Nan Johnson and Dave Spencer have long been organic gardeners. This year something went terribly wrong.
“Our plants started looking bizarre,” said Johnson, who started gardening organically in 1991. “The squash had giant cankers on them. Tomatoes started looking really weird. I felt like we had been invaded by outer space.”
Johnson contacted the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Research and Extension in Fayetteville. A report from plant pathologist Sherrie Smith came back that said the plants had symptoms of exposure to an herbicide such as 2,4-D, Weed-Out or Grazon™. “Evaluate any weed killers used or any manure or hay from a pasture source that could have been contaminated with a pasture herbicide,” Smith said in a letter to Johnson diagnosing the problem.
Smith described the symptoms of the vining zucchini as “defoliation, general yellowing, leaf/needle/fruit drop, mushroom or fruiting body, wilting. The plants are dying. It has spread quickly and there were no insects found on the plant.”
At first Johnson was perplexed, as they never put any chemicals on their garden or yard, and neither do their neighbors. But she had used manure from a neighbor’s donkeys. The neighbor had purchased hay for the donkeys from a farm supply store in Berryville.
Johnson said her plants raised without the animal manure are fine.
“Every bed that got the poop died,” Johnson said. “The ones that didn’t are fine. Grazon™ is a really bad herbicide. It is so powerful that if you continue to plant for many years, the crops will be damaged. Tomatoes are the canary in the coal mine. They are the first to show damage. The chemical comes through the animals and ends up in their manure. It gets ground up in their feed. Everything was poisoned. It will take years for that soil to recover. You can’t bioremediate it quickly. I’m never getting anything from anyone for my garden again unless I know where they get their hay.”
Johnson and Spencer, who were active in opposing the use of herbicides under powerlines by Carroll Electric Cooperative Corp., are now planning to remove all the soil from their raised beds. They will start over purchasing new, uncontaminated soil from Bear Creek Nursery.
Johnson recalls a warning in Organic Gardening a few years back that advised people against getting compost from municipal yard waste because of the potential of chemical contamination.
“This is a parallel only it involves farm animals and farm feed,” Johnson said.
Johnson doesn’t think this is an isolated case. She has since talked with two other local gardeners who have experienced the same problem.
Smith often sees herbicide contamination.
“Most of the time, the homeowner has applied a compost that has been contaminated or used the same sprayer between spraying two different products,” Smith said. “Always use one sprayer for herbicides only and never use that sprayer for fungicides or insecticides or fertilizers. My advice is for people to carefully look at what they have used in the garden, and what they have sprayed. If they are organic, they are purposely not using a number of chemicals. But they can get contamination if they get hay or manure where they have used one of these chemicals. There is no way to know what is in the city’s compost if they are getting compost from the city.”
There is a lot of herbicide drift if you are next to an area that has been sprayed.
“We look at diseases,” Smith said. “But we give them a head’s up if we think it is herbicide damage because some of it is pretty unmistakable. This is herbicide damage. There is no doubt about it. There always is a risk unless you are positive the manure didn’t come from animals that grazed on a contaminated field. These products aren’t harmful to people and they don’t hurt the animals. But they stay in their manure a long time.”
Smith said they see a lot of herbicide damage come through the clinic.
“It is always a good idea to know where your compost is coming from,” she said. “Even organic vegetable growers sometimes use chemicals on their lawns because they aren’t eating their lawn. And some of those chemicals can harm their crops if they get on them.”
Smith said the people who have the most trouble with herbicides have applied it themselves. They are using Roundup® or another herbicide to weed their garden. They are using it within their garden or close enough that it drifts on the garden.
“And they don’t realize how sensitive the plants are,” Smith said. “In particular, tomatoes are very sensitive to herbicides. Sometimes your tomatoes will be affected and nothing else will. Either it is being incautious with herbicides in the garden or you have used manure from a pasture source not realizing you need to find out if the pasture has been treated with a broadleaf herbicide like Grazon™.”
Many local organic growers use straw from wheat as mulch. Smith said she hasn’t seen any damage occurring from the use of straw. They aren’t spraying weed killer on wheat as a rule, she said.
Google Grazon™ garden damage for more information about what has been called “killer compost.”
If you suspect the poisoning has been caused by something sprayed by a neighbor or on powerline rights-of-way, contact the Arkansas State Plant Board which tests for herbicides.
Suzie Nichols, Agri-Division manager of the Pesticide Division of the Arkansas State Plant Board, said if someone suspects pesticide damage, they need to call the plant board at (501) 225-1598.
“We start an investigation,” Nichols said. “We cannot reimburse for damages. We only look into whether a pesticide has been misused according to state and federal law. If a violation does occur, the penalty can range from a warning letter up to a $1,000 fine or possible loss of license.”
Nichols said they investigate about 300 cases a year of pesticide misuse.
“We get quite a few calls on gardens, especially in Northeast Arkansas where there are a lot of row crops,” she said.
So sorry to read this!!!