Herbicidal Plants for a new grower

calico20hill

I have a neighbor who is one of the new recruits to Dahlia-dom. IN fact, it is this young woman who is growing out extra seedlings of mine. Unfortunately she seems to have gotten a load of garden soil infested with herbicide. She spent a fortune (her words) on cuttings of all the most popular and beautiful dahlias this year, and created a new bed for them in her garden. They are now showing signs that the soil has herbicides. I am not sure how long ago she put her rooted cuttings into it but long enough that they are showing damage. So what would you all do? She plans to move them all today but our temps have been in the upper 80-s into the 90's. Today is going to be a bit cooler but it will warm back up soon.

Yes, she got her soil at our local distributors that I use , but not the same batch. She did not know about the pea test (Now she does).

Does anyone know of a resource that basically tells you what to do if you have this happen to you? How do you get compensation from the soil company, and how do you save your plants?

Krista

calico20hill Gosh this sounds heartbreaking. I hope all of the big brains here can help!

SteveM

calico20hill Noni, how has she determined that she is dealing with herbicide damage and not insect damage, etc.? I have seen mite, thrips, or even earwig damage that mimics herbicide damage and might fool even an experienced grower.

calico20hill

Krista Yes, It is heartbreaking and I really feel for her. She says she has them all moved into other soil now, and wonder of wonders, we have had clouds and a little rain even today so hopefully they will not suffer too badly. The temperature is even down to 75 from the recent high 80's and 90's and I have been rained out of my garden twice today. (I love it!)

calico20hill

Yes, we talked about that but this came on immediately after she transplanted them into the new soil. And her other dahlias are not showing signs of the same damage which I think they would ifit was insects.

SteveM

calico20hill Yes, we talked about that but this came on immediately after she transplanted them into the new soil. And her other dahlias are not showing signs of the same damage which I think they would ifit was insects.

calico20hill Maybe contact your county extension agent to ask the best course of action. Several years ago I knew a tomato grower who was compensated by the company that manufactured the herbicide. They removed all of the contaminated soil and replaced it. She should also contact the source of her soil and work with them to find a solution.

AKWindWatcher

I truly hope the cuttings recover! Although it truly might be contaminated soil, for what it's worth, I have noticed that the insects tend to go for my cuttings first before anything else. I have theories about that - like maybe the cuttings don't have the same strength as those that have grown up from tubers - but nothing concrete. I am playing with Brix this year and when I measured the Brix level of the cuttings vs. the tuber grown ones the cuttings were lower to not even registering.

calico20hill

SteveM I will recommend that she contact the county extension agent. I have no idea who that would be here but I hope she does. I think she has been around this area for a lot longer then I have and she is a real estate agent so she is used to dealing with people.

It is sad that we have to import growing mix soil but where we live it is all "Cold Hard Clay" as a farmer from the sandy soil down by the Columbia called it. I'm too old to dig up cold hard clay! I can't even get a spade into it! It has been interesting calling on all my garden learning experiences to figure out how to cope with this soil. The commercial farms like pumpkins, corn and Christmas Trees all seem to be down by the river in the sandy soil. I had no idea when we bought this place! I just saw 2 acres out in the country with a house I knew we could be comfortable in.

Teddahlia

Christmas Trees are grown on red clay soil in the Oregon City area. Many thousands of acres of them. They sometimes use helicopters to to help with the harvest. I have read that calcium sulfate, that is known as gypsum breaks up clay soil.

calico20hill

OH, good to know, Ted! I'll do a bit more research on that. YEs, the evergreens along the creek look in good health , though the pines along the other side of the yard have many dead branches. They were probably planted when the farm was broken up into small acreages for homes but I have no idea how long ago that was, maybe 40+ years?

Bessie

calico20hill I've heard of using cover crops to loosen soil, specifically daikon radishes. Search in your favorite web browser "planting radishes for soil improvement".

calico20hill

Bessie Now that is an interesting idea! Once we get the drain" that apparently used to work but doesn't anymore" for the upper part of the property replaced I would love to get the soil where I Have been doing raised beds and grow bags to work for an "in ground" garden...and for my roses that suffer through the cold season in too wet soil.If we divert the the flow from the upper acre into the ditches and drains that I think once worked, I could probably do something with the garden as it is, once the wet season starts one slithers and slides through it...