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I made a seedling plot in a wooden frame that I actually just forgot to treat, but now I'm thinking it's not a bad thing. I planted the three sisters with the intention of bringing them all up to my fiancee's family farm and planting them for Mother (who has bad ankles and can't plant herself but can water). I was going to carefully and meticulously transplant them, but then remembered the wood is untreated.

Could I plant the entire box in the ground and let it rot away over time so the seedlings become permanent in her veggie garden? The boards are 5cm thick on the sides and like half a cm on the bottom, with gaps for draining.

Elizabeth,

Not sure where you are in the world (you can put your country in your profile, which makes it easier for others to comment sensibly. I read the introductions and then promplly forget who's from where) but I'm guessing Southern hemisphere if you're involved in 'sisters' at this time of year.

Actually all those plants corn, beans, pumpkins are annuals in my part of the world, so your wooden box would never rot down fast enough. That'll take a couple of years, even if it is untreated. So I'd transplant, if I were you. But perhaps others have other insights.

Good luck & happy planting,
Jandra

(Who has snow, ice, winter, brrrr.... it feels like it'll NEVER be summer again. wheeeh!)

Hi, you should usually use untreated wood around vegetable gardens unless you are sure that the treatment is non-toxic. With so much second hand wood avalible in one form or another i.e. pallets you can simply replace the bed or planter if and when it deteriorates.

Cheers Homegrown

Elizabeth you will have to transplant as squash and sweetcorn have massize roots and just won't grow in a tiny 5cm high box! Can't think what else goes in 3 sisters (climbing beans?) if so there's another thing which has massive roots too.

So replant and save the box for the next seed planting. It should last a fair bit of time.

ElizabethBinary wrote: The boards are 5cm thick on the sides and like half a cm on the bottom

I would transplant without the wooden box.
I would never treat wood that borders edible plants.

I was just going to treat it with linseed oil to protect it against rain, not much more than that. No varnish or the like.

I will transplant the lot.

I know how to edit my profile but all it asks is for GPS coordinates and frankly, I don't feel like checking my GPS for that. I suppose if it's that helpful I must, but ergh, car.. other side of house... lazy... hahahaha. :)

Thanks everyone. I'll continue using it as a seedling tray and transplant into bigger pots each time.

I just realized there was a confusion. The boards aren't 5cm high, they're 5cm thick.. they're about 10-12cm deep. And my fiancee just informed me I suck at metric and the boards are in fact 2cm thick and 10cm high. Oops.

ElizabethBinary wrote: I know how to edit my profile but all it asks is for GPS coordinates and frankly, I don't feel like checking my GPS for that. I suppose if it's that helpful I must, but ergh, car.. other side of house... lazy... hahahaha. :)

.

Look for 'Location' under Profile, ignore the longitude and latitude bit! It really helps everyone here to at least know what country a person is in.

Got it! hahaha, sorry. For some reason I thought I had to enter my lat/long for this site to tell everyone what my location was. I was all "Bizarre, but hey, some people are bizarre"...

I think the long/lat thing was put in because somewhere in the pipeline is a forum members' location map - there used to be one a while back which has long disappeared. Anyway when it does happen those of us who put our long/lat in will appear automatically. Or something. But don't hold your breath.

MMM is quite right, but that doesn't stop us being bizzare...well, some of us anyway!

MW

Lat./Lan....FUNNY
I threw a party once where I only gave my Lat./lan. numbers
most everyone showed up, but there was some bitching.
I have a lot of friends that don't know too much,
but when there is free Beer, they figured out a way.

I threw a party once where I only gave my Lat./lan. numbers
most everyone showed up, but there was some bitching.
I have a lot of friends that don't know too much,
but when there is free Beer, they figured out a way.

That's such a cool idea, they all had something diffrent to bitch about which wasnt weather, partners, money or religion at least.