contaminants in the soil

Hello! I recently found out that our yard where we have started our orchard (apples) may have a car buried in it. I'm going to assume it wasn't drained or anything we have potential contaminants in the soil there. My question is, what precautions do I need to take now? Or any ideas on how to neutralize this? The trees are already planted and this particular spot is raised and we have clay so all the water flows down hill from there. There is an enormous maple growing close to the suspected site which seems to be doing well

Thanks

Personally I think fungi can neutralize any toxicity problem short of radioactives (and even then, they might be able to help), so, if it were my orchard I would mulch the heck out of it with woody material - tree branch chips, cut up branches, any woody material you can find, and introduce as many mushroom species as you can afford.

http://radicalmycology.com/educational-tools/human-uses-of-mushrooms/mycoremediation-101/

Fungi(oyster family and others) will turn hydrocarbon oil/gas into food+carbon dioxide. So if that is your only contaminants please don't worry. I know that they bond lead with some other elemental atoms that make then less bio-available for plants (roots) and animal (stomach) to digest/absorb. Not too sure about the other heavy metal.

^what Bengi said... I once accidentally left an oil-change funnel outside; next time I needed it it was coated with amazing pink slime and no trace of oil. I was pretty impressed.

Heavy metals are definitely another thing though. How long has it had to decay/leech away into the groundwater might be relevant.

You guys are awesome thank you so much! Nothing in any of my reading said anything remotely helpful online. It seems as I've already gotten a start on it since the trees we bought came with a tub of mycelium spores that we were instructed to spread into the hole before planting the trees and around them after we backfilled. We have contained compost piles between the trees that grew mushrooms last year so would it be enough to spread that around the trees maybe mixed with some semi decomposed wood chips? Could be fun to experiment with some of the mushroom types I've found spores for online. Any specific suggestions of which kind?

Thanks so much!

Dillon Nichols wrote:^what Bengi said... I once accidentally left an oil-change funnel outside; next time I needed it it was coated with amazing pink slime and no trace of oil. I was pretty impressed.

Heavy metals are definitely another thing though. How long has it had to decay/leech away into the groundwater might be relevant.

I honestly don't know how long it's been there but when we bought the house the well came up clean.