Question from trina

dear debra, can you help me with my tomatoes , they are always looking sick after a while and get a yellowing and browning off of the bottom leaves after a while they all get the disesse and die. what if anything can i do that is organic and safe too stop this dissease. ? thank you trina

Debra’s Answer

I’ve grown a lot of tomatoes. In California, we grew them up lattice on the side of a deck that was ten feet above the ground, and they would grow all the way up to the top of the deck. Around September we would pick tomatoes from the deck and not even go down to the garden.

Here in Florida, we’ve had varying success as we learn this new climate. This year our tomato plants are doing better than in past years.

We have problems here with nematodes, and so we find it more successful to grow tomatoes in pots or hanging baskets than planting them in the ground.

Also, tomatoes are heavy feeders. In California, we used to put fish heads under each tomato plant when we planted it. Then we would sprinkle lots of black pepper around the plants to keep our cat and other animals from digging up the fish heads.

I’m not sure what disease your tomatoes have. You might be able to get some help from a local organic nursery or garden club.

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Question from Brie

Hi Debra,

What a great website – congratulations on all your hard work! My question is this: my husband and I desperately need a new mattress. We have decided (long, long story) that we have to buy a traditional innerspring – so we are trying to buy a floor model, hoping that it will have had time to outgas some of the toxins (wish we didn’t have to go this route, but can’t afford organic, and don’t like the wool ones).

Do you think it is safe to buy a floor model – at least it hasn’t sat in a warehouse, wrapped in heavy plastic. However, what about the possibility of germs from the hundreds of people who’ve tried it out in the store?

Would a plastic cover or barrier cloth help? This entire mattress buying decision is enough to drive you crazy – wish we could just go organic – but cannot at this point.

Thanks for everything!

Brie

Debra’s Answer

I can’t in good conscience advise you to buy a floor model. Yes, it would have outgassed some, but not enough. And who knows how unsanitary it might be.

If you want to put a plastic cover on it, use polyethylene plastic. A barrier cloth cover would help some.

I’d really like to encourage you to find a way to get the money together and get a good mattress. It will save you money in the long run. Some things I’ve done in the past to get money for big-ticket items were to save for it week by week, have a garage sale, ask everyone in my family to contribute money to it for birthday and Christmas instead of giving me another gift.

I’m a firm believer in “where there’s a will, there is a way.”

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Question from singing tomato

Dear Debra,

after research we decided to replace our 7.5 months daughter’s crib with a safer one from Pacific Rim.

My question is: should we also replace her mattress as well? we have been using an organic cotton one from Naturepedic and we are really happy with it. But I am worried if the mattress could have accumulated toxics from the crib? Is this possible or am I overworrying?

Our old crib is from 100% solid wood with no veneer or laminate compnenets and with non toxic finish.

Thank you in advance and thank yiou for the wonderful blog..

A worrying mom

Debra’s Answer

A mattress or any porous fabric product can absorb chemicals from the surrounding environment, but they also can release absorbed chemicals.

I don’t think you need to replace your mattress. Just give it a good airing outdoors in the sunshine, a day on each side.

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Question from singing tomato

Dear Debra,

After reading about the health concerns about the use of flame retardants in upholstery furniture we decided to buy new ones.

Since our bugdet is tight we have 4 options:

1. keeping the sofa and loveseat which we bought 3-4 years ago and are 100% from polyester. Do you think that because we bought the in 2006 the worst may be over and we may be ok?

2. Viesso, which you don’t mention on the list but are eco friendly. Their furniture is customizable and they use eco natural latex foam as a filling . I already contated them and they said they use no fire retardants, no formaldehyde.

3. Furnature, which you mention on the list and use natural rubber but are a lot more expensive than Viesso.

Debra’s Answer

Viesso is not on Debra’s List due to technical difficulties I’ve been having with adding new entries. But I am about to be able to add new links and Viesso is on my list to add.

1. Your existing sofa and loveseat has outgassed some and the worst is over. But it has not outgassed completely.

2. & 3. Natural latex and natural rubber are the same thing, both from the rubber tree. I will just say, though, that various chemicals are generally used to turn the natural latex into foam, and also all the latex foam I have ever seen has an odor I personally cannot tolerate, but others seem to do fine with it. So I strongly suggest getting a sample of the foam before committing to the furniture.

4. If all you are concerned about are the fire retardants, then this option would be fine. You don’t mention what the other materials are.

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Question from bjenkins

I was wondering if anyone has information on what goes into Royal-Pedic’s blended latex mattress that they sell in their non-organic line? I have gotten many different answers to this question from dealers and from calling their own 800 number. Their website and their product binder at the mattress store both say it is all natural latex, but a different dealer told me it was blended. The company did not reply to my email asking about what is in the blended latex.

The last call I placed to their 800 number, I was told it was 60% man-made and 40% natural latex. The man-made ingredients included styrene and something else that the woman couldn’t spell, but started with a “b”.

Does anyone have knowledge of the whether a blended latex mattress off-gasses and to what degree? I imagine it depends on what it is blended with.

I could just get the Royal-Pedic organic latex mattress, but I cannot try one because no dealers in Chicago carry it in their showroom. One of the company representatives told me that it is a softer mattress than the blended latex. Has anyone else researched Royal-Pedics blended latex core?

Debra’s Answer

Readers?

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