Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Thursday 26 June 2008

Warnings of abnormal growth of vegetable crops throughout the country!

Have been made aware of this issue by a poster on the INEBG forum...VERY WORRYING STUFF!

From the RHS website...linky above in the title if you are interested.....


Farmyard manure contaminated with weedkiller residue is causing abnormal growth of vegetable crops throughout the country.

It is believed that the manure has been inadvertently contaminated with aminopyralid. This selective, hormone-type herbicide is used on pastures to control weeds. Manure from animals fed on treated pastures contains chemical residues sufficient to damage susceptible crops.

Gardeners buying this manure to apply to vegetable crops and gardens are coming across abnormal growth particularly on tomatoes, potatoes and legumes, although ornamental plants such as delphinium, phlox and roses may also be susceptible.

Symptoms of damage include distorted foliage, with cupping of leaves and fern-like growth. There are no remedies once damage has occurred and there is no assurance that affected produce will be safe to consume. However, as this weed killer can be grazed by livestock soon after application there is no reason to believe that children, pets, gardeners or wildlife are at risk.


Further digging around on my part seems to be showing that compost made from GRASS/HAY which has been sprayed with this stuff also seems to cause the same problems...and the advice from the manufacturers seems to be that it will need around 2 years to elapse before the compost or manure can be used to grow tomatos or potatoes WITHOUT a problem.

Unbelievable..........

I shall come back to this issue when I have gone for a walk to calm down a bit, as what I would write at the moment is not fit to be published......

No comments:

Post a Comment

Hello! Thank you for reading my blog and for commenting. I try to reply as quickly as I can and I really appreciate your interest in my life and doings here in The Compost Bin.

UA-40361266-1