[News] Salt lightly for nutrient-rich tomatoes

[freeztar]

Differences between salt and fresh water organisms does not usually extend to land plants, but Italian researchers report that watering tomatoes with diluted seawater can boost their nutrient content.

 

Irrigation of cherry tomatoes with salt water led to ripe fruit with significantly greater antioxidant levels of vitamins C and E, dihydrolipoic acid, and chlorogenic acid, according to research published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

 

The research, focusing on standard cherry tomatoes and varieties genetically engineered for ripening, suggests opportunities for antioxidant-enhanced fruit and extracts produced in parts of the world with critical water shortages.

 

Season lightly for nutrient-rich tomatoes

[Michaelangelica]

Very interesting if you read the salt thread one Hypographer recommends drinking salt water for you health. It has an amazing number of micro-bnutrients.

Many fertilisers P,Mg etc are salts anyway

 

A friend would mulch her brassicas with seaweed-never washed.

She said it always made for stronger crisper cabbages etc.

 

There is a new lawn grass out that can be watered with straight sea water

[freeztar]

I knew, out of all the members here, you'd appreciate this article the most. :)

[Michaelangelica]

LOLlol[/size]LOLlolLOLlollollollollol

Am I that predictably obsessive?

Permaculture discussion forum • View topic - SALT WATER on plants

[Michaelangelica]

LOLlolLOLlolLOLlollollollollol

Am I that predictably obsessive?

Permaculture discussion forum • View topic - SALT WATER on plants

[Michaelangelica]

I'm, B . A . C . K. . .

TWO THOUGHTS

1. There are a lot of salts in seawater that plants really like all the "iums" potassium, magnesium, calcium,(is calcium as alt?) lithium (?) selenium. All those guys on the left hand side of the Periodic Table

WebElements Periodic Table of the Elements

(Do they like Radium and Francium too?).

There is a whole stack of trace elements like boron, selenium that we know are important too.

So if you could somehow JUST get the NaCl level down a little then you would have liquid fertiliser?

What a great little earner for a business!

Bottled everything for you and your plants.[/]

A pity we have such evolved kidneys.:shrug:

 

Second thought

We might be approaching this running out of fresh water thing in quite the wrong direction.

Already we have bred salt (NaCl) tolerant plants. (see above link)

I think we have also found the "DNA bit" that codes for salt tolerance.

So. . . all we need to do is bung this in everything and everybody. Hey presto too much water!

 

It is very late :hihi:

[JMJones0424]

So if you could somehow JUST get the NaCl level down a little then you would have liquid fertiliser?

What a great little earner for a business!

 

No need to try to remove NaCl from seawater to gain the benefit of all those micros, as nature already does this for us. Liquid seaweed, liquid kelp, or many other names are used to describe a natural fertilizer with all the beneficial micros and usually high in potassium as well. It is also claimed to have high levels of plant growth hormones, although I am not sure if this statement has been reliably researched. Or better yet, just add seaweed to your compost pile. Make sure to rinse the high sodium sea water off first though.