and topsoil, in the hope that we’ll be able to grow veg again next year.
Defra, HSE, all dismissive, don’t hold any hopes of perpetrater getting caught or held to account. As long as this product is on the market, everybody using manure on their veg patches runs the risk of poisoning their soil. And you’ve got no comeback!

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:24:18 +0000

Being very new to Allotmenteering I have only just come across this problem, so, started reading up on it.
Further back on this string a chap said he developed a cyst on his eye.
I looked up aminopyralid on a web site and came up with this:-

Health issues: Carcinogen Mutagen Endocrine disrupter Reproduction / development effects Acetyl cholinesterase inhibitor Neurotoxicant Respiratory tract irritant Skin irritant Eye irritant
General human health issues [May damage the corneal resulting in permanent impairment of vision and blindness]
: Yes, known to cause a problem
: No, known not to cause a problem
: Possibly, status not identified
- : No data

Now that is scary!