Fence paint on raspberry leaves...

[Pessimist]

My idiotic neighbours sprayed their fence yesterday without telling us. It means we couldn't cover our plants and I've gone out this morning to find my raspberry cane leaves liberally spotted with fence paint.

The raspberries aren't out yet - still in bud - but would the paint be absorbed through the leaves and into the fruit (eventually)? Would you eat the fruit?

Clean the paint off and enjoy your raspberries.

@WillTheSHTFsoon Thanks - my concern is that the leaves have absorbed the paint. Considering as this is how weedkillers work it doesn't feel like this is beyond the realm of possibility. ☹️

It will be absolutely fine. I’m not sure it’s the neighbours who are being idiotic…

@100PercentFaithful You sound lovely. Thanks for the insight. I'm 9 months pregnant and getting therapy for crippling health anxiety. But never mind, eh? As long as you feel better than a stranger on the internet.

That’s an extreme worry, and pretty irrational. I’m sure the fruit will be just fine.

I don't know why the previous posters are giving you a hard time and I hardly think its irrational. I'd be worried about eating them too. And very annoyed at the neighbour! If the plants were otherwise healthy, I would probably remove the worst affected leaves and any flower heads that had paint on them. Or even cut back the plants to remove the paint.

I think these days fence paint is pretty safe, you might want to find out what he used and check out the ingredients. Can you take off the worst affected leaves? I would be slightly concerned about eating the fruit until I read the ingredients and the precautions on the product, but I suspect the amount absorbed would be small.

It will be fine.

I would have concerns too OP, I don’t think you’re being irrational at all…

I wouldn’t be sure about eating that tbh and I’m very much usually one of the ‘what you on about, it’ll be fine’ crew.

I would be the same and would make life easier for myself by just not eating them. Then you have simply nothing to be anxious about. Leave them for the birds and tell yourself you have a wildlife friendly garden. There's always next year. I'm assuming you eat organic produce from the shops as the other stuff would be potentially as bad.

Shame about the neighbours but people just aren't considerate. My neighbour decided to angle grind his patio slab when my baby's clothes were drying outside.

While plants cannot actively "absorb" paint in the same way they absorb water and nutrients from the soil, they can be affected by it. Paint, especially oil-based paint, can damage leaves by compromising their ability to photosynthesize and by the presence of harmful solvents. However, water-based paints are less likely to cause significant harm, and the paint may eventually wear off or the leaf will naturally shed- google.
Paint can leach in to soil as well.

I dread to think what goes into and onto supermarket fruits to be honest- it’s probably healthier than those.

I would comment the neighbour on the lovely fence colour and ask if they can let me know next time so I can cover my plants. People just don’t think.