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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

I wonder if this Compost Mulch has toxic poison in it?

Our country has a recycle center they have trucks that drive around towns picking up organic material people throw on the street to be picked up. Rake your tree leaves, trim your tree, cut off limbs, cut the whole tree down throw it on the street city with take away. Bush live or dead put them out of the round or cut them off then put them on the street city will take them away. Vacuum trucks suck up all the tree leaves that are raked to the street. The country has a mulch grinding machine it will mulch a 3 foot diameter log 8 ft long or anything else they put in the machine. All the mulch goes in a big pile that is usually about 700 ft long, 50 ft wide, 25 ft high, it sets there for 2 years before they give it away free. Every summer they start making a new pile. Monday I noticed the pile they give away this year is almost gone so I got my little pickup truck full Monday & Tuesday. Even thought the recycle center loaded my truck I had to unload it by hand that took 2 hours each time. Today I rented a 6ft x 10ft electric bump trailer for $50. I hauled 4 load today in 3 hours each load is about 4000 lbs. Including the mulch I hauled in my little truck I have about 20,000. lbs of mulch. About May when soil is dry enough to till I will start putting this in the garden.

This evening I got to thinking how 95% of the population strays Round up and Weed B gone and other toxic cancer causing poison on their yard I wonder if this free mulch of full of toxic cancer causing poison?
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Last edited by Gary350 on Fri Dec 07, 2018 7:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Ouch! I can understand how that might feel to suddenly wonder something like that. :( :?

I was going to say the best and easiest thing to do is test by growing some seeds (I was going to say peas in cool season, beans in warm season), but wanted to make sure I had the correct procedure memorized so looked it up — here’s an excerpt, and the link where I got it from:
Bioassay test- this is the best way to test for possible contamination. You just mix some of the suspect material (hay, grass clippings, manure, compost) with a soil-less growing mix, dump it in a nursery pot, plant pea or bean seeds and observe what happens. Contamination is indicated if the seeds don’t germinate or seedlings emerge that are twisted and deformed.
Gardener Alert! Beware of Herbicide- Contaminated Compost and Manure | University of Maryland Extension
https://extension.umd.edu/learn/gardene ... and-manure

...you’ll have at least another 3 to 4 months for them to break down some more too — maybe it would be best to leave the mulch in a pile over the winter (if you decide to keep it) rather than spreading/tilling in right away).

PaulF
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Location: Brownville, Ne

I agree with applestar, mix the compost with soilless mix and grow seeds to see how they look. Many herbicides will last longer in the compost than the few months until your growing begins. Round up has a very short life so that one you can disregard, but weed killers used on turf can persist for a long time. Hopefully your compost is safe enough to use, especially with all the hard work put into the project.

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

Personally, I wouldn't think it is much of a problem. People don't much spray their big trees, oaks and maples and such. It sounds like most of what you are getting is leaves and wood chips. If there is a small amount of something that was sprayed mixed in, it has been sitting for two years already. That is enough to break down most toxins.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

It is a problem with green waste. People throw things in the can that they should not. Herbicide damaged plants have been documented when compost that was not aged long enough, especially when compost was used in quantity. Although,I suspect it was under reported since some people may not have realized what was causing it.

Here, that is not so much a problem of herbicide damage as with weeds that survive composting, like nutsedge. The local compost is also not aged for a long time and the latest analysis showed it had a pH 8.13, it was pH 7.8 in the year before. The high pH indicates an immature compost and you can tell that. When we get a truckload of compost, it is still hot and you can see the actinomycetes in the compost that is still working on it. It takes a couple of months more for the pile to cool down and the actinomycetes to be gone. At the garden, I have to use it since I do not have any other filler. As a result, some plants will not grow. The ones that do, need to tolerate more alkaline conditions. I do use sulfate of ammonia since it is very low in nitrogen and needs the sulfur.



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