How safe is a treated planter box

I bought a wooden planter online and it has arrived but it has a very strong solvent smell. I assume its been treated with something to stop it rotting. it is safe to grown an edible plant in it ? It doesnt say what the wood has been treated with

 

As long as you line the inside with black plastic or pond liner etc., and cut some slits in the bottom for drainage, I'm sure it will be fine.

 

The reason i bought wood was i wanted something natural. Im not 100% sure i want the plant to now be contaminated with microplastics

 

Wood in contact with soil will rot really quickly (treated or not), so you probably should do something. I'd be more worried by soil contamination from the unknown preservative than from plastic, however environmentally unfriendly that is.

 

The sad truth is, unless you own NASA and can build yourself a completely sealed biosphere, you're going to be getting micro plastics and other contaminants no matter what you do.

A wooden planter with a plastic liner is about as safe as it gets. The plastic liner won't be exposed to UV so won't be breaking down much. You're going to get more micro plastic from whatever compost you use to fill the box.

 

I dont think timber treatments contain anything nasty these days.
Its the reason none of them really work.

 

Like others have said we line our raised beds with thick black plastic eg. rubble bags, which seem very slow to degrade; had some in our garden still looking ok after 10 years.

However its really down to your choice, without some form of protection the wood will rot quicker so you will have to replaced more often, though thats likely to be several years apart depending on the quality or the wood and treatment used.

I some ways we do question the use of raised beds if the ground they are going on is basically decent and can be improved just by adding layers of compost like the no dig method.

What folk do not always appreciate is that raised beds dry out much quicker and require more watering, so in a way with extra timber, all that extra compost and watering, you could say they are not that "green" ?

 

It sounds like basically im screwed either way, either get toxins from whatever the wood is sprayed with or toxins from whatever i line the wood with. Not to mention that im not 100% sure what exactly they have put in the compost im buying !!!

 

HydroCulture , just water and ferts, but of course thats all held in you know what - Plastic !

Doesn't really matter what you grow and in what container, pot, bed, or raised bed, if you grow and care for it yourself its going to be better than any shop bought produce.
Typically tasting better and so much fresher, not transported in wagons for days across the EU.

You can use garden soil, bought or borrowed and mix that with some peat free compost rather than all compost as seems there is still no perfect peat free one yet.
Our choice would be Jacks Magic which still (?) contains a bit of peat.

Longer term, make your own with a compost bin.

 

I think you can get paranoid about this kind of stuff, just put your plants in and enjoy the process, I assume you drink water in one way or another.
Do you really know what is in that?
Do you breathe, assuming you do, what are you breathing into your lungs each day.

Yes we are all screwed, its part of living.

 

Life is very dangerous. Nobody has ever got out of life alive.

 

I’d try emailing the company to ask what treatment they’d used…

 

You're going to end up with analysis paralysis @hi2u_uk .
If you don't want to line it because of plastic, you'll either have to accept that the planter will rot more quickly, or use something else, but everything you buy goes through a 'process' of some kind.
Sometimes, you just have to accept that there are limits to what we can control. It's always a question of balance.

 

I suppose you could always line the bed with pavers, or maybe those blocks you see on driveways?

 

An eco friendly pond liner might be an option, I just did a search, they exist!