Originally Posted by hanabananaman

I posted last year when I was having many problems with several different plants in my yard, originally I suspected Panama disease. Somewhere in my search I found out about persistent herbicides and the problems in my yard started to have a pattern that made sense. I was using alfalfa as mulch around all my bananas and figs and that is where my problems were. I was also putting some alfalfa in my compost bins. Last fall I did a test with the compost on my winter vegetables, I grow mostly in containers and there was an obvious difference with my beans. The one without compost grew well and the one with it was stunted for a few months but then started growing and producing. The other plants showed some problems but nothing that had me too worried. Recently I cooked my soil and compost (reused Fox Farm Ocean Forest and reused Pro Mix) and containers in separate solar tents with plastic. The soil and compost reached 145F for 3 days and the containers reached almost 200F. There was no chance of nematodes or panama surviving that heat. I took a chance and potted up a few figs and bananas, the figs went into total meltdown after a few weeks and I am scrambling to get them repotted into some Pro Mix. The bananas have stopped growing but look OK and I hope they don't croak before they can be repotted. I had top dressed several guavas and other figs with the compost and they are not showing any problems, I have removed that top dressing and replaced it with some cow manure but that could also have some of the persistent herbicide in it. The US Composting Counsel will show just how dangerous this threat is. I tried to make a link but have limited computer skills and no 5 year olds around to show me how. It is causing huge problems with organic farmers and must be banned. This herbicide is often used on hay/ alfalfa fields and it survives digestion and composting and can last for years before breaking down. I have some nice TC's from Darkman that might not make it so I may be looking for a Dwarf Namwah when the weather cools off in September.