By the way, related question: Is plant food poisonous when ingested by
humans? I assume that it is better to keep it out of the way of toddlers,
but unlike on cleaning supply bottles I did not see a poison warning on its
label when I looked earlier today. So I wonder ... Not that I will encourage
his eating it, mind you, but I am starting to wonder which household items
will absolutely have to be put out of any possible reach, and which are
optional.
I think it would be a very bad idea to eat fertilizer powder...
Although it would taste awful. Acutely toxic? Maybe. A complete
fertilizer has a lot of things in it (potassium/phosphorus, nickel,
etc...) many of which are toxic in small quantity (selenium is not
something you want to eat). I don't know if you could choke down enough
fertilizer to hurt yourself (or a small person), but I wouldn't try it.
The liquid formulations might be dilute enough as to cause little harm,
but again I wouldn't risk it.
So far, as far as I can tell, Robert will probably be a much greater danger
to the orchids than they will be to him. The greatest dangers to toddler
from orchids that I see thus far a 1. lights and electric cords leading
to lights, 2. shelving units will need to be stable and secure so that they
do not topple, 3. chocking hazard posed by media, 4. if a clay pot were to
topple and fall on the toddler, some of them are quite heavy so he could get
hurt that way, and 5. if plant food is poisonous after all then that's an
issue. Am I missing something?
Toddlers like to remove tags from pots. I don't know why. My daughter
routinely runs up to me with a tag as a present. Sometimes I even know
where to put it back. She has never tried to eat potting media. An
occasional rock might get a taste, but I think girls are smarter than
boys. Or have better survival instincts. Evidently my brothers and I
ate all sorts of rocks and coins when we were that age.
Rob
--
Rob's Rules:
http://littlefrogfarm.com
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit