Â鶹Éç

Grow your own  permalink

Treated Wood and veggies!!!

• Message 1. 

  Posted by JonWoss (U2662903) on Sunday, 4th December 2005

  Hello all, after warnings against using treated wood like railway sleepers for use around veggies because of the creosote leaking into the soil, I need some advice. I'm about to make some support structures for the raspberries but want to know whether if the wood has been treated (not with creosote, but pressure treated) would it damage the fruit, or render them toxic??!! Any suggestions welcome!

  Link to this forum: Treated Wood and veggies!!!

  Report message1

• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Wildthing (U2335691) on Monday, 5th December 2005

  Following on from Chris Beardshaw killed my Hebe, the answer is to use untreated timber. However according to my builder the treated timber which has a greenish tinge or stain is based on arsenic. Although we associate this as a poison small doses can stimulate the metabolism and boost the formation of red blood cells. On a row raspberries you only need a post at each end so will the crop become so contaminated? If you ate the raspberries every meal everyday then there might be concern. There is a theory that Napoleon died from exposure to arsenic, when exiled on St Helena he created a scrapbook made from the reverse side of wallpaper with a green pattern that was later analysed to contain arsenic. That way the poison entered his system through his hands and then eating bread? The French prefer to think the British killed him.
  

  Link to this forum: Treated Wood and veggies!!!

  Report message2

• Message 3

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by JonWoss (U2662903) on Monday, 5th December 2005

  Thanks Click-Beatle, yes, I've heard of the Napolean/green wallpaper saga, unusual way to go.
  As for the raspberries, I think perhaps I'll go for the untreated! Thanks. :0)

  Link to this forum: Treated Wood and veggies!!!

  Report message3

• Message 4

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Olpharty (U2504503) on Monday, 5th December 2005

  Hello all, after warnings against using treated wood like railway sleepers for use around veggies because of the creosote leaking into the soil, I need some advice. I'm about to make some support structures for the raspberries but want to know whether if the wood has been treated (not with creosote, but pressure treated) would it damage the fruit, or render them toxic??!! Any suggestions welcome!  
  
  Hello J-W. This subject was aired some months ago and if my memory serves me right, the worry had been created by the media linking creosote treated timbers [sleepers etc] with nasties like cancer. As with most of these scares the problem is relative to the exposure which in this case was virtually immersing one's hands in the stuff. This became translated to aged, weathered sleepers, leaching the stuff into the soil and being taken up by your veggies to give you cancer. Methinks there might be more effective ways of causing cancer than that but I am but a simple gardener.......
  
  The legal specification for treated timber was updated a little while ago with chromated copper arsenate being one of the questionable ingredients taken out of the recipe for woods to be used typically for leisure activities, playgrounds etc where they would be touched regularly by people. The revised version of the pressurised treatment is Tanalith 'E' which is supposed to be quite safe. It is also green. There are plenty of websites on which the merits of this preservative are discussed. My advice is if your local timber supplier can't guarantee Tanalith-E has been used, go to someone who can. Just calling it 'Tanalised' isn't good enough.
  Oh! And by the way, I personally doubt that weathered creosote treated timber would affect the fruit unless it was in constant contact with it. Almost certainly no worse than the chemicals used by the commercial growers..........

  Link to this forum: Treated Wood and veggies!!!

  Report message4

Back to top