Re: Compost pile and "treated wood"

Beecrofter wrote:
> > Ignoramus15011 wrote:
> >
> >
> > > Can I make the walls for my compost pile from "green treated" or
> > > "wolmanized" wood. Or would the wood leech dangerous chemicals into
> > > the compost?
>
>
> Conditions around a compost pile are ideal for leaching out much of
> the wood preservative into the compost. You really don't want the
> toxic metals in compost or the soil as a result.

This issue is controversial.  When I was researching it, I 
sought the most independent voices I could find - i.e. not the 
organic crowd or the wood industry crowd, but the Extension 
departments of major Universities.  Many of them have studied 
this issue extensively and there are many studies published.

In general, *small* amounts of CCA do leach mostly in the first 
few years, after which it trails off to almost nothing.  BUT no 
studes I visited showed any significant uptake by plants if the 
soils are kept PH balanced between 6.0 and 8.0 - which is the 
range most plants require anyway.  In such soils, the small 
amounts of CCA that did leach remained bound to the soil 
particles and unavailabe for uptake by plants.  Only highly acid 
soils showed a tendency for the CCA to become ubound and freely 
available for uptake.... and then only for certain plants - 
mostly root stocks.

Michael