Get The Lead Out
Get The Lead Out
This Was Sobering
I am a member of a backyard chicken Facebook group. Recently an article regarding the amount of lead in the backyard soils in Australia. So my friend John and I ordered lead in soil testing kits to get the lead out.
On a whim John tested his soil here in downtown Columbus, OH with an EPA Lead in Soil Kit. And to his surprise found that the levels of lead in his soil were higher than the recommended 400PPM. He shared the results of that test on our Facebook group.
As soon as I saw that I ordered the same test. I wanted to test by "zero dirt" Martian soil here at Mezzacello.
I ordered the Lead Soil Check Test from Amazon.
I got the test the very next day. I opened it and tested the Martian soil in bed Beta Quadrant 6 on the southwest corner of my southeast garden quadrant (Beta). To my surprise, it showed as contaminated with lead.
Free Range Suspicions
The particular bed that I tested had been used by my chickens after harvesting the potatoes in mid summer. I have a suspicion that the birds were using the bed as a dust bath. They may have brought soil from the free range area to the south of the coop run to this bed.
My plan moving forward is to use this test again in the Delta Quadrant (northwest quadrant) and bed 3 of that quadrant. It contains the exact formulation of Martian Soil as bed 6 in the Beta Quadrant. Bed 3 however has not been uncovered to potentially become contaminated by scratching chickens.
I will run this test later today. But it rained last night and the soil matrix has to be dry to conduct the test. This means that I will have to insure the Delta Quadrant Bed 3 soil is dry first.
In the mean time, Here is the original article from the Australian news source that prompted John and I to test our soils. It really does make you think twice about the costs of growing your food in an urban environment.
