Monday, November 2, 2015

Salt Damage From Full Moon Tides



Ok, we get done with the 20 - 30 plus inches of rain water, then have a few more rains. What’s next? Some crazy “Kings Moon High Tide” comes along to flood salt water all over our landscape!

Since we had the salt water flooding, the best thing for our landscape was all the rain before the salt water hit our landscape. If our plants were super thirsty from a drought, and their first drink of water was salt water, the damage to the plants could have been much greater. Many of the landscapes were still super saturated with fresh water that would help dilute some of the salt water.

Now is the time to flush out the salt water if you have not already. Although watering your yard is probably the last thing you want to do, you need to flush out the salt. Using a product like Possum’s Salt Free makes this very easy. Use 1.5 oz per thousand square feet in 2 – 4 gallons of water for 2 – 4 consecutive weekly treatments.

We have sold Salt Free to homeowners, to parks and to large sport complexes with great results for over 10 years. Some of the sport complexes inject it in their irrigation system, since they are watering with salty water. As a result they are constantly removing the salt that they are adding!

Gypsum is another product you can use to “flush out” salt. 100 pounds per thousand would be a good place to start and apply ProMag with it at 12 pounds per thousand. Gypsum and ProMag are granular. Some people prefer granular.

Excell (start at 25 pounds per thousand and apply weekly until soil test looks good) and SeaHume G (start at 15 pounds per thousand and apply weekly until soil test looks good) will also help with high sodium soils. Excell and SeaHume G are both granular as well.

Doing soil test while you try to rid your soil of salt, will help you greatly. Checking the sodium levels along with the base saturation levels will let you know how successful you are at flushing the sodium.

As always, if this is hard to understand, hire a professional.

Always read, understand and follow product label. The product label is a Federal Law.