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grassypants

Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal w/ Ethoxyquin?

grassypants
16 years ago

A friend gave me 2 bags of pelletized alfalfa meal and I noticed on the label that it said "Composed of ground alfalfa wih ethoxyquin as a preservative". I did a google search and there is a lot of negative information regarding it, but I also called the company that produces it and they said that all (except bags certified as organic) pelletized alfalfa has this in it and has had for the past 25-30 years, as do most dog and rabbit food. They said it had the standard 150ppm or approximately .015% of the finished product. What do you all think? Will this harm my microherd? Can I put this on my St. Augustine?

Comments (2)

  • morpheuspa (6B/7A, E. PA)
    16 years ago

    I can't find any information of the decay cycle of Ethoxyquin (nor the molecule of it so I could see if I can figure out what it's doing), but I can say that the very vast majority of pesticides and herbicides used these days decay away in the soil from the actions of water, heat, oxygen, and bacteria.

    This is actually an anti-oxidant, not a pesticide/herbicide/fungicide. Biochemically, I'll take a shot in the dark and guess that it oxidizes easily to absorb free oxygen before it damages the food. Once all of it has oxidized, it's ineffective (at that, at least) unless it can somehow de-oxidize, which I doubt it can without a lot of high-energy input.

    The alfalfa meal I used was gerbil food. I didn't check the preservatives, but I'll lay bets on it having the same thing. No harm done on my end. Most of us probably used the same stuff in our alfalfa (and other products) on our lawns.

  • grassypants
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Thank you for the reply morpheuspa, I'll give it a whirl!

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