My water is salty with high sodium. What crops can I grow?
Crops differ in their tolerance to salts. So when you have salty water, crops that are tolerant to salt should be grown. Crops like beans, carrots, onions, capsicum should not be grown.
This is a great web resource for understanding which crops are more suitable to grow with salty irrigation water. The EC (electrical conductivity) levels quote on this document refer to the EC in your Cropnuts irrigation water report
Also, compare the Electrical Conductivity result on your CropNuts water report to the table below.
How good is your water? You can decide on which crops to grow..
| Electrical Conductivity from our report (microS/cm) |
Salinity class |
| < 0.65 | 1 - Low salinity water, suitable for use on all crops except tobacco, with all methods of water application, with little probability of a salinity problem developing. |
| 0.65 - 1.3 | 2 - Medium salinity, suitable for use on all but very low salt tolerance crops. Water can be used if a moderate amount of leaching occurs. Plants with medium salt tolerance can be grown, usually without special practices for salinity control. Sprinkler irrigation with the more saline waters in this group may cause leaf burn on salt-sensitive crops, especially at higher temperatures in the daytime when evaporation may be high. |
| 1.3 - 3.0 | 3 - High salinity - suitable for use on medium and high salt tolerant crops only. Water should not be used on soils with restricted drainage. Even with adequate drainage, special management for salinity control may be required. |
| 3.0 - 5.0 | 4 - Very high salinity - suitable for use only on high salt tolerant crops. For use soils must be permeable, free draining, and water must be applied in excess to provide considerable leaching. |
| 5.0 - 8.0 | 5 - Extremely high salinity generally unsuitable for irrigation unless soils are permeable, well drained and crops are of very high salt tolerance. |
| > 8.0 | 6 - Too saline for irrigation |