Products of Detonation Effecting Soil

[CyclonitePyro]

Someone I know has a plan to bore holes in the ground, place charges in the holes and create small crators which will be refilled with soil of a higher quality in order for certain plants to grow nicely.
A possible problem being that the explosive used will create products upon detonation that would hinder the growth or pollute the plants. Acidity in the soil can seriously affect plant growth and many explosives release acidic substances when they detonate. I think ammonium nitrate based explosives are out. Maybe not.

So the question is, what explosive could be used that upon detonation would not leave chemicals in the surrounding soil that would harm plants. The roots will eventually grow out far enough to absorb the tainted dirt.
The dirt does not nessecerily need to be thrown from the site, it could just be loosened to aid digging, but it would make the job easier if it was blown out. If the dirt doesn't need to be blown out of the crator this would allow use of less powerfull explosives that might have no toxic detonation products.
Perhaps an O2/H2 mixture could be used which would only create water. Maybe expoding C02 canisters? Non-detonating explosives seem like they lack the power needed though.

[A-BOMB]

AN it the only one I could think of its a explosive and a fertilizer, so if it all doesn't detonate you already got some fertilizer in the hole.

[spydamonkee]

APAN seems like a good choice, simple to make too

[EP]

Explosives are often used for loosening soil for planting crops/fruit trees so I don't think there is anything to worry about.

[Nihilist]

I know AP would work however handling that much AP might be a bit dangerous

[Microtek]

I'm virtually certain that nitroglycerine in the form of dynamite would produce no toxic products if adjusted to OB with NC or some other fuel. Of course you could simply use EGDN as that has perfect OB all by itself.

[xyz]

If you are worried about acidity, just put a small amount of limestone into the hole after it has been made. I don't think there is anything to worry about though.

[0EZ0]

As Microtek has said. To produce non-toxic detonation products, all you need to do is select an explosive composition with the OB as close to, or higher than the balanced 0% as possible.
If memory serves, the products yielded are oxides of Carbon(CO₂), Hydrogen(H₂O) and oxides of any metals that exist in the explosive if at all(eg.Al₂O₃). Any Nitrogen forms into it's natural state as N₂.
If there is an over balance of oxygen (too much oxygen), then the only problem with detonation products is free O₂ being formed. Which isn't much of a problem.

As you can see, all products from a balanced OB are gaseous, even in the case of (vapourised)water and are rather non-toxic.
There shouldn't be much of a problem using explosives in this situation. As others have said, blasting has been used to ditch holes for fruit trees. Just be careful with the size of the charges <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> . It can surprise some people just how much earth can be displaced by blasting, especially if you have to fill in the hole again :D .

Good luck with the project.

<small>[ February 24, 2003, 04:55 AM: Message edited by: 0EZ0 ]</small>

[CyclonitePyro]

Alright sounds good. Thanks for the help everyone.
I know ammonium nitrate is a good fertilizer I was just worried about what compounds it might form after detonating. I've actually read that using lots high nitrogen fertilizer really lowers the pH of the soil, and you will need to use a lot of limestone to counteract it.
How does regular ANNM sound? I thought ANNM at oxygen balance was unpractical.

<a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/m300.htm" target="_blank">http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/m300.htm</a>

this link Arkangel posted recently has what I need. I just can't find that kind of auger in any stores.

I think around 50-100g of ANNM makes a crator of the desired size for my, err, my friends use.

I guess I got a little carried away worrying about this, but I'll be damned if a whole year's crop is ruined because I blasted the holes!

I guess I could post pictures of the whole project, maybe even of the final payoff :D

Everyone contrbuting to this thread gets a free plant matter treat <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

[Anthony]

100gm of ANNM sounds good, although it would depend a lot on the soil type/structure.

You can get auger drill bits up to 1.5"-2" for drilling wood from most DIY places. They should work in soil if you attach an extension bar to get to the required depth. They're about $30-$40 new though, so an old knackered second hand one would be ideal.

Example Pic:

<img src="http://www.longchengtools.com/1006c.jpg" alt=" - " />

Of course this is what you really want :)

<img src="http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/boise/mgmt/watershed/SilverCreek/media/dscn5503.jpg" alt=" - " />