I agree that there's not enough education about toxins in our soil, especially not the removal of them. But I hope to eventually talk more about the topic... While researching my topic of choice, electroculture, I learned about toxic soils and how they can be cleaned using phytoremediation, or in my case, electrophytoremediation. In phytoremediation, soils are cleaned using certain types of plants known as "hyper-accumulators" which are capable of absorbing large amounts of soils toxins ranging from hydrocarbons to heavy metals like zinc and lead. When I started creating my own gardens, digging up the overgrown ivy in my yard I found an assortment of old auto parts and some electronics that were buried... what toxins or chemicals lay hidden within my soil? Of course I could (should) get a soil test. At the same time, I could start growing hyperaccumulators like sunflowers - check out the list at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hyperaccumulators With electrophytoremediation, the process is accelerated, allowing you to remove soil toxins at a faster rate through modest use of electricity.

That's a cool idea... I like the idea of giving plants additional lighting along their length.

It really is interesting the amount of good information from over a hundred years ago that isn't even looked at today! As a lazy gardener, I am very interested in better irrigation practices and look forward to exploring your site further, especially regarding SIP. I've become obsessed with the mechanisms behind electro-horticulture, the study of growing plants with electricity for the purpose of accelerating plant growth and boosting yields by up to 400%. My website, http://ElectricFertilizer.com talks about all of this. It would be really cool to combine these two old growing methods together into one system!