Horse Manure

Gordon from Halswell

I saw a post asking for horse manure and would like to show what can happen if you are not careful .
This is in no way saying all or any other manure is affected.
About 3 years ago I obtained some and used it in various sections of the garden. All the plants where it was used became twisted and distorted. It was identified as the result of a spray used to kill weeds , including clover.
My tomato and boysenberry plants, plus Magnolia which is still twisted, all suffered. I took all the tomatoes etc out but left the Boysenberry plants hoping they would grow out. They did not and I had to pull them all out as they were still twisted.
I planted some surplus Sunflowers in the spot where the boysenberries were, thinking it was the plant that was affected now, not the soil after 3 years.
The photos show two of the Sunflowers are fine and the other two are affected. All four are from the same heads of last year's flowers and the other 16 plants are not showing any signs of problems.
The last one is what it looked like pre-infected manure
This is a shout-out that if you are seeing strange shapes and distortions, it might well be a similar problem.