Soil Remediation Research

A Rotational Phytoremediation & Mycoremediation Protocol

Using willow, hemp, and fungal mycelium in sequence to remediate contaminated soil — and to build a permanent, legitimate crop stream once the land is clean. Released openly, with no fee or ownership claim.

The rotation

Rather than treating willow, hemp, and mycelium as independent remediation options, this protocol sequences all three as one long-term land-management system.

• Willow — continuous, sited around water. Planted around all ponds, streams, and source water on-site and maintained on an ongoing basis to buffer water from contaminant migration throughout the entire process.
• Hemp — years 1 through 3. Fast growth and a deep taproot draw down the bulk of heavy-metal and organic contaminant load.
• Mycelium — years 4 through 7. Targets residual petroleum hydrocarbons and organic contaminants, and continues heavy-metal binding within fungal tissue.
• Retesting. Soil is retested for the originally identified contaminants every 2 years throughout the 7-year cycle, determining whether the site is released, needs another rotation, or needs targeted follow-up.

Contaminated biomass

During active remediation, all harvested hemp and mycelium biomass is treated as contaminated material — never sold, processed, or used in any product, food, or fiber stream. It is disposed of separately, following applicable hazardous/contaminated waste handling requirements for the contaminants present on-site.

Post-remediation continuation

Once soil testing confirms the site is clean, the same land is well-suited to continue producing hemp and mycelium — now without the contamination-handling constraint — alongside grain or other harvest crops already suited to the reclaimed land. This gives a project two practical, non-remediation outputs after cleanup:

• Hemp for its established natural uses — fiber, hurd, oil, and other existing hemp product streams that remain underutilized relative to hemp's availability.
• Mycelium grown for material applications such as bio-based adhesives and composite materials, including experimental use in components such as wind turbine parts.

Licensing & intended use

This protocol is released for open use by any college, university, extension program, nonprofit, or land manager who wishes to test, adapt, or build on it. There is no fee, license cost, or ownership claim attached to its use. It is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) — anyone may share, adapt, and use this work, including commercially, provided appropriate credit is given to Jason McCoy and the Pre-Failure Research Group (PFRG).

PFRG Library Classification

Soil Remediation · Phytoremediation · Mycoremediation · Agricultural Research · Open License