My orange tree seems to have some disease. The leaves are bubbled and curled. Does anybody know the name of the disease? Which pesticide should I use to cure it?
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Aminopyralids can affect citrus trees
Good news: It's not leaf miners
More Good News: Your tree might survive
Bad news: You have a very serious problem
Evaluation
Although the damage in your pictures could be the result of heat stress, it's not likely because you would expect to see more brown and crispy leaves. I estimate a 95% probability that it is due to the most horrifying plague known to gardeners since the advent of primitive agriculture thousands of years ago. I'll try to tone it down because I don't want to watch an apocalypse caused by millions of rioting gardeners when they become aware of the reason they can't grow anything anymore. I also do not want to be assassinated by those who wish to keep this secret. (Dow Chemical) Read more at https://thesurvivalgardener.com/aminopyralid-poisons-everywhere/
What is aminopyralid?
Aminopyralid is a herbicide used to control broadleaf weeds and woody brush. It gets sprayed on most agricultural fields where grasses are grown (hay, straw, wheat, corn, etc.) in large scale agribusiness because it kills all broadleaf plants effectively without killing the grains. It's also very common on regular small scale pastures. It goes right through the digestive tract of any livestock that may eat these primary foods and byproducts as fodder, and it ends up in the manure, unaffected, potent, and completely intact with very little degradation. Read more at this 'oldey but goody' from July 2011. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/jul/15/vegetables-disease-aminopyralid-pesticide
The problem
It's in the manure and it remains in the compost you make with the manure. If you continue to re-compost your soil, it will reduce over the years. Unfortunately, many store bought bagged composts and soils have also been found to contain it. It's been a couple years since I've tested store bought products, but I'll post results here if I do more testing.
Detection
File this under 'more good news' because you can do a simple test at home to detect it. Get two paper cups. Put suspected soil in one cup and 'known good' soil in another. Put a few dried beans into each cup. Grow them. Observe results. For more details on this test visit Dow Agro at the following link. While you are there, also note where it says: "How could aminopyralid have gotten into the manure or compost I used? The short answer is that it shouldn't have." (too funny!)
Sources
Aminopyralid can be found in herbicides like Grazon, Capstone, Milestone, Chaparral, and Opensight all over the USA since 2005. In the UK it is sold under the brand names Banish, Forefront, Halcyon, Pharaoh, Pro-Banish, Runway, Synero, and Upfront. At one time it was banned there, but I think it is being used again. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aminopyralid
The dream
It's a miracle for everyone who hates vegetables. These wonderful substances kill the "entire plant, including the roots, and offer soil residual activity to extend control" It's wonderful to watch how "aminopyralid causes symptoms such as thickened, curved and twisted stems and leaves, cupping and crinkling of leaves, stem cracking, narrow leaves with callus tissue, hardened growth on stems, enlarged roots and proliferated growth." Quotes from brochure of a vendor at https://www.corteva.us/content/dam/dpagco/corteva/na/us/en/products/us-land-management/DF_Aminopyralid_Family_of_Herbicides_Broch.pdf
The nightmare
The more you love your garden and provide beautiful rich compost and hay mulch, the more likely it is to fail. The crime against humanity is that most beginners don't know about the problem and become discouraged when their gardens fail for no obvious reason. In the Guardian article cited above, it says, "The people hit hardest by careless agri-business were the small producers and amateur gardeners trying to do the right thing, by using manure rather than chemical fertilisers."
More good news
It probably won't harm you (except for in vitro chromosome aberration) EPS Factsheet at https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/registration/fs_PC-005100_10-Aug-05.pdf
If any portion of your vegetables survive, you can eat them but you can't sell them.
Avoidance
Be super careful about where you get your manure. If the farmer doesn't use it on his pasture, there will be many other plants there besides grasses, like clover and other broadleaf plants. It might still be in the hay he buys, and the person who sells him hay might not know anything or say anything, but you have to test all hay, straw, and manure before you put it on your plants. Sorry, but it's just the world we live in now.
Scott Tramposch
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