Subject: Re: [permaculture] question on soil regeneration
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2011 10:19:57 -0700 (PDT)
There has been extensive work done with remediating heavy metals and other
toxins such as e Coli in both soils and water. The literature is extensive.
It is strange to me that this is so neglected and little known by
permaculturalists. The action and role of microbes in soil is pretty basic to
Permaculture isn't it?
N
On Nov 2, 2011, at 9:50 PM, Sridharan D V <goodnewsindia@gmail.com> wrote:
vetiver is a reasonably well tested plant species to attempt
phytoremediation. the plant has so many other uses that i call it the
'green duct-tape.'
www.vetiver.org is a good site to browse.
here is an extract from a paper by paul truong a vetiver veteran: http://www.vetiver.org/ICV3-Proceedings/AUS_mercury.pdf
"The Vetiver System was first developed for soil and water
conservation in farmlands.
While this application still plays a vital role in
agricultural lands, recent R&D have demonstrated that vetiver
grass is also highly suitable for phytoremedial application
due to some of its extraordinary features. These include a massive
and deep root system, tolerance to extreme climatic variations
such as prolonged drought, flood, submergence, fire, frost and
heat waves. It is also tolerant to a wide range of soil
acidity, alkalinity, salinity, sodicity, and elevated levels of
Aluminium, Manganese, and heavy metals such as Arsenic, Cadmium,
Chromium, Nickel, Lead, Zinc, Mercury, Selenium and Copper in the
soil."