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| I have a rather large bed in my vegetable garden which I amended last fall with horse manure from a friend's house. This bed sat empty all fall and winter to let the soil mellow. In March I planted tomatoes in wall-o-waters that I had started from seed. The plants initially did well but then as it warmed up some became very scraggly and weak with deformed leaves. The only pictures I can find on the internet that look close are all related to herbicides. Tomatoes planted later in that bed have some similar symptoms but not to the same degree. Onion sets in this bed have done fine, lettuce never germinated.
I am not sure if I get any fruit on the tomatoes if it will be safe to eat. Also, should I replace all of the soil or what would my options be to remediate this bed and get it into production. Thank you. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| That sucks. Did the manure have any straw bedding with it? If so, any chance your friend knows from whence the bedding (or the feed for that matter) came from and if the crop/pasture had been sprayed with any herbicide having clopyralid or picloram in it? Lloyd |
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- Posted by jonhughes So.Oregon (jonehughes@hotmail.com) on Tue, Jul 12, 11 at 15:52
| Hi tishtoshnm, If it was me, I would just press on, add as much compost that you can find and plant a winter cover crop (clover,or whatever grows in your neighborhood......through the new compost.... Mainly realizing that none of us can do anything about what happened to our property before we got there or what "toxic crap" was introduced to our land by us unknowingly... Check out Lloyds operation, his is a perfect example that anything can get introduced into our land, and we just have to overcome it with ....MORE,...more good stuff to off set the bad stuff... Lloyd get 1000s of Bags of Leaves and ????? and he has absolutely no way of knowing what kind of toxic crap has now made it into his system... it sucks...but it is life... But ...I digress, just add what you know to be good compost and sow whatever will grow.... before long, you will be doing fine..... |
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| Lots of problems with contaminated manure & composted products, including commercially produced stuff, the past several year in the US, UK, and Australia. Symptoms mimic damage from 2,4-D. Read this info from WSU |
Here is a link that might be useful: contaminated compost and/or manure
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- Posted by tishtoshnm (My Page) on Thu, Jul 14, 11 at 9:45
| Thank you for all the information. There was bedding in the manure but it is unlikely that my friend has any indication of what may have been used in it. We have been in contact with our county extension agent who has recommended that we make sure we keep watering the bed to leach out the herbicide (we are hoping for a good monsoon season this year). This weekend will be spent searching for some reasonably priced back-up plants to put in other beds we are developing for ornamentals. I really hope to make some tomato sauce this year. Thank you as well for the links. We have 2 other manure piles from a different neighbor where they used oat hay. We are trying to decide how to move forward with that. I can definitely say after this, I have increased my knowledge base beyond what it was last week! |
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| One of the reasons I shy away from using manures in my composting endeavors. If the supplier knows the history of the feed/bedding I might consider it but it's easier just to not use it IMO. Lloyd |
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| Please post pictures of your affected plants |
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| I dunno if its applicable where you are, but up here, right before the monsoons, we often get the winds coming in off the desert carrying the leaf hoppers and their lovely curly top virus. - the tomato leaves get deformed, curl upside down, and the plants usually wilt. Anything like that? |
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| tishtoshnm - If it is clopyralid you could use activated charcoal to neutralize it. I first read of this in The Ann Lovejoy Handbook of Northwest Gardening: Natural, Sustainable, Organic by Ann Lovejoy. In the book she explains how to test your compost/soil by growing peas in 2 different containers with bagged potting soil in the other one. |
Here is a link that might be useful: curtail clopyralid contamination
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- Posted by tishtoshnm (My Page) on Sun, Jul 17, 11 at 23:17
| Thank you for all of the suggestions. Jean, I will try and take some pictures tomorrow. David, curly top is a possibility down here but the symptoms are not all that indicative. The leaves are severely deformed, the plants are stunted but there has been no wilt and no discoloration. We were able to get 6 tomato plants for $1 a piece and some others for around $3 so I have 9 plants and hope for this year and more knowledge for next year. I will definitely be checking out the charcoal suggestion as well. Thank you. |
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- Posted by tishtoshnm (My Page) on Fri, Jul 22, 11 at 15:37
| Jean, I am sorry it took so long to get these up. But here are some pictures of the damage. In one pic you can see where a fruit is forming in a curlicue as well. I have 2 of the large beds like picture 4 that have a lot of manure of them and two 4 x 10 (ish) beds as well that we will be remediating. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Pics of herbicide damage
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