Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: gowing238 on September 21, 2010, 00:27
-
Hi. A few of the old guys on my allotment were telling me that aminopyralid only has a bad affect on certain veg, like peas, beans etc.
Im beggining to manure up my plot now ready for winter, and was wondering what plants are affected most by aminopyralid so i can avoid manuring their beds! Cheers!
-
broad leafed vegetables are seriously affected and includes potatoes, beans and basically most veg. Sweetcorn on the other hand should be unaffected (if I recall the herbicide is used in fields to grow grain which is how it ends up in animal feed/hence manure)
-
this page (http://www.allotment-garden.org/garden-diary/257/aminopyralid-herbicide-residue-in-manure-killing-crops/) may help
-
From the experience on our allotments, I would add leeks and cucurbits as having been very badly affected. Also soft fruit bushes and trees.
It is simpler to say that sweetcorn and the brassicas should be able to cope, though I have seen distortion even on brassicas.
-
If i was worried about infecting my plot with manure, how else would i add the nutrition my plants will need?
-
I think manure is your best bet. You just need to be sure it comes from a source that has not used aminopyralid (which will be the majority of sources) - ask the owner if their hay came from elsewhere, if not, and they are sure they haven't used aminopyralid, then you are good-to-go!
-
If i was worried about infecting my plot with manure, how else would i add the nutrition my plants will need?
The obvious answer is home-made compost, although not very helpful if you haven't got any and I suspect most people find it hard to make in sufficient quantities.
I have a few friends who grow a lot of plants in containers and are happy to donate their spent compost to me. It's probably safer to avoid it if previously used for growing veg to reduce the possibility of importing diseases and pests to your plot.
It is really only useful as a soil conditioner and would need supplementing with fertiliser, but then again manure and compost are much less nutrient-rich than some people imagine.
-
The obvious answer is home-made compost, although not very helpful if you haven't got any and I suspect most people find it hard to make in sufficient quantities.
my big plot needs at least 4-5x more than I can make (it has very heavy clay which still needs a lot of working) and buying it in large enough quantities is out of the question financially for me. So I have set up a comfrey bed on the plot and as well as producing my own compostables from home, at work I collect used tea bags, coffee grains, fruit peelings, banana skins & cores from the tea room ... it only works out at about a bucket load every week but every bit helps ;) This autumn I am sowing loads of green manure too ...