I am growing in New Orleans LA and there is hella broken glass in the soil here, along with a gang of other metal and plastic urban rubble of all types.
Does anyone know if broken glass will harm root development?
it is impossible to remove it all from the soil but as I garden, I have a trash bucket where I put all non-organic materials. I was just curious if shards of glass are especially harmful.
Cheers!
Shouldnt be a problem. Glass is just melted down sand. Chemically, it is silica, no problem there. Smash it up and you get sand again. On and on, sand to glass and back.
Happy trails urban gardening!
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Cheers, that's what I thought until a friend and fellow gardener told me that sharp edges of glass destroy root systems...i was skeptic and thought to get more ideas from a permie forum. thanks.
Hey Ariel, I had gone to a permaculture meetup in NO and seen first hand all the glass and derbis in the soil. The site was a gorilla garden that was being sold to a neighbor for a parking lot. The debris did not appear to affect plant growth at that site, it was a beautiful garden. While glass offers no benefits to the plants or the soil life, I don't think it would harm them. The rootsshould just grow around it like they would a rock.
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