Jim Cowperthwaite

Thanks for the reply posts! And especially for the offer for help! I am on the south end. Now that the discovery, anger, grieving, and political noise made, I have been working the recovery. The problem I have now is that I have about 30 yds of contaminated soil piled up in a more benign part of the property that will have to be dealt with and need replacement. I am concerned I could get the same thing back if I do that. So, much to my disdain, I figure I will sacrifice other fallow beds for now to replace the most critical areas. I will have to face that music later. At this point I was lucky in that I planted a row of beans in my beets, not a good idea after the beets are started, but I harvested the beets and salvaged the bean row, so I am getting some in now. The clean half of a carrot bed I harvested yesterday and will process today. So things are coming along, slowly. I am not sure about the corn at this point, I had put a small amount of manure on the root zone of each plant. Then of course it rained incessantly! But we took that out along with the first inch of topsoil. I have noticed one thing though. Affected plants appear to have an odor, kind of a solvent, that gets in the breath. I have noticed that three times while moving them. Anybody else notice that? Jim

I have split plantings of the affected plants. So I have tomatoes in this stuff, and not. Same with potatoes, beans. I think I built a bioassay on a larger scale. The difference in obvious. There are many other plants that should have showed up by now, as I plant intensively. Try to fill every space with something. When planting season is on, I get a bit crazy. I like surprises. I don't always remember what I put where when it comes to the miscellaneous. What surprises I thought I might have are either mutated (cucumbers), failed to thrive, or just not there at all, as I try to remember in my craziness what I planted out there. Since I made manure tea out of this stuff for my plant starts, I mysteriously lost some of those, and it looks like what did survive to transplant stage didn't do too well. One example is onions. I grew starts from seed, didn't have enough for the whole bed, which did not get any of this stuff, so I filled the rest with bulbs from the store. The bulbs did ok, the starts from seed never thrived. I have half a bed of carrots that got some of the 'stuff', and today noticed some wilting of the plants not present in the other half. I always put the potting soil the starts grew in with them when I transplant, trying to not shock them too much. So if there was any affect by the tea, it went into the bed with them. I really done it good! I got wind of some progress in this matter, so I have my hopes up, hopefully not for naught! Jim

I wasn't only tired, I had pneumonia! No wonder I was out of steam.

The symptoms, general concensus of opinion here, the possible method transport, and the general location from whence it came points right at aminopyralid. I understand a product named Forefront, which is popular for hay fields, may also contain 2,4D. It is surmised it came in a 2010 hay cutting. This is incidious, that a product could be created by the chemists they must have known would be terminal to farms dependant on imported manure for their nutrients. All small farms here, at least ones I know with an occasional exception, have to import. We turned half the garden, fallow at the time (not now!), to a herd of 16 goats with the intent of making our own manure. The problem was my garden was in dire need or organic material, a large injection, as it were. All these years I had resisted import, did it twice, and got bit. Without dirt replacement, which is about as traumatic to a garden one can get (thinking about when I started with sand on top of peat and added bags and bags of various mineral nutrients). That's 1/2 an acre! Of course I was in my 40's then with lots of energy. All had to be hauled in by tractor bucket, one by one. Slowing down a bit these days, don't know if I have the energy to move 100 yds. Taking the day off today, I am runout, tired, exhausted from all this. Dirt replacment, similar to realizing a wooden boat needs to be refastened, did that last summer. Jim

Arrgg, me too here on Whidbey Island Washington. My farm I built 14 years ago has been put out of commission quite effectively by the same problem as you. I can't find any help anywhere other than the state taking soil samples, but I have to sit here and wait a month for results. I picked up a few truckloads of manure from a local farm, put it in most of my beds, either by rototilling, top dressing, or making manure tea. And now I understand, under good management, I MIGHT get this stuff worked out of the soil in a few years. You have every reason to be upset, I am no spring chicken here and am not up to 50yds of soil replacement. I have been researching since July 15, emailing, contacting, all that. Pretty much what I get is T/S. Us farmers, homesteaders, don't get no respect. I have to wait until the end of August for the results, and in the meantime look at all the losses. I can't even sell any produce any more as that is illegal if it is tainted. I had a vision today of all four of our local farmer's markets full of crafters and no food. The freezer is looking like it will be bare this year, maybe next. You are not just ranting, you have every reason to be extremely hurt and upset that your land has been compromised by that which you try to avoid by growing your own, same here.