Planting in soil that has an animal buried?

[Infinitelight5D]

So my friend had a goat that died last year and he buried it where we are going to grow this year. He buried it about 4 foot deep in October 2018.
He wants to plant on top of it, but I'm not so sure. Would that be enough time to decompose, from October last year till May this year?

Has anyone had experience planting like this?

 

[Lester Beans]

Oh that would be the first place I'd plant. Definitely go for it and let us know how well it does!

A year is plenty of time.

 

[MJPassion]

What makes the grass grow?


BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!

 

[Switcher56]

True definition of "blood meal"

 

[green-genes77]

Absolutely. Some old schoolers still recommend chopping up a couple of fish and tossing them in the bottom of a hole. After a year, there's got to be plenty of available nutrition for whatever grows there. No personal experience but the theory is sound as far as I can tell.

 

[Sunshineinabag]

My gawd the knowledge that's been lost overtime..........this should seem obvious to a farmer.....

 

[big315smooth]

wonder how long it takes to break down. heard of a thorny vine bush that smaller animals would get caught up die and decompose and the plant would absorb its nutes. crazy
!

 

[caliprop215]

Great fertalizer....

 

[CowboyTed]

I dispose of carcasses in my compost pile, and they break down in a year, all but the thickest bones. (I turn my compost piles four to five times a year, so I can observe the decomposition process.)


The process would be slower, I suspect, in soil, since the bacteria load is not so high as in a compost pile. But most of a carcass should be decomposed in a year, even deep in the soil. The biggest difference will be the lack of oxygen in a deep grave, so that aerobic decomposition is hindered. Anaerobic bacteria will break down a carcass too, but they will not work so fast.



Given that the carcass is four feet deep, it's very unlikely that many roots on a cannabis plant would go that deep. If it's a monster, the roots might go that deep, and the fact that the soil was disturbed for the burial will sure help roots go deeper.


The question leaves me curious about whether plants are able to stop absorbing nutes through a particular portion of its roots, because the soil they've grown into is too "hot" with nutrients.If I had to lay out a testable theory, it would be this: a plant can throw roots out into the soil, find variation in the soil types the roots reach, and then pull what it needs from whichever part of the soil it's roots find them, and leave the excessive nutes in the "hot" areas of the soil.


Does anyone know? It strikes me as an interesting side-by-side comparison experiment: Can a plant deal with an abundance of nutes in PART of its soil, if the rest of its soil has perfect nutrient levels?


Now I wanna go test my theory: put a few inches of too-hot soil mix in the bottom of a pot, and fill the top with a more normal soil mix. Watch the plant grow. As the roots reach down to the hot soil, what happens? does the plant show evidence of overfeeding, or does it regulate itself to stay happy.


I suspect that the answer will be something slightly different that what we experience when we suddenly flood the root zone with a too hot mix of liquid nutrients. Hot nutrients in part of a pot's soil strikes me as a very different sort of problem from suddenly flooding the entire root system with too-hot liquid nutes.

 

[zifozonke]

Some of the best trees ive ever seen were at a mates house grown on holes full of dead chickens...they were massive and yielded kilos of buds each that were like the size of my thighs....i was amazed....
Another great story i read was about a guy who had apple trees that were the envy of all his neighbours....his secret...??...well he was a vet ...and every time he planted a new apple tree he filled a huge hole with a few dead dogs topped with a new tree....
Go figure.....

 

[Easy7]

We have goats buried all over the place. They're still not sure where to bury me and my dog. Thinking they're going to put me in a group home or nursing home freaks me out.


It's hard to hold on to property.

 

[Infinitelight5D]

I realize that growing plants on top of dead animals is a thing. I know about native people using fish in that way. I'm not dumb, but thanks.

What I was asking was, has anyone had experience planting on top of an animal body less than a year after it was buried.
It will be about 7 months, from being buried till I get plants in.
I thought a year would be fine, but I'm not sure if 7 months is long enough, that's all.


Thanks for anyone trying to help.

 

[Switcher56]

When in doubt, follow your GUT

 

[Teddybrae]

I have heard ... the idea is to plant on a dead sheep. besides the obvious blood and bone ... the wool holds an enormous quantity of water!

 

[Bjorn to farm.]

For sure. I’m hoping to get a tree planted on top of my cadaver.

 

[White Beard]

My will says I’m to to be wrapped in a (real) cotton sheet and buried in the pot patch (or tomatoes - I love ‘em both & would gladly give up my nutrients...)

 

[armedoldhippy]

native americans dropped small fish in holes as they planted their maize/corn. hell, shad are half rotten while they are still alive...

 

[zifozonke]

I realize that growing plants on top of dead animals is a thing. I know about native people using fish in that way. I'm not dumb, but thanks.

What I was asking was, has anyone had experience planting on top of an animal body less than a year after it was buried.
It will be about 7 months, from being buried till I get plants in.
I thought a year would be fine, but I'm not sure if 7 months is long enough, that's all.



Thanks for anyone trying to help.

Brother... get planting if the weather is right...i think 7months (in my non expert opinion)is more than enough time for the contents of the hole to be decomposed enough for a plant to start benefitting....i assure you - my mate with the chickens didnt wait that long and the results were spectacular....just do it and post up some pics (...dead animal hole thread!! Haha)...i cant see why your plants wont love you for it

 

[St. Phatty]

So my friend had a goat that died last year and he buried it where we are going to grow this year. He buried it about 4 foot deep in October 2018.
He wants to plant on top of it, but I'm not so sure. Would that be enough time to decompose, from October last year till May this year?

Has anyone had experience planting like this?

My biggest Apple tree in 2018 was a Fuji planted on top of "road kill Cemetery #1".

There's a dead deer a few feet down. And a raccoon. And a skunk.

4 feet deep - that's deeper than the deer was buried.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

Cannabis roots only go max 2 feet deep but will spider out as wide as the canopy is.