Unless you were starving and fresh food was a scarcity, I wouldn't chance it.

Probably safer than anything you'd buy at the supermarket.

I should add that to the extent the 2,4-D didn't hurt the tomatoes, not much was probably absorbed by them. Properly applied, the stuff should really kill the plants. Also, 2,4-D tends to evaporate, has a very short life in the soil, and gets biologically neutralized in the plants while it's killing them.

Of course, if you have tomatoes that are 2,4-D resistant, you could sell the rights to them to Monsanto. They'll pay a lot for it! They've already developed corn, maize, and soybeans that are resistant. I believe the FDA permits human consumption of those products, so you're probably eating food that survived 2,4-D application already. Of course, 2,4-D is banned for vegetable cultivation in a number of countries.

Strange situation. How long ago was this herbicide applied? These could be nothing more that reseeded plants from fruit that was on the original. In other words the original was killed and what you see now is new plants that sprouted from the seeds that fell to the ground. So eat them with no worries.

Otherwise how much was applied? The stuff is normally totally lethal to tomato plants so if this was a recent application and the plant is still growing then I agree with Dan that either much was not absorbed, or it was not applied properly, or the product was way outdated. Otherwise the plant would be dead. No question about it. So eat them with no worries.

Which begs the question, if you wanted to kill it in the first place why would you want to keep it alive to eat the fruit now?

Dave

Got more information! Thanks for the feedback. Here is the detailed history. Last year around this time, we had a TON of cherry tomato plants in the planters by the street as well as in the bioswale - they were very overgrown and crazy (we remodeled the house for a year and weren't living in it). We got rid of the planters and just wanted grass. So my husband applied the herbicide around this time LAST YEAR. He waited a day and then cut everything back. Towards the end of this summer, this one plant popped up in the bioswale and now it has fruit. I would love to eat the tomatoes, and it sounds safe to me at this point. I have no idea if my husband will let this one live.....:)

Oh, so we're talking about 2,4-D not killing SEEDS. I think that's expected. In fact, early studies of 2,4-D (and I'm not an expert at this, so I invite correction), showed that such auxins had different effects on plants at different stages of growth. Mature plants were killed, straight out. But dilute solutions actually improved root generation in seedlings. I believe that, these days, grain seeds are often coated with 2,4-D before planting for that reason. In fact, 2,4-D kills mature plants because it's a hormone that makes the plant grow uncontrollably and unsustainably.

So in your case, it's safe to say that the herbicide is long, long gone. As I said, it only lasts a few weeks max in the soil. Can last months in anaerobic aquatic environment, but that's not what you have here.

Yeah I suspected we were talking about a long ago application. That is the important info when it comes to eating the fruit. So eat away.

Dave

PS: next time tell him per the label instructions, he needs to wait more than 1 day before mowing.

What is a bioswale? Is it a swale of water? If so you aren't following the label, which is against the law.