Will My Oleander Bush Poison My Vegetables Growing Under It?
I know oleanders are poisonous to ingest directly but will it poison the vegetables I’m growing directly under it? The root system is right there and the leaves and flowers drop right into my vegetable patch.
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Tagged with: Flowers • leaves • Oleander Bush • oleanders • Poison • root system • vegetable patch • Vegetables • Vegetables Growing
Filed under: Your Garden Q and A
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Certain plants can very well be poisonous to and kill other neighboring plants. A mature black walnut tree can kill plants as far as 80 feet away.
As for oleander, I’d be very careful about growing vegetables near it. The following site contains a question from someone with the same concern as you and one response, from the Weed Research and Information Center, claims the toxins are not known to be passed along to neighboring plants:
http://www.mail-archive.com/community_garden@list.communitygarden.org/msg02647.html
However, as you know, all parts of the oleander are extremely poisonous, so even if the poisons aren’t passed along directly to your vegetables (through roots, etc), there is still a risk of accidentally gathering oleander roots and leaves & such along with your veggies and falling ill that way. If leaves are falling off the oleander into your garden they are still highly toxic for a long time, decaying or not. As the following site explains, even in an effective compost pit or pile the leaves remain toxic for at least 50 days, and leaves lying on top of your garden soil or getting mixed in doesn’t count as an effective compost pile:
http://southmauisustainability.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/composting-is-oleander-safe-to-use-as-compost-in-vegetable-gardens/
I read on another site that someone claimed to have contacted nearly 25 toxicologists over her concerns about oleander mulch being used in her garden and that only 3 replied and all said the results are inconclusive. I have an idea people are afraid to say "for sure" one way or another because it takes so long for the toxins (oleandin) to break down and become harmless.
I personally would rather be safe than sorry and have my garden away from oleander simply because oleander is considered to be one of, if not the most, poisonous plant in the world.
Omega
Plants aren’t exactly poisonous to each other, the one thing that might happen is that the plants will get instant nitrogen from the decaying material. this will actually help them grow.