Licensed sprayers please weigh in.
So basically hay, grass clippings and manure can contain ‘persistent’ herbicides, which, even after composted can kill or distort growth in fruit trees, garden veggies, potted plants, etc. Their half-life is about 18 months. The active ingredients of greatest concern are picloram, clopyralid, and aminopyralid because they can remain active in hay, grass clippings, piles of manure, and compost for an unusually long time.
Apparently the instructions for these say that whatever is sprayed with these ‘persistent’ herbicides is not to be used for composting (for just these reasons).
Anyway this problem is showing up in backyard gardens.
Here in VA
And even to gurus who do gardening shows
So, where does the responsibility lie to inform people about these so that doesn’t happen to us? I called a local supplier of compost and he was totally unaware of the problem. What’s more, his attitude was more like, “Well, we’ve never had that problem. We can’t send every thing we get to the lab. (Let us know if it causes you problems.)”
Quotes from the web (sorry, didn’t always save the link)
“DuPont now has the herbicide aminocyclopyrachlor which has been marketed as Imprelis to the landscape industry–people who need a pesticide license to apply it. However, Scotts is going to be adding it to a product for homeowners– people who don’t have a pesticide applicator license. Watch for it in some of the Scotts Miracle-Gro weed control products in a garden center or big box store near you! They feel they are doing their part to keep them out of your gardens by including on the label instructions to not use what is taken off the fields or landscapes in compost or as mulch. In the real world, however, these things DO end up as compost or mulch.”
Since 2008, we’ve been reporting on the dangers of pyralid herbicides (including Milestone, Forefront and other trade names), which turn grass clippings, manure or hay into killer compost or mulch that can ruin gardens and farmland for years.
After one season of use, Imprelis has been implicated in the injury or death of thousands of trees. Conifers that are growing in or near grassy areas treated with Imprelis, and are showing new growth that is brown and twisted, have been reported in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Iowa, Delaware , Indiana, Nebraska , Wisconsin, and several other states. Michigan State has published an advisory on What to Do With Imprelis-Affected Trees, and Purdue University in Indiana has set up channels for Imprelis related herbicide complaints, as have Nebraska and Wisconsin.
DuPont never denied Imprelis-treated lawns would create killer compost. Lost in a 19-item bulleted list on Page 7 of the nine-page Imprelis label, we found this language:
“Do not use grass clippings from treated areas for mulching or compost, or allow for collection to composting facilities. Grass clippings must either be left on the treated area, or, if allowed by local yard waste regulations, disposed of in the trash. Applicators must give verbal or written notice to property owner/property managers/residents to not use grass clippings from treated turf for mulch or compost.”
For now, it looks like my only recourse is to get a small sample, plant some beans in it and see if they get distorted growth. I’d like to convince my local guy to at least ASK his suppliers (he wouldn’t give me the info so I could ask), but maybe, if the law says something about this it will motivate him. So that is my question.
Ok so does this label have legal force?