Nuts, I composted the shiny stuff!

I spread some shiny ad papers a few sheets thick in parts of my vegetable garden last spring. I planted in straw bales last summer (so I didn't really worry what was in the soil), but I would really like to actually plant in the ground this year. Any thoughts as to whether or not I should plant veggies in this soil?

*smack* myself upside the head, I should have known better!

Thanks
pam

I wouldn't worry about it...if they get in your way while digging, just pull them out :))

Oh they're already broken down...I'm concerned that they've leached dioxin or other nasties into the soil. Blech. :P

pam

nah...wouldn't be enough to worry about. IMHO.

Truly!!!

Look at it this way - somewhere back in that piece of paper's life, it was exposed to dioxin. Okay. Since then, it has been exposed to sunlight, hot temps, cold temps, rain, soil that contains bacteria and other such things - probably changes in pH and other things that would make a gallon of bleach turn into milk.

And we're even assuming that the plant would not change the chemical makeup of whatever it took up (google bioremediation if that comment interests you) or that the plant would even take it up, and then whether or not it would use it to make a vegetable or a root or maybe a leaf.

A few pieces of paper? Naw - throw a bunch of compost on it, mix it in, you'll likely never glow in the dark. Not brightly, at least.

It's had plenty of time to break down and I wouldn't get to excited. You probably have to do it by the truck load to get a really, really bright glow! LOL

Still, if your earthworms start glowing...."Glow Little Glow Worm Glow"!

While I wouldn't advise anyone to use those shiny colored sheets in the garden, I doubt any dioxins would be left in your planting area now. What was there will have been greatly diluted and leeched into the water table. But it does cause one to pause and think about what we put on and in our soil and serves as a reminder that even if we are not planning to plant an area now, it may be necessary in the future.

Funny, Indy!!!! Deb

Yeah - don't worry about your garden, it's the water table that you've messed up.

No problem. Your neighbors won't figure it out for years, don't worry.

Geez, Zany!

LOL not to worry, by now the water table has been purified by the water being drawn up into your well and you have purified it further with your body which in turn returned it through the sewer or septic tank which in turn filtered it further and so on and so on ....and your neighbors could never trace it back to you with any certainty... unless of course they are DG subscribers and follow this forum... in which case they know you didn't mean to make their skin glow... so just compliment their glowing skin and plant your garden ;~)

Pagancat, is that better ? :~P

hmmm - glowingly...

Oh man...maybe I should just leave town under an assumed name... :O

pam

ROFLMAO.........

phuggins, no need to leave town. If they trace it to you you can tell them there's no need for thanks. It was your priviledge to provide them with radiant skin... after all a billion dollar business is done every year trying to give us a healthy glow and radiant skin and they got it for free!

Phuggins, you want to sale me some of those glo-worms Indy was talking about? I bet they are good critters for night fishing.

Much better, Zany! Don't want to scare the poor thing off - we'll never get to hear the end of the barnacle stories...

LOL I think between the video and the song lyrics I have learned more than I needed to know about the Barnacles!

Not me; I want to know it all.

I feel like there are two types of people who allow "shinny" paper to get into their ecco system one way or another. Those who have, and those that are about to.I am a have. Mike

You want glowing worms? I am your man! (or woman, as I have to keep noting :) ) Check this out.

pam

ROFLMAO That give new meaning to vermicomposting!! LOL

WOW!!! I guess I forgot to add lol to my post. I guess that I am about to be one of "those who have" as I want to grow some of those marketable glo-worms. Can't wait to tell my wife, she is a business woman. Take care,
Mike p.s. almost forgot lol

Actually the nuclear worms WERE marketed as bait in Delmarva a few years ago--not because they glowed, but because your average specimen was 4-6 FEET long and you got a lot of bait for your buck. (They were called "nuclear worms" because they were hot pink and because at 4-6 feet long they looked like some weird mutant you might find hanging around a leaky nuclear power plant.) Unfortunately, they were an introduced species (from Vietnam) and we all know what invasive species can do, so their import was, last I heard, prohibited.

pam

good thing. Z would have flipped seeing them on the wet pavement...

LOL I sure would have!

Long and pink - LMAO - oh geez, another thread down the tubes!!!!

Pagancat, I didn't see any tube worms here ...

HUH?

going down the tubes ?

Duh.... sorry!

these all seem to have a repetitive pattern: rapidly spiraling downward.

Just part of what makes Soil and Composting forum so great !

Amen, Katye! They seems like such a nice, clean cut group of folks at first.............ROFLMAO!! degenerates every one! LOL

Rapidly spiraling downwards is how those lovely worms aerate our soils!
Nothing degenerate about it. Gotta keep in warm in the winter. :D

Yall are quick and witty, otta be on whose line is it anyway with Drew Carry and them.

OMG - did you see the one with Richard Simmons? I thought I was going to swallow my tongue.

See, Katye - there's always room to learn more.

why is it that i feel so...at home...?

Um - cause you are?