Treating Raised Bed Frames

[bainbrig]

Mrs B had constructed two raised beds from wood, untreated, and wants to know how she can safely treat the wood before planting. She has Danish Oil in mind, but wonders if that would be safe for vegetables if she ever grew any.

Ta

BB

[Buenchico]

I can't think of any food safety reason why she shouldn't use Danish Oil. Wikipedia says that it's used on food utensils:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_oil

However it tends to be expensive. (Untreated wood will soak it up like blotting paper, meaning that she'd need a lot of it). This might be a better bet:
https://www.harrodhorticultural.com/eco-wood-treatment-pid8674.html#product-tabs

[The Builder]

Danish oil would work out to be quite expensive since it would have to be re-applied often. Anyway, it wouldn't have the same preservative qualities as something like this...

https://www.harrodhorticultural.com/eco-wood-treatment-pid8674.html?Aff=GPL&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8qj4_6S-4QIVar7tCh1j0QnCEAQYASABEgI76vD_BwE

[Buenchico]

Snap!

[bainbrig]

Thanks Chris, Builder. Redoing would be impossible (at leasr on the insides!) so the alternative looks good.

BB

[alavahalf]

More or less all of your rot will come from inside out as the soil will be against the inside face of the wooden border. You can treat it with whatever you want, but the main thng will be .. what kind of wood have you used and how thick it is .. anything other then decking will soon rot. Five years ago I created raised beds using decking .. it is still good. At the same time I was given some tanalised timber to make more raised beds .. it rotted out two years ago.