Salt makes most crops fail to grow. So why is the land that the Netherlands reclaims from the sea — which has been under salt water for ages — useful for agriculture?
In: Biology
In the East of England is an area where they did similar, silt is deposited in The Wash each tide, so you build sea walls with lock/sluice gates that let the water out slowly after a high tide to capture more of the silt. Then when you have enough soil, and if there is more silt building up at the water line, you build another wall further out to start capturing the next area
Silt is naturally very fertile soil, but the salt content is too high for most crops, so first they grow types of grasses like samphire which are salt tolerant… After a few years less salt tolerant plants can be added and over time the salt tolerant plants get out competed and you progress to normal soil with normal salt levels which is very fertile and can be used for growing normal crops
I’ve also seen in Dutch universities they are working on crops which are more salt tolerant, potatoes for example which are sweeter in order to survive in the extra salty soil
Latest Answers