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TrueGreen Chem lawn and composting lawn clippings
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Posted by container_blueberry (My Page) on Tue, Nov 3, 09 at 0:12
| My house has been receiving True Green Chem lawn service for serveral years.
They use a variety of chemicals (herbicides, fungicides, insecticides).
How long do I have to wait in order to use my lawn clippings in the compost bin? How long if I complete cancel True Green Chem lawn service?
I am intending on using the compost to grow vegetables in the spring.
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: TrueGreen Chem lawn and composting lawn clippings
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That depends on just what they did use, but for the most part grass clippings can be composted after the third mowing after the application. By then any residual should be washed off the grass.
Same thing after you cancel the "service", after the third mowing any residual should be washed off the clippings. |
RE: TrueGreen Chem lawn and composting lawn clippings
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| Before I assumed any composted material previously treated by TruGreen was safe to use on edibles, I'd want to know exactly what chemicals were used. This company has a terrible reputation that includes using very toxic chemicals, poor customer service, unnecessary and unordered services, aggressive marketing practices and alleged illegal pesticide dumping. If any of their 'treatments' included using the herbicide chlopyralid (marketed by Trugreen under the name Trupower), then your compost could be seriously contaminated. While there is no evidence to support that this herbicide would carry residuals into the food stream and therefore be harmful if ingested, it is extremely persistent even when composted and will affect the ability of various types of plants to grow at all. The difficulty is in confirming this info. Everything I've read about the company (and the list of consumer complaints and even lawsuits is very extensive) is that management is very uncooperative and evasive and you are not likely to get a satisfactory response. Even more so if they think you are considering cancelling their contract. My advice would be not to risk it and cancel the service ASAP. Dump and dispose of any current clippings (and not in your yard waste service, if you have one) and wait until next spring's mowings before including any clippings in a home compost. |
RE: TrueGreen Chem lawn and composting lawn clippings
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| Is it possible these various chemicals may persist in the soil for some time after stopping service? |
RE: TrueGreen Chem lawn and composting lawn clippings
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..
http://ohioline.osu.edu/aex-fact/0714.html
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RE: TrueGreen Chem lawn and composting lawn clippings
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Some chemicals can be very persistant in the soil and some chemical combinations can be very persistant and very toxic. We have seen that around here with several chemical companies causing ground pollution that is still being cleaned up 25 years, or more, after the companies sites were declared hazardous waste sites.
However, in the quantities used in your yard that kind of pollution probably is unlikely and there is a large body of research that indicates having sufficient quantities of organic matter in your soil helps keep any potential harmful substances in the soil and off any food crops you grow. |
RE: TrueGreen Chem lawn and composting lawn clippings
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| I kinda feel that I would compost them seperatly or multch mow for about a year considering you don't know exactly what they put down not only would I cancel them but I would put up a no spaying sign for the first year also as from other stories on here they don't always get there facts strait Just my opinion though |
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