My dad's "just use treated lumber for the raised bed" advice cost me $200

My dad told me treated lumber was fine for vegetable beds because "they stopped using the bad chemicals years ago." After 6 months my soil test came back with elevated copper levels, way above what's safe for food. I had to rip out the entire bed and rebuild with cedar, which ran me around $200 for the wood alone. Turns out the newer treatment methods still use copper compounds that can leach into the soil over time. I should have done my own research instead of trusting his old school experience. Has anyone else dealt with contaminated soil from treated lumber in their garden beds?

3 comments

3 Comments

lindag331mo ago

Happened to me last year with a "cedar tone" treated bed I thought was safe. Found out the hard way when my tomato plants started looking funky and the leaves curled up weird. Soil test came back high copper just like yours and I felt so stupid for not checking first. Ended up dumping the whole thing and switching to plain untreated pine which rots faster but at least I know what's going in my food. The old timers really dont get how different the modern treatments are compared to what they used to use.

lewis.finley1mo ago

Yeah those "safe" chemicals still leach copper like crazy over time.

kim.jake1mo ago

Wait, copper? Thats actually wild lol I had no idea those "safe" ones did that. @lewis.finley are you talking about the ones with the green labels people think are harmless? Cause I figured the metals just stayed put in the formula. Man, now I gotta go check my whole setup. Makes me wonder what else is slowly coming out of those tubes and into my water over time. Kinda scary when you think about how long we use the same gear for.