A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Veg. bed from treated wood????

Is it ok to make a veggie bed from treated wood. I'm thinking of a raised strawberry bed and maybe other things later on too. Just wondering if the treated wood would be harmful?

depends on the type of treatment, but generally no. most treated wood (the more affordable stuff) is treated with arsenic which can leach out into the bed. i use untreated wood for anything that will grow food. it is said that you can line beds made with treated wood, but i'd be afraid to.

They've reformulated the treatment, so that the main component is copper. It's supposedly safer. I wouldn't use it, but it's considered okay by by many extension agents.
Cedar costs slightly more, but will last just as long, if not longer. There's also a product that's a composite of wood and plastic that's made to look like wood, which will last a lifetime. It's more expensive than wood products.

Dave that plastic stuff is the "wood" my hubby wants to use but I'm kind of shying away from it cause it's not straight like wood.

But I will mention cedar, see what he says.

Thanks both of you for your advice.

My DH & I had this discussion, & like Jiffy said Dh would not use treted wood for my raised garden. He said he would just replace the wood when it rottetd. he used plain 2 x 4's--well perhaps 2 x 6's---.

We have some raised bed gardens made out of regular 2x6 & 2x8 construction lumber that I got from work that was once machinery crates. Its holding up well, I know it won't last like Cedar but it doesn't look any worse than the green treated landscape timbers along the driveway which are about the same age. I'd say the raised bed lumber gets worse punishment because its got moist black dirt against one side for over half of the year. Why risk putting anymore chemicals in your food. If green treated keeps wood from rotting and insects eating it...