Very informative! You have quite the detective skills. I'm sorry to hear it happened to you but kudos for figuring out what is going on. I guess I'm wondering if you trust eating anything that grew in those beds? I think I would hesitate and just start over. Maybe build raised planters that have all fresh soil and start again.

I appreciate the information so now if something similar happens after an application of fertilizer I will know what is going on. I do know that once time we had a gardener plant our new plants and she offered to amend the soil with her special prep. Everything she planted turned black and died. I have no idea what she had in that stuff but it was disastrous.

Sorry to hear about your Gardening Catastrophe, Zach! I was wondering too how you figured out what the problem was, so thanks for the info! Like Laura said on the other thread, nursery size pots should be workable for this year if you don't have enough space in "other places!" Peppers probably wouldn't need that big of pots, and tomatoes do need pretty big pots, but can definitely be grown in pots if you're around to keep them watered! (With Paulino's gong out of business, possibly you could pick up some BIG pots cheap there--or look for some on Craig's List or somewhere!)

I'm really surprised it's legal to sell stuff that has that long a half-life--even after being "processed thru an animal!" After you take some of the soil out of there--if that's what you're planning to do--is there any chance that a monocot cover crop of some sort would help to "dissipate" it more quickly? I don't know that, just a thought! Obviously it would need to be something that wouldn't present a reseeding problem down the line!

If you have a thistle problem out there have you considered the possibility of getting a few goats? I know it would be something "extra" to take care of--tho it's my impression that as long as they have water they pretty much take care of themselves--but they eat ANYTHING, including poison ivy and pine needles! Assuming you have coyotes up there--and possibly other predators!--you might need to also get a Great Pyrenees or some other type of "guard dog" to protect them, but goats, with a "movable" fence to keep them where you want them "eating," is a possible non-toxic solution for some of your weed problems! (It's also possible, I think, to "rent" goats if you wanted to give it a try first! I don't think they'd be much help with your cattail problem--but who knows, they just might mow them down too!!!)

It was so cool to see your big garden when we were up there for the swap, and it's so sad to know that you won't really be able to use it this year! Will keep my fingers crossed that the problem can be improved enough by next year that you'll be off and running next spring!

Skybird

Sorry to hear about your misfortunes. These persistent herbicides are why I stopped using straw and hay as mulch. Still haven't found an organic source for straw and hay. Maybe I can ask around next time we go to Boulder farmer's market. Now I'm using fall leaves as mulch.

Ugh!! What a mess.

Now you've got me wondering about the hay and bagged compost that's out there. Should we do a plant bioassay each time we want to add it to our gardens? Or just switch to non-pastured sources of compost, i.e., kitchen compost or leaf compost to be safe?

I'm glad it was informative for you, as frustrating as it is, at least others can learn from it, though, hopefully it's not something you ever have to deal with. As far as eating the crops, according the literature I red, it only takes about 1 ppb (that's parts per BILLION) to damage sensitive crops like potatoes and lettuce. We mix Milestone at work at 7 oz per acre, which is a very small amount. Consider that 2, 4-d dicamba tells you that it can be mixed up to 8 pints (that's 1 full gallon) per acre to treat "perennial weeds in croplands rotated to wheat." Now 2, 4-d doesn't have near the residual effects in the soil as aminopyralid, but the amount of herbicide present in my soil is probably infinitesimal. I won't be eating potatoes, mostly because I won't get any but even so, I probably would shy away from pesticide damaged produce. The broccoli and cabbage I think will be fine to eat. Now I probably won't eat cabbage that is potentially laced with aminopyralid breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next year. But, animals graze of pastures that are full of this stuff and wind up just s***ing it out with no apparent problems. Chances are, we are already eating ground beef that has been pastured on ranges and bread that is baked from wheat grown in fields that were sprayed with it. A few heads of cabbage that may or may not contain a few ppb of it is probably the least of the bad things that go into my body.

I have never had a problem with straw and hay used as mulch before, but I probably wont be using it any time soon. We don't have a lot of leaves out here though. I use "germination" matting (it's not actually straw, it's shaved aspen fibers) as a mulch when I plant seeds to keep the soil from drying out while they are germinating. I would work well as a general mulch, but that would sure get expensive. I probably SHOULDN'T be too terribly worried, and I don't think you should be losing a ton of sleep over using straw mulch and bagged compost but this little adventure has got me somewhat "gun shy" and the problem is definitely something to be aware of.

I started excavating the tainted soil from my beds today. I guess it's sort of like "double digging" only instead of putting the soil at the end of the row, you put it in a wheelbarrow and cart it away, haha. While I don't relish all the lost time and effort, I have a weird fondness for being behind a shovel so the work itself doesn't bother me, just the lost time.

Luckily many of my peppers already go in pots. I grow them in 5 gallon "Homer" buckets that I've drilled holes in. They work great until about august when they take watering at least twice a day. I've also cleared out an area at the end of the bed that has the asparagus growing in it (sorry, I like green chile A LOT more than asparagus) for the rest of the peppers. The tomato's, eggplants, and beans went into the beds that did not get any compost in them and the pumpkins and cucumbers (curcurbits are much more tolerant of aminopyralid then the others) are going into the excavated beds once the new soil gets added. There will be quite a few feet of row left since the peppers, tomatillos and beans all got moved to new locations and their numbers also reduced. I cut out the pole beans all together and planted quite few less tomatoes and a lot less bush beans than I had planned. I will probably plant a few rows of beans to test the areas that are getting new soil as well.

I was curious about the cover crop as well, Skybird. It's one reason I'm leaving the sick potatoes, in hopes they "suck up" more herbicide. I'm not sure if that's how it works or not, but it's worth a shot I suppose. I was thinking of planting some of the Indian corn seed I have on hand to use as a "cover crop" but I don't know if the seed is any good. Again, I won't be out anything if I just go ahead and plant it I guess.

I have been toying with the idea of goats for weed control for a long time now. They are GREAT for targeted grazing, especially things like leafy spurge that most other livestock can't eat because it is toxic (I have seen photos of entire ranges that were a complete monoculture of leafy spurge turn into beautiful meadow after a couple years of intensive grazing by goats). Goats and sheep have extra large livers that make it possible for them to eat plants that cows and horses cannot. But I really don't want to buy my own goats, like you said, it's yet one more thing to take care of. Renting them for a little while would be a good option, or finding someone who has some goats and would be interesting in pasturing them out here for some targeted weed control would be even more awesome. Hey, there people who lease farms for growing corn and pastures for cattle, surely there's someone who wants goats but doesn't have their own space for them right? Heck, if they eat all the weeds, I don't know if there would be any real need to charge them!

Again, I do believe that this, and other, herbicides have their place. The fight against noxious and invasive species is a very real problem and aminopyralid does work, and works well. It offers fantastic control of plants like Canada thistle and knapweeds that threaten our native plant communities in a BIG way. To me, it is an important aspect of a good IPM strategy which also includes other methods such as the targeted grazing, biological controls like have been used on Tamarisk (unfortunately that ended poorly for the S.W. willow flycatcher and is now prohibited EVERYWHERE), mechanical control (I spent yesterday afternoon digging up large patches of mullein and Scotch thistle in fact), and cultural controls like prescribed burning. Pesticides have their place with all these other methods and, unless there is some ecological harm (like we saw with DDT) or human health hazard associated even with their PROPER use, they are a benefit in my opinion. But we need to understand how they work, their effects, and it is CRITICALLY important that people simply READ THE LABEL!!!

I can't be sure of the cause, but I had some herbicide residue in my backyard soil. Not everywhere but in certain places. When I bought my home in 2013 the back yard was all but dead. No grass - no worms - no birds visiting - not even rolly polys could be found. It's been six years now, and I this year is the first I haven't seen any signs of the herbicide. It was mostly tomatoes, peppers and beans I saw the effects on in the past - through trial and error I learned where to not plant certain things.

I don't use any 'cides on my property. I understand they have their purpose, but I don't think folks from the public should be able to buy or use any of them. All should require a professional license.

Six years later though, my yard is vibrant and lush with a multitude of vermin and birds!

ZachS, it's been two years, did you replace all the soil, or were you able to find out how long it stayed in your soil? I have some in some of mine, so was curious if it would leach out, or be broken down by the bacteria over winter?