Growing Fruit Near Cemetery

General Fruit Growing
1

Hello,

Kind of a weird scenario but my backyard is adjacent to a cemetery. There are 2 places along the property boarder where I’d like to plant apple trees, but then I had the thought that perhaps the buried might have contaminants that could effect the health of the tree/fruit. The first tree would be within 10 feet of an old grave. The second tree is further away, although there could be some unmarked graves since it’s a very old cemetery.

Anyone have some more information/advice?

Thanks

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No concern to me. Most of the feeder roots of your fruit trees will be in the top 12-18 inches of soil, anyway… they’re probably not going to be seeking out the remains of whatever bodies were buried there however many years ago, deeper than most of their roots will be growing.
I’m not sure what compounds, other than formaldehyde, might be present in embalming fluid, if the bodies were embalmed, but it is likely long since gone/broken down, and I doubt that roots would take it up, in the first place.

I say ‘plant away and don’t worry about it!’

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i agree with Lucky. the older burials are mostly lone gone and all the newer ones in the last 60 yrs. the caskets were buried in sealed cement vaults so even if your roots contacted them, they couldn’t enter.

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My property (12 acres) is next to a cemetery as well, and, as with anything in life, it depends:

  • Soil type: clay has smaller particles so is more likely to ‘contain’ the nasty viruses/bacteria/heavy metals coming from coffins/bodies.
  • Size of the cemetery
  • Water flow (for instance, my property is slightly higher than the cemetery, so any rain water picking up contaminants would flow away from my property).

This was my risk mitigation plan:

  • Have my garden in the area furthest away from the cemetery.
  • Did a heavy metals soil test on the border with the cemetery (no elevated heavy metal levels found).
  • Sleep with a night light on

If I were you, I would worry more about root crops then trees, or having drinking water coming from a well.

M

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:joy::rofl::joy:

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You should get motion sensing lights as well. It’ll tell you if someone is visiting :crazy_face: no really though, when i wake up and I’m not in this realm but stuck in between, my motion sensored lights are the only things telling me I woke up on the other side lol. Light switches and electrical things won’t work there but you can still trip off motion sensor things. My biggest fear is waking up on the other side and unable to get back. I’ve died before.

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