How to Manage Saline Seeps: A cover crop like winter wheat can set up a perennial crop like salt-tolerant alfalfa

摘要

If you've ever had cropland salt up, you've been on the receiving end of a saline seep. Saline seeps start by water unused by crops percolating down through the soil. On its way down, water starts leaching mineral salts. Eventually, water hits an impermeable layer and then flows to a lower area where the water table is at the surface. When the water evaporates, it leaves salts behind. The resulting salty soil curtails or nixes crop production.