Liquinox Start on Fruit Safe to Eat?

[artemisathene]

Hi everyone,

I have a tiny strawberry plant that is just starting to grow leaves... I used some Liquinox Start B-1 on it before I realized that it's not supposed to be ingested. If the plant bears fruit, would it be safe to eat? Or did I just make a major mistake??

[The Helpful Gardener]

Sorted through the ingredients and the worst possible thing is NAPHTHALENEACETIC ACID so I searched that...

and found no toxin listings. It is an auxin, a naturally occurring plant hormone. Now Napthalene is the yucky in mothballs, and those were found toxic, but that was kids sucking on mothballs because they thought it was candy. This is a whole lot lower dosages. And the acetic acid part? Well vinegar is a form of actic acid. Looking over the rest of these guys line of products they are playing pretty safe; if it was me I wouldn't worry too much. Still tons better than most of the garbage they spray on commercial strawberries (the most pesticide intensive crop there is). Am I guaranteeing you it's safe? I don't use stuff like that myself for a reason; I can't guarantee myself that...

HG

[artemisathene]

Thank you, Helpful Gardener! Yes, I regret buying it now... I am just starting out growing plants and am experiencing the learning curve.

Thank you for help. I feel a lot better now.