-David The Good
Karen’s Story
Karen Land
Many of us have heard the term “ herbicide drift . ” Some of us have experienced it .
weed killer drift is when a neighbour or nearby farm sprays an herbicide like Round - Up or 2,4 - 500 on a breezy day , and some of that herbicide gets picked up by the wind and lands on someone else ’s innocent plants . The resultant role is weedkiller trauma , which can cause deformed leaves and even expiry of the plant .
Not coolheaded .
There ’s something even less coolheaded lurking in our midst .
unluckily , most people have never pick up of it . This affair that ’s even less cool than weedkiller movement is compost taint . Specifically , herbicide contamination of compost .
Karen Land
This just happened to me , and I ’m not well-chosen about it .
My primary garden lie in of six 4×24 - foot raise beds . This class , I needed to lift the soil level about 4 - 5 inch , so I ordered 7 yards of compost from a local supplier and had it delivered to my mansion . My awesome neighbour then spent hour travel it , tractor scoop by tractor scoop , from the front of the property to the back , and into my raised beds . The next daytime , my husband till the raw compost in with my survive grunge . It was a beautiful sight ! !
A few days later , I began embed out my tomato ( which I ’d been growing from seed in my family since January ) .
I get down about 20 plants in the earth and for the first week or so , everything was o.k. .
After a week or so though , I noticed some slight distortion on the new development on the plant . I tried to cut it and pretend I did n’t see it , but that became progressively unacceptable .
So I begin researching and google every tomato virus I could guess of , and comparing hundreds of images to my plants ’ new “ look . ” I at last determine my plants had lamentably suffered herbicide injury from herbicide drift . But because my cognition of herbicide names was limited to Round - Up and 2,4 - cholecalciferol , I spent another few days endeavor to decide which of the two was the culprit , and finally decided it was 2,4 - D.
In this midst of my obsessional researching , I was also continuing to plant out my other tomato plant . About 50 more plant went in .
( Can I rewind my animation at this point ? )
Unbelievably , after about two weeks , every single plant life had the same flex new growth . And I was pretty much freaking out .
Here are some of the possibility I contemplated during that meter :
Tomato Mosaic Virus
TMV make novel growth to come out deformed and curled up beyond recognition ( that symptom , by the fashion , is unimaginable to differentiate from 2,4 - five hundred legal injury ) . Check ! However , TMV also make other symptoms , like , you guessed it , a mosaic pattern on the leaves . I do n’t have this on a single industrial plant . be active on .
Nitrogen Toxicity
With atomic number 7 toxicity , while you may have some burn leaf edges and that sort of thing , you ’ll also have a monolithic blast of novel growth . My plants are entirely stunt . Not that . Moving on again .
Some Other Virus Spread by Bugs
I will begrudgingly say this is “ technically ” possible , but with viruses that need to be broadcast by a microbe ( in other words , not a computer virus that can spread by tangency or land splash ) , it ’s not very likely that all 70 of my tomato plants would at the same time fall dupe to such a disease .
The Answer Appears
At this point , I ’d done as many dissimilar Google search , rearrange watchword and phrases as many dissimilar ways as I could suppose of , but I still really did n’t feel I had a definitive result .
Leaning toward 2,4 - viosterol , I in conclusion called on my local annex office to get their take on the situation .
I told them the whole fib and station in pictures . Within minutes , I received an electronic mail telling me it was unquestionably herbicide injury , but not from 2,4 - D. rather , they blamed it on a word I ’d never hear before : Aminopyralid .
I wish I could go back to never having find out this word .
What is Aminopyralid?
Aminopyralid is a all-encompassing leaf herbicide . David the Good go into this issuein multiple posts on this site .
In a nutshell , if it ’s sprayed where farm animal pasture , the manure from said animals is not to be used as compost .
Why ?
Because the weed killer goes directly through the animal and into their poop . It does n’t divulge down or deactivate at all . So it goes into the the skinny , and there it stays for year . Yes , even in of age , in full composted manure .
Sidebar : Not all plants will show signs of aminopyralid damage .
plant life like squashes and cucumbers will likely appear just fine .
My tomatoes and potatoes were the canaries in the coal mine . The sacrificial lambs . If I had n’t planted them in that compost , and only found less sensitive plants , I would be feeding all of that poison intellectual nourishment to my home .
So , in a bittersweet way of life , I ’m grateful I put my darling tomatoes in first .
So let ’s say you ’re lucky enough to be BFFs with a super nerveless farmer who you KNOW does n’t spray herbicide on their pasture or force field , and he ’s offering to give you composted manure for your garden .
Think you ’re secure ? Think again .
Unless your BFF farmer admirer is BFFs with his hay supplier and experience for an absolute FACT that that hay was never treated , you ’re really not secure . And , even if your BFF James Leonard Farmer friend is extremely expectant and never sprays weed killer , and experience for an absolute FACT that his BFF hay supplier does n’t treat their hay , what if you extremely cool BFF farmer friend lets his Bos taurus graze all the fashion down to the ditch on his property , where weedkiller has been carried down to from the not - so - nerveless farmer next room access who sprays herbicides ?
Guess what you have … herbicide laden manure .
So what’s the answer?
I have no flipping idea .
Oh wait , yes I do . ReadDavid ’s bookCompost Everythingand turn back buy compost from international seed .
One last little shove of information for those still skeptical that this was herbicide - foul compost .
Remember my initial theory of herbicide heading ?
Well , guess what : my potatoes have the exact same deformed new growth .
Here ’s the kicker . . . my Solanum tuberosum are nowhere near the love apple beds . In fact , the potatoes are on our deck in pots , about 50 feet from the tomato beds , and are among a ten thousand of other sensitive nightshade plant ( tomatoes , capsicum , tomatillos ) , and none of those plants have any issue .
( Ed . note : look at how Karen ’s Irish potato display the same deformed growth as the tomatoes show above ):
Herbicide drift would not come onto my prop , only land on the tomatoes , ignore the cucumbers that are four feet away , then string up a left and make a beeline for my deck , but then ONLY degenerate into my spud pots and dispense with every other plant .
How could this be , you ask ?
Because the Solanum tuberosum are the only thing on the deck that were plant in the same compost as the Lycopersicon esculentum .
So this probably is n’t the most uplifting report you ’ve read today . But do n’t care . I have n’t wasted this enormous learning opportunity . I ’ve not only learned about this herbicide and how to avoid it , but I ’ve also learned how to improvise and rise in container .
On three - quarter of an acre , there are n’t many reasons to learn how to in containers , but now I am ! I had a few good deal of tomatoes that had n’t yet move into the prove bottom , so I potted them up !
I ’m also grow peppers , rat ’s tail radishes , bush and rod beans , simoleons , zucchini , Brussels sprout , cucumbers , and a few different squash vine … all in container !
It is my dearest hope that my story will facilitate you avoid get this issue yourself , and to show you that , even when really unfit things happen in the garden , you could always plant another ejaculate somewhere . Soldier on and keep growing .
~Karen Land ofLove Your Land
