Aminopyralid Concern.

[StringfellowParticipant]

Hi Charles. Knowing all about this situation by following your site, I have been aware of the risk of putting rotten horse muck, from the local stables, on to my plot. All has seemed well over the last couple of years. However, I have just noticed that the ferns on my asparagus seem to be dying off, at least the upper most ferns/ tiny leaves (see attached). Is this just natural shedding of the plant, or something more sinister?

I heavily composted their bed about a month ago, to make more room in my bins for some fresh manure. That spread was well rotted and looked lovely and rich. Also, the Purple Pacific ferns are hardly affected, whereas the Jersey Knight are like those pictured. Slightly concerned by this; I’ve grown these plants from seed and nurtured them for the last five years, looking forward to a first harvest next year…thank you in advance,Tris

[StringfellowParticipant]

Another thought; ferns have been bent slightly due to recent strong winds, despite being supported. Perhaps the ferns rub against each other all day, every day, resulting in fern loss? They just don’t look very well, really hope to get to the bottom of this.

[charlesModerator]

Tris
sorry by mistake I deleted your photo, hope you can upload again.
If Purple is ok, seems unlikely to be herbicide and may be wind.
Also what about other plants growing with that compost?

[StringfellowParticipant]

No worries, photo attached.

I’ve used some of this compost compost to earth up early, second and main crop spuds. The earlies (swift) have been a disaster; 90% failure rate but I put this down to potato seed virus as the plants grew intermittently, some growing ok and others literally dying off. I’ve removed the lot and found the tubers are disfigured, with kind of splits in them, very small harvest. Savoys to go in there to replace them.

However, seconds and mains are growing really well, vibrant with health. So, a bit of a mystery really. Hope it’s not herbicide as the local stables are a real gold mine of fertility! Thanks for any insights, Tris

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[StringfellowParticipant]

Gathered half a bucket of the compost and sown some broad beans in there. I’ll know one way or the other in a months time – fingers crossed it’s wind damage.

[StringfellowParticipant]

Just to follow this up.

Seems the manure was clean after all. Some of the asparagus ferns were broken off in violent winds in late July/ early August and regrowth has occurred since, so the sick look the plants were displaying must have been something else: extreme heat wave, ferns rubbing constantly together in the breeze etc.

What was confusing was the terrible growth of my first early potatoes which had been earthed up with the same compost; 90% of the seed spuds kicked out early growth and then shrivelled up and died off, as if poisoned.

I suppose a test would confirm it for anyone with doubts about their compost source, though my beans never came up in the intense heat of the greenhouse! Apparently a small amount of soil is best mixed in with the test compost which stimulates any potential poison therein. Cheers.

[Author]

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