Kwesi Joseph<\/a>, urban garden specialist for CCE Harvest New York. \u201cYou get to know if you\u2019re lacking in any of the macro or micronutrients that are essential for plant health.\u201d<\/p>\nBecause community gardens in New York City are typically 100% compost, a common soil problem is an excess of the macronutrients, like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, Joseph said. \u201cThat may slow the absorption of the other of the micronutrients.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been teaching gardeners to amend their soil with rock dust, which is crushed basalt. \u201cWhen you see images of lava flowing out of a volcano, 70% of that stuff is basalt. It\u2019s dark, dense rock, and it\u2019s very high in trace elements,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cIf you add that to the soil, the life in the soil will slowly interact with that rock and make those elements biologically available for the plants to use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many urban gardeners use compost because they\u2019re able to access it cheaply and easily. \u201cIt\u2019s not as simple as saying, \u2018Well, just don\u2019t use it.\u2019 That\u2019s not always an option,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cWe have to think through those solutions on how to help them, knowing what they\u2019re growing in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph worked with Fitzpatrick to distribute the 22 soil tests to the gardeners at the 462 Halsey Community Farm and send them to the Soil Testing Lab. This year they\u2019ve decided to grow only nonedible plants, including sunflowers, butterfly weed, bachelor buttons, dahlias, luffa sponges, gourds and sorghum, and focus on remediating the soil. \u201cOur gut instinct, collectively, is that the soil needs some love,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m interested in the soil and the planting, but I don\u2019t always know the science behind it, so it\u2019s interesting to learn a little bit more about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the tests show that heavy metals are present in the soil, the most important thing for people to do is to wash their fruits and vegetables, Joseph said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of media hype about heavy metals in community gardens. That was making it seem like the plants were toxic.\u201d In fact, the heavy metals in the soil splash onto the leaves and plants, rather than being absorbed by them, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince we\u2019re offering individual technical assistance based on their results report, we\u2019re able to offer that gem of insight that maybe isn\u2019t common knowledge. We are able to work one-on-one with that grower,\u201d Hohl said.<\/p>\n
The program provides a structured, guided process for people who may be intimidated by the steps to do a soil test, and who may not have the money to do it, Joseph said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great resource that\u2019s provided to gardens,\u201d Fitzpatrick said. \u201cIt feels empowering to know what\u2019s in our soil, what\u2019s getting into our food and to make sure that it\u2019s as healthy as it can be \u2013 and if not, that we can take steps to ameliorate it.\u201d<\/p>\n
To learn more, contact program coordinator Mallory Hohl at mdh286@cornell.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last fall, Shannon Fitzpatrick watched construction dust and debris blow from the upper floors of an abandoned building…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-203502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-new-york-state","12":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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