Allview wrote:
I went to our local lumber yard to buy tomato stakes. They sell 6'
stakes
pointed on one end for fifty cents each. The clerk asked, "Is treated
wood
o.k.?". Thought we had a dealbreaker right there but they did have
untreated
wood. I wonder if they sell many of the treated? Who buys them?
What effect
do they have on the tomatoes?

The chance of getting good gardening advice at a lumber yard is similar
to the chance of getting good cooking advice at a foundry, or good
advice on fixing your car from road builders.

Most people don't have any idea about problems with using treated wood.
Using logic based on incomplete knowledge, a treated stake will last
longer than an untreated stake, thus it's a better value. And they're
not even thinking about whether the treated wood has arsenic or not when
they come to that conclusion.

For that matter, many people will go for the more convenient cage,
buying it either at the same time and place as they buy their tomato
starts, or later on during a routine trip to K-Mart or some other
one-stop store that has a garden center. In that case, they don't even
need to consider the effects of treated wood on food crops.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.

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