Twisted Leaves, and Tough Questions: What to Do If Spray Drift Hits Your Farm or Garden

By Nick Frillman

If your small farm or garden looks healthy one day, but the next you notice twisted, cupped, scorched, or discolored leaves on your vegetables, fruits, flowers, or trees and you live near corn or soybean fields you could be seeing the effects of herbicide drift. You are not alone.

In the past month, I have received several calls from small specialty crop farmers and gardeners around Bloomington-Normal reporting strange leaf damage – such as yellowing, browning, cupping, or curling – and stunted, deformed growth in their tomatoes, raspberries, peppers, grapes, and even trees. 

What is the common thread? It may be herbicide applications on nearby field crops drifting off-target. While other factors like disease, heat, or nutrient issues can cause similar symptoms to plants like those reported, some of my callers watched applicators spraying nearby fields, or encountered strange smells. All the callers – whether they observed drift or not – described similar symptoms around the same time.

With conventional field crops covering most of central Illinois farmland, herbicide drift has long been a recurring issue for small farmers, homesteaders, and gardeners. This year, it seems especially widespread—or perhaps more people are recognizing and reporting it. Likely, it’s both.

The herbicides used on Illinois field crops are powerful weed control tools. They undergo strict approval processes, applicators must be licensed, and new federal rules are tightening drift-reduction requirements. Still, incidents of damage to nearby specialty crops continue to be reported.

The big question is: what should you do if you suspect herbicide drift has hit your farm or garden?