GMO Wheat Found In Oregon Field

According to the methodology section, they used LC-MS, and the LOQ was 0.01 mg/kg which is 10 ppb, which should be low enough. The LOQ is the lowest amount that can be scientifically accurate to quantify. Which means likely their results were valid, if the test indeed shows repeat-ability which they don’t show. lIkely they would want to do n=6 analysis of each sample, and multiple samples of each product. Because if there is a wide variance in the analysis of the same sample aliquot, you could question the robustness of the method.

I used to run LC-MS for a living.

@JonRowe - you’re way more knowledgeable about this stuff than I am (and I’ve gotten things wrong more than I’m comfortable with - see above) so I’d like to ask a question about herbicidal crab grass killer. Our backyard is a mess. Each time I try to grow grass, some sections die off, but most look like a war between ugly crab on steroids and normal. So I thought I might try to do a careful and selective application of the stuff on the normal lawn cycle so as to not get run-off in our frog bogs or pond. My question however, is if you think it would affect amphibians? Many (but not all) our frogs will roam the backyard scouting, looking for worms, bugs etc. I’ve been hesitant to do this as I just assumed it would cause major issues, either death or defects in offspring. But I really need to clean things up and my battle against weeds has been a losing proposition for years.

These are the two products I’m looking at:

I called their support lines and as expected, they were no help.

@jpinard
Yeah, any herbicide will have run-off. Most crabgrass fertilizer is pre-emergent, so you need to apply it in spring just after the snow melts, before the ground fully thaws, and then apply again in the fall before the first snow. Pendimethalin is likely the active ingredient in those, it is supposed to have low animal toxicity, but I doubt they are testing it on small vulnerable amphibians. Pendimethalin is so great because it doesn’t harm most good grasses, only the bad stuff. And if you apply it when it is dry in the fall and spring, it will soak into the ground before any frops might be out and about?

But, if you are really concerned about critters, you probably should use something organic. Corn Gluten meal is supposedly a very effective crabgrass and weed prevention product.

It isn’t as simple to use as the non-organic stuff, but it is definitely going to be safer than chemicals. (especially with amphibians, they are very vulnerable) It uses by product of corn processing, which naturally inhibits germination of new seeds. (That includes grass as well) so don’t put it on anything you want to sprout new grass. It is a bit more finicky than the chemical stuff, but it could be worth the trouble. The other way to fight crabgrass and weeds is to keep your lawn super healthy, fed well, aerated, properly mowed, because the natural grass will crowd out the crabgrass and weeds. The reason it works on crabgrass and most weeds, is that in the fall crabgrass and weeds will go down below the soil surface and “hibernate” for the winter. If you put the preventative on top, they can’t sprout through, and your grass is OK, because it is already sprouted.

It is always a battle, I have given up the crabgrass fight in parts of my lawn, but in others I am doing good, sometimes you just have to give up and let the crabgrass grow. Also, any lawn care product will likely have nitrogen in it, which will likely run off into ponds and cause algae, but you can probably control that with filtration, treatment. pH testing.

Having been a homeowner for eight years now, I’ve learned one valuable lesson about keeping a healthy lawn. The trick is not to care. As soon as you start caring, you’ll just spend a lot of money and time.

One of the more intelligent things I did when designing these was to make sure the level of the bogs and pond are higher than the lawn itself. That’s one reason we had to build small retaining walls in some places (we did terracing for a landscaped area so the frogs could hop up graduating steps instead of one giant leap - though they could handle it and I’ve discovered they good climbers too).

A problem I have that may make Corn Gluten not attractive is I have not been able to “establish” proper grass in some areas with crabgrass plus other broad-leaf weeds. I would not mind crabgrass, but it’s hard to explain just how awful this looks back there.

They often say Amphibians (outside of toads) are the best bio-indicator for the health of an environment as they’re the first to die or suffer spates of mutated or weak offspring. When they’re doing really well it makes me happy. When they’re not as great I feel personally responsible.