Saline Soils

For many residents of Southern Florida, especially those living in the coastal areas, or irrigating with well water with high salt content, soil salinity (high amounts of salts in the soil) can really limit home fruit tree growth. Soil salinity can result from a number of different causes, both natural as well as resulting from human activity. Salts (including your common table salt) occur naturally in soils, and are present in all water, except rainwater. Salts build up naturally in soil. Water evaporation, heavy irrigation and chemical fertilizers can increase soil salinity. As well, in the coastal areas of Florida, near the Gulf or the Atlantic, the salt spray can wreak havoc on plant leaves.

Salts in soils cause problems by inhibiting the growth of most plants, and killing many. The salts render less water available to plants, because the salt ions attract water. The most common symptoms of this are leaf burn and drought stress (even if the plant is well-watered). Often chlorosis (yellowing of the leaves) is another common symptom.

Managing your saline soil
The addition of organic matter (compost, mulch, manure, etc...) will aid in improving your soil over time by providing a buffering effect. It may take a few years to see the results (especially in the sandy soils of South Florida) but it should be worth the effort. Try not to over-fertilize, as that can contribute to the problem. Irrigate regularly, but take care not to over-irrigate. Planting on ridges helps as well.

Living with your saline soil
Try to select trees and plants that are salt-tolerant. This will have the additional benefit of improving your soil and the environment over time as well. In Tables 12 and 13 you will find a selection plants and trees we carry that will tolerate saline soil. If the following plants do not strike your fancy, and if you are not primarily concerned with growing edible plants, remember that there is a wealth of plants native to Florida that are extremely well-suited to our climate and soil conditions. Although we cannot help you in the selection of Florida native plants, there are books and publications available in your local library, from your county extension agency, and in ECHO's bookstore on selecting and growing native Florida plants. As well, there are nurseries that specialize in native plants. These also have the added benefit of requiring much less water.
Table 12 Salt tolerance of different fruiting trees Information adapted from Rare and Exotic Tropical Fruits: Trees and Plants, Carl W. Campbell, Seymour Goldweber, Caloosa Rare Fruit Exchange, 1985 and Florida Fruit, Lewis S. Maxwell and Betty M. Maxwell, 1995.

Good	Moderate	Fair	Poor
Carissa (Natal Plum) Coconut Tamarind	Akee Bignay Black Sapote Canistel (Egg Fruit) Cattley (Strawberry) Guava Fig Governor's Plum Guava Imbe Indian Jujube Jackfruit Jelly Palm Key Lime Loquat Mayan Breadnut Monstera Pineapple Guava Pomegranate Prickly Pear Pummelo Purple Mombin Rose Apple Sapodilla Spanish Lime Tangerine/Mandarin Wax Jambu	Apple Atemoya Barbados Cherry (Acerola) Cacao (Cocoa) Cherimoya Cherry of the Rio Grande Citrus (rootstock dependent) Coffee Custard Apple Grumichama Illama Imbe Kei Apple Kumquat Kwai Muk Mamey Sapote Miracle Fruit Mulberry Otaheite Gooseberry Persimmon Pineapple Pitomba Roselle Soursop Sugar Apple Surinam Cherry Wampi White Sapote	Ambarella Avocado Banana Blueberry Caimito (Star Apple) Carambola Cashew Jaboticaba Longan Lychee Lychee Macadamia Mango Muscadine Grape Nectarine Papaya Passion Fruit Peach Pear Plantain Raspberry Strawberry Tree

Table 13 List of salt-tolerant fruit trees, tropical vegetables and multipurpose trees that perform well on the high pH, and very salty soil on La Gonave island in Haiti.

Common Name	Scientific Name	Notes
Barbados Cherry	Malpighia glabra	somewhat salt tolerant
Canistel	Pouteria campechiana	tolerates poor soil (may even fruit better on thin soils)
Chaya	Cnidoscolus chayamansa	resistant to the hot humid weather of Florida summer and to extreme dry weather
Coconut	Cocos nucifera	grows on sandy beaches, flooded marshes, very salt tolerant, salt spray tolerant
Cranberry Hibiscus	Hibiscus acetosella	does well in sandy soil
Date Palm
Dune Sunflower		salt spray resistant
Fig	Ficus carica	moderately tolerant
Guava	Psidium guajava	can be grown successfully in wet and moderately saline soils
Imbe	Garcinia livingstoneii	drought tolerant
Indian Jujube	Ziziphus mauritania	mild-high salinity, frost hardy and drought tolerant; can be planted on sand dunes
Key Lime	Citrus aurantifolia	very cold sensitive
Moringa	Moringa oleifera	drought hardy
Neem	Azadirachta indica	very hardy on poor soil
Papaya	Capaya parica	suprisingly papaya does well there, though papaya is considered salt-intolerant
Prickly Pear	Opuntia spp.	well adapted to coastal areas where salt and pH are typically high
Sapodilla	Manilkara zapota	can irrigate with brackish water on sandy soils
Sour Orange
Spanish Lime
Tamarind	Tamarindus indica	very salt tolerant, and can withstand salt spray