the green house

if you have a green house that is air tight,will the soil in said greenhouse be safe from radiation,or is the soil doomed,,,,,my primary thought is ,the Fallout does not make contact with the soil it should remain clean ,there are 3 types of radiation,alpha,beta,gamma,,,,,Gamma is the one that concerns me,you can not keep it out of a greenhouse,but there is nothing in the green house but the soil,will it contaminate the soil????????????

Thats something worth looking into.

almost my bed time,so one last thing,my main nuclear target is around 40 miles away I think I am pretty much out of the blast range, so a couple carports closed in with plexiglass would give me a 20x40 greenhouse,,,that should produce more than I will eat in a year,,I just need to find out if I am right or wrong

my main concern,is the fall out.im up wind from tyler tx..so no worries there...but yet,im 45-50 miles from the city,that supplies some where around 90-98 % of the oil pump for the oil fields.in which im down wind from there.fall out is my concern there..

well I can not find much about the effects of just gamma on soil,,,,,so I guess build the green house air tight and to be safe and if you have a spot you can do it in,,buy a couple pallets of bagged top soil and put them in storage................I will keep looking the answer to this is out there somewhere I will eventually I find it

I'm still thinking that if I have to worry about radiation in the soil then it's probably time to relocate.
On another note, I got 15 bags of black cow manure to till into part of the greenhouse tomorrow. I want to plant a bunch of onions, carrots and I'm not sure what else yet. I didn't look today but am sure the potatoes bit the dust with the three freezes we had overnight. I'll let them completely die off before picking them but am curious to see what's underground.

Brent S said:

I'm still thinking that if I have to worry about radiation in the soil then it's probably time to relocate.
On another note, I got 15 bags of black cow manure to till into part of the greenhouse tomorrow. I want to plant a bunch of onions, carrots and I'm not sure what else yet. I didn't look today but am sure the potatoes bit the dust with the three freezes we had overnight. I'll let them completely die off before picking them but am curious to see what's underground.

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It get very cold over there? We got down to 18 Friday night. Colder than a welldiggers butt for this time of year.

WGregMiller said:

It get very cold over there? We got down to 18 Friday night. Colder than a welldiggers butt for this time of year.

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We got to the lower 20's three nights in a row. Can't complain though as its the first cold spell we've had this year.

Radiation will go through many materials, including your greenhouse. Airtight has little to do with it...just prevents irradiated particles, not the radiation itself.

Your better bet would be to keep some soil stashed in an area protected from radiation. Metal, Concrete, and 2' thickness of dirt are good shielding materials. Then, you can simply use THAT soil for planting in boxes, after all has settled down.

This is an interesting question.

It depends on the nature of the nukes that are used.

A neutron bomb...assuming you survive...will do very little to contaminate soil in your greenhouse. A cobalt bomb, on the otherhand, practically ensures that everything will be contaminated with radioactive materials. A cobalt bomb is a nuclear device covered with a shell of cobalt/iodine, and when the device explodes...it spreads radioactive cobalt far and wide. Only the tiniest amout of cobalt 60 and/or iodine 131 is sufficient to kill from cancer (usually leukemia) and/or radiation sickness.

An atom bomb falls somewhere in the middle. Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were reoccupied after WWII.

If I were you, I would stockpile large quantities of fertile soil someplace where it would likely survive the blast, and set up the greenhouse with the reserved soil about 90 days after the detonation. This should reasonably ensure that your produce will be mostly radiation free.

Keep in mind that about 3/8 of an ounce of plutonium 239 divided equally is enough to kill every human being on earth in 18 months from leukemia.

The exact amount of critical mass in a nuclear weapon is a closely guarded secret...but a typical nuke requires roughly 90 kilograms of weapons' grade plutonium (don't ask me how I know)...or perhaps 1,200 times the amount of Pu239 required to kill every human being who currently lives on the planet.

With this kind of toxicity, I generally don't prepare for certian things.

Pu239 has a half-life of 24,100 years, so any soil anywhere near a nuke should be written off for agricultural purposes.

What migh be a better, more constructive idea is using hydroponics underground in a mine. The environment is completely sealed. The only problem is electricity for the grow lights. Solar offers a lot of possibilities. So does a syngas generator.

In order to do hydro, buy a lot of reefer growing books, and buy LED grow lights, since they use the least abount of electricity.

It is possible to set up indoor agriculture that will produce fresh food in the middle of winter. The Soviets used similar techniques in siberia...north of the arctic circle.

The big thing is an abandoned mine and a steady supply of electricity. I believe a syngas generator is the way to go.

I hope I've helped you.

P.S. If you go this route, grow lots of plants with vitamin C and B vitamins. Scurvy can be a problem in winter, as can pellagra and ricketts.
P.P.S. A converted mine would, by definition, by easy to hide. Your neighbors won't know about your garden unless you want them to know.

If the green house is airtight the soil should be safe. Also keep in mind the soil may seep water from the ground during rain allowing outside contamination to be drawn in to the soil that's in the green house. I would use raised garden beds that's separated from the earths ground though another problem that needs to be overcome, if the green house is sealed ambient temps need to be regulated otherwise the soil and plants would become overheated especially in the South plus a way to water it plants.

Example of safety, if an apple is left outside (not connected to the tree) exposed to the air during fallout that same apple is still eatable after the fallout has settled, just wash the apple with soap and water, peel the skin off and eat, that goes with most fruits and vegetables (that's already harvested).