🌱 What Grows Well with Salty Groundwater?

A guide to salt-tolerant plants by groundwater salinity level (ECw)

Use this chart to choose crops suited to your water quality

💧 ECw < 0.7 dS/m — Low Salinity (Safe for All Plants)

✔ Most vegetables and fruits

✔ Pasture grasses

✔ Sensitive crops thrive

Examples:

🥦 Broccoli, 🥕 Carrots, 🍓 Strawberries, 🍇 Grapes, 🌾 Clover, 🥬 Lettuce

🌊 ECw 0.7–3.0 dS/m — Moderate Salinity (Caution Zone)

⚠ Avoid salt-sensitive crops

✔ Use salt-tolerant varieties

✔ Apply good irrigation and drainage

Examples:

🌽 Maize, 🍅 Tomatoes (moderate), 🍉 Melon, 🌾 Lucerne (some strains), 🌻 Sunflowers

🌿 ECw 3.0–6.0 dS/m — High Salinity (Salt-Tolerant Only)

✔ Grow halophytes or specially bred tolerant crops

✔ Mulch and gypsum help reduce root stress

Examples:🌱 Barley, 🌾 Rhodes grass, 🌿 Spinach (some cultivars), 🧅 Beets, 🌾 Saltbush (Atriplex), Canola (tolerant strains)

🧂 ECw 6.0–10.0 dS/m — Very High Salinity (Hardy Forage & Natives)

⚠ Only grow tough salt-tolerant species

✔ Ideal for fodder and revegetation

✔ Manage soil structure carefully

Examples:🌾 Bluebush, 🌿 Saltbush, 💚 Oldman saltbush, 🌱 Puccinellia, 💧 Samphire

🌋 ECw >10.0 dS/m — Extreme Salinity (Specialist Plants Only)

🛑 Not suitable for most agriculture

✔ Suitable for saline landscaping, remediation, or native revegetation

✔ Consider engineered solutions or desalination

Examples:🌵 Halophytes, 🧪 Experimental crops, 🌊 Samphire, Mangroves (coastal areas)

🌾 Pro Tips

🔹 Test your groundwater seasonally (EC and SAR)

🔹 Improve drainage & leach salts below root zone

🔹 Blend or alternate with rainwater when possible

🔹 Use mulch to reduce salt accumulation at surface