Solutions for high-salinity irrigation water or soils — I
Grow Salt-Tolerant Crops
One effective way to manage salinity issues is to grow salt-tolerant crops, such as the pods of Ceratonia siliqua.
Normal irrigation water has an EC below 1,000 μS/cm and can be used for all plants. With increasing salinity, we are observing that borehole water from coastal regions are now reaching values between 1,000 and 2,000 μS/cm. This starts being threatening for more sensitive plants.
Here are the main salinity-sensitive crops of the Algarve:
lemons (Citrus × limon)
oranges (Citrus × sinensis)
avocados (Persea americana)
These plants don’t tolerate high levels of salinity and you shouldn’t include them in your future plans if your borehole water is showing values above 1,000 μS/cm. Find out how to measure your salinity levels.
The good news is that most of the non-sensitive crops can continue growing in the range of slightly saline water values if you put in practice our irrigation and soil management techniques!
Beyond that threshold, we recommend going for plants that are moderately-tolerant or tolerant to salinity.
You can find information about salt tolerance for all plant species growing at the Orchard of Flavours in our complete fruit tree database (or keep scrolling to find a ‘curated’ list). You will find that actually lots of other common trees of the Algarve are very salt-tolerant. Among them are:
carob (Ceratonia siliqua)
fig (Ficus carica)
pomegranate (Punica granatum)
olive (Olea europaea)
quince (Cydonia oblonga)
jujube (Ziziphus genus)
strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo)
… you may even already have them in your land!
Ziziphus jujuba, the jujube.
Arbutus unedo, the strawberry tree.
Punica granatum, the pomegranate.
And here are two other tips to better manage your salt-resistant plants:
First, did you know that some varieties are even more salt-tolerant than others? You can use these tougher varieties as rootstocks for grafting the trees you want to grow.
Second, remember that seedlings are like delicate little treasures, no matter how salt-tolerant they are when fully grown. Whenever possible, treat them to the best quality water available.
We have compiled a detailed list of all the salt-tolerant edible plant species growing at the Orchard of Flavours, here in Tavira. We hope it may be useful in your search for better adapted fruit trees, wherever you may be.
If you’re dealing with high salinity in your land, now you know that growing salt-tolerant fruit tree species is one of the solutions available to you. But it’s not the only one. Keep scrolling to find more content in this Research series.
This article was compiled by Miguel COTTON & Angela DUZAN. If you have any questions or suggestions, do not hesitate to contact us. Please write us anytime at miguel@orchardofflavours.com
Interested in more content relating to the growing issue of soil salinity and its effects on plants and soils, as well as solutions? This article is part of our Research series "Salinity and Edible Plants":
