The debate about cedar vs pressure treated for a raised garden bed at my local nursery

I was at Johnson's Garden Center in Portland last Saturday picking up soil and got into it with the owner about raised bed wood. He swears by untreated cedar even though it costs $4 more per board at current prices. I argued that pressure treated pine at $8 a board for an 8-footer lasts twice as long and is safe with modern chemicals. He claimed the copper in treated wood still leaches into veggies over 5 years. Anyone here done a side by side test with tomatoes or peppers that settled this for you?

3 comments

3 Comments

adam18617h agoTop Commenter

Has anybody actually looked at the cedar sourcing, though? I mean the cost argument gets weird because a lot of the "cedar" at big box stores is actually just juniper from fast grown farms that rots out in three years anyway. Real western red cedar is a different animal but good luck finding it. Also @david_palmer that copper marinara thing made me laugh, but I wonder if the copper taste is from the wood or maybe from old copper plumbing in your house that nobody checked. Ive seen people blame their veggies for bad water before.

david_palmer19h ago

Built three beds five years ago with treated lumber and my tomatoes tasted more like copper than marinara (which is honestly impressive for a guy who can barely boil water).

kai83918h ago

I ended up switching to untreated cedar and lining the inside with landscape fabric, that copper taste is definitely from the treated wood leaching out. After a couple seasons the soil test showed high copper levels so I had to replace all the dirt anyway... Might save you the headache if you're thinking about rebuilding.