Manure is generally considered one of the best amendments you can add to your garden. At least it used to be. Here’s how manure in the garden may actually destroy your soil and plants for a long time.
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The following article was written by David the Good of The Survival Gardener.
David and I first connected after he wrote an honest and thorough review of my book, ‘The Suburban Micro-Farm’, for Mother Earth News. David is an expert at home-scale food production and I was thrilled that he enjoyed it.
The truth is, herbicide-laced manure is a widespread problem that can completely destroy a garden. David has been on the front lines of this problem and was one of the first to sound the alarm.
I’m grateful he’s sharing this information with us so that we may prevent this devastating and costly misfortune from occurring in our own gardens. — Amy
This Manure Will Destroy Your Garden!
Manure is rich in nitrogen, organic matter and a variety of minerals, adding nutrition and tilth to the soil and ensuring rich harvests of green and happy vegetables. It’s generally considered to be one of the best amendments you can add to your garden.
At least it used to be.
Now adding manure to your garden is playing Russian roulette with your plants. There’s a very good chance that it will completely destroy your beds and cause your plants to grow into twisted parodies of their proper growth pattern before dying ugly and unproductive deaths.
Here’s how.
A Load of Manure is a Gardener’s Paradise…Naturally
Some time back I did a very normal thing for an organic gardener: I bought a trailer of manure from a local dairy farm and had it dropped in my front yard.
I then proceeded to spread it across multiple beds, add it around the trees in my front yard food forest, and turn it into the ground along the front fence line where I was planting dozens of newly purchased thornless blackberries.
>>>Read more about creating food forests.
A few weeks later, I planted my gardens – and everything started going very, very wrong. My transplanted tomatoes and eggplants started to twist up. They were still green, but their leaves were thick and curled and the amount of new growth was much smaller than it should have been.
Something was very wrong.
My thought upon seeing the weird growth in my tomatoes and eggplants was that I was dealing with a virus. They were both Solanaceae family – maybe it was some weird and horrible disease I’d never seen before?
Then some of the edges of the blackberry leaves started twisting and turning brown.
A virus wouldn’t jump families – blackberries are Rosaceae! I had to look elsewhere.
I noticed the blackberry leaves were deep green, despite their strange growth. Perhaps there was too much nitrogen in the manure? The manure had been composted for over six months, according to the farmer. And it certainly didn’t look or smell fresh. It was earthy and crumbly, well-aged stuff. It looked just like something you’d want to add to your garden.
Then the mulberry tree started looking weird. And the pecan trees and the olive exhibited the same symptoms.
Would you like to learn more about using soil amendments safely in the garden?
You’ll find more information like this in my award-winning book, The Suburban Micro-Farm.
That Herbicide is Poison
From my reading, it wasn’t too much nitrogen. The symptoms were too strange. And it wasn’t a virus.
The only thing in common between all these sick plants was one big load of manure.
I called the local master gardeners and shared the symptoms and they had nothing helpful to suggest, so I started searching on my own, looking up phrases like “twisting leaves manure,” until I came across an article about a community garden disaster on the left coast.
They had purchased a load of manure compost, then lost many of their plants because of a recently released herbicide designed for hay growers and cattle farmers.
Aminopyralid.
I had met my nemesis.
I called the farmer who had sold me the manure and asked him if he’d sprayed anything on his hay fields. He told me he had tried a new product recommended by the University of Florida for the elimination of spiny pigweed, an obnoxious recurring weed in his pastures. “It worked really well,” he told me.
I shared that all my plants were dying and asked if he could find out what he’d sprayed. I was pretty sure I knew already, but when he sent me a picture of the label, I knew for sure.
It was Grazon, an aminopyralid-based toxin from Dow AgroSciences.
Herbicide Damage -Eggplant. Image by David The Good.
Contaminated compost: aminopyralid effect on tomatoes. Photo by Karen Land.
Grazon Damage. Image by Luzette of Buffalo Girl Soaps.
Toxic Manure in the Garden is No Joke
The farmer was quite upset by my report. He had sprayed his pasture the previous summer. That was about nine months before I called him, and he was told Grazon was safe for animals to consume.
Armed with my new research, I shared that the toxin could continue killing plants for years, even after being eaten by animals, then excreted, then composted for months.
He refunded the $60 I’d spent for the manure and apologized, telling me he wouldn’t spray again and that he had a lot of people that bought his manure.
I didn’t blame him for the mistake and I didn’t ask for his help replacing the thousand dollars or so of destroyed produce and perennials. We all make mistakes and he seemed like a decent guy.
I reserved my blame instead for the University of Florida, Dow AgroSciences and the government that lets these poisons into our gardens.
By the time I knew what was going on, I had lost the first half of the growing season. Most of my garden beds were loaded with this manure – and my poor blackberries were twisted and dying, along with multiple fruit trees.
This situation is bad manure, and gardeners everywhere need to be warned!
I was angry and feeling sick over the whole thing, so I called my friend Carolyn who owned the local Natural Awakenings magazine and asked if I could write an article warning other gardeners about the new danger of using manure in the garden.
She agreed, and that led to me being contacted by Mother Earth News and becoming a blogger with them. Eventually, the manure fiasco led to me dedicating myself to making all my own compost – and that led to my book Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting.
My manure-in-the-garden fiasco ended up launching my writing career. God works in mysterious ways. My terrible year of poisoned gardens ended up saving a lot of other people’s gardens – or helping them figure out what happened after a poisoning event.
Person after person has written me to share tales of wrecked gardens. Some people lost beds because of contaminated hay they used in their compost. Others lost beds due to manure. Still others purchased compost or garden soil and had it kill their plants.
Aminopyralids are all over the place now and it’s a minefield for gardeners.
New gardeners are really in a bad place now, as they often don’t know what to expect from their plants. When Aminopyralid symptoms strike, they just assume they made a mistake, not that their beds were poisoned.
Here’s how to keep your gardens safe.
1. Don’t purchase compost.
Many facilities still don’t have proper safeguards in place to keep their product uncontaminated.
2. Don’t use manure from grazing animals.
That neighbor offering you well-rotted horse manure? A decade ago I would have said “great!” Now I would say “absolutely not!”.
Though your neighbor might not spray his fields, he likely buys hay – and a lot of hayfields are now sprayed. It happens again and again and again. I have heard reports that even store-bought bagged manure is killing gardens.
Just say no to manure in the garden from grazing animals.
Remember, though, that Grazon is used to kill broadleaf weeds in hay. If you can get manure from non-grazing animals, it should be fine. Chickens and rabbits should be okay, unless you use straw or hay as bedding. Rabbits may eat a little grass but they are usually fed with alfalfa pellets and alfalfa is not sprayed with Aminopyralids.
3. Avoid hay and straw in your compost or as mulch.
A friend lost a chunk of her food forest plants after picking up a load of well-rotted hay and spreading it around. Members of the grass family may be sprayed with Aminopyralid-containing pesticides. Avoid.
4. Make your own compost.
Learn to compost everything. Fall leaves, shredded paper, fish guts, eggshells, lasagna – whatever. The more organic material you can add to your compost pile and eventually to your gardens, the less you need to buy to amend your gardens.
I compost all kitchen scraps, including meat. Gather lots of leaves or grass clippings from your (unsprayed!) yard and throw them over stuff that might stink. You can also cover your bin to keep out vermin. Nature will do the rest. It’s just a matter of time, not perfection.
This isn’t an easy time to be a gardener. The world is toxic and there are plenty of pitfalls, including the use of manure as an amendment.
I’m not exaggerating when I say this is a widespread problem. It’s no longer a good idea to add manure to your garden. If you do, you’re running a big risk and can destroy your plants because someone sprayed toxins on a field somewhere far from your garden.
It’s not easy to find good alternatives, but it needs to be done. Watch your back and start making your own compost. It may save you some serious heartache.
Get David’s tips for fixing Grazon contamination.
A Note from Amy
It’s important to support your local farmers who commit to doing honest and good work. If you have a farmer who has been supplying you with material such as manure, hay, straw, or compost, then I encourage you to start a conversation about herbicide contamination.
Ask questions. Learn about their process. If they have control over all of the materials in the supply chain and emphatically say they do not spray, then they deserve to have your business.
If the farmer outsources any of those materials (hay or straw?), it’s more difficult to know for sure. Ask for the contact info of their supplier. Ask more hard questions. Go with your gut. Don’t assume that all farmers are dishonest, because that is certainly not the case, but obviously you want to be cautious.
Farmers are busy. When their extension office tells them a widely used (herbicide) product is safe, they may go with it, having no idea of its wrath.
Have you suffered problems due to herbicide-laced manure in the garden? What changes will you make to your gardening routine to avoid it?
About the Author
David The Good is the author of multiple gardening books including Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting, Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening, Grow or Die: The Good Guide to Survival Gardening and his latest release Turned Earth: A Jack Broccoli Novel, the world’s first gardening thriller.
David has been featured in Mother Earth News, Backwoods Home, Heirloom Gardener Magazine, The Grow Network and other outlets. He is also the creator of TheSurvivalGardener.com. David currently lives with his wife Rachel and their children somewhere in Central America where they collect rare edible plants and enjoy growing everything from ackee to yams.
Read Next:
- Clay-Busting Plants That Fight Compaction
- How to Build a Permaculture Fruit Tree Guild
- How to Improve Clay Soil in 6 Steps
>>> Get my free 19-page Guide to Organic Soil Amendments for more ideas:
Isabella says
My husband and I had a similar problem several years ago after harvesting free manure from the free-range cattle areas near our home. After we contaminated our entire urban homestead, we discovered that the herbicides are a major culprit as are the inoculations that they give the cattle every year. These chemicals, from both sources, contaminate the cows and their fecal matter, but usually they are slaughtered before there is an outward manifestation of the toxicity.
The best advice I was given to rectify this soil contamination problem was this: Tear out our gardens and water the ground until it is fully saturated every day. Don’t try to plant grass seeds or anything else, just let the weeds come up for a couple of years. After 2 or 3 years of doing this, grass seed can be spread. Two years after that raised beds can be attempted.
We thought about digging out all our soil, but it just was not financially feasible for us, so we opted to flush the toxins out with water and time.
I am sorry this happened to you, I wish you the best of luck. Also, thank you for writing about your experience, it is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.
Misti says
Wow, what a disheartening experience for you. I can’t imagine having to basically start over but even after a few years of waiting.
Thanks for the information David and Amy!
David The Good says
Members of the grass family will grow in Grazon-contaminated beds, so corn, wheat, etc., should be fine, since they’re not targeted by the toxin. As for eating them, though, I can’t find information on safety. It’s frustrating. Another thing that helps: stir in crushed charcoal. That will absorb the toxin and neutralize some of it.
Amy says
Oh, good idea with the charcoal.
Jenny says
I think I’m having issues with my garden from straw I used as mulch! And I don’t know where to find organic (inexpensive) mulch around here. In fact, this spring when I had waited too long I couldn’t even find non-organic straw. So my garden this year produced little crops (and because I didn’t have 15min per day ?) very many WEEDS! I started out keeping up but wasn’t able and the “chop & drop” isn’t too easy to do when you plant intensively but still have weeds growing between everything! I’m thinking of trying the idea I read on an Oregon Cottage a few years ago: lay down black plastic sheeting over my cleared beds for the winter and in spring, uncover & rake up the dead weed debris.
I’m just south of Dayton, Ohio and this was NOT a good garden year for me!
Shauna says
I found that plain cardboard underneath a thick layer of cedar mulch works very well for keeping the weeds down. It’s not perfect during the growing season, since it does eventually decay and go away, but it’s been a lifesaver for the very wet summer we’ve had this year (I’m in Columbus, Ohio, so not far from you). Plus, it acts as extra compost.
David The Good says
The plastic sheeting does do a good job in killing weeds and giving you a good space to work with in spring. If you use the woven landscape material DeWitt Sunbelt sells, it also lets water through and doesn’t break down quickly. You can use it for as long as a decade, putting it down when needed, then pulling it again to plant.
Amy says
I’m in favor of solutions that reduce maintenance, and plastic sheeting will do that, but I do try to stay away from buying it due to the environmental cost of plastic production. It’s a waste problem as well. It can break into little pieces in the soil as it gets older. That said, I have used old sheets of plastic that I already had around.
I do like sheet mulching with cardboard in between rows and topping with mulch like shredded leaves and/or grass clippings. It’s important to keep the cardboard fully covered, though, or it could suck the moisture out of the soil during hot, dry periods.
Susan says
Domestic pet rabbits eat grass hay as the primary source of their diet. Vegetables and timothy pellets form the balance of their diet. Typically only breeder rabbits or feeder rabbits would be on an alfalfa pellet throughout their life. I’m wondering if this is what happened to my pineapple sage 🙁
David The Good says
I didn’t realize domestic rabbits are fed on grass hay – thank you for the information. It very well could be the problem. We fed our rabbits on some alfalfa along with a lot of cut weeds and grass from our homestead, which we knew wasn’t sprayed.
Gabriel says
Now there is Round-Up resistant alfalfa too.
So even alfalfa is not safe any.
I hate herbicides!
Jess O says
Yes! For adult rabbits kept as pets (not kidding does, young rabbits or meat rabbits who need the higher protien in alfalfa) timothy hay is reccomended by most vets, shelters and rabbit organizations as the main dietary staple. For all of us using our bunnies poo in the yard and garden we now know to be careful if this aminopyralid is used on the hay we feed our bunnos so thankyou!
Steven Shantz says
Human urine is looking more and more attractive all the time. Disgusting? Yup. But get over it. It is liquid gold! Ive been collecting and usi g mine for several years and i can’t speak too highly of it.
David The Good says
It works like a charm. Just don’t tell the neighbors.
Amy says
Yes!!! 🙂
Maria Parker says
Yes, but watch the salt in your diet. If you like your chips, save your pee for salt tolerant veggies. And girl pee is different than boy pee. I talked to some folks using urine as fertilizer to grow algae, and they mentioned using just male urine because of the anti microbial properties of female urine.
Shayla says
Time to start investigating a compost bin so I can make my own (we currently compost through the city). What do you recommend as an alternative to straw mulch? Would organic straw mulch be safe, if the farmer can verify that they do not spray? I’ll be planting onions and garlic in the next week and was going to use straw to winterize them.
Shauna says
Comfrey mulching! Comfrey makes for an excellent mulch and doubles as green manure (fertilization, nitrogen activation, and more).
Also, as long as you don’t spray your yard, grass clippings make a good mulch, too.
David The Good says
Organic straw should be fine. I have also cut grass in unused areas and added that. For fall gardens, I have also used tree leaves to winterize.
TimP says
Apparently it’s just as lethal for Lucerne and Pea straw as it is for veges, (which makes sense since they are both legumes like your beans) so they should at least be safe from this herbicide.
(Most likely any farmer who wants to grow either of them in the future will hopefully not spray any of his fields)
Lauren says
This is very eye-opening, thanks! Always good to read one of David the Good’s articles!
David The Good says
Thank you, Lauren. I love Amy’s book and was glad to have the chance to send her a post.
Shawnti Wells says
Thank you for this information! I was trying to figure out why my plants were curling & twisting… Thanks again, ~Tay~
David The Good says
I’m very sorry to hear that. You can’t be blamed for not knowing – it’s just starting to become better known. Many people just assume they made a mistake in their growing.
Charles says
Oh no! I had mushroom compost delivered last year, so after reading this, I did a search to see what’s in it. It can include hay, straw, and horse manure, among other things. Oh well… it’s too late for these beds. We’ll see what happens next spring.
David The Good says
You can test some of it by planting beans first. If they sprout, you’re not out of the woods, but it’s a good sign. Watch after that for the development of the secondary and tertiary sets of leaves. If they twist and curl, you’re in trouble. If they don’t, you should be in the clear.
Kelly says
I am relieved to hear that alfalfa is not sprayed with Grazon. I Have been trying to find organic alfalfa pellets for my goats and it is just not available around here. I was afraid to buy the non-organic version for fear of poisoning my garden as you described (not to mention the goats!). Thank you for this information!
David The Good says
You bet. Grazon is targeted to kill broadleaf “weeds,” so if you are feeding animals with something that isn’t a grass, if should be safe from aminopyralid contamination.
Virginia says
I recently bought a house in the California desert city of 29 Palms. We dug out all the local sand/caliche {to 2 ft deep} and replaced it all with….free manure from a mix of horses, cows, goats, to help with conserving water I have a ton of straw on all gardens & trees! Suddenly my tomato plants started making smaller & smaller leaves, dark green…lost almost all 300 tomato plants, some okra leaves are now smaller & twisted as well….my Japanese eggplant was huge & super loaded, I recently added more straw….it died less than a week later!
I compost everything…unfortunately, I have also composted all my plant material so I guess my compost is poisoned as well.
I have pictures of the leaves from the few tom plants left & would like to submit them for some expert advice to see if this is my problem. My peanuts are pegging out but some are turning yellow, can they be saved? On the other hand my luffa sponges are growing like mad & putting on their 3rd flush of “fruit” now in Sept! They don’t have as much manure or straw as the rest of the garden which has between 1 & 2 feet of straw around the plants & I water thru it as well as into bottles with holes buried around the plants. After raking this straw out of my gardens how should I dispose of it?
Since sunflowers absorb heavy metals & some chemicals, is it possible to sunflower the hell out of my garden to help clean it a little if this is the problem? Will the flowers from my plants poison the bees or hummingbirds? Pollinators are a premium out here!
Can I submit some pix & if so where please? I have no choice but to continue planting here since we have no community gardens and we can’t afford to replace all the dirt & we need the food!
Nancy Sawyer says
If you are applying mulch that deep your plants and soil may not be getting enough air which could also explain why the other plants are doing fine. Plants need sun, moisture and air to grow. The earthworms and other soil life also need air.
Lesley says
I hear mushrooms also absorb toxins. I read about it in Mycelium Running: How mushrooms can help save the world by Paul Stamets
Freddie says
Wow. 🙁 Any potential concerns with free mulch from tree-cutting businesses? I’m a new gardener and am starting with sugar sand that (I just found out yesterday) has been sprayed with Round-Up on a regular basis. I was planning on starting with several car loads of horse manure, but this article gives me pause. I was also going to try no-till, composting in situ, and basically just focusing on growing edible nitrogen-fixers the first season or two. Any advice, or further cautions? Thank you for this timely article!
Amy says
Wood chips can be a great start in a situation like this where you need a lot of organic matter to get started, and where you can allow them to break down for at least one year, longer if you can manage. As with everything you bring on your property, there are risks in the unknown. A tree may be chipped that had a poison ivy vine growing on it, and now you’ve got the urushiol toxin in your soil. Or a tree with allelopathic properties, like walnut, may have been chipped.
Overall, though, I’m a proponent of wood chips, and use them despite these risks. I believe the benefits outweigh the risks as long as you have the time to let them compost down before planting. They can be healing to soil after herbicides have been sprayed.
Daddio7 says
I was a cotton scout for a summer 20 years ago. One farmer had spiny pigweed in one field. He had to abandon that field because the pigweed crowded out the cotton and I was unable to scout it. It has one and half inch cactus like spines, you can not walk through it.
Chuckers says
So what’s your point, Daddio7? Are you saying we should contaminate the world with poison and not think about the what we give to the future generations? Please remember one IMPORTANT FACT….adults do not own the world, we merely rent it from the next generation! As such, we must be good stewards of the land we are renting in order to ensure a healthy future!
Dr Frank says
Grazon does not contain aminopyralid, but a mixture of picloram and 2,4D. The picloram has the long residual. The label states that very fact. The farmer should have read the label and either, not use that herbicide or not sell the manure.
Not all manures are bad as the author implies.
Donna says
I had the same problem with a big load of mulch I purchased. Being a new gardener, I thought I must be to blame for all the dying plants, until I realized that the area where the mulch had been dumped was not even growing weeds. Every bed, every plant I used it on died. I gathered and disposed of what I could, but even a year later I have a big sand patch where that mulch was dumped.
Amy says
Very sad!
Pamela says
My goodness, this was timely. I was about to mulch my 15 year old mixed home orchard of 2.5 acres with straw hay and horse manure for the first time. Was hoping to save on water use.
I am in Australia and did a search and yes Grazon is used out here.
For some time now I was wondering why my plants which I raise in pots before planting out into the house gardens were really acting up. Have not had a decent home grown tomato in about 5 years.
I bought all my compost and potting mix in cheaply. Cannot see me buying lucerne or pea straw out here for mulching as it hugely expensive.
Back to the drawing board!
Amy says
It is all very frustrating. I feel like a basic right has been taken away from us.
Stephan of Arkansas says
YES!!!!! Thank U, Amy. I feel exactly as U do: a primary basic right has been taken away from us. I have heard from old-timers that fresh/green chicken manure can burn plants unless it has been well composted. I wonder: is chicken manure safe from herbicides? Can anyone advise on this? This comment is respectfully submitted.
Pa says
Thank you for this great and timely information for those of us ready to start the fall gardens in the deep South.
Ardith Hale says
Thank you for the alert & for mentioning that beans will sound the alarm. I was just preparing to load my raised beds with soil & bagged manure. Now i will plant some beans inthemanure first to see if they grow well. Now what to do with the hay from the backyard chicken run. I normally add hay during the rainy season to keep the mud, smell & flies at a minimum. We use it about twice a year to mulch around our fruit trees. I guess i will have to find a new source.
Sheila says
Sensationalized. Reads like a Fox News story or a piece by PETA. There are those of us who farm organically or naturally and who don’t use herbicides on our pastures, but this article lumps us all into one group. It’s damaging to those of us who put in the extra work and money to mechanically improve poor pastures rather than spraying.
Go ahead and buy manure from a local organic or natural farmer. I use my cows’ manure on my gardens all the time, because I know it’s good and clean and safe.
David The Good says
PETA and Fox should cover the issue as well.
Andrew says
Hardly….this is not ..at all..sensationalized…I bought straw as bedding for ducks and geese because I try to do things naturally (im not even going to use the loaded widely used and misused term that begins with “o”)..and when I spread the duck and goose manure around ..mixed with the straw that was outsourced..problems…Totally understandable that you use your own animals manure as we do…but the straw was outsourced..and imagine if your hay that you feed your cows was outsourced and you used that on your garden..these chemicals go right through the cow and are still herbicidally active in their manure..The point of the article is not to slag organic farmers but to point out that ironically , it is people who are attempting to grow organically (by using hay and straw and manure rater than manufactured fertilizers) that are likely to find this affecting their plants after using straw bedding or manure from animals that ate hay sprayed with Aminopyralids.
Heather says
Well said! We to refuse to use chemical on our pasture and use mechanical means/ plant means to control weeds in our field. I wish the author would have separate the farmers who actually care about improving the soil. We use our cattle manure on our garden and fruit trees with never having this issue. We know our manure is clean and safe too!
Alisha says
thank you for saying that Sheila, I was under the impression from the article that all manure is bad, which i know is not true and once i read that they used conventional compost well that made sense to me that things might go bottom up.
A true organic gardener or farmer knows you can only spread organic compost. because if you don’t you are no longer organic. a certified organic farm takes many years before they get that certification. no sprays can be used for several years, the fields need to be a certain distance away from any conventional fields or sprayed pastures to avoid cross contamination and they will often raise their own certified organic animals to use that compost.
Pamela Cooke says
Here in UK we had a problem with (probably) Aminopyralid on our allotment site a few years ago. Fortunately it was not too severe but it has made me very cautious about the horse manure which we get for free. It is very strawy and I am only using it on pathways to keep down weeds, I watch carefully for any distorted growth on the adjacent plants. Farmers here are not supposed to let contaminated hay or manure get into the food chain, but who knows? I am told straw should be OK as it is from grain destined for human consumption. I have had disastrous results using potting soil containing recycled green waste, presumably because weedkiller was present on grass etc sent for recycling. I believe Chlorpyralid is a very common weedkiller for gardeners and related to Aminopyralid. How difficult it is becoming to grow healthy food!
Amy says
It’s important to ask the farmers you intend to buy from about their practices. Do they bale their own hay and straw? If so, is it sprayed? If they outsource it, can they find out for you? (If they outsource it, I would be cautious.) If it is a farmer doing good, then it’s important to continue supporting them.
Gabriel says
Grain gets treated with RoundUp on many big farms!
Glow says
A similar thing happened to me with purchased potting mix that had manure in it and was labelled organic! I had yellow, curling leaves on houseplants after transplanting them in the new mix. The plants had been perfectly healthy before that. When I contacted the company about it, they swore it was not their mix, but I had changed nothing else, and the symptoms were consistent across several unrelated species of plants. I lost house plants and culinary and medicinal herbs.
On researching, I discovered that the organic standards do not regulate potting mix ingredients and the manure does not have to be from organically raised cows. It can still be labelled organic. Another company in my area (not the one I had purchased previously) is selling a mix labelled organic that lists “polymer” as one of the ingredients. This is essentially plastic or something similar. Hardly organic, but they USDA rules allow them to get away with this. The buyer definitely needs to beware, or simply not buy.
Amy says
The labeling on bagged organic materials is a racket. They are taking advantage of the fact that the “Organic” with a capital “O” (certified) is similar to organic (lower o) materials that are biodegradable materials from the earth. Of course, anything derived from fossil fuels is considered organic material, so you can see where the two can be confused and misused.
Note: I compared ‘Organic’ to ‘organic’ here to make a distinction. In real life, both definitions of the term can be referred to as organic, so it’s confusing and often purposefully so.
Look for products that have the OMRI label to be sure it is Organic certified. That’s a good first step. But I don’t believe organic certification has fully caught up to the mess we’re in with herbicide contamination.
If you’re working with a local farmer, start a conversation. Ask questions. Ask follow-up questions. Make sure s/he is the source of materials and they follow honest practices. It’s important that if they ARE doing the right things, that they are supported and honored for their work.
Mary says
Glow can you please identify which organic companies these were so we dont buy them? That would be very helpful
Margaret Mills says
I’m so glad to see this article. I had the problem with potatoes, sunflowers and tomatoes in about 2010. Through much research and then bio-assay tests using peas I realized my problem was the persistent herbicides. I’ve tried sharing my experience but have been met with so much resistance that I’m about to give up. This isn’t a sensationalized piece of information or fake news.
Thanks for your articles! People please research “persistent herbicides”.
David The Good says
Thank you, Margaret. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. Don’t give up.
Cindi O says
Oh my goodness! This article explains exactly why I lost thousands of plants. Food gardens, orchids and ornamentals. I bought several bags of composted cow manure and spread it in my gardens. I also made compost tea from the purchased compost. EVERYTHING I watered and the compost touched died. Years later nothing would grow in my garden beds, Not even weeds. I gave up gardening and moved. Now I understand just what happened. Thanks for the information!
Suzanne says
What about Roundup?
Chuckers says
Roundup is on t a”persistent” herbicide so it will not ruin your garden like Aminopyralid/Grazon. Aminopyralid was designed to turn livestock into herbicide machines. You see, once the Aminopyralid is sprayed on the grassy land, it kills the braodleaf weeds it was designed to kill but not the grasses. That the animals eat. Then the cow or horse or other grass eating animal eats the grass that the Aminopyralid was prayed on. Finally, the animal poops the Aminopyralid in the digested and poisoned grass it ate and the Aminopyralid in the dung continues to kill weeds.
This is not so say you should use Roundup poisoned materials, though. but it won;t have the same afect as Aminopyralid/Grazon. But it will still contaminate your crops.
Laurie says
I bought some straw bales because I was thinking about trying Straw Bale Gardening. Right after having the straw delivered I read that they needed to be poison free in order to grow and for us to eat the products of our garden. So I thought I had better to make sure this wasn’t straw that had been poisoned…it had been. So I just left it were it had been stacked, in front of my Blue Atlas Cedar tree. I had planted this beautiful ornamental tree 11 years earlier. It had taken off loving where it was living and growing tremendously each year. But during mid summer that year it dropped ALL of it’s needles. I was shocked and couldn’t figure out why. I kept on watering it-we live where it’s dry in the summer- and remembered reading somewhere to give a tree three years to re-coup. The next year it sat needle-less, although towards the end of that summer I spotted a tiny bit of growth at the top. The next year it returned with needles that were truncated and with normal straight growth of branches but smaller than normal.The following year the needles and branches look almost normal. I now understand why-I’m sure that straw shed off its poison and poisoned my tree. Now I’m thinking the straw had probably been poisoned. This article also brings up the fact of not using manure from your very own animals who have been fed commercially grown hay=ALL of my animals. Shoot! This is a horrible poison!!! I’m also thinking/questioning: If animals have been fed this poison through their hay, and then butchered for consumption you know they have to have this poison within their meat=we are consuming=upper carnivore=much higher rate of poison for us?!!! Holy smokes! Even those of us trying to modify our diets via raising our own foods in order to eat healthier are still not achieving this. Sigh.
Amy says
It is scary and disheartening to think about the ramifications of these poisons, isn’t it? You are so right about the animals raised for food. Please update us if you locate organic hay or find an alternative to hay for livestock.
Julie says
It is partly the farmer’s fault for selling manure from treated fields. Herbicide labels must be read and followed, it’s the law. Aminopyralid labels clearly indicate the herbicidal action of the manure of animals grazed on treated fields. This kind of manure be should not be sold to gardeners, the farmers should know this if they are reading and following the label.
Susanne Miller says
I did a search to see if this herbicide was widely used up here in Canada, and it appears it is. However, I did find warnings about not letting the affected plants be used as food or gardening purposes. Here’s the page I found first https://www.tlhort.com/p-27376-grazon-xc.aspx
Amy says
The warnings are certainly out there, but that information doesn’t always trickle down to the farmer. And although I would like to trust that all farmers have good intentions, there may be some that choose to spray anyway. Will they be honest if you ask them about it? Without *really* knowing the farmer, you’re taking a risk.
Yash says
First thank you David and Amy for your amazing works! This article cannot be more timely for me! I live in Arkansas and Im just starting composting and vegetable gardening. I purchased straw (not organic) to be used as mulch for my garden (which is not working because it had lots of seeds which are germinating duh! and so I have removed it) and have also used it as a base for my compost pile for aeration. I have used cow manure in my compost pile and Im into 3 week mark with the compost. Is it better to just discard the whole compost pile and start afresh? Any thoughts?
Curtis says
We almost got horse manure compost for free but after reading this we opted to just use our personal compost stock. We can get it up and going again in time for spring planting. Anyways, point is you’re right that unsuspecting gardeners wouldn’t know (like we almost went out and did). And maybe we would have been fine but why risk it when so much energy is put into our gardens? Thank you for writing!
Andrew says
This is HUGE…thank you for writing this !!!..I want to tell you my story..I have yet to hear mention of how this stuff affects more robust plants such as fruit trees. I can tell you that we have ducks and geese and we use a combination of wood shavings ( I know not ideal to use softwood shavings on many plants..but I try to minimize it in the mix) and straw for bedding for the ducks and geese…I then spread it as a mulch a reasonable distance from the trunks and from plants where it smothers weeds and is far enough away that it gradually leaches into the soil. I went through the exact same queries as the writer of the article after seeing the effect on the plants and trees in his yard..regardless of which family of plants…ruling out disease or virus..I had these thickened tightly rolled leaves on my apple trees (no it wasn’t leaf roller bugs..the leaves were already thickened as they were growing out..and so tightly rolled so that you could not but break the leaves if you tried to unroll them..and no bugs inside and no frass..so not bugs and not disease). I also thought as the writer of the article did..perhaps too much nutrient of one kind or another (most likely nitrogen)..but again this does not match with what occurs with too much nitrogen…and does not match with too much P or K ..besides ..I don’t use heavy fertilizers just the organic material.. as a side note..I read that organic gardeners are ironically , the ones most likely to find this stuff on their lot..because they are NOT using fertilizers but instead manures and straw etc…Now I know what that was..it was making me crazy because it doesn’t match with bug or disease or overfertilization.
David The Good says
Some of my fruit trees pulled through. Others never came back. They just stayed the same size with distorted, screwed up growth for a few years, then died.
Andrew says
IT WAS ON THE STRAW !!
Anne says
I am horribly worried that this just happened to my client. I built three large raised beds filled with 1/2 compost and 1/2 raised bed garden mix. I have pictures of the plants that never took off but don’t know how to post them here. How do I test this mix? In the photo there is a tomato that is growing outside these beds and is huge in comparison. I have them because I sent them to the soil provider and to a lab technician.Both said the compost had not degraded enough and the nitrogen was bound up. We added nitrogen and things greened up immediately and then the plants foundered again. I would love to send pictures to you to see what you think.
Cathy says
My husband thought I was crazy when I told him about this! He still doesn’t believe it, but I have sent this article to him prove it. A friend of ours raises ‘grass fed beef’ so we got some manure from him for our raised bed vegetable and herb gardens. I remembered seeing something about toxic hay, so I contacted our friend and he told me the guy he gets his hay from used 2,4-D on his hay. So the cows are eating hay that, according to the EPA fact sheet on 2,4-D, “generally has moderate toxicity to birds and mammals” — I told my husband I could not, in good conscience, use this manure in our gardens! He was irritated that he loaded his trailer up with this manure, but I feel better knowing that we, and our vegetables, won’t be being poisoned. Thank you for this most excellent and timely article!
Amy says
It’s sad that we have to be so cautious about organic matter. 🙁 If you already have the manure, you could drop it in an unused spot and let it sit for a couple of years.
Summer says
Or hot compost it and it can be ready in a few months.
Summer says
I don’t know when this article was written, but it is now misinformed. There is a lot of research out there right now about bioremediation through (proper) composting. Here is a scientific article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1456983/
I agree that you shouldn’t spread rotted manure on your beds. The problem with this is it has not been properly composted. When you mix greens and browns together and make a hot compost pile, the microbes move in and start to eat everything. In the process, they turn toxic chemicals into inert compounds. And what they miss gets processed in the last stage of composting where the pile cools off and the mushrooms/mycellium move in and continue to make any toxic chemicals completely inert.
“According to Paul Stamets, mushrooms have the capability to filter contaminated soil and water. Fungi can clean up oil spills, and absorb toxic waste from the soil. Fungi break down and feed nutrients to plants, and can even be used as an alternative to dangerous pesticides for crops.”
source: https://www.thedailybell.com/all-articles/news-analysis/5-ways-mushrooms-will-save-the-world/
Once the compost is cured, then it can be safely put on your garden beds. I put
“The point about compost and vermicompost is that they support such a rich, varied and robust range and quantity of microbes, fungi and other organisms. Instead of trying to refine and purify a particular strain of microbe to tackle a particular pollutant, scientists in some areas are relying more and more on the sheer diversity of microbes in compost to do the work. Put this non-specific mix of microbes in contact with contaminated soil or water and the microbe capable of digesting the contamination will proliferate, digesting the pollutant.”
Source: https://www.planetnatural.com/composting-101/environmental-issues/water-soil-remediation/
I hope this is helpful. I am a certified master composter here in Clark County Washington. It takes a minimum of 3-4 months to make proper compost at a home scale. And that is with frequent turning and monitoring of temperature to make sure that it is active (at least 100 degrees F). Without the heat, the microbes have not moved in. You can still get bioremediation without hot composting, but it takes 4 times as long.
Bethany R. says
Summer, the first article you referenced is about PCB’s, not the chemical compound that is being discussed here, Aminopyralid, which is a Pyridine carboxylic acid. The other articles you listed don’t specifically mention Aminopyralid/Pyridine carboxylic acid- it’s mostly general fun information.
Check out this study, which re-iterates and proves that what everyone is saying here is science-based. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a891/c12cfe5b36fbe82b4ec9458c25e10f766070.pdf
I’m just posting this to make sure that no one goes through and reads everything here, only to get their hopes up for a moment from reading your comment like I did.
P.S. It would be helpful to know when these comments were made. This one was posted 4/3/2020
Amy says
Thank you for providing this clarification for us, Bethany!
Kasey says
I plant squash plants in my compost after I turn it the first time. Squash are very sensitive to herbicides. If any of them turn yellow or curly, I know that batch is bad. I Have a much bigger garden then I can make compost for, so I get compost materials from several local farmers. As of yet I have not had a bad batch, but I always like to be sure.
Amy says
Great idea to test with squash!
Clark Driver says
Is glyphosate passed on in the feces the same way?
Amy says
Glyphosate is not a persistent herbicide and biodegrades quite quickly.
Bethany M says
Oops, not true. This is what the makers of Glyphosate want you to believe; in actual fact it can take years to break down, while doing all sorts of damage.
Detailed article here:
https://permaculture.com.au/glyphosate-toxicity-impacts-on-the-environment-and-non-target-species/.
explains some of the known issues with this very nasty herbicide.
Amy says
Certainly glyphosate is a nasty herbicide and shouldn’t be used as a replacement for nastier, more persistent herbicides like aminopyralid. I should have made that more clear. All herbicides and pesticides are poison, as that is their purpose. We simply cannot spray our way out of a complex ecosystem.
However, the question was asked about glyphosate persisting in livestock manure, and while the article you’ve shared in the comment above is helpful and important, it does not address this point. And this further supports the issue brought up in this article, which is that no one, not even natural farming and gardening organizations, is talking about, testing, nor researching the seriousness of the effects of herbicides in manure.
Manure is an important component of healthy crop production, and not being able to use it threatens the natural cycle of consumption and production without waste.
John Pizmo says
Show me a source with empircial based research sources and I will take your serious. There are a plethora of peer-reviewed studies which outline Glyphosate does not persist in the soil, plain and simple.
Lisa in Central PA says
What about manure from grass-fed cows at an organic certified dairy? A local organic vegetable farmer referred me to a local organic dairy for compost, the same dairy where she gets manure compost for her CSA operation. My immediate thought after reading this article was to warn her but I did some research and according to OMRI, aminopyralid is not approved for organic use. What is the likelihood that manure from an ethical small scale organic dairy could be contaminated with aminopyralid?
Amy says
Your manure source sound promising, but be sure to ask about all aspects of the supply chain, just to be safe. If the certified organic farm also produces their own straw, hay, and any feed that isn’t “grass”, then they’re probably a safe bet for manure. However, if they source any of these materials from off-farm, they may not be certified organic.
Marta says
First of all, gasp at the fact the farmer in the original story is a dairy farmer.
Based on the initial story I had the impression that possibly the manufacturer of this herbicide is not fully forthcoming about the possible side effects. I did a quick Google search for Grazon and they are very forth coming with various warnings regarding the use of their product.
I looked at one page https://www.corteva.ca/en/products-and-solutions/crop-protection/grazon-xc.html
From which I also read the accompanying pages:
https://www.corteva.ca/content/dam/dpagco/corteva/na/ca/en/files/guide/DF-Range-and-Pasture-Management-Guide-English.pdf
The company clearly states that the product is expelled in the waste of the animals. Other warnings given include:
– Soil from treated areas should never be moved to areas where sensitive plants may be planted within five years.
– Manure from livestock consuming treated grass should never be used for compost or around susceptible plants.
– Clippings from grass that have been treated with Corteva Agriscience range and pasture herbicides should never be used for composting or mulching.
It seems to me like at the heart of the issues that every one in the comments above is experiencing are farmers who are not using this product according to the label. The instructions given with this product are extremely clear and the only way this fiasco is happening is if these warning are being blatantly ignored by the people who are applying the product. THAT is disturbing. I would actually be pretty damn pissed at the farmer in the original story instead of making him out to be like some poor victim. I would in fact report him (I am assuming there is some governing body involved here that he could be reported to) as what he’s doing is clearly against the product’s labelled use (the use of these products are controlled for good reason) and clearly causing major problems!
David The Good says
This stuff is nasty and should simply be illegal. It contaminates manure and hay for years. It’s simply a very stupid idea for it to be made and used at all.
Bryce Walsh says
Now why in the world would you suggest reporting that gentleman? We are all in agriculture together despite the if we use conventional or non-conventional agriculture practices. Dairy farmers are some of the hardest working people I know in ag. Perhaps that producer had a bottle that had part of the label missing, perhaps he is an older gentleman and does not have the best eyesight to read the tiny labeling, or perhaps he doesn’t have high-speed internet to go online and download the Grazon PDF usage and warning file.
Is it entirely possible that this hard-working dairy producer in question was short-handed due to the nature of running a dairy and had a friend or family member come to apply the broadleaf herbicide for him? I suggest Marta, you keep your “gasps” to yourself and ruminate all the potential possibilities before letting emotion dictate the way you comment.
This producer was nice enough to refund your money and was sincerely I would leave it at that. He is no villain, just trying to make an honest living.
terri FARINA says
I grew up in the country where most everything natural was composted in some way. Including manure from the local farms. Back then it was a small family farm that may of had upto three (3) barns with animals -mostly cows, chickens and pigs that many were able to free range some. It was easy to find manure for free and many farmers were happy to drop off or spread in your garden. We were able to grow lost of fresh fruits and vegs that were wonderfull and pumpkins that took two of us to move. I still live in the same community but the small family farms are gone. Most purchased by one or two family’s that still farm. The tractors have gotten a lot larger and so have the barns. But many now only have cows and they no longer are able to roam free in the pastures to eat the natural grasses and weeds. Many of the grown crops are sprayed with many different chemicals that stink. It has been years since we have gotten any manure from any farm. I know there are many new chemicals out there that farmers do not know the true extent of damage these chemicals can do. We only have to look not to far in the past to know that it took years for DDT to be found very harm full to all forms of animals, birds and life in general. We are told that history will repeat itself. With farming chemicals we are now seeing history repeat and it will be years for the damage to be undone – again. Thank you for your warning of this new danger for our gardens. I know it is now 2021 that I note this. But in the wake of Covid-19 and more people doing home gardens we all need to be aware of dangers of farming chemicals still being active months to years after application. Please if you can have your article re-published I bet it would save a lot of people new to gardening a lot of heart ack and lots of money.
Kurt Forman says
Maybe I missed it in your article, but I’ve been certified organic since 2004 and have never heard of Grazon until now, much less even used it, so I’m not afraid to use my cattle and poultry compost that was bedded with my own hay. Fully composting the hay will destroy any weed seeds in it.
Amy says
Here is more information from NC Cooperative Extension. If you supply your own feed and bedding, then you’re probably fine.
Daniel Silvan says
How disappointing. Especially regarding the University of Florida. Unfortunately, many universities and independent researchers can guarantee whatever results you tell them to prove, as long as they are paid the right amount of money. For the people whose gardens have been affected by these poisons, I wonder if applying some agricultural grade activated charcoal might sequester the poison? By the way, my first time here and I must say that I like your writing style. Very informative and entertaining. Thank you.
norm says
I’ve always prided myself in making my own container mixes which either compost or cow dung is part of. I was devastated this yr as my chile peppers grew to 6 inches or so when the leaves started to spiral up and grow very slowly. The weird thig was they put out 3 or 4 peppers growing at the top. Once I read this article I pulled them all and slowly spending the big bucks started replacing my own mixes with very expensive fox farms ocean that does not contain grazing animal compost or manure. One variety of chile does not seem to be impacted as much by the toxin in the soil. So I what are your thoughts about eating these peppers? Obviously the plant has taken up the toxin but how are the fruits affected?
PS. I am changing soils as stated above but I did try replanting in same soil in a couple pots. The plants do not look totally healthy but they are growing for the most part with just a little leaf curl and then the plant grows out of it.
Amy says
Although the plants will take up toxins from the soil, it is not passed on to the fruit. So your peppers and other fruiting vegetable crops should be fine to eat, perhaps not as nutritious as healthy plants growing in healthy soil, but not contaminated.
Monique Lukassen says
Question, my friend uses her turkey manure in her vege garden and the garden seems to do extremely well on it. I’m not using it since I’m pretty sure the turkeys get antibiotics in their food (no growth hormones tho). Do you think antibiotics or other standard medication given to poultry would leave traces in the manure?
Thanks Monique
Norm says
Thanks Amy. As stated in last post I bot very expensive fox farm potting mix. Pepper leaves are green but appear thin and somewhat lifeless. One of two plants starting to put out the cupped leaves after a foot of bushy growth. I am stymied as there is no compost only crab, kelp meal etc ——and forest prod. So I can only surmise that the trees or sawdust or something in forest product is tainted. Meanwhile spending a lot of money trying to get decent clean crop. This is totally disgusting. My last resort is to try a soilless mix that I’m not very high on but what else can I do where I can’t make my own compost. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also is any plant expert other than DOW saying that crops do not take up the toxin.
Alisha says
just a couple question: why would an organic gardener put non-organic manure on their gardens. wouldn’t that right there make it no longer organic?
another question: I have only been growing a vegetable garden for a few years. I live in town but have extended my garden to be 500 sq ft. my soil is a lot of clay and dries out quickly and gets very hard. I have been adding sand to help loosen as well as organic compost. the problem with organic compost is it comes with a lot of weeds. so this year because we have several large maple trees in our yard that we have been composting. I laid a layer of nearly composted leaves on top of my garden to keep the weeds down and the moisture in. I have also recently gotten several chickens. our plan is to rake the fresh leaves into the chicken run until they nearly decompose and then transfer them to the garden. decomposing leaves take a lot of nitrogen but chicken manure adds a lot.
Will this work? can any one think of something that might go wrong with the plan?
Also I don’t till my garden anymore so the leaves wont be tilled under the soil.
Phil says
Hi, Alisha – When I had chickens, I would do exactly this every autumn. I would rake all of the leaves into the chicken run & let the chickens do their thing in breaking it all down. Between the constant scratching for food, their manure, and the weather, the leaves broke down quickly & the remnants were transferred into the garden. It worked well for me & I hope you the best of luck also! -Phil
Mike Affinito says
Wow! Thanks so much for this. Last year a good number of my tomatoes in a new raised bed looked just like your pic-curly, twisted and gnarly. I couldn’t figure it out. I though maybe it was curly top virus. Then I thought maybe herbicide drift from a neighbor, but this was definitely the problem. I used bagged compost, manure and raised bed mix to fill the bed. Obviously, one or more of those was contaminated. Thanks again