Hormone Weedkiller in Manure

[ceres]

After getting  a name yesterday for the likely culprit weedkiller, I spent last evening googling it and found that this is a nationwide issue.  Every gardening/allotmenting website/forum has a current thread with people all over the country discussing their experience with this problem.

It is the legal responsibility of the grower of the cereal crop that has been sprayed to make anyone he sells it to aware that it has been sprayed and that it cannot be used for manure/composting.  Clearly, this isn't happening but no-one knows it isn't happening.

If you have been affected, please consider emailing these addresses and telling them:

gardeningadvice@rhs.org.uk - Royal Horticultural Society - put 'Dodgy Muck' in the subject line

information@psd.hse.gsi.gov.uk - Pesticides Safety Directorate

planthealth.info@defra.gsi.gov.uk - Plant Health Inspectorate

natsoc@nsalg.org.uk - National Society of Allotments and Leisure Gardeners

ukhotline@dow.com - Dow AgroSciences hotline for aminopyralid and related weedkiller contamination issues

www.writetothem.com - Your MP

[tonybloke]

Thanks for all those links, Ceres. Haven't heard of any issues in my locale ( east norfolk), but I am studying at an Hortic/Agric college, and will make enquiries there. Does long term composting and bio-remediation sort the problem out? rgds, Tony

[Trevor_D]

Well done for your work in identifying the culprit(s) Ceres. We're warning all our members via the newsletter not to use anything other than well-rotted manure, and not to use it all on sensitive crops like potatoes, tomatoes, peas & beans. We've also told them to report all incidents, so that we can inform DEFRA & PSD. We are taking the matter up with Dow AgroSciences & our MP, Nick Hurd.

[ceres]

Thanks Tony.  I think this is a bit of a hidden scandal so it needs everyone to start talking about it.  The weedkiller is contained in the hay which has been eaten and excreted by the horses/cattle  It will be broken down by organisms in the soil but this is expected to take around 2 years, which is consistent with Trevor's experience at his site.  No-one has yet come up with any active bioremediation measures for us to take but I intend asking Dow about this.

That's great Trevor, do let us know if you get any feedback from reporting the incidents.

[Need a Leek]

Likewise thanks for your efforts regarding this matter, maybe a topic should be started on this site just to collate information and see where in the UK and how many lotties are experiencing this problem...Just a thought.

Cheers
Tony

[ceres]

The RHS has updated it's website with a news article:

http://www.rhs.org.uk/news/Weedkiller-manure.asp

[ceres]

And the Pesticides Safety Directorate have issued their Regulatory Update:

http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/garden.asp?id=2465

[Sinbad7]

I would have thought this should have been an issue for the National Press to take up, it is an utter disgrace.

Thanks for all your hard work Ceres for getting all the information together.

Sinbad

[Barnowl]

Good work Ceres. One thing puzzles me isthat both sites only talk of the chemical passing through the animals. Isn't it just as likely that contaminated bedding material (that gets swept up and composted with the manure) is to blame?

[ceres]

The chap at the Pesticides Safety Directorate said that aminopyralid is only sprayed on cereal crops  - I imagine that's a licence restriction - so he implied it has to be feed rather than bedding.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Straw obviously comes from cereal crops, but if it's that, then the problem would only apply to manure from animals bedded on straw.

[redclanger]

Too add to this thread:
Lincs Echo Article
Letter in response

[ceres]

Thanks redclanger.  Word is getting out.

I was interviewed and photographed this week for a piece in the Observer today.  Here is the online version - haven't seen the actual paper yet:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/29/food.agriculture

And here is the journalist's blog on the issue:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/food/2008/06/mutant_vegetables_whos_to_blam.html

I hope that a lot of people post comments on the blog.

[Trevor_D]

Just seen the article. They've done you proud, Ceres - a 2-page spread, no less.

How many others on this forum have been effected? Post in and let us know. And - even more important - let the RHS, Pesticides Safety Directorate, the Observer and Dow Agroscience know!

I've already had a response from Dow - within hours of my e-mailing them. They were rather worried, and wanted to know where I'd found the information about aminopyralid & its longetivity in plants. My answer was simply that I'd been told by both the RHS & Defra and that the information was freely available via the internet, including a press release from Dow earlier this year high-lighting the very problems we are now suffering from.

From what Ceres has found - and from what I've read myself - it seems that there has been a bit of a cover-up going on....

[posie]

Well done Ceres for getting this problem out there and noticed.  I for one will not be using any manure on my plot now, no matter how well rotted.  Instead I think I will use green manure.  I hope you get some good luck soon and well done again. 

[ceres]

Just got back from watering and seen the paper - amazed they gave it so much space. 

As Trevor says, PLEASE if you have been affected contact all of the bodies mentioned.  This won't be stopped unless the scale of the problem becomes too big for them to ignore.

And even if you haven't been affected post your thoughts on the subject as a gardener on the Observer blog.

Thanks posie, all the support and information here has been so helpful.

[amphibian]

Well my colleague at work has been asking my advice relating to her tomato crop failure, now I can see exactly what the problem is.

I wonder what affect it would have on bindweed.

[ceres]

Sorry to hear about your colleagues toms.  Bindweed isn't one of the listed target weeds but I wouldn't recommend testing it.

[amphibian]

Sorry to hear about your colleagues toms.  Bindweed isn't one of the listed target weeds but I wouldn't recommend testing it.

Never mind I'll just press on with yanking out the six species of bindweed I have identified on my plot.

[glallotments]

Hi,
Just to let everyone know lots of us out there have been lobbying everyone that we can think of to get this made public for about a fortnight now.

I have been collating lots of information on our allotments site website which only today has had over 200 hits. http://www.glallotments.btik.com/p_Contaminated_Manure.ikml
I've posted lots of information here some direct from the RHS or the manufacturers of the chmicals involved.

In order to get this in the public domain it has needed every one of us to do our bit, SEveral forums that I am a member of have had people ferretting away for information.