Hey Folks! I am here looking for some advice/contacts for longstanding problem, and am looking for the solutions...
I am representing a large scale ornamental/perennial plant nursery (50+ acres of plants). It is not organic (although coincidentally there is a team of us beginning the work of starting an organic line and transitioning the whole operation hopefully to an organic program... which believe me, would mean a HUGE reduction in pesticide applications in our agricultural area....haha....ehhhh >.<)
THE PROBLEM is that for 40 years the potting soil debris (bark, wood shavings, and some sand) along with primarily all the plant clippings (which for a 50+acre nursery that grows year round is A LOT OF PLANT MATTER), have been dumped in the back of the large property in an area that is a wetland... And yes, what has not been buried is ecologically still holding on and very beautiful....
SO, on this wetland area which ideally would have been left untouched, is a 3 acre plateau/mountain of 40 years worth of nutrient rich (chemically), pesticide. fungicide, laden plant material mixed/layered with potting soil.... It is probably at least 20 ft. thick, 30-40ft in some parts... ITS HUGE, and yes, it is an ecological nightmare that nobody is "happy" about, yet it is an inherited history of unfortunate nursery practice.
WHAT CAN BE DONE with this material? It is high in carbon, and I imagine has broken down to some extent deep down. It is very compacted (tractor trailers are regularly "parked" on it overnight). It is probably quite toxic all throughout, yet full of carbon and all sorts of nutrients from all sorts of lovely chemical fertilizer pottoing soil additives and TONS of plant materials from thousands of varieties of plants....
Being a wholesale nursery slowly working towards being organic, hopefully biodynamic, we can ceertainly use A LOT of biochar and/or compost for pretty much, well, everything we sell.....
That said, my thought is that the compost would need to be seriously aerated for our use, as there are tons of weed seeds in it, chemicals, pesticides, and stockpiled diseased plant material (haha, I know, its totally awesome
We have access to and can purchase a lot of cow manure and slowly begin the work of heavy-aerating and composting the whole thing over time..
Or we thought potentially making biochar, or some bastard version of plant-friendly potting soil additive that had been "purified" by fire lol...
Any thoughts of people to contact would be most appreciated, especially people who are operating on a large scale with whatever solution/ideas they might have expertise on... The goal is to ultimately restore the wetland habitat, but to do that we are talking about getting into the nitty-gritty of 40 years of chem. ag. "waste". We are trying to re-purpose this "problem" with a solution, and are looking for large scale solutions. This is not a little backyard clean-up project, and having something to show financially for its re-use is very important for several people who need convincing that this is even a problem worth pursuing funding for.... Again, that is just the current paradigm this group of permaculture-biodynamic growers are operating within here.
Much love to you all and many blessings on your work,
William
