Potentially contaminated manure?

[ameno]

I collected some manure about two months ago now, and have been testing it with various plants, but the results are frustratingly inconclusive, so I thought I'd ask what you guys think.
Here are some broad beans I've been growing in it:
https://i.imgur.com/fcEDEn9.jpg
Left is 50:50 manure and compost, right is just compost.
And here is a closeup on the manure one:
https://i.imgur.com/XYZAXxk.jpg

As you can see, the one in manure isn't growing as strongly as the other one, but that needn't necessarily mean contamination. It could just be a nutrient balance problem, as this manure had apparently been outdoors and uncovered in all weathers for 3-4 years, so a lot of the nutrients have probably washed out by now.
But the manure one also has new leaves which curl slightly inwards, which is a sign of weedkiller contamination, and the one in compost doesn't have this at all. But this only affects the leaves which haven't fully opened. Once the leaves open up fully they lay flat as they should, with no curling or cupping.
I also grew some peas in it a month ago, and the results were similar to the broad beans (i.e. the manure ones looked kind of suspect, but not enough for me to say they are definitely contaminated).
This leads me to believe that the manure might be mildly contaminated (although it must be very mild, as any greater contamination would surely show more conclusive results).

However, I also potted up one of my pepper seedlings in a 50:50 manure/compost mix, and this is the result:
https://i.imgur.com/eDRHm2u.jpg
The one on the left is the manure mix one. It is larger, greener and healthier looking than any of my other pepper plants, with no signs of any cupped or distorted leaves.
It's a real head-scratcher.

I'm also currently growing some french bean seeds in two more pots (one manure, one control) as another test. So far there is no difference between them, but they are as yet only at the seed leaf stage.

Since whatever may or may not be in this manure doesn't seem to be doing my peppers any harm, I would probably still proceed with my plan to fill my patio pepper tubs with a 50% manure mix. I'll also dig some into my brassica bed at the allotment, since brassicas are fairly resistant to hormone-based weedkillers, but ideally I'd like to be able to use it on other things, too.

[burnie]

I might be old fashioned, but I never mix compost with manure and then plant in it, I was always told they don't mix, manure went on the ground in the autumn and fertiliser in the spring. Compost went where no recent manure had been used, I still do this, manure on all parts of the garden except where root crops are to grow, they are in ground that has gone for a year with no manure added, just compost.

[ameno]

As long as the manure is well rotted it shouldn't matter.
Last year I grew peppers in pots with a around a 60:40 mix of manure (from a different source to this batch) and used compost, and they performed very well. Grew a sweet potato in a big pot with the same mix and it also did very well.

[Penellype]

I might be old fashioned, but I never mix compost with manure and then plant in it, I was always told they don't mix, manure went on the ground in the autumn and fertiliser in the spring. Compost went where no recent manure had been used, I still do this, manure on all parts of the garden except where root crops are to grow, they are in ground that has gone for a year with no manure added, just compost.

Hmm, not heard of that - I make hotbeds which are 100% fresh manure (straight out of the stable) topped up with a couple of inches of compost. The spinach, lettuce, beetroot and melons I've grown in it love it. Carrots are not so keen, which doesn't greatly surprise me.

[Snoop Puss]

Hard to know, ameno. Is it possible that in the case of the beans, the compost holds more moisture? The manure/compost mix looks a bit bittier, more open, meaning water could drain through more freely. Might that make a difference?

Your pepper plant in the manure/compost looks beautiful. Possibly getting reflected light off the white paint? Maybe even a bit of extra warmth from sunshine absorbed by the wall rather than just air?

Your pepper plant looks so healthy, it's hard to believe the manure is contaminated, but I understand your reluctance to use it just in case. Maybe keep it aside till your broad bean plant flowers to see how it does then?

[It never rains..it pours]

I had manure with chemical last year. Most things runner beans, cucumbers, etc didnt show it at all but sugar snap peas did a little and worst of all by a margin was the Tomatoes. Quickly repotting in new mixture saved most of the Toms that hadnt taken any thing up yet. This year one young tomato volunteed to test the manure first at a 50% mix on first repotting and grew better than the others so have used the manure in all plantings now

[stevejelf]

I must be old fashioned manure goes on the land with established plants never in a pot

[ameno]

Well, the french bean test so far seems to be coming up clear, so maybe I will be able to use the manure on other things, after all. I'll give it another week or so yet, though, just to be sure.

I have encountered another, rather baffling problem, however.
A module tray of runner beans I'm growing are showing symptoms which seems suspiciously like weedkiller contamination (deformed leaves, some of which are cupped), however the symptoms are quite variable across the tray (some seem quite bad, others barely, if at all, affected), and more importantly it can't be the compost which is to blame, partly because it's Melcourt Sylvagrow (which uses no green waste or manure, so how would it have become contaminated?) and partly because I'm using the same compost on lots of other plants, including other beans and tomatoes, and nothing else is showing these symptoms.
So I'm at rather a loss as to what's causing it, whether it even is weedkiller contamination, and if it isn't then what the problem is. The module tray was brand new, so the only thing I can thing of is that it might have somehow become contaminated in the shop. Either that or there was no contamination and there was just something wrong with some of the seeds.
I just hope that whatever is causing the problem doesn't start affecting any of my other plants, and that these runner beans grow out of it once I plant them out (they're my own personal hybrid seeds, so I don't have any more).

Here are some pictures of my worrying runner beans.
https://i.imgur.com/r37iLjK.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/pKCnzUG.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/M7eFNOd.jpg

As you can see, some look perfectly healthy, some look slightly deformed but that could be nothing (the seed leaves often get damage on emergence and then end up slightly deformed, after all), but some look rather more worrying, with distinct crinkling and yellowing near the leaf edges, and in the case of the smallest one, cupping, too.

[Snadger]

If the runners are as you say "Your own personal hybrids" could it be that they have been promiscuous and are not as standardised as the parents? Having said that they look reasonably healthy to me!

[ameno]

If the runners are as you say "Your own personal hybrids" could it be that they have been promiscuous and are not as standardised as the parents? Having said that they look reasonably healthy to me!

It could certainly just be genetic, with some seeds simply being stronger than others.
And there has definitely been some back-crossing going on, seeing as 2 of the tray of 15 have come up as white runner beans, rather than the standard scarlet (you can tell even at seedling stage as the scarlet ones have darker leaves and purply-red streaking on the stems, whereas white ones are vibrant green with no red streaking at all). I knew some comping up white was a possibility, seeing as one parent was white, so they must have the white gene in them.

These hybrids are second generation crosses. The first generation arose by accident as a cross between Spagna Bianco (giant white runner beans) and Enorma (normal scarlet ones). I grew last year's Spagna Bianco from seeds I saved myself, and three of those seeds came up red, the those plants gave standard coloured (purple and black) beans, but of the same size as Spagna Bianco (and since I'm growing them for dried beans, that's a good thing). So I decided to save 15 seeds from those first generation crosses, and this tray is those seeds.
I do also still have the three plants from last year. The roots all survived the winter, and I dug them up, potted them, and put them in my conservatory a few weeks ago, and they are now all sprouting (along with all of the white ones from last year, too), so even if something does happen to these newly sown ones I still have the original plants, so I can still save some more seeds from them.

[It never rains..it pours]

I must be old fashioned manure goes on the land with established plants never in a pot

Find too many weed seeds in it fresh for beds, so use seaweed on them. Pots in conservatory and greenhouse go on beds after used by Tom's , cucumbers