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permaculture - Lead bioremediation in gardens

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  • From: rachel@devnull.net (Rachel Freifelder)
  • To: permaculture@envirolink.org
  • Subject: Lead bioremediation in gardens
  • Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 03:30:47 -0800



I'm helping to start a garden on a site that was a parking lot. After
depaving, we got the soil tested for lead and it came back with 700 ppm.
Some extension services say this is "safe to garden" as long as you wash
everything with soap and don't grow roots or greens - in other words almost
no cool-season vegetables.

We're going to do more detailed spot testing to see if it's only in certain
areas, and if it's just one spot we'll probably dig that out and fill it
with city compost. In the meantime I am trying to find out what we can do,
particularly what crops are safe to eat, and what we can grow that would
accumulate/concentrate the stuff that we could then harvest and landfill
(or smelt!). I heard of one person who grew a particular variety of corn
on a lead-contaminated site, then smelted the corn to obtain a lead ingot
(it was an art project). The extension services all say corn, like other
fruit/seed crops, is safe, but maybe the lead accumulates in the stalk and
husks. I would love to find out what variety of corn this is.

If you have any advice, contacts, books, etc, to suggest, I would be
grateful.

Thank you,
Rachel Freifelder
Mariposa Grove Community Garden
828 59th St
Oakland, CA 94609
510-655-2936
rachel@devnull.net




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