Shelly85
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2009 10:42 am
Location: Kansas City

2, 4-D Question

Hello, I'm new. I just bought a foreclosed on house thanks to my Grandparents offering me a mortgage. I want to start my first ever garden and I wanted to make organic vegetables. I'm trying to get the toxins out of my life because I recently got an autoimmune disease that's now in remission but I want to be careful to make sure it doesn't come back.

So there is this awesome south facing stone wall next to my driveway and it was overgrown with weeds, but I wanted to plant my fall garden there. But then my Grandma said that she saw poison ivy and she sprayed it with 2, 4-D without my permission or knowledge. She told me she did it after the fact. So I look it up online to see how bad it is and it says "2,4-D has also been accused of being responsible for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, endocrine disruption, reproductive and developmental effects, as well as water contamination and toxicity to aquatic organisms."

So now I'm really upset she did this, especially because she knew that I wanted to go organic. So, it was just one spot towards the end that she sprayed, the poison ivy wasn't all over. Do you think that I should put my garden someplace else and how long should I wait before planting there?

Thanks for your advice.

-Frustrated in Kansas City

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Gary350
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7396
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Plant your garden there and make your Grandma eat all the vegatables.

I would not want to eat any vegatables contaminated with 2-4-D.

I have a 31 year old quart bottle of 2-4-5-D known as Agent Orange. Never been opened. It is FREE to anyone that will take it. I might be able to sell it as a collectors item on Ebay.

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rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

2 4 D seems like nasty stuff, but it is biodegradable.

"Typical half-lives are short, ranging from <1 day to several weeks(4-8). Longer half-lives in dry or sandy soils with low organic content are possible https://www.speclab.com/compound/c94757.htm

Assuming we are not talking about dry sandy soil, then taking the worst case scenario of 8 weeks, in 16 weeks 75% would be gone, in 24 weeks 88% would be gone and in 32 weeks 94% would be gone. In the best case scenario, it would essentially all be gone in less than a week.

Given that it is already mid summer, I would just mulch the area over and wait til next spring to plant it.



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