DO NOT SALT IN THE GARDEN SOIL!

So I want the vegetables grown in the garden to be tasty, environmentally friendly and have a beautiful presentation. To this end, some gardeners use the most common products instead of fertilizers and pesticides. For example, kitchen salt. Unfortunately, they do not think about what actually does the plants and the soil more harm than good.

Recently, the Internet has literally replete with all sorts of articles and videos that encourage use table salt in the garden. Their authors argue that in this way, if not all, then most of the problems with plants can be solved. Especially often, salt is recommended to be added under garlic so that the leaves do not turn yellow after winter, and table beets - to improve sugar content. But is it worth it? Let’s try to figure it out by looking a little deeper into the soil processes.

During their growth and development, plants carry out a large number of macrocells (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium), mesoelements (sulfur, iron, calcium, magnesium) and trace elements (boron, manganese, molybdenum, zinc, cobalt, etc.) from the soil. From school, we know that the formula for kitchen salt is NaCI, that is, it contains sodium and chlorine. As you can see, in the salt there are no elements that are necessary for the plant for healthy growth and development.

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Moreover, both sodium and chlorine negatively affect soil fertility. But first things first. The set of soil components, or soil-absorbing complex (PPC) consists of organic, mineral and organo-mineral particles. In normal soil, such as chernozem, calcium is mainly present and in a smaller amount other elements - the so-called exchange cations (magnesium, potassium, sodium, aluminum, hydrogen).

From the composition of the PPC depend:

• formation of loosened soil structure:
• nature and degree of fixation of organic matter (humus):
• formation of organo-mineral compounds:
• resistance to acid precipitation, etc.

Soils saturated with calcium have a neutral reaction of the soil solution, are slightly susceptible to acidification or alkalization. Such soils are characterized by increased fertility, well structured, which facilitates their processing.

When adding table salt to the soil PPC sodium due to greater mobility replaces calcium (see. Figure). The soil becomes alkaline, all its properties deteriorate, it is difficult to process. On such soils, during dry periods, plants suffer from a lack of moisture, and in wet ones, from a lack of air. The displacement of calcium by sodium over time leads to the saltification of the soil. In turn, chlorine is washed out into groundwater and at the peak of their rise through capillaries it enters the upper layers of the soil, which already leads to its salinization.

Thus, in the soil there is a double process - salinization and salinization. For Polesie and the Western region with a leaching regime of the soil, this is not critical, although sodium and chlorine will not go anywhere, they will accumulate in the underlying horizons. But for the southern and eastern regions, these processes are extremely undesirable, since in many cases such a problem already exists.

Many gardeners claim that they use salt for fertilizers for five to ten years and do not see harm. And harm will not make itself felt immediately. Take human diseases, such as pancreatitis or gallstones. People with these diseases are not born, this is a consequence of improper long-term nutrition. The same thing is in our case. Not us, so our children or grandchildren may encounter the unpleasant consequences of treating plants with saline.

I will give one more example. In the summer, we have to watch how water bodies “bloom”, a large number of green algae develop in them. But did you know that this is the result of the use of a large number of phosphorus fertilizers in the fields (especially they were brought up in the distant Soviet times - the USSR plan had to be fulfilled!), As well as the use of detergent containing phosphates for many decades . They contribute to the development of algae.

So it’s worth a good thought before applying table salt to the soil.