My young tomato plants have been exposed to fumes in the garage for a week.. Will the tomatoes be safe to eat?

I have been trying to grow my plants organically and set up a grow light system in the garage. The garage has only ever been used for storage until my husband decided to pull his truck in to work on the transmission last weekend. I am worried that all my work will be lost.

My young tomato plants have been exposed to fumes in the garage for a week.. Will the tomatoes be safe to eat?
Unless your husband's vehicle runs on leaded fuel, the tomatoes should be safe. When leaded gas was commonly used, lead did accumulate in the environment near heavily traveled areas.





However, modern engine exhaust in a garage is probably worse for you than for your tomato plants. Although the fumes in the garage are more concentrated than auto fumes outside, most of the emissions from a car (especially a modern car with a catalytic converter which reduces the amount of toxic pollutants) are not likely to accumulate in a plant's tissue. They are much more likely to harm your husband, as he was breathing them while working on his vehicle.





In addition, since It sounds like your plants are still young, they are probably not anywhere near the fruit production stage yet. It seems highly unlikely that some environmental exposure to auto exhaust now will result in toxins in the fruit later.





To be on the safe side, you can air out the garage.
Reply:i dnt think so. its like tomatoes being exposed to smoke from a forest fire all week. I'd take them and scrub them clean (to makes sure there is no soot on it) and i'm sure that they will be good.
Reply:I wouldn't eat them just to be on the safe side. but after they have fallen off and new ones grow they will be OK to eat.
Reply:Your tomatoes(if they survive)will be fine to eat.


Just wash them


if they were unhealthy looking id discard regardless.
Reply:They will be fine. Like the first poster stated, with all of the growth enhancement chemicals and pesticides they spray on them, fumes from an engine will be fine.
Reply:they should be ok...if he was working on the tranny he wouldnt have been running the engine that much anyway...
Reply:I don't think that there will be anything wrong with your plants, and you breath the air of fumes from cars and such everyday, so eating whatever went into the tomatoe shouldn't hurt.
Reply:probably not


i wouldn't recommend it
Reply:Actually it's the leaves that convert CO2 to O so the fruit is fine. Relax it's not that they were bambarded with olefins or aromatics which many pesticided do contain. (they are the cancer causung agents) The catalytic converter catches most really bad molecules.
Reply:well, as much pesticides they spray on tomatoes i doubt fumes will be much worse
Reply:If the fumes are bad for the tomatoe the tomatoes wouldve been killed already, plants are great as they absorb certain pollutants that are naturally bad for us, i wouldnt hesitate in trying one, youd know if it was bad by the taste, i doubt there would be anything wrong with it though. Hey, why dont you get your husband so try it first?
Reply:Yes, I wouldn't worry about it. Especially if the fruit hasn't set yet. If you're worried about it, remove the fruit and wait for reflower.