Crop Growth and Salinity

Salinity control is one of the major objectives of drainage, the other of course the removal of excess water. To keep soil salinity from reaching damaging concentrations, it is necessary to remove the concentrated soil solution from the root zone of the crop. With more salt-tolerant fruit crops, such as stone fruits, yield losses caused by toxicity may be comparable in magnitude to those caused by osmotic effects. When toxic accumulations of ions occur, the damage to the crop by leaf burn and defoliation is generally additive with the growth-reducing osmotic effects of salinity. Salinity treatments were applied to seedlings established in nonsaline plots and the data represent salt tolerance for all but the germination and early seedling stages. Salinity control may, therefore, involve attention to any of a number of cultural or land management techniques, but adequate drainage is a prerequisite for the continued success of any system of irrigation agriculture.