Best plants for soil detox?
Recently I was talking with a commercial cannabis grower in our state (Colorado) and he told me that hemp and cannabis were great plants for detoxing the soil, but the first 2 or 3 years the crop had to be disposed of as toxic waste. That got me thinking, what other plants are good for soil detox and if they are detoxing the soil, wouldn't it be counterproductive to compost those plants? I am excited to see what we will learn once this certification class opens.
Comments
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Sorghum and other C-4 plants are good. Oyster and wine cap mushrooms are very good. It really depends on what you are dealing with. Some toxins can be tied up in carbon and neutralized.... polysaccharides too (if memory serves) For others, you may have to dispose of them off site. The book, An Earth Saving Revolution has some great strategies, as do Radical mycology and Mycelium Running. I looked into this stuff a lot when I was considering buying some old cotton land, but that was a while back. I, too look forward to the class!
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@judsoncarroll4 What are c-4 plants???
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Wiki to the rescue!
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Thank you @judsoncarroll4. Now I know more than I wanted to know about c-4 plants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_C4_plants has a list of which plants are c-4 plants. Will they also clean toxic waste from the soil, or just act as a carbon sponge?
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@tomandcara they help with toxins through the carbon - locking up toxins in carbon chains.... and, like a charcoal filter.
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@judsoncarroll4 Then are the toxins released wen the plant is eaten or composted?
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Depending on what it is, if you chop them into mulch, them grow mushrooms in the mulch, the toxins may be entirely neutralized.
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Sunflowers are also a good soildetoxifier, especially for heavy metals. You need to remove them in this case as the accumulate the heavy metal.
@judsoncarroll4 good easy to understand information at the link you provided.
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@Jens And the birds and pollinators LOVE the sunflowers. (not just my honeybees) Plus the sunflowers have a great root system for restructuring my heavy clay soil. Not to forget that sunflowers always make me happy
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Great topic and question tomandcara! I have heard sunflowers can help clean soil of toxins and radiation; the following article states, "Sunflowers are hyperaccumulators. This means that they are able to absorb high concentrations of toxic materials, including zinc, copper, lead and radioactive waste from soil and water." https://thepreppingguide.com/sunflowers-cleaning-radiation/
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Cattail is a good plant too.
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@Vicky Morris great link on sunflowers. Thank you.
@Obiora E don't cattail require great amounts of water? I am thinking they would be good for wetlands and marshes. I have trouble imagining the in a drier environment, but I could be wrong again.
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According to this article, Cattails would be great for filtering bog, stream or pond. Something to consider if there is possible contamination from chemicals, pesticides &/or fertilizers in the runoff from nearby neighborhoods or factories. https://www.nationalpondservice.com/water-plant-cattail/
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Than you @Vicky Morris for confirming what U was thinking. Love your LINKS
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Sunflowers & cattail, will look these up, find the seeds, but is this a good cover crop?
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Wondering why the down vote? As far as I know we are allowed to post links supporting comments.
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@Vicky Morris Thank you for asking about the down vote. It was a mistake. I did an up vote which removed the down vote. I was trying to thank you for confirming what I was thinking and tell you I loved your links, because I do. A down vote was totally a mistake and I am sorry for my oops. Have a pleasant day and keep posting links .
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@tomandcara There are many different varieties of them. We have some growing on our two acres, it's predominately clay. There aren't many but they are not growing near the wetlands of our two acres but in the drier areas.
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@Obiora E Very interesting. I never would have imagined.
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@tomandcara It makes sense. There are many species of the same common family name plant, so each species will like different growing areas.
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@Obiora E I am going to be experimenting with some bamboo this year, so I will stick with sunflowers in dtoxing my soil this year and maybe look at some dry land cat tails next year.
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@tomandcara I would watch out with the bamboo, as it can take over like most plants in the mint family, as well as Cat tails (if they have the right conditions to thrive).
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@Obiora E Thank you for the warning. I am going to keep the bamboo in a container. I have been warned about it's capacity to spread,
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@tomandcara Oh okay. Good to hear!
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@Obiora E I frequently tell people it is better to her something twice than not at all. Again, thank you,
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@Vicky Morris great article on sunflowers! It sounds like one would need to be careful, know what toxins you have in soil, and possibly harvest and properly dispose of plants before they produce seeds. The article on radiation says they harvest the plants ad\fter 3 weeks, and then treat the plants as radioactive waste. I wonder about allowing birds/animals to eat the produce from a toxin soaker.
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Hi C Sinclair,
You have a great question regarding allowing birds & animals to eat plants or crops used to remediate contaminated soil. I am not an expert but to safeguard your environment, the food chain that supports your biome, I would not. It is my thinking, this would especially be ill advised in domesticated livestock one intends to eat the produce of or raise for meat. Any animal or bird, wild or not, that ingests toxins will poop out toxins returning these to the very earth you are trying to remediate. In addition, disease in these now contaminated species might proliferate because of weaken immune systems. Another point that needs to be consider is where to put the toxic crop? I would contact the local Agricultural Office for suggestions before getting started. Does anyone else know who might assists in toxic waste disposal?
Another way to remediate soil contaminated with pesticides & herbicides is with fungi. I personally have not researched this but Turtle Creek Refuge in Durango, CO is having great results using fungi in their remediation efforts to reduced toxic levels in their soil. See speaker Katrina Blair’s interview in the 2020 Home Grown Food Summit from May 9th for details (towards the end of the interview).
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so glad this is one problem I don't have to deal with!
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When I acquired my property the existing raised garden beds were made with the old-style arsenic treated lumber. Upon much research I found arsenic would leach out to about 6” from the lumber. Yikes! So I removed the lumber, obviously, and thickly planted several crops of brown mustard, discarding it into the green recycling bin. The idea was the city composting service would dilute the concentration to safe levels.
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Hi Ann, Good point! I can see how delusion would work with a small crop used to remediate soil contaminated with arsenic treated lumber.
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