Do you use straw, grass clippings or animal manure in your vegetable garden? If so, you need to take steps to keep herbicide contamination from harming your plants.

Whenever I apprise vegetable gardener to use dried grass clippings as mulch in their veg gardens , I always make certain to add the word “ untreated ” to the advice . Untreated grass newspaper clipping are from lawns that have n’t been treated with any celluloid chemical substance weed cause of death .

The rationality to avoid using treated grass clippings as mulch is that herbicides can deport over into the vegetable garden and sham fruits , vegetables and herbs .

The trouble is n’t limited to supergrass press cutting , either . Straw and animal manure can also have weed killer to be transferred to veg beds .

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I find out this firsthand last time of year when I used well - senior horse manure from a embarkation stable to fecundate my garden . It did n’t take long for me to see novel growth on my tomato plant plant was twist and malformed . weed killer carryover from horse manure takes place when horse eat from smoke - treated pastures .

Weed slayer can impact vegetable crops because the product used to vote down broadleaf weeds remain combat-ready in plant . urine helps herbicides strip into the soil and plant take up the weed slayer . tomato plant and members of the tomato family are especially susceptible to weed killer carryover .

To protect your vegetable garden from a similar problem , always eff the reservoir of any grass clippings , hay , straw or animate being manure you plan to utilise in your garden . Avoid any that may have been treated with dope killer .

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Other tips for head off herbicide carryover in your veg garden :

Herbicide carryover takes clip to form its fashion out of the land . The best way to treat the problem include adding menage - made compost to build up the phone number of good soil organisms , keep the grease evenly moist and use a slightly diluted organic liquid fertilizer weekly .

However , the wise approach is to think about the possibleness of weedkiller carryover before add together anything as a soil amendment or mulch to your veggie garden .

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The new growth on tomato plants shows up twisted and malformed because of herbicide carryover from horse manure.Photo/Illustration: Jodi Torpey

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