Herbicide in leaf litter

Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up.

We had an issue this week because our lawn service provider unexpectedly came and sprayed the yard with a pre-emergent herbicide.  (We live in an HMO and have to "maintain" the lawn.)  

It's really cold here so, we hadn't yet raked up the leaves to put in our compost bin.

I called the lawn service and was told I shouldn't worry about it, they had used a pre-emergent called Princep and it would wash off the leaves with the first rain.  I should just go ahead and use the leaves for my compost.  I wasn't exactly convinced, so I did a bit of research.

The U of KY has an informative 132 page online booklet - "Vegetable Production Guide for Commercial Growers 2014-2015" that has a chart on page 10 showing the waiting period to plant crops after herbicide use.  http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id36/id36.pdf 

The waiting period to plant most vegetables after spraying with Princep is 2-years! 

Princep (Simazine) is apparently one of the most common herbicides used by lawn care services in the USA.  If you have your lawn sprayed, or pick-up leaf litter from friends, or community sources, you might want to check with the source before you put them in your compost.

Hope this helps,
Gloria

Thank you for the good info.  I'm sorry about your leaves.  PS The link is not working

Sorry about your leaves. Be sure to call the lawn service and let them know they are misinformed.

Jo

Thanks, you're right we're going to have to find other sources for our leaves this year - and I will let the service know about this product.

I'm not sure why the link isn't working.  But I was able to "cut and paste" the link into my browser and get to the page.  Perhaps someone more knowledgeable then I am can help.

Thanks again

Camp, thanks.

Princep (Simazine) is apparently one of the most common herbicides used by lawn care services in the USA.  If you have your lawn sprayed, or pick-up leaf litter from friends, or community sources, you might want to check with the source before you put them in your compost.

 Simazine

Back in the mid 1980's that used to be used in the UK by local authorities landscape gardening companies & farmers  around tree bases to kill weeds and along side walkways and rainwater  drains . We used to use in the orchards and vineyards etc. for the same purpose .. it took nine or more months for most weeds to re - establish .

 It ended up being banned over here  , for in the long term it was blamed for eventually killing trees shrubs & plants due to the residual potency effect which apparently lasted for five or more years.

Thank you Camprn - I appreciate your help!