lead in gardens

[thegawd]

earlier this year I shot a coon in my garden with a turkey load. shortly after that I had a bad gut feeling that I just contaminated my garden with lead. Iv researched before and couldnt find an answer, I just spent the last couple hours researching and again could not find an answer.

there are many pages online about the real threat of lead in vegetable gardens and us ingesting it. the primary concern for lead contamination is dust, old paint chips and from roadways, the solution is to not have a garden near a house, building or a roadway. leafy vegetables and root vegetables will take up lead in the parts we eat. fruiting vegetables has no real cause for concern because the fruit of the vegetables dont accumulate the lead. many plants dont take up the lead at all. I guess sunflowers and other plants absorb lead and will actually decontaminate the soil, which is pretty cool. keeping the soil above a certain Ph prevents plants from absorbing it at all.

well I cant find an answer about lead in the form of bullets or shot and its effect on vegetables and us consuming them. does anybody know anything about this? i found one small blurb that wasnt scientific by any means that said it is not a concern. hmmm well where I shot the coon was in my 3 sisters plot, corn, beans and squash, these plants will not absorbe the lead but by tilling the ground im going to be spreading it around and it has me worried.

Any ideas???

next time I'll use a goose load.

[windwalkingwolf]

I can't help you Al, I haven't owned or fired a firearm in a very long time... but I thought ALL modern bird loads were steel because of environmental concerns?

[thegawd]

only migratory bird loads are required to be lead free, everything else is still lead.

[windwalkingwolf]

After a quick Google search, I have learned that the main issue would be leachate, that is, dissolving of the lead in water or other liquids. Apparently lead actually doesn't dissolve all that well in plain water...the trouble would be if your soil pH was high or low and didn't drain...or if you pulverized the lead. Tilling would probably be not good as the action of the dirt grains against the shot would slough them. Apparently the contamination is limited to the top 8 inches of soil (read it on the internet so it must be true lol) and pretty much the only way to clean it up short of removing the soil, is to plant plants that take it up or bind it. Problem is, they'll only take up microscopic particles, they won't do anything to the shot pieces themselves, so you'd have to till the crap out of the spot in question to make them more bioavailable. Long and short of it is, if your soil is reasonably healthy and fertile and well drained (not clay or swampy low spot), and your rain not terribly acid and you're not putting raw manure or urine on your garden, the lead pellets won't dissolve fast enough to cause an issue. That's just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt and more research lol. This article is interesting https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16393813

[WLLady]

Al-you are worrying too much....
A few lead pellets from a shell is not going to leach and hurt you without something else very wrong in your dirt.

[Ontario Chick]

Carrots are used to clean up chemically contaminated fields, if that helps.

[thegawd]

PHEW talk about a weight lifted off my shoulders! THANKS so much! I knew the more scientific folk on here would more than likely tell me it was ok and thats why I couldnt find anything about it.

thanks again!

your always saving my butt!

[Killerbunny]

I did the same thing Al. I shot a skunk and then had a sinking feeling the turkeys would scratch it up and eat it so I dug the area out!

[goatgal35]

Since we eat the critters, shot with lead I think the veggies should be just as safe :)