Soil Salinity Management Through Cropping Systems Chris Augustin Soil Health Area Extension Specialist (701)857-7679 Chris.Augustin@ndsu.edu

Salinity, Sodicity, Alkalinity??? Normal Soil Saline Soil Sodic Soil Saline-Sodic Soil EC < 4 dS/m EC > 4 dS/m SAR < 13 SAR > 13 pH < 8.5 pH > 8.5

Salts Make Plants Think They are in a Drought Photo Courtesy of Naeem Kalwar

Salts move with water!

Evaporation and Capillary Rise are a salt’s conveyor belt! Conventional Till No-Till

Dry Down The Soil! Don’t Dry Up! Deep Rooted High Water Use Crops Drain Tile High water use crops-beets/turnips/radish, alfalfa, sunflower, safflower Table Top Demo

Soil Salinity Needs 5 Things Water Water Soluble Salts Na2SO4, CaSO4, MgSO4, NaCl Recharge Area Water enters the soils Discharge Area Ground water becomes surface water Evaporation > Infiltration

Saline Seep Recharge Evaporation Discharge Throughflow SS SS SS SS Discharge SS SS SS SS SS Throughflow SS SS SS SS Impermeable Layer

Table Top Demo Managing Saline Soils in North Dakota, David Franzen

Recharge Discharge

Ditch Effect Evaporation Recharge Road Discharge Throughflow SS SS SS

Evaporation Evaporation Recharge Water Movement Wetland Salinization SS SS SS SS SS SS Water Movement SS SS SS SS SS

Photo Courtesy Google Earth

Photo Courtesy Google Earth

Photo Courtesy Google Earth

Soybeans HATE SALT!!! Photo Courtesy of Sarah Lovas

Barley, not so much! Photo Courtesy of Sarah Lovas

Crop Response to Salinity Corn & Flax are similar Sunflower Dry Beans Wheat Alfalfa Soybeans Barley Canola Sugarbeet

Tolerant Forages (E.C. 15-25) *Beardless Wildrye Tall Wheatgrass Russian Wildrye *NewHy Hybrid Wheatgrass Slender Wheatgrass Altai Wildrye *Tall Fescue *Western Wheatgrass *Strawberry Clover = wet sites Tober et al., 2007 Photo Courtesy of Ezra Aberle

Moderately Tolerant Forages (E.C. 10-15) Crested Wheatgrass Thickspike Wheatgrass Intermediate Wheatgrass Pubescent Wheatgrass *Creeping Foxtail *Prairie Cordgrass Canada Wildrye Buffalo Grass = wet sites Tober et al., 2007 Photo Courtesy of Ezra Aberle

Saline Mix (Plant asap to maximize water use) Seed lbs/ac/ seeding rate Barley 35 Sugarbeet 1 Sunflower 5 Canola/Safflower Hal Wieser, NRCS Soil Health Specialist

NDAWN Season Long Crop Water Use Total Rainfall Alfalfa Sugar beet Corn Turf Grass Soy- bean Potato Sun-flower Dry Bean Wheat Barley Inches of Water Used 23.64 25.75 23.25 19.74 19.02 19.13 17.05 15.97 14.80 14.38 12.55 Surplus or Deficit -2.11 +0.39 +3.90 +4.62 +4.51 +6.59 +7.67 +8.84 +9.26 +11.09 Water use was from May 1 – Oct 15, 2013 at Oaks NDAWN http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/crop-water-use.html

Winter Wheat and Cover Crop Water Use Total Rainfall Winter Wheat Aug 5 Cover Crop Sunflowers Inches of Water Used 16.02 14.21 6.00 Surplus or Deficit 1.81 -4.19 Mix of cool season grass and warm season broadleaf Jim Starika, WREC found over 10yr average that fallow (tilling) evaporated 3.10 inches of rainfall over growing season http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/crop-water-use.html

Season NDAWN Crop Water Use Barley Wheat Sun-flower Dry Bean Soy- bean Corn Sugar beet Inches of Water Used 8.19 7.70 7.38 7.04 5.83 5.72 5.70 Estimate is for Aug 5 emergence to Oct 15, 2013 at Oaks NDAWN Crop Barley Wheat Dry Bean Sun-flower Sugar beet Soy- bean Corn Inches of Water Used 2.93 2.64 2.38 2.42 1.89 1.85 1.79 Estimate is for Sept 5 emergence to Oct 15, 2013 at Oaks NDAWN http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/crop-water-use.html

Winter Wheat and Cover Crop Water Use Total Rainfall Winter Wheat Aug 1 Cover Crop Sunflowers Inches of Water Used 23.64 14.38 7.38 Surplus or Deficit 9.26 +1.88 Mix of cool season grass and warm season broadleaf http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/crop-water-use.html

Dry bean and Cover Crop Water Use Total Rainfall Dry Bean Sept 5 Cover Crop Barley Inches of Water Used 23.64 14.80 2.93 Surplus or Deficit +8.84 +5.91 Mix of warm season broadleaf and cool season grass http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/crop-water-use.html

Saline Seep Management Recharge SS SS SS SS No Discharge. Salts have moved. SS SS SS SS SS Water Movement SS SS SS SS Impermeable Layer

Ditch Effect Management No Discharge. Salts have moved. Recharge Road SS SS SS SS SS SS Water Movement SS SS SS SS SS SS SS

Wetland Salinization Management No Discharge. Salts have moved. No Discharge. Salts have moved. Recharge SS SS SS SS SS SS Water Movement SS SS SS SS SS

Site Specific Cover Cropping in Saline Areas Alfalfa Salt Tolerant Cover Crops/ Perennial Crops Normal Crops & Cover Crops when possible

Cropping Systems Can Fix Saline Areas!

Discharge Recharge Recharge

Summary Salinity is caused by excessive water that brings salts into the root zone Salinity management is water management Salts move up with water and down with water Think about landscapes Tillage and crops manage water. However, evaporation can make your soils more prone to salinization, erosion, and loose O.M. Crops utilize more water than tillage and have greater benefits for the soil. Stay on top of your E.C.

Questions?

Works Cited Aberle, E. 2011. Cover Crops CREC Research Review. Carrington Research Extension Center, Carrington, ND. American Society of Agronomy. 2009. Cover Crops in Crops and Soils. Am. Soc. Agron. 42:6. Blanco-Canqui, H., J.D. Holman, A.J. Schlegel, J. Tatarko, and T.M. Shaver. 2013. Replacing fallow with cover crops in semiarid soil: Effects of soil properties. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 77:1026-1034. Bundy, L. G. and T.W. Andraski. 2005. Recovery of fertilizer nitrogen in crop residues and cover crops on an irrigated sandy soil. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 69:640-648. Chen, G. and R.R. Weil. 2011. Root growth and yield of maize as affected by soil compaction and cover crops. Soil and Tillage Research. 117:17-27. Dragseth, K., C. Hill, and J. Staricka. 2009. WREC cover crop study. NDSU-WREC/MSU-EARC 2009 Agricultural Research Update. Williston Research Extension Center, Williston, ND. Folorunso, O.A., D.E. Rolston, T. Prichard, and D.T. Loui. 1992. Soil surface strength and infiltration rate as affected by winter cover crops. Soil Technology. 5: 189-197. North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network. 2014. Crop water use calculator. Online [http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/crop-water-use.html]. Verified Dec. 16, 2014. North Dakota State University. Fargo, ND. Staricka. J. 2011. Plant crops to dry out excessively wet fields. WREC Report. Williston Research Extension Center, Williston, ND. Tober, D., W. Duckwitz, and S. Sieler. 2007. Plant materials for salt-affected sites in the Northern Great Plains. USDA-NRCS Plant Materials Center, Bismarck, ND. White and Weil. 2009. Plant and soil.