How to Test your Manure & Compost for Residual Herbicides

Residual Weedkiller or Herbicides in Manure can ruin your Garden if added to the soil.
No matter how vigilant you think you may have been is selecting your Manure supply there still is a risk of it being contaminated with residual herbicides,especially one called Aminopyralid.
There aren't any tests in place to see if you have any contaminated material other than the test I will show you in this video.
In fact this is the exact same test that the compost manufacturere own laboritories do if they suspect that they have produced contaminated material.
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[@theressomelovelyfilthdownh4329]

I threw my back out badly back in early spring this year. I was laid up for 12 days as I got news of something odd with everybody's potatoes. When I did hobble down the hill to the plot, it was depressing as feck man. I knew right away what it was thanks to your older video on the dodgy compost you had a run in with. Don't worry, man, anybody who has a run in with this stuff knows exactly why this makes perfect sense. 19 drills at 14ft each of potatoes killed stone dead. I threw hay over them from the same place as well. So I'm just going to run the Rotavator over it, and start fresh next year. At least I won't need to add anything to it. Plus, I'm down where I grew 75 pumpkins last year. So I knew there was already a grid of places I'd already added four good shovels each of well rotted manure, and compost every four foot. So that saved the rest of my plot from really needing manured. Almost killed my five apple trees as well. Had to wash them back to bare roots and move them to the other side of the plot. Right when they should be trying to set fruit. If people mulch round trees with it. Then it will hammer any of the common dwarf, and semi dwarf rootstock trees. So it's not just smaller plants, it will kill given a chance.

[@davedawson9851]

Proper job Dan. I've followed for years and seen your problem with this herbicide. Good grief. We can't even trust the horse turds now. Heads up everyone. 👍👍Dave

[@Allotment-diaryUk]

You can't trust any manure or even shop bought compost that has so called "Green Waste" in it anymore . It could all be full of sh*£e. Sithi Dan.

[@catherineblair1221]

@@Allotment-diaryUk I guess I have to vermacompost exclusively. I read to feed the worms horse manure...lol. no. The only worm that can survive that is the blues. I suppose I am bitter. although if you have outdoor bins in the winter it heats up your bin like insanity no matter how well composted you thought it was.

[@kenbourne8207]

Here in Canada we have a real problem with weedkillers in manure so this information is very valuable- Thanks very much for your trouble.

[@scottwhite4645]

Dan, great information, our garden club did a bulk purchase of cow manure earlier this Spring. Ten of our members lost all of their spring veg. and had to do six months of remediation. They removed as much of the manure as they could and planted two rounds of field corn in an attempt to take up as much of the aminopyralids as possible. They won’t be able to plant vegetables until next Summer.. Thanks for posting about the dangers of these persistent herbicides.

[@robindevellen7038]

We just started hearing about this. Thank you for giving me a way to check for these herbicides!

[@theressomelovelyfilthdownh4329]

It's sound advice. You also may want to be careful of any hay you get in. That can also contain it. It's probably not as bad round larger plants like fruit trees. But I would still be careful and ask questions of the farmer. It's in their own interest, since if they use this stuff. Then none of the manure, hay etc can be sold outside the farm for X period of time like 18 months. There's a fine to go along with it, so maybe just be sure to jog their memory by asking if they use any herbicides.

[@kipstrange1973]

@@theressomelovelyfilthdownh4329 Farmers and landowners only care about profit, most of them wont admit to using it.

[@stevesamoffgridsmallholdin5378]

Great video 👍

[@David_Bell_growing]

Some people have forgotten about this, and others still don't know about it. A local farmer's grass crops that are used to feed his cattle appear so unatural, they've obviously been intensively sprayed (we call him Pharma Ceutical), and a nearby allotment tenant is spreading manure from his farm all over their plot without testing it. This is why I buy packets of beans and peas that I don't need for sowing when they are heavily reduced at the end of season. Having said that, it's getting impossible to buy farm manure round here due to increased fertilizer costs and 'keep everything on the farm' being practiced, nothing is available anymore.

[@Allotment-diaryUk]

Yep. You need to test your manure.. You can't trust anyone anymore. Cheers Dan

[@katiethompson5568]

Thanks for the info Dan x

[@Allotment-diaryUk]

No probs. Cheers Dan 👍

[@chrisfarrell8796]

Excellent video and especially now with all the peat free composts you don't know what you're getting in the bags any more

[@TazErrant]

Thanks Dan. Great info. I've got about 40 leftover bales of horse hay I'm using for the run and bedding for my organic chickens and from there I was wondering how to check if it was safe to compost and use in my veggie garden. I had finally decided to just throw it away out on the paddock and not use it. But now I will do some testing instead. Thank you!

[@mungrova909]

Thanks a lot, finally I got the information I've been searching for!

[@venenareligioest410]

Thanks Dan 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@rickthelian2215]

A great testing method 😊

[@eadjh98]

Thanks for that Dan! 👍👍

[@UPGardenr]

Thanks for posting

[@loreleikring5188]

Thanks for the information.

[@thomascallaghan5988]

Great video

[@blustardave]

What an interesting vid. I never knew about residual herbicides but now I do and now I know how to find out if the manure is any good :) Cheers. By the way you seem to grow anything at anytime! Up here it's too cold and miserable to start anything off lol. And like Columbo once said. "Just one more thing" That spade thing you have is awesome :) Si thee in a bit or whatever :) Crack on!

[@shazsusus5733]

Great thanks for the info

[@MakkIsLooking]

Thanks! 🙂

[@BionicRasta]

I'm surprised that farmers would feed hay to horses which has been sprayed with herbicides. Are there no regulations to prevent that?

[@Pixieworksstudio]

Sadly most of them don't care if it doesn't affect them or their crops etc. What is a worry is the number of people who take their manure to allotments, most are unaware about what the horses have eaten - where their hay has come from.

[@tanyav8775]

It's pretty bad when you can't trust shite. Wonder if these places you get manure from would let you take a couple nuggets to do the test before you dive into the commitment of getting a load. Imagine getting a load of manure that you can't use. What the bloody hell would you do with it?

[@lynmoore8355]

LOVE your vlog woohoo........... was just wondering when it the best time to pick my broad beans, I have hepas they are talling thne me\

[@Pixieworksstudio]

Greta video thank you. I wonder what it does to horses long-term, and other animals. Just a thought - I have that kind of brain 😁. Also it means people are eating cattle etc that have also eaten it and drunk milk from the animals. I dare say it will come out in the wash 🙂

[@JonFrumTheFirst]

It's an herbicide - it does no harm to animals. It doesn't even do harm to grasses, which is why it's used.

[@Allotment-diaryUk]

We will never know what we eat if we buy it. That's why I grow my own. Would love to keep animals to eat too but I just couldn't bring myself to kill them. Cheers Dan

[@Pixieworksstudio]

@@Allotment-diaryUk That is so true, my lovely. I was explaining to a guy today how the US spray strawberries with tear gas. Bless him, he is now going to grow some.

[@Emeraldwitch30]

Round up(yes I'm using the brand name) has been found to cause certain cancers and if it does it in people you know darn well it will do it to animals too. Another bad one they use in the south here in the US is Grazon. A different youtube Homestead got contaminated hay for his cows and used to make compost and had to remove soil from his greenhouse and replace it due to Grazon. I've been using my grass clippings and leaf drop in fall to make compost. Along with food scrap and chicken poo. But it feels as if I can never make enough. I may start testing any compost I buy in. And you're 100% correct on growing animals for food. Right now I only have hens for eggs and let the loud silly things live out their lives into old age cuz I can't bring myself to cull and eat them. I have raised meat birds but my aunt came and helped. I'm sure hunger would help me change that mind set in the future if things take a turn but is very hard to raise up animals knowing you're going to eat them. But I do deer hunt and butcher out deer so I can't say never to raiding beef or hogs.

[@JonFrumTheFirst]

@@Emeraldwitch30 Roundup became hugely popular among farmers because it could be used in very low dosages, which meant it is very SAFE. You have swallowed the propaganda. Have a nice day.

[@tubthump]

About 8 months ago i got a cubic metre of horse manure which I haven't spread around the plot yet. Its now full of worms and weeds grow on it so I initially thought it would be ok. I grew some peas (way late in the season) adjacent to the pile and they grew up fine but fell victim to what looked like some sort of powdery mildew. I feared the manure pile may have something nasty which leached into the soil the peas were growing in - anyone know if this could be a possibility? I'll definitely be doing this test before I spread it about though. If its dodgy what do I do with a ton of useless manure!? Annoyingly there's quite a lot of 'stones ' in it too - more like a large aggregate gravel like might be found on a gravel path though the plentiful worms don't seem to mind!

[@lynmoore8355]

hey I watched your Leek video, so done exactly what you did, just wondering how long does it take for the leeks to grow big eought to fill the hole/.

[@Allotment-diaryUk]

The hole will usually fill in slowly with the rain before the leek is as thick as the hole but that's fine. Cheers Dan

[@andydawson2070]

Very interesting information, I think the horse muck I have used over the last couple of years is contaminated, I had no idea about this, I just thought I was getting it all wrong. How long does it take to breakdown now that I have mixed it with my soil and cow manure.

[@heidimartin1835]

I think he said 2-3 years

[@Allotment-diaryUk]

Apparently in ideal conditions it can be neutralized by soil microbes within a year if it's a light contamination. Cow muck can have the same problems too though. Just do a test like me and you'll know. Cheers Dan.

[@theressomelovelyfilthdownh4329]

@@Allotment-diaryUk Was going to throw in some broad beans, to see what state a 3rd of my plot is in. It was about six months before I saw anything with a broad leaf. I threw a load in my potato drills, flung a bit more over the ground, then covered the lot with hay from the same place. Wiped out all my potatoes, and nothing but grass has grown there until mid-sept. But then that's spread out in & over the soil. In a plastic Darlack or large mound it could take 18 months plus easy. Esp once you actually dig into it. Test it every six months would be the best bet. That or throw it in a few pallet composters, and let it sit for at least 18 months. And make sure that's well out of the way. You don't even want rain run-off from it anywhere near your plants.

[@VanderlyndenJengold]

We had it. It lasted a year and we saw no further effects. Not to say they weren't there, yet everything looked fine. Really made the runnder beans go very bad though. Very odd-looking growth. We spread out affected manure so it was in contact with soil. It should be banned.

[@Allotment-diaryUk]

Apparently it can be neutralised by the soil if it's mixed in well in a year or so if it is a low concentration so it's not the end of the world. But it will definitely ruin any crops for that 1st year. Cheers Dan 👍

[@pinballwizard6906]

✌️😎

[@jeanhelliwell8160]

Just wondering, does the same issue come with cow muck too. They eat hay too.

[@Allotment-diaryUk]

I think it probably does as the digestion doesn't seem to make a difference and even though cows have 6 or 7 stomachs apparently it still just goes straight through. Also cow muck usually has loads of straw bedding in it too which can also be sprayed with nasties. But quick grow test should be decisive. Cheers Dan

[@andrewjardine3820]

That woz ban yers a go don't yous it eny more

[@Allotment-diaryUk]

There are at least 6 products on the market in the UK which contain aminopyralid . It certainly hasn't been banned.

[@kanhdahar2]

grazon herbicide is some nasty stuff and can cause problems for a decade!