I think you may have experienced Clopyralid. http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/soilmgmt/Clopyralid.htmf It is a pesticide that does not break down even in hot compost. This serves a classic example of the need to check out the source of all your organic sources.
Ray Schutte "Life is a Good Idea" Nikki Giovanni President P-Patch Trust Advocate for Community Gardens in Seattle www.ppatchtrust.org -----Original Message----- From: Pohl-Kosbau, Leslie [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 1:44 PM To: 'Ken Hargesheimer'; Ray Schutte Cc: [email protected] Subject: RE: [Community_garden] organic vs chemical Last year we had problems with tomatoes and beans in one particular community garden, in just a few plots. There was stunting and leaf and stem curling. There was no other topical damage on plants nearby in some cases. What it turned out to be was the effects from herbicide used in alfalfa grown hundreds of miles away, but fed to local rabbits in pellets. The rabbit manure was used in the garden and the chemical persisted from the feed through the animal and into the manure. The correction was using repeated legume cover cropping, removal, and then plenty of leaves to compost. We shall see if all is well this year. This was the first time we had encountered this problem in 36 years of community gardening. Leslie Pohl-Kosbau Portland Community Gardens Portland, Oregon -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ken Hargesheimer Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 12:14 PM To: Ray Schutte Cc: [email protected] Subject: [Community_garden] organic vs chemical Several years ago, I have a tomato plant dying. Never seen leaves do what they were doing. I took the stem/leaves to the ag experiment station to the plant experts. He studied it and studied it and he he did not know. The following year, same problem. I put the whole plant in my pickup and took it to him. He called in another guy. They studied and studied. Finally, they said that it was their belief that it is dying due to drift from cotton field spraying. I live 5 miles from the nearest field. They said that is our opinion. Some years ago, Maine was thinking about a law that if any chemicals were found on or in an organic vegetable, it could not be classified as organic. They were told that if they passed that rule, it would close down every organic farmer in Maine. Why? DRIFT -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communityga rden.org/attachments/20110408/6f2f802f/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.commu nitygarden.org _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
