Herbicide Drift Impact Update
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- Tomatoes are very susceptible to dandelion herbicides that include ingredients such as Dicamba and 2,4-D. Five weeks ago we had five greenhouses full of tomatoes damaged by herbicide drift just one week before our annual spring plant sale began. We cried a little as we scrambled to assess the damage, recontact all of our customers, and tried to fill the orders we could fill. We found that many of you had your own story of herbicide drift damage to share. Some customers had seen this kind of damage before and not known what it was. There were even some lightbulb moments as some customers realized that they had unintentionally caused damage to their own gardens. Its been a big learning experience for us as well! The good news is that many of the lightly affected plants are growing out of the damage, and even some of the more affected plants are looking better. Here is our update that covers, how much we lost in sales, how the plants are doing now and how we are feeling about next year.
Thank you for your transparency. This year was the first year I have ordered from you. My plants are doing terrific except for the deer damage that you had nothing to do with! My peppers already producing, one of the four tomato are producing fruit! I have zero hesitancy ordering from you again, and have bragged you up to many of my gardening friends and neighbors! I sure hope you don't give up, as I for one would surely be sad to hear that.
If there's any way to give towards helping you with lost revenue, please let us know. I would be willing to contribute for sure! That's what neighbors do!
Thanks!! We're so glad your plants are doing well! I love these kinds of reports! We will be fine, it was discouraging, but not a financial ruin. One bonus is that we got to save all the pots from the plants that got ruined which is actually one of the more expensive inputs. Thank you for your generous heart and kind words!
Oh man, do I feel your pain! I'm a backyard gardener who lost an entire crop of tomatoes to herbicide drift from my back fence neighbor 2 years ago. So last year after moving the bed to the opposite end of the yard, I was rewarded with a crop that included 25 pounds of beautiful San Marzano's from one plant.
But now, what was shaping up to be another bumper crop appears to be lost again-this time at the hands of our condo landscapers who showed up unannounced, and sprayed a common area, just several feet from the fence where my current bed is located. Although I share your sentiment regarding a civil suit, I am still livid to the point of considering compensation from ether our condo association, the landscapers-or both. Even maintaining a backyard garden is a substantial expense of time and money for a 74 year old. Besides, at my age, every season is a bonus.
So very sorry this happened. 🙏
What a huge disappointment for you, I am so sorry. All the time, effort, money you put into this venture and have to suffer such a loss. You have always been so helpful and your plants are amazing! I am already reaping cucumbers off the plant I purchased from you. I do so hope you continue your business but understand how hard that derision must be. I will continue to be a customer for sure.
Thank you for your kind words! You and people like you are the best part of the whole plant sale and the biggest incentive to keep going. We love being able to talk with everyone every spring about gardens and things and it makes us happy to hear great updates on successes and harvests!
Thank you for being so Transparent! Your example of a successful gardener and business is phenomenal! Your tomatoes look amazing! I wish I had good advice on what I would do in your situation- a controlled environment would help like a building, or a sealed green house would be very helpful.
Thanks Lisa! I agree it would be awesome to have a controlled area. It's hard to avoid. I noticed that even some of the replacement plants I bought at big box stores had light herbicide damage. I was wishing someone would develop herbicide resistant tomatoes :)
I’m so sorry this happened to you.
I am sorry this happened to your plants. I have learned so much this year about herbicide damage! I started all of my own tomato plants and I believe that some of them have received herbicide damage as well. Most of my suburban neighbors have lawn services, and I do as well, so there is no telling if the damage was from my service or a neighbor's. I contacted my lawn service company and they were extremely defensive about their spraying practices. They offered to get plant tissue tests done, but the tests would be at my cost if they came back negative. I decided against testing because while the damage appeared obvious, I couldn't determine the source and, like you, they couldn't replace the plants with like varieties of the same size. I also wasn't sure if the test would be effective a few weeks after exposure. In future years, I am considering keeping my plants in the house until a little later to try to avoid the main dandelion spraying season. That probably is not an option for you given the number of plants that you start. I hope you continue and I hope that this does not happen again for you.
It has been a big learning experience! Herbicide damage is much more common than even I thought. We had so many people tell us their story of previous damage to their own gardens when they came to pick up plants. It is really hard to prove where herbicide drift comes from. I've been impressed with how well some of the plants have recovered. We will see what the report says when it comes, there were lots of opportunities to be hit.
Since herbicides/pesticides do not dissipate, drift can still occur for months when they volatilize (turn to gas) in hot weather. What does that say for our kids and critters playing on summer lawns?
As far as compensation from polluters, how does one place a value on a priceless labor of love?
I would suspect a lawn service over homeowner applied, because we used to deal with this issue with the next door neighbor's lawn service spraying on windy days. We showed the neighbor the damage, which mainly was to our Rose of Sharon at the property line. The neighbor weighed our 'advice' and discontinued the lawn service and we haven't had any issues since. I believe they spray to get paid and disregard windy conditions.
I'm glad you and your neighbor could agree! We've had neighbors like that to and its wonderful. We help them weed now, but i'm so grateful they stopped too.
Same happened to me! Devastating to see. Crazy how this is happening to so many all of a sudden. I only use Neem oil and DE. I’m guessing it was a neighbor. How do I prevent it next year? I want to confront the neighbors but why would they care. I’m guessing a shade cloth could prevent it next year.
It does seem like there was a lot of damage this year. Talking to the neighbors has been very helpful for us. Generally everyone is trying to do their best. I don't think most people even understand the risks. If its sold at the store and they are using it as the label directs they might not even be aware of the trouble it can cause.
@@iowabackyardfarmer2952 I would agree. I still cannot believe roundup is on the shelf. As for my neighbors, I have never spoken to them so confronting them would seem hasty. They are not the friendly type even though we have made attempts of saying hello. Sad. We used to have neighbors all around us that were friends.
@@t.k159 Maybe take some fresh homemade cookies to your neighbors??? While we can agree roundup has its fair share of problems, roundup is not an ingredient in dandelion sprays (it would kill the grass and likely only stunt the dandelions). The dandelion spray that caused our problems most likely have dicamba and/or 2,4-D as the active ingredients (we'll know more once the lab tests are back). Glyphosate (common trade name is Roundup) causes different symptoms than we had. The one benefit of glyphosate/Roundup is it stays where it is sprayed, whereas some formulations of 2,4-D and dicamba volatilize and move wherever the wind takes them. Best wishes for future garden success!
Can we still eat the crops? I had all of my tomato plants got herbicide, including my pepper and my potato and my beans. We have lawn service each month and I didn't even know this until all of my plants got herbicide. I was very disappointed and don't know how to deal with them.
Good question! We haven’t found anything scientific telling us if they are safe or not. In our case the inspector came and took samples of dozens of damaged plants. We just got the results and the results are that the levels that impacted so many of our plants were so low that the tests they used couldn’t even detect the herbicides that damaged them. Also, ours were impacted when they were relatively small before all the new growth and flowers and fruit were put in them. Given the timing and low amounts we experienced, we didn’t have any concerns eating the tomatoes our plants produced. If ours had been hit with herbicide later in the season when fruits were already growing or the fruits were malformed, we would likely just discard them and not risk eating anything potentially unsafe. I don’t have advice for your situation; that is just how we have handled ours.
@@iowabackyardfarmer2952 Gotcha. The fruit actually looked normal, but I probably won't eat them. :)
2-4 D, dicamba are terrible for tomatoes.
Just tomatoes? How about the rest of life on this planet?
@@larrysmacit got all my night shade plants..my pepper, my tomato and my potato and my pole bean. I was wondering how I can prevent it.
@@Hybscrafthouse Check your State Ag. Dept. In Michigan they create a case file, and send out an inspector who does an assessment which includes taking photos, measurements, and plant and soil samples for lab testing. Granted this can't save the affected plants or fix the damage, but at least they can determine liability, cite and fine the guilty party if warranted.
On a positive note, my tomatoes have since recovered, producing normal healthy foliage and tons of fruit.