After how many years since last sprayed is wood safe?

[Caroline]

How many years after a tree has been sprayed, do you have to wait to use wood for chins? Obviously if you have lived in a house for 10 years and you have a fruit tree that is much older, then you don't know if it was ever sprayed. Or if you buy a sapling from a nursery you don't know if it was ever sprayed either.

 

[tunes]

If I didn't know 100% that it wasn't sprayed, I flat out wouldn't use it.

 

[Caroline]

Then it would be best for you to not buy any wood because even if a person who sells wood buys a tiny sapling from a nursery, they don't know its history prior to having been there. That goes for ALL wood that you purchase. Most people that plant trees plant them as saplings not as seeds. Even Apple trees are started as a scion and rootstock not as a seed, so there is no way of knowing if the parent plant was ever sprayed.

 

[GorillaJTA]

There is a difference between a tiny sapling and a grown tree. Trees, unlike animals, incorporate their outer layers into their heartwood. Do you want to argue about the chemicals that might exist in a part of the tree that makes up .001% of the core, then argue that, but most people take a reasonable approach to it. My grandmother has 75 year old apple trees that have not been sprayed in her lifetime. Since they were saplings when they were planted and I am not taking any of the heartwood, then I assume the distal branches are safe. So if you want an arbitrary number, say 150 years and then only the tips of the branches- but again, that is arbitrary. Most apple scions are treated with growth hormones, and raised in greenhouses where pesticides are generally not necessary.

 

[tunes]

Then it would be best for you to not buy any wood because even if a person who sells wood buys a tiny sapling from a nursery, they don't know its history prior to having been there. That goes for ALL wood that you purchase. Most people that plant trees plant them as saplings not as seeds. Even Apple trees are started as a scion and rootstock not as a seed, so there is no way of knowing if the parent plant was ever sprayed.

If you already have your mind made up, why did you bother to ask? Most people are going to give you the same answer I did. Do I think 10 years is long enough? No, I don't. Do I think 75 is? Those I would use, but as Jer stated, only the branches.

 

[Caroline]

Don't know why I didn't do this before, but I just called the expert, my Mama, who spent 40+ years working in world renowned Botanical Gardens and at the Dept of Botany at a University and is even at age 84 still writing articles for gardening magazines and giving talks on radio shows. First off fruit trees are sprayed with a contact spray which is not absorbed into the wood. It is illegal to use a systemic spray on fruit bearing trees. Systemic sprays are the ones that are absorbed into the wood. So after a few years there is no chance of there being any residue from the contact spray pesiticide left on the tree. Secondly, she said that even if a tree were NEVER sprayed even with a contact spray that there is no guarantee that it may not have at some time been an elm tree that was close by that had been sprayed with a systemic spray for Dutch Elm beetles.

Why would I want to use the heartwood of the tree? If I did that then I would be loosing the source of my branches. That would be pretty silly now wouldn't it?

Besides we have had our pear tree for close to 15 years and have never sprayed it. Plus if it came from a greenhouse like Jer says then it has never been sprayed other than with growth hormone.

Besides, my mind was not 100% made up. It was an honest question. I was however questioning how anyone can be 100% certain that they wood that they are purchasing for their chins has not at some point not been sprayed. If they live in an area where wood is hard to come by then they have to trust that it hasn't been, but once again, thre is not guarantee that a nearby tree had not been sprayed.......
I am 100% certain that my trees have never been sprayed as long as I have had them. I know that the copious amounts of blackberry bushes that grow all over the place here have never been sprayed.

At least not sprayed by me, but like everyone else I can not speak for my neighbors. Case and point, my mother had planted 2 varieties of tomato seeds that she has been propogating for many years, she knows these varieties very well. This past summer she planted one of each variety in two different areas of her garden. This year her neighbors across the lane sprayed for weeds in their garden. The spray drifted across the lane, over a 6 foot fence and settled on the plants closest to the fence. All the fruit on both of those plants developed abnormally and looked totally different than the plants on the other side of the garden. Bottomline, you just never know.

 

[AZChins]

I guess people could just buy wood from someone, who does know if it has been sprayed and has prepared it properly. This thread is a little strange.

 

[Caroline]

Yes it is strange. I asked a simple question. how long is wood be toxic from spray and as you can see the poster said she would only buy wood that she knew 100% had not been sprayed. The point I was trying to make afterwards is that a) contact spray does not stay on plant and b) no one can guarantee that their neighbors had not sprayed, bottom line we need to hope for the best and do our best. The same goes for hay we buy for them, we never know if a neighboring farmer didn't cropdust. Nothing is 100% Once again we need to hope for the best and do our best.

 

[GorillaJTA]

If you look at prior threads about wood that might have been sprayed, crop-dusting, overspraying, and even treating nearby trees has all been discussed. It is all about knowing your area and if you are not sure, erring on the side of caution.

 

[Caroline]

Erring on the side of caution would be to never say 100%, unless of course you live in the middle of Montana and your closest neighbor is 20 miles away.

 

[GorillaJTA]

Caution is not absolution. My grandmother's trees are in the middle of a field, no elms around, and a mile from the nearest field. Odds of overspray are pretty slim.

I have worked with with agriculturists and horticulturists for years. I would not use any wood that has had a pesticide soak that might reach the cambium layer, especially on thin-barked fruit trees.

 

[tunes]

Then I guess the answer for you would be, don't ever use wood. I said I would not use it if I wasn't 100% sure it hadn't been treated. It seems you want to pick a fight because my opinion differs from yours. If you want to go in your back yard and cut down all the trees, then do it. You asked for an opinion and you were given one. If you don't like it, don't listen to it.

 

[Caroline]

That is not what I said. I asked how can you be 100 % sure. There
are ways that trees may have accidentally been sprayed without us knowing. Unless of course I guess they are out in a pasture somewhere, but most people don't have that luxury.
I know 100% that I never sprayed my trees but I am not 100% certain about my neighbors 3 or 4 houses over.
No, I am not out to pick a fight, just expressing my opinion like everyone else.
Am I going to stop giving them wood? no Am I the only one who gives their chins wood from their garden? No Am I going to go out into my garden to cut down all my trees? Why would I want to do that?

 

[Caroline]

There are different types of Pesticides, here is one bit of information that I just found.

Taken from http://feql.wsu.edu/entom490/lect4moaspray.pdf

Non-systemic (Contact Pesticides)

– Little or no ability to penetrate plant tissues
(leaves or roots) and translocate from site
of contact to distal parts of the plant

These only stay on the plant for a short period of time and then wash away.

Systemics
– Pesticide can penetrate plant tissue and be
translocated to other parts of plant
– Chemical diffuses through the cuticle of leaves
(sprays) or through the outer layer of roots (soil
applications) into the epidermal cells
– Chemical crosses into either the xylem or phloem
• Some chemicals are only xylem mobile and
thus can only move upward in the transpiration
stream from the site of first contact
Phloem mobile chemicals can move either up
or down from the site of first contact (the “true”
systemics)

These stay in the wood.

 

[DMB Forty41One]

Most soft wood should be fine to use if it hasn't been treated for at least 5 years. My recommendation would be to buy standard pine boards from menards. They are cheap and all pine sold there is kiln dried. Unless you don't have the tools to cut and install the wood this is probably your best bet!