Copper nails

[Stephen Blair]

well i think that was a little un called for baldy....

[renewablejohn]

Even humans can end up with copper poisoning. I would not recommend eating rhubarb cooked in a copper pan on a regular basis.

[treequip]

Even humans can end up with copper poisoning. I would not recommend eating rhubarb cooked in a copper pan on a regular basis.

 

That’s only because the acidic nature of the rhubarb frees the copper up for metabolism

 

Solid copper isn’t a problem to people or plants. If copper was generally a bad thing to have around our water pipes wouldn’t be made of it.

 

Moluscs don’t like copper. You can keep slugs and snails off the veggies with a strip of flattened of 25mm pipe. I don’t think it’s a toxicity thing. I was told it was something to do with the anode qualities of the copper and a slimy body.

 

Oxides of copper are toxic and are/were used as a fungicide and if memory serves, it affects cellular division in plants.

 

The surface area of a nail or ten isn’t going to produce enough oxide, particularly when they have been hammered into a tree and deprived of the oxygen needed for oxidation.

[BenR]

i think copper does kill trees but as said above, codit and the oxidisation of the copper surface..

 

If you were to peel back some bark around the base of the tree and add some copper sulphate, I would think that would kill a tree as it would get into solution within the vascular system and spread throughout the tree. But copper nails apparently not.

[Hogs Breath]

Copper is used as a preventative fungicide but not on every application as it would slowly poison the tree over the long term.

[18 stoner]

i have seen a small rowan dead, they took the nail out and the tree recovered.

 

Are you saying a copper nails have reincarnation powers?

[Amelanchier]

As any toxicologist will tell you - the poison is in the dose. Even oxygen will kill you at the right level of exposure. The OP asked about copper nails... No chance IMO.

 

However, if would-be tree killers want to persist in their use - let them. Their ignorance is my bliss.

[arbogrunt]

of course copper can kill a tree - but only if its the size and shape of a good felling axe...!