More Weedkiller damage from growbags

[Thelma Sanders]

Green Lane Allotment v blog talks about it on 23rd July, when they met people from Corteva.... to inspect tomatoes growing in Levington growbags

Two Gardeners - One Video Diary

[Snoop Puss]

That's shocking, TS. I haven't watched the whole video as it's a bit long for my connection. But to find it in growbags... it's almost unbelievable.

[Mr Bones]

Thanks for posting Thelma, I didn't know that plants grown in contaminated compost could carry the pyralid back to the next load of compost.
We've changed our composting methods, instead of turning it we now let it stand, allowing fungus to grow and break down the lignin which hopefully exposes the poison to microbial action.

[Penellype]

Very interesting, thanks Thelma. The trouble with using green waste from public bins is that you are never going to get everyone to follow the rules, in exactly the same way that people will put the wrong things in their recycling boxes. Someone is going to spray the grass with weedkiller, then cut the lawn and put the clippings in the green bin. If you then imagine what happens to that clump of clippings as it is processed into green waste. It is dumped in a truck, probably staying mainly in one clump, then it goes to the depot and is emptied out, probably still mostly together. As it rots down it is probably turned and broken up a bit, but it is likely that the contaminated material will remain mainly in isolated areas of the heap. It is therefore not completely surprising that you can get a grow bag with contaminated material at one end and not at the other. It may also be that compost from some areas is more contaminated in general than from others on the principle that people believe a neighbour who says "well I've always put the clippings straight in the green bin" so they think it must be ok. We have that here with the plastic recycling - the council categorically state that they will take bottles only, but people still put tubs and trays in with them, thinking its all the same (it isn't) and tell the neighbours that the tubs are taken so it must be ok.

Some other points I found interesting, for those who may not have time to watch the whole video:
- It is safe to eat contaminated vegetables (if you can get them to grow well enough) as the weedkiller binds to cellulose and we do not have the enzymes to digest cellulose.
- Do not compost affected plants - the weedkiller will persist during the composting process and may affect the next crop. The advice was to put it in the green bin!!!
- Brassicas are not affected by these weedkillers, therefore it is advised to spread affected compost on soil that is going to grow brassicas. However, the brassicas will take up the weedkiller and should be treated as contaminated plants even though they don't show symptoms.
- Shop bought brassicas may well have been sprayed with these weedkillers and could therefore introduce the stuff to your compost.
- If you have problems with weedkiller damage, report it to the place you bought the compost from. They may have other complaints and while single complaints may be ignored, a bunch of them from a seller of a particular batch of compost is more likely to be investigated by the manufacturer.

Plenty of food for thought.

[Nicos]

Oh dear....that's very shocking.
What happened to their quality control?
It really is one product you'd expect not to be contaminated

Thanks for the link Thelma.

[Nicos]

Shop bought veg Pen?... blinking heck....I'd never even thought about that contaminating my compost bin

[Penellype]

Shop bought veg Pen?... blinking heck....I'd never even thought about that contaminating my compost bin

That's what they said in the video. Bear in mind that this would only apply to crops that the weedkiller doesn't kill, ie brassicas and the grass family (cereals, sweetcorn). But it is a reminder that anything you buy from the shops that is not certified organic may have been sprayed with pesticides and weedkillers and the farmer is only interested in producing a high yield of unblemished crops, not whether any wasted veg is suitable for home composting.

[Mark_Riga]

Anyway, what are people doing buying vegetables on this forum, particularly cabbages.