Question
Is it ok to eat herbs that have had a fungicide sprayed on them. This fungicide is one that can be used for vegitables and fruits. My herbs have been getting brown spots and brown curling leaves...and someone suggested I use that. Thank you very much!

Answer
Dear Lara,

I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you an answer that might not be of much help.

Since I do not utilize commercial fungicides myself, you can guess that my  own personal opinion is that, no, I do not consider it wise to ingest food that has been treated with fungicides. I have, however used a pesticide on nasturtiums in the past, I'll admit.

Even though the pesticide I used claimed to be perfectly safe for harvest after 4 weeks, I ended up throwing away the unripe seeds I had canned. It was just too much worry about whether or not the label was, in fact, to be trusted or not.

We humans are often exposed to anti-mycotics (fungicides in the broader sense) that we ingest or apply topically for yeast infections or athletes foot as examples, and I'm very glad that modern medicine has come up with such cures! However, one of the reasons we grow our own foods is to avoid such use... I digress.

Without knowing which fungicide you used (or whether the brown curling was caused by a fungus or not), I couldn't give any sensible advice. Which herbs were affected? Were they grown indoors or out in the garden? Are there other plants around them that are typically vulnerable to such diseases? That might give some indication of what fungus you are dealing with. Rhododendrons, for example, are susceptible to a fungus that would exhibit the symptoms you mention.

If they are indoor herbs, my best advice is to remove as much soil as you can from the plants, cut them back, and re-pot in fresh, sterile soil (use a fresh pot as well, or sterilise the pots in boiling water for ten minutes or use a 3% bleach solution, soak for ten minutes and rinse well with clean water).

Could you give me a litlle more to go on? :)

Regards,

Tara