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Hi, my name is Mark and I’m a fairly new raised bed gardener in Pennsylvania. I grow primarily tomatoes, peppers and assorted leafy greens, and I strive to maintain as organic a garden as possible. I find myself facing a conundrum, and I was hoping to get your takes on it.
This year, in an attempt to support my tomato and pepper garden in as natural a way as possible, I sourced a box of 6’ x 1” bamboo stakes from lowes.com. These were labeled on their product page as “natural” on the website, and I saw nothing at all out of the ordinary. I drove 20 of them in my garden around my tomato plants. Later that day, a neighbor happened to notice and asked what kind of bamboo I had used, knowing my intent to avoid chemicals in my garden. He suggested that I double check that these posts weren’t treated/fumigated with harsh pesticides. I inspected the shipping materials and found the manufacturer’s url and quickly came to learn that these tonkin bamboo posts had indeed been fumigated with methyl bromide. A quick google search confirmed my concerns that MB was quite toxic, and not something to put in your garden. (Apparently, this unfortunately appears to be a fairly common practice when importing bamboo.)
I removed the stakes later that evening, but not until after a hard rain had fallen. Now I find myself uncertain of what I should do next, and am hoping that you could share your opinions on the matter. To what degree should I worry that methyl bromide has leached into my soil? Is my organic garden now potentially-contaminated and unsafe for my family to grow vegetables in?
I'm finding that it's incredibly challenging to find answers to this type of problem on the internet, and I thank you for your time and energy. Be well!
Mark
Pennsylvania
This year, in an attempt to support my tomato and pepper garden in as natural a way as possible, I sourced a box of 6’ x 1” bamboo stakes from lowes.com. These were labeled on their product page as “natural” on the website, and I saw nothing at all out of the ordinary. I drove 20 of them in my garden around my tomato plants. Later that day, a neighbor happened to notice and asked what kind of bamboo I had used, knowing my intent to avoid chemicals in my garden. He suggested that I double check that these posts weren’t treated/fumigated with harsh pesticides. I inspected the shipping materials and found the manufacturer’s url and quickly came to learn that these tonkin bamboo posts had indeed been fumigated with methyl bromide. A quick google search confirmed my concerns that MB was quite toxic, and not something to put in your garden. (Apparently, this unfortunately appears to be a fairly common practice when importing bamboo.)
I removed the stakes later that evening, but not until after a hard rain had fallen. Now I find myself uncertain of what I should do next, and am hoping that you could share your opinions on the matter. To what degree should I worry that methyl bromide has leached into my soil? Is my organic garden now potentially-contaminated and unsafe for my family to grow vegetables in?
I'm finding that it's incredibly challenging to find answers to this type of problem on the internet, and I thank you for your time and energy. Be well!
Mark
Pennsylvania
