A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Gardent Accidently Spray Painted

My neighbor was cleaning out his paint sprayer and it got all over my boxes full of lettuce, kale, cilantro, and peas. Any suggestions? It is a latex paint.

if it were still wet, i'd just hose it off. if it has dried, i would discard anything that has the dried paint on it.

I agree. Those are leafy things you eat except the peas. If the peas are still growing you could salvage those though. Just the peas, not the painted pods when they ripen.

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

I can think of a few... ! If he asks, "Is there any way I can make it up to you?" I'd have a 'wish' list ready for him!

Sorry about your problem.

Thanks, everyone. I was hoping for some magic potion, vinegar or something like it. We've been so careful to be organic that there is some kind of irony in this. Irony is not as good as iron, but better than latex.

Vinegar makes a pretty good organic weed killer. You do not want to use it on any plants you plan on keeping around.

So what about blooms that have paint sprayed on them? It is a very thin spray --watered down paint being cleaned out of the sprayer. The tomato, cucumber, zuchinni, and strawberry flowers all have that fine mist on them and I am wondering if 1. they will live and 2. if the fruit/vegetable would be affected by the paint if it did survive.

If it is only the blooms, they may be fine. It may confuse the bees a bit. I would wait and see what happens.
And if they do produce fruit or vegetables those would probably not be affected at all.

if it is just the flowers, i think you'll be fine. they may or may not make fruit though. i'd just watch them carefully. anything that isn't "leafy green" to consume the actual leaves should be good. and you can eat any that don't have paint on them.

i really feel for you. that stinks!