Grazon and gardens

Question

My garden was sprayed with grazon about a year ago and I planted in the spring. My garden mostly all came up but withered and died. Except the zucchini. It’s really flourishing. My question is, is it safe to eat the zucchini?

Answer 1

There are several formulations for Grazon and the half-life, the time for 50% of it to be gone from soil and material that was sprayed is up to 300 days. Even if composted, the chemicals persist for that long. So there is the possibility that some of your garden woes are from herbicide. Certainly some plants are more sensitive to persistent herbicide than others. One thing I read is telling: GrazonNext HL Herbicide product label, “Do not use hay or straw from areas treated with GrazonNext HL within the preceding 18-months or manure from animals feeding on hay treated with GrazonNext HL in compost.” On the other hand many factors affect veggie garden success. I’m attaching an article that goes into specifics so you can research the type of Grazon that was used. If a company did this, call and ask what was sprayed. The article gives specific plant symptoms of herbicide injury. If you have the container, label info should let you know when it is safe to use for crops. (The product label should also be available online from the company.) Contact your state extension service about consuming the zucchini. One of their crop staff will have more experience with these chemicals. https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/75592/PPWS-77P.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y