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Insight Horizon Media

What are some salt-tolerant crop plants?

Author

Christopher Anderson

Published Feb 13, 2026

What are some salt-tolerant crop plants?

“The most salt-tolerant crops are barley, camelina, rye, safflower, sunflower, and sugar beets,” says Aberle. “We’ve replaced a lot of these crops with the least-tolerant crops, which are dry beans, soybeans, corn, and field peas.”

What plants can handle salt water?

Salt-Tolerant Flowers and Foliage

  • Bee balm (Monarda didyma)
  • Daylilies (Hemerocallis spp.)
  • Moss rose (Portulaca grandiflora)
  • Coleus (Plectranthus scrtellarioides)
  • Ivy geraniums (Pelargonium peltatum)
  • Shrub verbenas (Lantana camara)
  • Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia spp.)

Is normal saline good for plants?

Irrigating crops with saline water can result in yield loss and decreased quality. Plants vary greatly in their tolerance to saline water. The extent of yield loss when plants are irrigated with saline water depends on a number of factors including soil type, drainage and the frequency, method and time of irrigation.

What grows best in salty soil?

There are very few small garden plants that tolerate salty soil in high concentrations.

  • Blanket Flower.
  • Daylily.
  • Lantana.
  • Prickly Pear Cactus.
  • Lavender Cotton.
  • Seaside Goldenrod.

What is salt-tolerant plants?

The salt tolerance of a plant is often defined as the degree to which the plant can withstand, without significant adverse effects, moderate or high concentrations of salt in water on its leaves or in the soil within reach of its roots. In practice, salt tolerance is a relative term.

Is water a saline?

Saline water (more commonly known as salt water) is water that contains a high concentration of dissolved salts (mainly sodium chloride). The salt concentration is usually expressed in parts per thousand (permille, ‰) and parts per million (ppm).

Can plants grow in salty water?

Most plants can tolerate saltwater on their leaves and stems, but they will dehydrate if they drink saltwater from the soil. Even if they don’t dehydrate, they may be poisoned by an excess of salt in their systems. The takeaway is to avoid watering your plants with saltwater if you want them to thrive.

Can anything grow in salt?

There are crops that can grow on seawater and demonstration farms have shown the feasibility. The government of the Netherlands reports a breakthrough in food security as specific varieties of potatoes, carrots, red onions, white cabbage and broccoli appear to thrive if they are irrigated with salt water.

What kind of crops can grow in saline soil?

Very slightly saline; but yields of very salt. Sensitive crops such as flax, clovers (alsike, red), carrots, onions, bell peppers, lettuce, sweet potatoes may be reduced by 25 to 50%. Moderately saline. Yield of salt-sensitive crops restricted. Seedlings may be injured. Satisfactory for well drained greenhouse soils.

Are there plants that can grow in salt water soil?

If you have coastal garden where sea salt will be a problem, don’t despair. There are ways to combine gardening with salt water soil. Salt tolerant shrubs can be used to form wind or splash breaks that will protect less tolerant plants. Trees that tolerate salty soil should be planted closely to protect each other and the soil beneath.

How are plants adapted to grow in non saline soil?

Salt avoidance is usually accomplished by limiting germination, growth and reproduction to specific seasons of the year when salt concentrations are lower, by growing roots into non-saline soil layers or by limiting salt uptake. Salt evasion can be achieved by accumulating salts in specific cells or by secretion of excess salts.

How are plants injured in a saline soil?

Another way plants are injured is when sodium, chloride or sulfate levels become toxic and cause nutrient imbalances with potassium and calcium. Salt tolerant plants respond to saline soils differently than salt sensitive ones. Some salt tolerant plants simply do not uptake excess salts.

What kind of crops can you grow in saline soil?

Some crops are more tolerant to salinity than others. If you’re dealing with salinity Krueger suggests planting a more tolerant crop or, he says, “you might need to segregate your field and put a different crop on a certain portion because it’s saline.” How dry is it out there?

What kind of flowers grow in saline water?

Other flowers that grow in saline water include sunflowers, groundcover gardenia and hellebore. Statice, also called sea flower or limonium, can even be grown successfully for market along the highly saline Dead Sea coast.

What happens to plants in high saline soil?

The leaves were much healthier and taller in the soil with less salinity. Staff grew plants in (from left to right) mild, medium and high levels of salinity in advance of the Crop Diagnostic School. In the high-saline soil, water has evaporated at the surface allowing salt to collect. photo: Leeann Minogue

If you have coastal garden where sea salt will be a problem, don’t despair. There are ways to combine gardening with salt water soil. Salt tolerant shrubs can be used to form wind or splash breaks that will protect less tolerant plants. Trees that tolerate salty soil should be planted closely to protect each other and the soil beneath.