Our aminopyralid problem was featured on Gardeners' World last night which has resulted in more info on people affected. If you have been affected keep sending your details please.
GW had to cut out a lot of the content that they filmed during their visit as the programme last night had to fit in so much but I just hope it managed to reach some people who don't have internet access and haven't read anything in any newspapers. Please keep spreading the information among your gardening friends to try and prevent more of them becoming victims.
7 months ago
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I caught Gardeners World just as the aminopyralid problem was being aired and this was the first I'd heard of it, so I'm very grateful to you for your great efforts to publicise what's happening.
ReplyDeleteI don't have an allotment (nearest ones are 12 miles away) but I put in raised beds this year and bought in some well-rotted cow manure from a local farm to get things off to a good start. Fortunately we seem to have escaped contamination.
The reason I'm writing is that I've seen several comments here, and on other sites discussing the problem, about newly transplanted beans, squash, etc, being very slow to get going and speculating that this might be one of the effects of the contamination.
It's been my experience, and also that of at least half a dozen other gardeners I've spoken to here (Scottish Borders), that this has been a common thing this year. My climbing french beans, butternut squash and courgettes did absolutely nothing for a good 6 weeks after planting out, then suddenly took off at the end of July. (The squash still haven't flowered, though the beans are beginning to and the courgettes are starting to crop well now.) This was the case regardless of whether I bought the plants in from a nursery or they were gifts from friends which they'd raised from seed, so I think maybe this could be just one of the vagaries of this particular growing season.
Hi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments.
You are quite right in your comments about members of the squash family.
I did query this with the RHS and they told me that often after transplanting these plants suffer a set-back but if left will - get going. I think often people pull up the plants before they get to the growing stage. Ours seem to revel in the manure contaminated or not. In fact in one of the pieces of the Gardeners' World interview that was cut I did talk about just this.
If plants just look a bit yellow and sickly then it is likely to be cultural problems. Our runner beans however have shown the typical cupped leaves, thickening of leaves and stunted growth that is caused by herbicide poisoning. It's one of those things isn't it talk about a disease and you see it everywhere? The cases in our victims list however are almost certainly herbicide related. I hope you continue to avoid any problem. We haven't had any direct contact with anyone from Scotland yet so it isn't represented on our map but I know that the problem has been noticed in Scotland.
Thanks very much for that information.
ReplyDeleteI think the comments people have made to me here about the slowness of veg to get going this year were in the sense of it being more general, and slow beyond what you might usually expect. I don't know how widespread that experience has been, but it seems quite common in this area.
So far I haven't heard from anyone who has the distinctive symptoms of aminopyralid contamination. Gardeners' talk has been more about the vast numbers of voracious slugs this year.