Certified organic farmers are so cautious about unwanted additions to their soil, they wash their equipment before moving to the next field. So not to transfer weed seeds or disease.

katesflowers said:Certified organic farmers are so cautious about unwanted additions to their soil, they wash their equipment before moving to the next field. So not to transfer weed seeds or disease.

Unfortunately weeds and diseases evolved efficient strategies for spreading long before there were any certified organic farmers. Birds eat berries and the seeds pass through their digestive tracts alive and ready to germinate. Many weeds have windborne seeds. The certified organic farmers can be cautious in the extreme, but Mother Nature laughs at them.

ZM

I reckon expanded polystyrene could be quite useful with regard to pots and gardens, too. It's inert...allowing for extended periods of usefulness...particularly with regard to rooting cuttings, drainage and especially freezing. Interesting...you could use it to prevent a large pot from blowing out...which would allow leaving large pots in place, full and heavy through the winter. Ooooohhhh...

That's interesting...very interesting inDEED! I mean, it's terrible if it bothers you, obviously. I'm just a material properties kinda gal! Weird, I know...sorry.

Oh, oh, oh! You could prevent heaving under hardscape...I'm pretty sure...wow...definitely worth some exploration!

If it isn't biodegradable, I don't want it.

Perfectly understandable @Yardenman.

ZenMan said:
Unfortunately weeds and diseases evolved efficient strategies for spreading long before there were any certified organic farmers. Birds eat berries and the seeds pass through their digestive tracts alive and ready to germinate. Many weeds have windborne seeds. The certified organic farmers can be cautious in the extreme, but Mother Nature laughs at them.

ZM

I am not a certified organic gardener. I just maintain organic practices myself. What worries me is when the non-organic neighbor sprays his poison ivy with herbicides upwind from me never thinking of how the wind carries it.

Yardenman said:If it isn't biodegradable, I don't want it.

I m going to amend that statement. I just bought some large deck planters and want to fill the bottom half with styrofoam peanuts (covered with landscaping fapric to hold the potting soil above) to reduce the amount of potting soil needed. So, OK, that seems OK. It isn't actually in the soil.

Yardenman said:I just bought some large deck planters and want to fill the bottom half with styrofoam peanuts (covered with landscaping fabric to hold the potting soil above) to reduce the amount of potting soil needed. So, OK, that seems OK. It isn't actually in the soil.

That seems like a legitimate use of Styrofoam. Hopefully your deck planters aren't too biodegradable. Or your deck.

ZM

Yardenman said:

I m going to amend that statement. I just bought some large deck planters and want to fill the bottom half with styrofoam peanuts (covered with landscaping fapric to hold the potting soil above) to reduce the amount of potting soil needed. So, OK, that seems OK. It isn't actually in the soil.

Makes perfect sense. You're really using it as an element of the planter rather than the soil.

I'm still digging up bits of styrofoam in the ground in my yard where I'd planted store-bought plants in previous years. I didn't buy any plants of any kind last year or the year before because of this situation. Luckily, I didn't find any styro bits in the plants I got this year. So happy, I went back to several stores several times and brought a LOT of new plants home.

I am happy to report that none of the plants I brought home this year had any styrofoam masquerading as perlite. But there are definitely so many styro bits the ground in that garden. I'm so excited to get some flats of pansies soon. I'll double-check first but am feeling confident I won't find styro bits.