Author Topic: Last year my stuff all went weird  (Read 1381 times)

zigzig

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Last year my stuff all went weird
« on: February 22, 2009, 15:41:17 »
Hi I am new and have not done much vegetable growing, so it is good to find this site. That watershed bit is dead funny. Great site.

I started last year and got a trailer load of horse poo from a guy who a friend knows who keeps horses.

Planted my early salad potatoes, peas and beans. Got a few spuds but the tops looked odd the leaves were small and curly, the beans and peas which I started on a window sill slowly died but I got a good load of courgettes and the onions did well too.

I did a new bed last summer but did not have any horse poo left. My new bed is full of weeds and will need to be dug over but thankfully the old beds are clear of weeds.

Any advice would be welcome


littlebabybird

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Re: Last year my stuff all went weird
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2009, 15:44:18 »
zigzig welcome to the site
where are you?
sounds like you had weed killer problems
have a look here
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,43062.0.html

lbb
« Last Edit: February 22, 2009, 15:46:22 by littlebabybird »

thifasmom

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Re: Last year my stuff all went weird
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2009, 15:44:56 »
hi and welcome i am wondering if you got a load of contaminated manure last year.

check out this link;


http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,43062.0.html

thifasmom

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Re: Last year my stuff all went weird
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2009, 15:48:48 »
LLB we cross posted ;D

littlebabybird

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Re: Last year my stuff all went weird
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2009, 16:00:23 »
LLB we cross posted ;D

lol
i must learn to type faster


ceres where are you?

zigzig ceres is our poison manure expert

lbb

asbean

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Re: Last year my stuff all went weird
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2009, 16:10:50 »
Welcome to A4A zigzig.    :) :) :) :) :) :)

I'm afraid your problem is the tip of the iceberg regarding contaminated manure.  This product was introduced in 2006 so the problems didn't start till 2007.  I suggest you read carefully all the posts on this site regarding this, before you get any more manure.

If you do get more manure, you need to check if the manure came from a farm or stables where the fields have been treated with Forefront, Pharaoh or Banish.  Same goes for any hay that the horses have been fed on.

It's a lot of questions to ask, but it is going to be an ongoing problem for quite a few years to come.

The Tuscan Beaneater

zigzig

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Re: Last year my stuff all went weird
« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2009, 16:51:17 »
OMG!!

You have frightened me to death. What ever do I do now?

My friend has gone abroad and I do not know the guy she got the horse stuff from for me.

We ate the potatoes and courgettes.

Hope I am allowed to reply on this site have got suspended on yahoo QA for 'chatting' but I am worried now so don't care. This seems important. How much poison have we had and what could it do to us?

ceres

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Re: Last year my stuff all went weird
« Reply #7 on: February 22, 2009, 17:35:42 »
Welcome to A4A!  Don't worry about posting here zigzig.  You can talk about garden related stuff under all the various headings and there's the Shed and Watershed for general topics.  There's also the chatroom where you'll find a few folks of an evening.

It does sound very much like you had contaminated manure, but it's not life-threatening - at least we hope not.  When it became a problem last year, the RHS, DEFRA etc were initially advising not to eat affected crops.  That advice changed in July after Dow who manufacture the weedkiller submiitted additional test data indicating that it probably poses no risk to human health.

The weedkiller will still be in your soil - it doesn't disappear until every trace of straw has disintegrated.  You can speed this up by digging over the affected areas, more than once if you can manage it.  You can also rotate your crops around so that the things which are unaffected/less affected by it are in the manured areas.  Badly affected crops include potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, lettuce, beans and peas.  Other stuff seems o be OK, or at least grows through the problem.

The manufacturer voluntarily suspended the weedkiller products in July as a result of all the adverse reports so no spraying has been done since.  But, there is still animal feed in the supply chain that has been sprayed and a lot of manure stacked that might be contaminated.  At the moment, use of manure is risky unless you can be absolutely sure that the animals that produced the manure were not fed on anything that had been sprayed or that the manure is older than 3 years (when these weedkillers were introduced).  And the weedkillers may be re-introduced, the manufacturer has been working towards fulfilling the conditions laid down by DEFRA for it's re-approval.       


 

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