How to Get Rid of Salt in Soil

Salt in soil is a subject that confuses many people. It is conventional wisdom that salt in soil is bad for plants, but "salt" is really a chemical descriptive, not one particular item. This means that some salts, such as ammonium nitrate and potassium chloride, are good for plants because they provide necessary nutrients; other salts, such as common table salt, are bad. Any salt in excess will harm plants' roots. Removing all salt in soil takes away all the available fertilizers that plants need to grow and leaves the soil alkaline and bitter. But for a soil that contains too many undesirable salts, the only effective method of removing the salt is leaching it with water.

Instructions

- 1
  Test the soil's salinity, or salt level, to give a baseline measure. Handheld electronic saline testers are available for between $100 and $300 in 2011. The test allows you to know if your actions are working as you desire.
- 2
  Flood the area with water. As the water soaks into the soil and drains away, it also removes salts. Do this 4 to 5 times over a week and remeasure the salinity to see how much salt has been removed.
- 3
  Continue to flood the area on a periodic basis if you want the salt to be minimized. There is no effective way to permanently remove the salt from the soil. Small areas, such as backyard gardens, will benefit from adding lime and compost to the soil by balancing the salts and creating a more neutral soil condition, but these eventually have to be renewed also.

Purpose of Soil Classification

What Does Ironite Do for Soil?

Soil