How to Reverse Soil Salinity

A hard winter with lots of road salts used can wreak havoc in a nearby garden or lawn. Or, perhaps a tropical storm sent an unusual amount of sea spray to your landscape or you applied too much fertilizer that contains salt. These events can raise your soil salinity, and plants may be showing signs of salt damage, including salt burn, stunted growth and failure to produce flowers or fruit. Fortunately, high soil salinity can be reversed through a process called leaching.

Sprinkler
Buckets

Instructions

- 1
  Have the soil tested by a local lab or a cooperative extension office to be sure the soil salinity is high. Salt concentration more than 2,000 parts per million is consider high. The results will help guide you in knowing how much salt you have to leach to get your soil into an acceptable range.
- 2
  Scrape off and discard any white salt crust that may have accumulated on top of the soil.
- 3
  Plan to water the soil slowly so it is absorbed into the soil and does not run off. A sprinkler works well for the average home garden or yard.
- 4
  Set buckets out in several places to measure the water that the different areas of the lawn or garden are receiving.
- 5
  Turn the water on and watch it for a while. If the water is running off, turn the water down a bit. This water should not be softened. Softened water contains salt and will only make the situation worse.
- 6
  Leave the water on until the buckets measure 6 inches. This amount of water reduces the salinity in the soil by 50 percent. Double that to 12 inches and 80 percent of the salts will be leached out. Add another 12 inches for a total of 24 inches, and the salinity in the soil will be reduced by 90 percent.

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Soil