Soil Contaminants and Best Practices for Healthy Gardens

As we know the soil contamination does harm to plants, animals and humans health. We have to figure out the way to avoid it. How do plants get contaminated? There are several ways which include deposition from that air, uptake into plant roots, and direct contamination by garden soil. Also, there are some barriers that limit heavy metal transfer into crops. ♦ Soil-Root Barrier: Some toxic metals (such as lead) have low solubility in most soils, and do not readily enter the plant through roots. ♦ Root-Shoot Barrier: Most toxic metals bind relatively strongly in roots, and movement to other plant parts is limited. ♦ Shoot-Fruit Barrier: Most toxic metals are largely excluded from entering the reproductive parts (fruits, seeds) of the crop, remaining instead in the vegetative.

 However, if some soil are already contaminated what should we do? Some garden crops can take advantage of these natural barriers. The suitable plants include Vegetable Fruits and Seeds: tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, okra (seed pods only), squash (summer and winter), corn, cucumber, melons, peas and beans (shelled or cleaned very thoroughly), onions (bulb only) ♦ Tree Fruits: apples, pears ♦ Berries: blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries (if cleaned very thoroughly).




source:
http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/Soil_Contaminants.pdf

By: Di Wang