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Read some material about using sea salt to aid tomato growth??
Never heard anything of this, any info. appreciated.

That caught my attention. Here's what I've looked up so far. [URL]http://homeguides.sfgate.com/fertilize-plants-sea-salt-39373.html[/URL]

Not to be confused with "Salting the Earth" which was the complete opposite. [URL]https://www.google.com/search?ei=WD9cWuK0J43w_AawiwI&q=salting+the+land&oq=salting+the+land&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0.3617.8583.0.8890.16.14.0.2.2.0.320.2064.0j5j4j1.10.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..4.12.2094...0i67k1j0i131k1j0i20i264k1j0i131i67k1j0i10i67k1j0i22i30k1.0.cyEPBWKOzys[/URL]

You just have to be very careful with the dosage, since salt is used to kill weeds and harmful to beneficial microbes. There are people who say they get very good result using the right dosage, particularly foliar spraying.

My bias opinion is it's one of those unnecessary organic soil amendment. I tried all of them when I started gardening, such as compost tea brewing, rock dust, sea90, biochar. Couldn't understood why spending thousands of dollars on all these products and couldn't grow anything worthwhile. Only got good result once I start using compost and mulching.

I honestly believe these salt products are just overpriced salt, among the many overpriced organic marketed products looking to rip off new gardeners. $35 for 10lbs sea90, I could buy high quality food grade sea salt for cheaper.

I haven't heard anything about it aiding the growth, more like the opposite (it's proven that saline soil is a problem for plant growth). It's more about improved taste.
Where exactly does this improved taste come from is not clear to me. Is it just about raising soil conductivity (which in turns slows water absorption) or is it something more..

[url]http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/43/6/1888.full[/url]
Seea salt dont have only NaCl but you need to be careful with her because a high concentration of chloride ions can be toxic for plants.

If you want to treat your plants to lots of micronutrients from the sea, take a trip to the beach for some seaweed and add that to the soil any way you want. Dry and crush it up and dig it in, or lay it on top and let it slowly decompose, whatever works for you. No need to rinse off the salt water, as the amount won't be harmful and maybe for sea salt, just right. ;)
The seaweeds are rich in potassium and micronutrients and have other beneficial effects - some plant hormone substances, something else called "glycine betaine" which increases stress tolerance to cold, heat, soil salinity etc. My tomatoes love it, I'll vouch for that. I don't foliar spray, I just add it to the soil.

And of course, free for the taking, if you're anywhere close to the ocean. 8-)

In my opinion using sea salt for plants is a hoax. The other nutrients may be good but not the NaCl and the micronutrients are in miniscule quantities compared to the NaCl.

Here's an interesting article. [url]http://njfarmfresh.rutgers.edu/documents/TomatoSalt2009.pdf[/url] I've read that saline cultivation stresses the plant, which results in sweeter fruit. It's probably a difficult balancing act to find the right amount of stress vs excess damage to the plant.

Steve

There's other ways to stress your plants that doesn't involve killing your soil with salt. Not sure why this has gotten such a hype lately.
You can just use good old synthetic ferts, they also lead to a 'salt' buildup, salt here being other salts no actual table salt, and those have the advantage that are not quite as bad and can even be used to some degree by other things. Nothing uses the table salt.

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Actually I forgot to mention I do use my diluted urine spmetimes. Definitely cheaper than buying sea salt.

This will certainly help in understanding the role of salt in growing tomatoes

[url]https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1706&bih=815&ei=d_BcWoiwGoWj_QarvYnACQ&q=israeli+tomato+cultivation+salt&oq=israeli+tomato+cultivation+salt&gs_l=psy-ab.3..33i160k1l2.77529.82223.0.100336.5.5.0.0.0.0.102.480.4j1.5.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.5.479...0i22i30k1j33i22i29i30k1.0.4w0SYoLVSWI[/url]

It's in Israel where they germinate seeds in non salty water and then tranfer seedlings to brackish water.

They have no choice b/c of the topography there where brackish water underlies the fields. And yes, some of their tomatoes, which they export everywhere,are grown ingreen houses.

I know someone who monetarily supported the development of what they do.She asked for certain ones,you could get cherries,beefsteaks, etc.,to be sent to her and me both and had someone drive my portion up here to me in upstate NY

There's a place in the US in the SW where they also have been doing something similar,since the water table has gone way down and salt has come way up.

There are also those places where they add salt deliberately to raise the BRIX level.A lot of research in the past 20 years or so has led to those genes that impart salt tolerance for growing not just tomatoes,but other crops as well.

And there's one person that some of us know who would sprinkle salts from different areas and countries to see which ones increased the TASTE,for him, of tomatoes.

I don't have time to grab articles to verify what I've said, but please remember that GOOGLE is your best friend always.

Carolyn,;):)

I usually spray a dilute mixture of mineral salt on the leaves of my melon plants and that seems to minimize the mildew and other leaf problems that can undermine the flavor of the fruit. I do this about once a week until harvest... I've not tried it on my tomato plants since I don't have many problems with them...yet.

Why is the sea salty?
It gets its salt from the earth washed down from rivers and millions of millions of years of evaporation.
You can find some of these old land locked seas to this day as salt flats and salt lakes.
This is why some fields that are irrigated for years from rivers become worthless if the soil doesn't drain well.
You can also find natural salt and mineral licks in the woods where animals come to lick and get nutrients.
Some of the times there will be a trail to a wide bare place on the ground coming from several directions.

Another good place to get the right amount is in old composted manure piles scraped up from barns full of cow urine and so on.
This is what we top dressed our garden with.
No need to buy $10 bags of organic sea salt from an over priced store set out to empty your pockets.
Putting this right along with the (GROW LIGHT) hoax.
Worth