Will veggies pick up lead from mulch? My husband's backstop for target shooting turns to sawdust. Looks like good mulch to him, but i'm concerned about lead poisoning in my veggies.

No way, can't happen!

The powerful intensive microherd, and the earthworms, and all the complex carbon molecules inside humus and compost, will buffer and balance all existing nutrients, minerals, metals, and nonmetals in your soil, away from your plant's roots.

The same is true about all forms of sugars, molasses, or syrups, etc. that many sustainable gardeners and farmers may use in various composting methods or creative organic tea brew recipes. Sugars are high carbon, easily digestible, energy foods for all microbes. In tea brews, the carbons from the sugars or syrups, help buffer and balance nutrients on the surfaces of foliage on crops.

That's one of the main reasons why compost works on all soil types, all soil conditions, literally everywhere, all over the world.

Hi Honeysuckle and greetings as always to Captain Compost !

As a general rule, I defer completely to Bill on matters on composting- his record and experience speak for themselves In this case I would like to suggest at least a second thought.

Depending on the amount of time your Hubby's target shooting backstop has been in use and the frequency with which he enjoys target shooting, both the backstop and perhaps the immediate soil area may have developed elevated lead levels- the more so if shotgun versus rifle fire is used.
Now lead occurs naturally in soil and is usually NOT a threat to veggies but in the case of elevated lead levels such as those found at firing ranges etc some caution might be warrented.
Certain root vegetables do in fact have an uptake from soils lead
It's not clear to me if the composting process when a material that has an elevated lead level is included will in fact result in a finished compost with normal or backround lead levels.

So I am just trying to clarify for myself if "the Captain's Opinion"- which we all tend to view as Gospel- includes daeling with potentially elevated lead levels as well as normal backround levels??

Thanks in advance
Farmme

Okay then Captain. I'll put all that good mulch to use then. I'm kind of new to gardening.
I really like this site and enjoy reading all these post. Some make me laugh but all are informative.
Thank you so much for your reply!

Hi farmme. Well, I tried to pick out the lead, got the big pieces, but it still has some lead splinters in it. It's mostly pistol with some rifle lead.
I think I'll just use it around my flowers and trees, just to be safe. That way it will be scattered around the place and avoid concentration in any one area.
Thanks for your reply.