Herbicide Threat?

[roadrunner]

Anyone hear of this issue with this type of herbicide? The video in only ~ 3-minutes long and straight to the point.

 

[Chuck]

Anyone hear of this issue with this type of herbicide? The video in only ~ 3-minutes long and straight to the point.

I have been posting about this very thing for years. It started out as hay growers started used a herbicide called picloram. Today there are numerous persistent broadleaf herbicides that stay in the soil for years. If a cow or horse eats this straw or hay the chemical is still there and if you use the manure or the hay/straw it goes right into your soil. There is a simple test to see if the manure or hay has this chemical. Just put the manure or some of the hay into a bucket of water and let it sit for a couple of days and then go pour the water on a weed like a dandelion. If the dandelion looks in any way sickly or anything different about it the stuff should not be put into your garden.

 

[NigelJ]

We have the problem in the UK first occurred mid to late 2000s and related to picloram, but also aminopyralid. The use of these was restricted. Over here it got into potting composts, tomatoes are especially sensitive.
However it still crops up, both in potting compost and manures from farms and garden centres.
I had problems last year with a couple of bags of compost causing slow/poor growth. There is a campaign over here to get it banned completely.
Broad beans are one crop recommended for testing as is cress.

 

[roadrunner]

I don't understand why we hear so much about Roundup, but hardly hear anything about this stuff.

I just heard another story of how some gardeners got screwed by this stuff being in a bag of BLACK KOW composted cow manure.

Luckily I don't buy any soil amendments, nor any hay/straw, compost and/or manure; however, I do occasionally buy a bag of Top Soil and composted cow manure and mix them together for germinating seeds. So if the stuff is tainted, I at least can tell by my seedlings not doing well -- I never spread the stuff in my yard.

I'm going to have to be really very careful in where I get grass clippings from now on....

 

[roadrunner]

Charles Dowding got hit by this herbicide, as well as this other guy.

 

[Meadowlark]

The only way one can be completely safe is to trust only what you personally have first hand knowledge of. That is very difficult to do...unless you live out in the country where you can create your own.

A lot of people recommend mushroom compost. I made an exception one year when I broke my own hard rule against outside stuff and brought in some mushroom compost. I found used needles, propholactics, and other medical supply in that stuff...never, ever again.

The fellow in the above video recommended the seeding of grass as a countermeasure. I wonder about that grass seed. Is it contaminated with bad stuff?

 

[jboulware]

Yes I got hit by contaminating soil mix in 2 32 inch deep raised beds. I now have to shovel out a huge amount of soil. Season destroyed. I don"t know yet if it was Black Kow or the mushroom compost. But I am going to test the extra bags of mushroom compost and will know in 3 weeks.

 

[roadrunner]

My bet is on the Black Kow. Do you have any Black Kow left over still in the bag? You can easily test it by germinating some bean seeds.

 

[Chuck]

Herbicide List | College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences | Clemson University, South Carolina

www.clemson.edu

I became a little curious about just how many different herbicides were being used. I knew there were a few like picloram, grazon and others I cannot spell, but I had no idea. I wonder if the same tests apply to all of them?

 

[Don Perry]

I have been posting about this very thing for years. It started out as hay growers started used a herbicide called picloram. Today there are numerous persistent broadleaf herbicides that stay in the soil for years. If a cow or horse eats this straw or hay the chemical is still there and if you use the manure or the hay/straw it goes right into your soil. There is a simple test to see if the manure or hay has this chemical. Just put the manure or some of the hay into a bucket of water and let it sit for a couple of days and then go pour the water on a weed like a dandelion. If the dandelion looks in any way sickly or anything different about it the stuff should not be put into your garden.

Thanks for the input! I'll have plenty of dandelion! I have in the past loaded up manure/wood chip waste from the local Agriplex after a cutting event and let it set for a season before use in the garden. They are glad to load you up a cubic yard, just to get rid of the stuff. It's free, but there is a down side to everything in life.

 

[Meadowlark]

...I became a little curious about just how many different herbicides were being used. I knew there were a few like picloram, grazon and others I cannot spell, but I had no idea. I wonder if the same tests apply to all of them?

A lot of people read this and think "ho hum, so a few gardeners are impacted, so what?" ...but think about it. If this stuff kills garden plants, think what eating that contaminated meat does to your own body! not to mention what undetected residue does to plants that we then consume!!

 

[Don Perry]

My bet is on the Black Kow. Do you have any Black Kow left over still in the bag? You can easily test it by germinating some bean seeds.

Wow! Thanks for the video on "how to test for the herbicide. I really had no idea. I can still use the compost over my rural 2 acre lawn/field and reap some benefits there. No animals grazing there.

 

[Chuck]

A lot of people read this and think "ho hum, so a few gardeners are impacted, so what?" ...but think about it. If this stuff kills garden plants, think what eating that contaminated meat does to your own body! not to mention what undetected residue does to plants that we then consume!!

Exactly and we never even think about it. And what about all of the pharmaceuticals and hormones and antibiotics our meat supply is subjected to? I don't think there has ever been a long term study of any of this because it is relatively new, about 50 years I think.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Exactly and we never even think about it. And what about all of the pharmaceuticals and hormones and antibiotics our meat supply is subjected to? I don't think there has ever been a long term study of any of this because it is relatively new, about 50 years I think.

I watched a investigation on the rise of resistant disease and farm antibiotic practice. Between my personal experience with hot black kow and this I am going to recommend hot pile sterilized or pasteurized manure usage as much as is reasonable with home testing.

The Trouble with Antibiotics | FRONTLINE

FRONTLINE investigates the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance.

www.pbs.org

 

[Don Perry]

Exactly and we never even think about it. And what about all of the pharmaceuticals and hormones and antibiotics our meat supply is subjected to? I don't think there has ever been a long term study of any of this because it is relatively new, about 50 years I think.

We are subjected to so many chemicals in our daily lives. Fluoride, chloride and many other chemicals in the water. Dangerous emissions in our air. Even man made milk substitutes for milk. Have you ever seen anyone milk an almond? My wife sat down a small bowl of Almond milk for my dog. She wouldn't eat it! I sat down my left over milk from my cereal and she drank it right up. Deer will not eat the GMO corn. They leave it alone. My horses were drinking from the city water supplied water and suffered poor health. Turns out the fluoride and chemicals were making them sick. I turned them out to the stock pond and they improved, Animals are smarter than us humans.
We have bodies that are designed to last 120 years, but how many live that long.? There is no telling the effects of the things we place in our bodies in the name of science.
I apologize for the rant. It just gets to me sometimes.