Reclaiming Ex-GMO Corn n' Soy Field

Ok.

The land I'm buying had been cultivated for only one round with corn and soy. One rotation of those two. That includes the use of the unholy Roundup.

Considering that little to no cultivable land in N-A (to my knowledge) has not been contaminated by the GM shit show, the questions that lies ahead now is.

How deep is the damage? How does will it take to "reclaim" the land to make it a bountiful, lushful, gardens as it should be (organic nazi speaking here:o))

Is there tricks and tips on HOW TO?
Of course, I'll be adding the proper lime, rock powders, fermented compost teas and activated biochar. But specifically regarding to GM pollution, is it... kinda.. a grey area, impossible to tell since there's little to no mid/long terme data?

Viva La Resistance! (uhh...)
Resisting-Charles-in-the-middle-of-soy-and-corn-crops

You know? Maybe if I start talking to my land about Jesus Christ? It'll listen? And convert back to Eden-style? Shaking those speky GMO's off it's back like dust flies?

At least in the US, land that has been row cropped for a certain number of years is eligible for the conservation reserve program where you basically get paid to plant trees and not grow corn. I don't know about Canada, but it might be worthwhile to see if there is a similar program.

Ah that's wonderful news John!

I'll look into that, thanks!

I don't see how the GMO aspects of the soybean and corn could contaminate the soil. Once the crops are gone, there is no viable pollen for reproduction to pass along the GMO round-up ready gene to other corn or soybean plants. Yes, the old plant material is still there in the process of degrading in the soil but there has been no situation where that material acted as a soil contaminant. Nature decomposes the material such that the DNA is not viable and cannot pass along the genes to other plants. (Thank heavens for that. Otherwise all plant life would be GMO round-up ready by now!)

So my view is that your soil is not GMO contaminated.

The herbicides, pesticides, and other ag chemicals are another matter. Per organic certification rules, your soil will not be considered organic for three years. But you can hasten the healing by adding compost, manures, and soil micro organisms to the upper 3 inches of soil. Even though you could not get organic certification in a year, if you add beneficial amendments, your soil will be significantly healed within that time.

Best wishes for success with your new land!

Su Ba.

"Nature decomposes the material such that the DNA is not viable and cannot pass along the genes to other plants. (Thank heavens for that. Otherwise all plant life would be GMO round-up ready by now!) "
THAT was exactly my fear. I've got a couple of plants genetic book lined up for the winter, but as of now, I'm really really ignorant regarding those matters.

Thanks!!

I'm told that you can cultivate quick successions of cover crops to quickly eliminate toxic crap. An Indian farmer recommended to me a quick 30 day cover, followed by a 60 day cover, followed by a winter cover. Seeding mixed polyculture cover crops will likely have the greatest effect. Of course, tilling it in is potentially very erosive, so if you can roll it and drill seed you may avoid this issue. Can anyone evaluate the Indian farmer's recommendation? Follow this year of rehabilitation with your planting. You can plant your trees into a living non-toxic soil, hopefully.

It seems to me, after converting two industrialized fields into organic fields that it takes 3-4 growing seasons for the fields to produce normally again. Results may vary for other climates and growers. My fields are snow covered for 5 moths of the year. My only cover crops are weeds. (I grow a lot of weeds!)

Around here, a lot of people damage their gardens by using "mulch" or "compost" from a huge confined animal feeding operation. I suspect that it is because of the herbicide residues in the compost and bedding. It takes about 3 years for those gardens to return to normal growth patterns.

hau Charles, As has been said by others here, 3 years time will do wonders if you plant lots of cover crops. I would recommend, as Su Ba did, to incorporate compost and mulch but I will add in here that you need to introduce lots of mushroom spawn or spores, they will do the remediation job very quickly when used in addition to the other methods put forth here.

To make a good soil inoculant of mushroom spores, go gather all the different types of mushrooms you find growing in your area, just the caps will do. Blend these up with water then either pour or spray the resulting suspension over the land, it will take a little time, but in two months you will have many hyphae growing through out the land and this stuff will be gobbling up the contaminants. By using the fungi that grow locally, you will not disrupt the environment.

Mushroom inoculation is a great idea. If you have a compost tea Brewer, you can add a little molasses to the mushroom slurry to supercharge the fungal hyphae, and brew for 36 hours or so. This would get it all going much faster.

Hello folks!

Thanks for the input.
So, here's what it looks so far.

Beds are dug roughly 16-18inches deep., standard 2mx5m.
Amended with 10kg dolomitic lime each.
10 buckets of compost each (20L pal).

Now I was thinking of adding 10 buckets of composted horse manure, and I had just been looking into myccoryzal fungi.

There's a lot of different strains of mycorrhizal fungi. So Vryant, what you are suggesting isn't the typical "ecto/endo mycorhizal fungi", is it? It seems that "Glomus intradicces" is the best to connect plant roots with nutrients?

So.
Next steps:
Adding compost.
Sowing pads with clover
Adding Some sort of fungi (?)
Adding rameal wood chips

Then Canadian Winter hits.

I figure for compost tea brewing, room temp would be best? I can bring one in a unheated room which gets to 15celcius due to sunlight. Havn't got into compsot tea yet.

PS: The heart shaped thing is a pond in the process of being dug. My elbows are burning.

I use Mycogrow, it has Glomus in it, among some 30 odd other beneficial mushrooms.

http://www.fungi.com/product-detail/product/mycogrow-soluble-1-oz.html


If you do compost tea, I recommend active aeration and using a high quality feed stock like vermicompost, promoted by black strap molasses, principally, with perhaps some liquid fish or liquid kelp added. You do need to keep it warm, but not too warm. 15C should be good.

Research more, here:

http://microbeorganics.com/

You could use a clay based soil conditioner to help pull some of the toxins left over from the conventional ag, along with all of the other stuff you are planning. I'm applying Redmond SR 65 to my pasture this spring. It's a 65-35 mix of Redmond Clay and Redmond Salt. Adds bioavailable sea minerals to the soil and detoxifies as well. I'll be putting it on my garden beds before I tuck them in for the winter as well. 20-100 lbs per acre.