Pressure Treated Wood For Garden Box Safe

Understanding modern pressure treated wood much of the concern about pressure treated lumber comes from a fear of adding arsenic to the soil.

Pressure treated wood for garden box safe. Therefore peeling removes most of it. But i also found out that pressure treated wood produced more recently is probably perfectly safe to use. Root crops such as beets turnips carrots and potatoes contained most of the metals they absorbed in the skin. Alternatively you could build the frame of your vegetable garden with pressure treated wood acq or cba then cover the inner wall with a sheet of plastic so that no copper from the wood ever touches the soil it contains.

With a few precautions. From what i ve seen the consensus is that the chemicals do leach out of the wood into the soil and are uptaken by the plants in very small amounts. Arsenic is easily absorbed into the body but it does not exit the body nearly as easily. Even though the new pressure treated woods are considered safe wolmanized outdoor according to its web site does not recommend using pressure treated wood where the preservatives may become a component of food.

Regular lumber begins to break down within the first year if it comes in contact with the soil so many gardeners used to use pressure treated wood for gardening such as landscape timbers and railroad ties which is chemically treated to withstand the weather. The safety of pressure treated lumber for raised bed gardens has been examined by several researchers. This is where the problems began. Plant species differ greatly in the number of metals they take up from the same soil.

Boric acid is extremely safe for humans yet protects wood against rot decay and insects acting first as a repellent then a feeding deterrent and finally being deadly to any insects what aren t repelled and or deterred. Until the early 2000s pressure treated wood was typically treated with chromated copper arsenate cca which is an extremely toxic chemical. Plants growing about six inches away from pressure treated wood do not show even trace amounts of chemicals. Yes the new pressure treated wood is safe for use for raised garden frames.

Many organic gardeners use this combination and feel fully comfortable with the result. What is treated lumber. Up until 2003 the most common preservative used for pressure treated wood was chromated copper arsenate cca a compound using arsenic. Its recommendation is to use an impervious liner between the wood and the soil.