[permaculture] Tomatoes Grown in Seawater Healthier Than RegularKind
Robyn Francis
erda at nor.com.au
Sun Aug 5 01:17:52 EDT 2007
On 5/8/07 2:25 PM, "Marimike6 at cs.com" <Marimike6 at cs.com> wrote:
> yarrow at sfo.com wrote:
>> But what effect does saltwater have on the soil ecology?
>
> Just from reading the article, I would assume the real value of the finding
> was that it provides a high value crop for soils already damaged by salt
> saturation, such as in the Sacramento Basin. Here's a location that's already
> been
> so heavily irrigated it's worn out. A novel use like this, where the waters
> available are on the saline side to begin with, could bring the region back to
> life.
The original article specifically states diluted seawater (10% seawater).
Seawater is quite a different substance to saline groundwaters in places
like the Sacramento Basin. It's a bit of a wild assumption to link this
research to re-greening salt-effected landscapes.
BTW The small quantities of seasalt present in seaweed/kelp does not present
a soil issue when used as a mulch unwashed. It could be that seawater at
this dilution is safe in terms of salt levels, though long term it would be
essential to reduce evaporation and salt build-up. I'd certainly do some
careful research and small-scale experimentation before using diluted
seawater on soils with a pH7 or more.
Ciao
Robyn
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