Pressure treated lumber and raised beds

[bower]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

First, when it is a personal decision, that is it : PERSONAL choice.
But talking about it is just talk.
My question(s) ( as I have raised before ) is (are) : How much of that bad stuff can leach out, where / how doe it travel ? I don't think that it will spread side way/horizontally.
Then if it did travel horizontally and made its way to my tomato plant, will the plant uptake it ? and How much ? If the plant DID uptake it, will it end up on my tomato ? How much ?
By probability science , probably there should be negligible amount or nothing of it in the tomato fruit that I will eat. JMO

On the question, how much can leach out, that depends
(1) what kind of treated wood
(2) what factors in the environment: pH will make a difference, amount of rain/water, freeze/thaw effects could make a difference over the lifetime of the product etc. Fertilizer that dissolves near the wood can also affect the leach rate or chemistry of the leachate. That is just basic chemistry, not saying it is good or bad because... it depends on the sum of factors in the environment.

On the question, how much is taken up, you have to google and find the treatment that you're thinking of, I did read all about leachate from railway ties and arsenate treated wood a couple of years ago, with the upshot that root crops and leaf crops are most likely to have measurable uptake. The risk for a fruit crop like tomatoes or peppers is much lower.
So if the plan is only to grow peppers or tomatoes in the bed, the risk of eating a leachate that was sucked up by the plant is quite small.If fruit is near the ground or wood surface, you might get surface contamination from eg splashing rain, but that's a different story.