User:Simschmi/sandbox

Soil salinity
Soil salination on agricultural soils can cause that the yield of crops decreases, and it is no longer possible to grow salt-sensitive species on that soil. This is caused by the main factors of the low quality of irrigation waters, excessive fertilisation, and the deficient drainage of the salinized soils. A solution to this problem could be the cultivation of salt-tolerant plants or plants which can remove salt from the soil. Purslane has a high tolerance for salt toxicity, which makes it well suitable for cropping in areas where irrigation is necessarily carried out with water having a high chloride-based salinity.

Furthermore, purslane can remove salt from the cultivation medium under saline conditions. As an intercrop or during one growing season it can remove 210 kg/ha of Cl and 65 kg/ha of Na when cultivated at 6.5 dS *m-1. This allows the growth after of salt-sensitive plants on saline soils.

In addition, it could be showed, that purslane has a positive effect of companion plants in salty conditions. The fruit yield of tomato plants in saline conditions was significantly lower. The presence of purslane reduced the negative effects of salinity on tomato yield and growth. This is explained by the fact that tomato plants can use more energy to elaborate substances for fruit development, instead of building up mechanisms of salt tolerance