Category Archives: Pesticides

How to avoid aminopyralid in your garden. IMPORTANT

From the Guardian Newspaper

By: George Monbiot

Have you spotted a strange curling disease in your home-grown veg?

Poisoning by the pesticide aminopyralid is once again affecting small producers and amateur gardeners. I am taking action on their behalf.

George Monbiot blog : vegetable gardens decimated by herbicide, Aminopyralid, present in manure

The effect of aminopyralid on vegetables. Photograph: John Mason

Growing food, for reasons I haven’t quite got to the bottom of, is an intensely emotional process. The satisfaction I get from harvesting a good crop bears no relationship to any value that crop possesses. I take more pride in my fruit and vegetables than in any of the work I do. When the slugs mow down my seedlings, or my watering system fails, or blight knackers my tomatoes, it throws me into a depression which sometimes lasts for days. Continue reading →

Be Careful Where you get Compost, Mulch and Manure

 

Clopyralid_Pea_Plant_Damage
This pea plant shows the cupped leaves that indicate the soil contains damaging levels of a potent herbicide.

Last fall, our report on manure, hay and compost contaminated with Milestone herbicide (aka aminopyralid), made by Dow AgroSciences) told of 2008’s tragic summer in the United Kingdom, where thousands of gardeners lost their tomatoes, beans and other sensitive crops to manure and hay laced with this potent, highly persistent herbicide. This year the problem has hit home, with U.S. gardeners, organic farmers and commercial growers reporting damaged or lost tomato crops from Milestone contamination. (Aminopyralid is also sold under the brand name of Forefront.)

Why now? “We had the perfect storm to set up the situation,” says Dr. Jeanine Davis, associate professor of horticulture at North Carolina State University and author of several recent extension service advisories about Milestone’s persistent toxicity.
The drought caused animal owners to buy hay trucked in from other areas, and at the same time many people created new vegetable gardens and bought contaminated compost, or hay to use as mulch.”

Davis is now receiving notices daily from growers and extension agents across the country who are seeing vegetables damaged by manure, hay or compost contaminated with Milestone. Tomatoes are highly sensitive; symptoms including curled, cupped leaves and wilting new growth are often misdiagnosed as a virus or disease problem. Continue reading →

Before you start a garden…Relax…Nobody Knows Anything.

Fresh!

Don’t let the details get in your way.

I wanted to give you a heads-up on why you should garden, and why you should also read through all the details with a certain detachment at first. There will seem to be way too much information in the beginning. All the charts, soil details, and time sensitive steps involved in planting a vegetable garden may make you feel like it is all just too confusing and make you want to give up before you start.

Relax. Most of this confusing stuff only happens in the beginning. Sure, there are some general principles that good food gardeners tend to follow, but Continue reading →