Steve,
Thanks for setting the record straight with some factual info. I had assumed
that the phytotoxicity was the result of poor composting techniques causing
the production of plant toxins, not any of the herbicides used today. Mainly
because, as the good Doctor said, today's pesticides readily break down in a
composting environment. (The problem of them persisting is in areas where the
soil has been practically sterilized from heavy use of chemicals and salt
fertilizers.) A compost pile has, generally, a high amount of bioactivity
capable of breaking down the herbicides used these days- atrazine being one of
the most stable and therefor persistent.
The chlordane mentioned is an insecticide which is produced here but banned
for use. Mainly because of its persistence. That's what made it such a good
treatment of foundations for termites. What they found were probably traces
left over from use years ago.
This just proves that not all compost is equal. We need to know the people
who are producing the compost and their reputations. Is this the beginning of
something like "The National Composters Council"?
Alex McGregor
Walden Farm
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@cals.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@cals.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jul 21 2000 - 09:00:34 EDT