Strange things happening on the allotment.

Allotment holders up and down the country have been reporting strange fern like growth on tomatoes and potatoes. Other plants have also been affected legumes, cucumbers, marrows pumpkins etc.

I know this from bitter experience the first thing I noticed at my allotment was the strange growth on some tomatoes. They had been planted in a recently manured soil in the greenhouse. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. My runner beans where also stunted and yellow. After much deliberation and opinion seeking I checked out the RHS website. There to my dismay I found the answer. Contaminated manure! The problem had been affecting gardeners up and down the country. After a few days of being in shock the grim reality sank in. I had put four tons of contaminated manure on my plot. looking for somewhere to vent my anger and frustration I discovered the Dow agro sciences hotline on the internet so I could report the problem. What a waste of time that was. Eventually after many heated phone calls the Pesticide Safety Directorate dispatched a man to take soil and vegetable samples from the affected crops. The culprit looks likely to be a herbicide called aminopyralid manufactured by Dow agro-sciences. I am still waiting for the results. Aminopyralid has now been withdrawn by Dow agro sciences I am not celebrating just yet. This is because if a company has invested £800.000.000 I cant see them giving up that easily. It could well reappear in a less powerful form. One concern I had after reading has much as could on the internet about aminopyralid is this it appears in Dows FAQ web page.

“Can farmers sell manure/compost/slurry from animals fed on aminopyralid-treated grass/hay/silage?

After reading this I came to the conclusion that if aminopyralid becomes widely used farm yard manure will not be available anymore. Aminopyralid is designed to do less environmental damage this may be the case. It is passes through grazing animals and remains in the manure. Aminopyralid is very slow to brake down in compost heaps hence the recent problems. Farmers and contractors have been able to use this product since 2005. Despite the fact it has been withdrawn the problems with contaminated manure will probably be with us for some years yet.

If after reading this you still decide to use manure in the next few years. My advice would be Spread it on the plot in autumn. Work it into the soil and leave the weather and soil microbes to brake it down has long as possible before planting.

Please sign the petition below and lets hope this is the last we see of Aminopyralid.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Aminopyralid