Some weeks ago I saw a friend I’d not seen in a long time. In catching up about his family I learned that his 18 year old daughter was now “big into organic” as he put it.
My friend has gardened for years but not necessarily organically.
In mentioning that a new section of his garden was in need of improvement he said he knew where to get plenty of manure.
When I cautioned about making sure the manure did not contain residual herbicides — he had never heard of them.
While soil improvement is not the topic here — it’s a good place to mention that “good” manure alone is not all that’s involved in improving soil. If you want to read more about that topic just do a search for soil improvement on the TMG home page. That will take you to links to 82 posts on that topic.
Keep in mind that building good soil takes more than just adding one thing.
Your goal is to build soil that teems with a diversity of soil life: like fungi, bacteria, nematodes, protozoa, arthropods, and earthworms as well as decaying organic matter. That translates to your garden being more productive.
For centuries folks used manure from their animals to help soil fertility in their fields.
Now it takes some scrutinizing
Unfortunately – the chemical companies came up with something that makes getting manure (or even composting manure from your own horses, etc.) not as simple as it use to be. They’re called forever chemicals
They’re in certain herbicides that are often sprayed on pastures, grass, straw and even some fruits and vegetables. They pass through the digestive track of animals (for example grazing cattle and horses) and remain in their manure. Even when the manure is composted these chemicals don’t break down. They can remain intact for 5 years or more.
When you use the resulting compost or use the straw, hay or grass clippings as mulch these chemicals can cause deformed plants or poor or non-existent yields.
Potatoes, tomatoes, beans, eggplant, spinach, raspberries, and peppers are some of the crops susceptible .
Unless you’re looking for information on these chemicals you seldom see anything warning about them.
At least that’s been what I’ve found.
I first wrote about them in April of 2010 (the year I started TMG).
Beppy, a long time gardener, reader and friend told of her experience via a comment to that post.
“We have horses and we buy hay and compost the manure with the uneaten hay for our garden. This year for the first time my tomatoes started looking very strange (gnarled new growth), also my peppers. I am outraged that now I can not use our own rich compost on our garden anymore. This needs to be made much more public. thanks”
Your extension office may not know either
I wrote about another reader who asked her extension office for help. They knew nothing about residual herbicides.
A lot of time and money was spent before she was finally able to find the answer herself. The alfalfa/timothy/orchard grass hay she had been buying to feed her goats contained the residual herbicides. (She then made compost from the goat manure which still contained the forever chemicals and damaged her plants.)
She told the Extension office. In her own words here’s how they reacted: “I told my extension office about it but they thought I was crazy.”
I find it interesting that when you know something and others don’t — they usually call YOU crazy. The obvious bottom line is you can’t put a lot of stock into what so called “authorities” tell you. They might think they know everything, but there’s a good chance they don’t.
Read her full story and how she handled the damage to her tomatoes here.
More on What to Look for when buying
I give more details on what to look for before you buy in a post entitled Compost, Mulch, Residual Herbicides -What you can do About Them in Your Garden
Also in that post is a list of 10 other options for mulch or compost.
How to Test for the presence of Herbicides
And here’s a post you might want to print out and keep handy. It’ll tell you how to test for herbicides in compost and manure. There’s also a section on testing for Herbicides in Hay, Straw, or grass clipping. Also how to test an entire garden or field.
Final Thoughts
If you go over this post and the ones I’ve linked to, you’ll be armed with the information you need to avoid having a problem with residual herbicides.
It can be heartbreaking after putting so much time and effort (and possibly money) into your garden only to find that your plants have been poisoned.
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Thanks Theresa. I did give up manure many years ago.
Great Iowa weather these days. It’s up and down and a few record high temperatures last week. So I’m outside playing in the “yarden” ‘this AM and being outside is just another reason to love the garden. The yard and garden is my outdoor gymnasium. Much gratitude for this passion.
All the best to you Theresa!
jim
I agree Jim, being outside is a great reason to love the garden!
Glad you’re out there!
Hope I will be soon!
Theresa
Theresa, thank you for this reminder, very timely indeed! (I will explain why is so timely in an email)
I can relate particularly well with your reader saying: “I told my extension office about it but they thought I was crazy.” Every time I ask whether the straw or mulch I’m buying has been sprayed and if so, with what, people think I’m crazy!
Despite this, I’ve been lucky so far… but I’m really looking forward to the day when we’ll be mulch self-sufficient…
Giulia, I loved your comment.
It always amazes me how few people know the truth about almost any important-to-our-lives topic.
The popular narrative that is promoted by MSM is what most folks go with.
That’s how all the chemicals etc.(along with lots of other things) got to be so accepted by the majority.
Big money to promote (advertising) – repeat, repeat, repeat — and before you know it it becomes “truth” to the masses.
Knowing the truth about things critical to our lives is worth ignoring being called crazy. I consider that a small price to pay for better health, etc.
Thanks so much for this great comment.
Theresa
It happened to me years ago. I don’t use manure anymore either.
Too bad the Creeping Charlie is alive and well in my garden beds.
I just said this to friends this weekend; they wanted to put lemon rinds into my compost pail. I told them that I don’t compost food that I didn’t grow myself because I don’t need any chemicals in my compost!
I agree Danita — it’s not worth using manure when there are so many safe ways to improve soil. Although it’s sad that this age old practice has become “dangerous” or “chancy” at best.
Good for you Julie! I don’t even eat food that others prepare. I eat mainly from my garden and what I can acquire that I feel confident is free from chemicals.
There is so much the masses are unaware of — and way too complicated to explain in casual conversation.
Theresa
Not to mention the bags of soil we buy at the home improvement store. They may say “organic”, but my luck with most of this soil anymore is lackluster, at best. It usually takes me 5 years to get this soil to start performing well on it’s own. I have found most of the purchased soil we buy anymore is mostly wood chips. Wood chips steal nitrogen while they are breaking down and these soils are mostly void of many of the minerals our plants need. Like everything else, making something ourselves is *always* better than purchasing. That goes for food products, medical products and yes, even soil. Unfortunately, not all of us have the ability to create all of the soil we need, but we can certainly compost our scraps, etc and, at a minimum, be able to use that compost to amend our existing soil safely. Soil is a precious commodity. Especially in areas that don’t receive a lot of moisture and have little native vegetation. So… when purchasing or getting compost, manure, etc many times we may need to just take a chance. Often the establishments/people we are getting this from doesn’t know what is *really* in it. Unfortunately, reading the label doesn’t help and if it’s a farm the manure/compost wouldn’t be labelled anyway. Thanks for the reminder on this Theresa. It’s a very frustrating issue.