Soil is the soul of agriculture, but not all soils nurture plants equally. One such challenge are salty soils, which can hinder plant growth and impair soil structure. How often have you had spotty germination? Have you experienced fields with stunted growth and below-average crop yields? These issues can occur for several reasons: inefficient irrigation, poor drainage, and continuous monocropping, among others. These farming practices often lead to saline and/or sodic soils.
What’s the Difference Between Saline and Sodic Soil?
Sodic soils are characterized by high sodium content relative to other soluble cations such as calcium and magnesium. To put it simply, they are soils with an overload of sodium. This imbalance affects various soil properties.
Saline soils, on the other hand, have an excess of soluble salts such as chloride and sulfates. Plants need cations for nutrient uptake and cell formation. But an imbalance, either too much or too little, of any mineral including calcium makes other minerals unavailable for plant uptake.
Both these soil conditions will exist before you see any crusting on the soil surface or any obvious crop damage. But your farm records will show a continuous decline in productivity and an increased need for many micronutrient inputs. You’ll first see stress on leaf surfaces, wilting, necrosis, and susceptibility to leaf burn. Your crop will be stunted and you’ll know you have problems long before it’s evident in your soil.
Give Me the Worst Case Scenario for My Fields
If you’ve got sodic soil with poor drainage, you’ve got serious problems. They are not insurmountable, but it will take time to reverse the damage that decades of soil damage from conventional farming have caused. Your soil will have compaction issues, poor water infiltration, and poor root growth. You may even have anaerobic bacteria because of water logging and poor aeration. You’ll have to address the following issues to get a handle on farm profitability.
Poor Soil Structure
The excessive sodium displaces other essential soil components, causing soil particles to break down and form a dense, compacted layer.
Reduced Water Permeability
The high sodium levels reduce the soil’s ability to absorb and transmit water, leading to waterlogging or drought conditions depending on rainfall and irrigation efficiency.
Nutrient Deficiency
Essential nutrients such as potassium and calcium are displaced by sodium, making them less available to plants, which leads to stunted growth and poor yield.
High pH Levels
Sodic soils often have high pH levels, making the environment less favorable for plant growth and microbial activity. Most plants and microorganisms prefer a soil pH of 6.0 to 7.5. Within this range, most essential micronutrients are available for plant uptake, and it also promotes a healthy microbial community.
This is the worst case, so don’t get too anxious yet. You might have soil salinity issues, which are easier and quicker to remedy. While you’re repairing your soil you may need to foliar feed nutrients for good crop yields.
Steps to Repair Sodic and Saline Soils
The first step is a soil test. You need to know exactly what the issue is: an excess of sodium, an excess of calcium, magnesium, chlorides and sulfur, or all of the above. Sodic soil issues have to be addressed before soil salinity. Adding organic matter is a good beginning. You also need to improve drainage if that’s an issue.
Some farmers find their soil is just too sodic to grow crops, but it doesn’t have to be abandoned. Adding calcium carbonate (lime) or calcium sulfate (gypsum) displaces sodium ions from soil particles and replaces them with calcium to improve soil structure.
Adding livestock to your farm with controlled grazing enriches the ecosystem and starts the process of converting your land from acreage devoid of microbes into a carbon sink. You’re also increasing the biodiversity on your farm or ranch. When that happens you’ve begun creating resilience to extreme weather such as floods and drought. With the decrease in tillage you’re halfway down the path to regenerative agriculture.
Our team at ST Biologicals also recommends Calcine as a soil amendment, along with regenerative agricultural practices such as cover crops, minimum till, biodiversity, and decreased synthetic inputs. Those inputs are salt-based and can aggravate a soil condition that may have been the result of drought climate conditions that caused water evaporation, leaving behind excess salts.
How Does Calcine Help Reduce Sodic and Saline Soil Issues?
Calcine is a game-changer for addressing the challenges posed by sodic soils. Here’s how it works:
Salt Mobilization and Removal
Calcine shifts harmful salts out of the root zone. By displacing sodium ions, Calcine enhances the soil’s structure, making it more conducive to plant growth. Calcium and sodium can both be problematic, so talk with a certified crop consultant before you embark on a remediation plan.
Improved Soil Structure
As Calcine assists in the removal of sodium and excess calcium, it promotes better soil aggregation. Improved permeability and water infiltration result in a more open and less compacted soil structure.
Nutrient Optimization
By decreasing sodium levels, valuable macronutrients like calcium and micronutrients such as iron, manganese, boron, molybdenum, and zinc can better integrate into the soil. This boosts soil fertility and microbial population diversity, leading to healthier plant growth and higher yields. You’re getting a much more efficient nutrient cycle with microbial allies.
Enhanced Water Retention
Treated soils with Calcine tend to hold more water, reducing the need for frequent irrigation and conserving precious water resources while reducing water pollution from erosion.
Eco-Friendly
Calcine also supports the establishment of beneficial soil organisms like earthworms, which play a crucial role in maintaining a balanced ecosystem and enhancing soil health. As the soil changes from saline or sodic to fertility with the addition of organic matter from the hardy cover crops, even clay soil increases porosity.
Using a cover crop can mitigate excess heat that causes evaporation so less irrigation is needed. But covers aren’t necessarily able to grow in saline and /or sodic soil. Following the lead of indigenous peoples and selecting crops for tolerance to these poor soils can help with farm profit while healing the earth. Certain varieties of barley, millet, and sorghum have high salt tolerance.
Healthy Soil Is the Result of a Combination of Best Practices
Using Calcine, farmers can transform once hostile, sodic soils into fertile, productive lands. This transformation not only brings immediate benefits in terms of crop yield and water use but also fosters long-term soil health and sustainability.
The benefits of using Calcine extend far beyond short-term gains. By improving the soil’s chemical and physical properties, this innovative solution promotes long-term soil health and sustainability. Healthier soils encourage beneficial microbial activity, which contributes to nutrient cycling and organic matter development. Over time, these processes create a more balanced ecosystem, helping to combat soil degradation and erosion.
As sodic soils are transformed into fertile lands, farmers can practice more diverse crop rotations and sustainable agriculture farming techniques, reducing their dependence on chemical fertilizers and mitigating environmental impacts. Ultimately, Calcine not only revitalizes land but also supports a more sustainable agricultural future for generations to come.
To learn more about how regenerative agriculture practices would benefit your ranch or farm and how Calcine can bring back an underperforming field or pasture, contact our team at ST Biologicals. We’re here to help you succeed. When soil speaks, we listen.
