Garden in the Redwoods

Monday, June 12, 2006

Volunteer

I was quite surprised to find this little baby coming right out of the retaining wall. I believe this is an Aunt Ruby's Green Cherry, since last year's vine was prolific with fruit and sprawling all over the place. It will be interesting to see what happens with this little vine.

My question for you gardeners out there is this: if this vine bears fruit, what should I do?

a) eat it? I'm reluctant because the vine is growing right next to pressure-treated lumber (which contains arsenic, right?).

b) cut a slip and try to root it and plant it elsewhere in the garden? Is this possible? Will it be safe to eat?

c) save the seeds from the fruit and plant for next year? This should be safe, right?

4 Comments:

  • not a gardener... no help from me, sorry love!

    By Blogger ipodmomma, at 9:00 AM  

  • i don't know about pressure treated lumber. if you wish to save it, which it looks like you have enough tomato plants, i might dig it up now and transplant. it will probably suffer some shock but this will blow over soon, and the plant may be little enough for no shock.

    By Blogger R, at 12:11 PM  

  • It depends on the type of pressure treated wood it is and the other thing to consider is that most plants store arsenic in the root tips as oppposed to the fruit. The real danger is constant exposure to the saw dust from PT lumber or any lumber for that matter.

    By Blogger Stunned Donor, at 6:30 PM  

  • Hey, welcome back Steven!

    I don't know specifically what type of pressure-treated lumber I have... but it is comforting to know that the roots store the arsenic vs. the fruit.

    I'm not sure I could transplant the plant. I'm afraid I'd tear it to pieces trying to tease out from between the boards.

    I'll post more info on the garden soon. Everything is going wild out there and I need to take some more pics. Thanks for the info!

    By Blogger sandy, at 10:48 PM  

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