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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] treated seeds consequences

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  • From: Richard Robinson <rrobinson AT nasw.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] treated seeds consequences
  • Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:11:26 -0400

On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:49:21 -0600, E C GRANATA wrote:
> Folks:  I inadvertedly planted some seeds, unmarked, that were treated.  My
> questions:  what effect does this have?  I know it will "pollute" the soil
> and eventually drain into the water table.  But what will it do to the plant
> (bean)?  Will there be residue in the beans themselves?  Should I destroy
>the
> plant after harvest instead of putting it into the compost pile or tunrning
> it in?

Do you know what the seeds were treated with? If beans, I'm guessing most
likely it was a fungicide. Here's a website with some information that may be
useful:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/b639/index.html

I don't know how the organic regs deal with this question, but if that's not
a concern, my own inclination would be to not worry any more about it. The
amount of fungicide per seed is quite small. It is likely to be largely
confined to the seed coat, which will either remain in the soil after the
cotyledons emerge, or to be dropped off by them as they sprout. Any small
amount that penetrates to the cotyledons or the root tip would be so small,
that it is likely to be dwarfed by the toxins we all ingest daily from just
living in the world we do. I don't know what the half-life of the chemical
used is, but it's pretty likely that, by harvest time, it's all broken down
anyway. I wouldn't worry at all about composting.

If you really want something to worry about, ask yourself (as I do) what the
effect is of all that rotenone we've been exposed to. Rotenone is used to
induce Parkinson's disease in rats.

--
Richard Robinson
http://www.nasw.org/users/rrobinson/






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