I am attempting square foot gardening this year.
I am attempting square foot gardening this year.
The box I cobbled together from old pallets, dirt is a mix of potting soil and local dirt spiced with chicken poo.
For the more observant viewers, you may notice that the closest 'V' is slimmer than the upper square -- the pallets were a little short. I plan to plant smaller vegetables in those areas.
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Repurposed pallette wood?
Yes. I had a friend that was able to get me a few for free.
From what I understand, that's dangerous for gardens. Old pallets have likely been subjected to some of the most dangerous carcinogenic chemicals over their life.
I'll add it to my microbiome of plastic.
Even just pressure treated wood is not recommended for veggie use.
The soil and water will leech chemicals out of wood and your veggies that you eat will absorb it.
I hate seeing all these crafts and people bringing the stuff in their houses, unless you source the pallets from someone trustworthy, they could have oil spilt on it for all you know.
Wood treated with Copper Azole is safe for garden beds. We've pretty much stopped using arsenic based compounds to treat wood. And plants don't tend to pull in copper (it's even used in some pesticides sprayed directly onto plants)
May not apply in your country*
And people use reclaimed wood all the time, unless you source it yourself, you have no idea unless the rating is still legible.
Also, some people avoid pesticides, so they would also want to avoid it in their frames too.
And plants don't tend to pull in copper (it's even used in some pesticides sprayed directly onto plants)
Copper is an essential plant macronutrient, so that’s just plain bullshit.
No more than they normally do. They've done studies on this. There's no extra copper in the plants due to the presence of this pressure treatment on the wood using copper azole
I never said there was…
There’s also additional chemicals to just the copper dude….
Copper is a macronutrient, you want in your soil. So I don’t know what point you’re trying to make here?
The point is that modern pressure treated wood is treated with copper, so unless you think copper is going to be bad for the soil/plants, modern pressure treated wood is safe to use for garden beds.
It could be worse or possibly extremely dangerous. Micro plastics are only a concern because we don't know what long term effects they have.
On the other hand the arsenic used for wood treatment is dangerous enough that the USDA bans it for farms. Plus there's the risk of really dangerous stuff having spilled on pallets over the years like benzene.
Even a pallet from Walmart, motor oil or pool chemical spill on it, no way of knowing.
There is some places that do one time pallet use and wouldn’t be at risk, but I don’t think the majority of people are sourcing those.
Depends heavily on what the pallets were for; many (realistically, probably the vast majority) pallets are disposable, and haven't been treated because it's not worth the cost
That’s an incredibly dangerous assumption.
Doesn’t matter if it’s treated or not, you don’t know what was spilt on it. Lots of stores have dangerous chemicals. Walmart has pool chemical and motor oil….
Don’t trivialize something just because you aren’t educated. There’s a reason why people are trying to speak up about it, and than someone like you goes and perpetuates this absolute bullshit.
Absolute bullshit seems a little harsh. Are you referring to evidence that this is actually a thing, or is this just something that someone realized could technically happen and decided it was worth spreading fear and credit for the attention?
Of course stuff could spill on a pallet, but the number/percent of pallets that actually get reused like this as a cross section of pallet loads of stuff that are damaged, with a further cross section of things that are damaged and dangerously poisonous and don't make the wood look or smell odd has got to be in the ballpark of odds of getting hit by a bus.
Just because something is plausible doesn't mean everyone should take the risk as a certainly, just like the possibility of getting hit by a bus should keep everyone on their side of the street.
I agree that it's a bit of fear mongering but it's for a garden that will be growing food for years. To use your analogy, the chance of being hit by a bus when crossing the street is tiny, but I still look both ways because of the tiny possibility that a vehicle is going to run a red light.
Fair, but looking both ways would be like 'watch out for wood that is discolored or seems sketchy in any way', your comment was more like 'it is absolute bullshit to encourage anyone to walk across the street for any reason and you should feel bad!'
But it's not like there are no alternatives to using pallet wood. You can't tell from looking what chemicals spilled on it. You can't know by asking a store clerk where a pallet was sourced from.
I didn't say don't garden (don't cross the street). I said don't garden with something that has a remote chance of being dangerous (look both ways).