Are Pressure Treated Wood Safe In Garden Beds
The chemical treatments applied to the wood repel fungi insects and bacteria that would find a moist environment.
Are pressure treated wood safe in garden beds. I am concerned about using pressure treated wood around my veggies because of the arsenic. This is specifically for residential use. The new micronized copper formulations including ProWood Micro CA use a treatment process that has earned Environmentally Preferred.
You can use it to construct raised garden frames. Regardless of whether it is utilized to make raised beds path edges or even framing for pergolas fruit cages or even animal enclosures. Before 2003 a dangerous chemical chromated copper arsenate CCA was used to treat wood.
Neither result is desirable so Cooper does not consider pressure-treated wood suitable for making compost bins although he doesnt object to using it in gardens. Soils right next to treated wood are likely to have higher amounts of chemicals from the. The purpose of pressure-treating lumber is to make it more resistant to rot and decay.
The boards themselves were a couple of years old but still had a greenish tinge. Wood has been a mainstay in landscapes for years. This publication from Pennsylvania State University does a good job describing the risks of using both CCA-treated wood as well as ACQ-treated wood.
Heres what I know. At the timei used 2 by 8 to form a bednot raised. A study of soil in raised garden beds found no increase in arsenic in soil 1-12 inches away from CCA-treated wood.
I never had any problems with anything I grew in these bedsI am 66 nowand I still use the same method and still no problems. We would also like to know about non-toxic. Wood that isnt pressure-treated tends to rot fairly quickly in contact with the soil.

