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Himalayan salt to improve soil?

 
Ingrid Groen
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Location: The Netherlands
posted 13 years ago
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Hello permies,

I'm fairly new to the forum. I checked and could not find another topic dealing with my question so.

Has anyone experience with using Himalayan salt to improve the soil? I thought, it might because there are so much trace elements in there.

Not that my soil is bad, but there is always room for improvement I think. Anyone?

Greetings!

Keep trying new things! The pioneer in us, keeps popping out. Sometimes it stays a little longer out.... and I feel lucky!

 
Ken Peavey
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posted 13 years ago
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While adding trace elements can be beneficial, I would think the salt would destroy fertility. 

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Seren Manda
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posted 13 years ago
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Yeah, salt kills. It kills helpful bacteria and microbes. I'd save the Himalayan salt for edibles. Instead, chuck some kombu in the compost pile and get nutrients into your soil that way.

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Sam Surman
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posted 13 years ago
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I use the same salt in a solution, I put one table spoon of the solution in a two gallon watering can and give this to all my veg every 10 days or so ... it hasn't hurt them as far as I can see, I'll see if the tomatoes taste any different in another month or so ...

Cheers

 
Ingrid Groen
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posted 13 years ago
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Thanks all of you, who replied!

I think the word salt in here is a little confusing. It is salty yes, but nothing compared to the chemical junk from your local supermarket. Maybe the good stuff in the Himalayan outways de salty content.

I think I have a go on a little testground myself!
Please keep sending any remarks or experiences, all of you!

greetings Greengirl

Keep trying new things! The pioneer in us, keeps popping out. Sometimes it stays a little longer out.... and I feel lucky!

 
                            
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posted 13 years ago
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The problem with salt in soil isn't chemical junk, it's salt. Don't add it to your soil! It will accumulate. Make sure your test is a very small section of soil.

Search google for "soil salinization"
 
Jordan Lowery
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posted 13 years ago
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ive done it before, you have to use a very dilute solution. extended use is not recommended. and imo it worked better as a foliar spray. and make it very dilute. you can also do the same with seawater.

rock powders do an even better job.

The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings. - Masanobu Fukuoka

 
                                        
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posted 13 years ago
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Hi,
I use H.salt in my cooking.I also use the residue cooking water /  washing up water on my broccoli.It is doing great.So as part of the nutrients going onto crops it is good,but not on it's own,too strong.H.T.H
 
George Lee
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posted 13 years ago
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Rock dusts over salt.. The reason synthetic nitrogen fertilizers aren't of true value is because of the excessive salt content in the soil that accumulates over time.

South Carolina Hemp | Seed Swap via Letter | Livingwind.tumblr.com | sustainable seed co

 
maikeru sumi-e
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posted 13 years ago
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The world's soils generally suffer from an overabundance of salt, not a lack of it. It will also mess up your soil crumb structure if there's too much, causing it to deflocculate, compact, and crust over. You should see the Bonneville Salt Flats and much of the Great Basin...

.

 
Leila Rich
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posted 13 years ago
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greengirl, I'd go for a soil test before adding stuff that might help, as it might easily put things out of balance. I found it really useful knowing what's actually in there.
As Hubert mentions, if you can get seawater and dilute it hugely, you'd get all the goodies, but none of the food-miles!
I researched using seawater, but wimped out in the end.
Apparently sodium chloride is a really tiny % of the salts.
Unwashed seaweed's the ultimate though, IMO.
My experience only relates to very well-draining soil...
 
                                
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I will be honest, I don't know what's in "Himalayan Salt". I think  if it's a food product it might be ok to cook with, but not to put on the plants. IF it has a very high percentage of sodium chloride, I would not apply it to plants by any method or in an amount. Kind of like people putting Gatorade or people-vitamins on plants, it's just not going to do them any good, why fix it if it ain't broke??
A little research shows it's un-refined table salt, NOT FOR PLANTS!
AND it comes to us from Pakistan, 300 km from the Himalayas. So it's another product aimed at suckers, and there's one born every minute, so they say.
 
                                        
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good to know I am just another sucker.Thanks for that.
 
                                
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I meant the himalayan name is meant to decieve, since it's not from there. Salt is salt.
 
Ingrid Groen
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posted 13 years ago
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Hey permies!

I think of letting it go for now. Your reactions have been very helpfull ! Thanks for that.
I think I stick to compost .

Greengirl out.

Keep trying new things! The pioneer in us, keeps popping out. Sometimes it stays a little longer out.... and I feel lucky!

 
                                    
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posted 10 years ago
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research the work of Maynard Murray... pink himalayan sea salt is probably the best "sea solid" you are going to be able to find....I use it as a folliar spray on my tomatoes/peppers etc and works like a charm (1/2 tbsp in quart of clean/unchlorinated water-spray flowers and undersides of leaves in early am about once a month)
 
Ludger Merkens
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Hi Ingrid,

most probably your reaction is the right one. In germany Himalayan salt may be sold as cooking salt. To my knowledge this means it is NaCl with a guaranteed purity >97% . Thus rockguy Hatfield is correct. Himalayan salt is salt for pretty all purposes.
 
Dale Hodgins
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posted 10 years ago
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Salt is salt but is marketed to death. Sea salt is salt. The only significant difference is the packaging. Salt from a mine was laid down long before industrial pollution was invented. There are thousands of marketers who would like to deceive you. Many of them are deluded themselves. Salt is pretty much salt. You can buy it by the ton or from that weird guy at the farmer's market.
 
S Bengi
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Himalayan salt contains polyhalite K2Ca2Mg(SO4)4ยท2H2O.
Polyhalite has a wonderful balance of Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium and Sulfur with tace amount of iron impurities.
I would happily add polyhalite to my soil.

This wonderful polyhalite only makes up 2.5% of Himalayan salt the other 97% is NaCl, which is not something anyone ever wants to add to their soil.
If I had a choice of adding NaCL to my soil or artifical fertilizers, pesticide, monocropping, using fossil water, etc, etc I would pick anyone over adding NaCl.

If you really must add something with origins from the sea add kelp.

Iterations are fine, we don't have to be perfect
My 2nd Location:Florida HardinessZone:10 AHS:10 GDD:8500 Rainfall:2in/mth winter, 8in/mth summer, Soil:Sand pH8 Flat

 
Sam Boisseau
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I personally wouldn't add salt to my soil. However I do add sea weed and haven't really been worried about the salt content.

Cho Global Natural Farming recommends seawater diluted 30 times, applied 20-30 days before fruit harvest. Supposedly makes fruits sweeter. I did it sparingly a couple times and hell didn't break loose.


http://ilcasia.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/chos-global-natural-farming-sarra.pdf - page 69
 
S Bengi
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Sam Boisseau wrote:I personally wouldn't add salt to my soil. However I do add sea weed and haven't really been worried about the salt content.

Cho Global Natural Farming recommends seawater diluted 30 times, applied 20-30 days before fruit harvest. Supposedly makes fruits sweeter. I did it sparingly a couple times and hell didn't break loose.


http://ilcasia.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/chos-global-natural-farming-sarra.pdf - page 69



I read the article. Page 69, They mention using it mostly to balance the amount of fat/virus on livestock.
Most farmers even conventional ones feed salt to their animal.
He also mentions using up to 2lbs of salt per acre, but as a traditional way to grow things like rice.
These plants get submerged and so all the soluble salt (sodium chloride) probably gets was washed away.
Some area do get 10+inches per month of rain in the rainy season and that is probably a very effect solutions for them.
I am not too sure that it would work out so good for most of us using permies.com

Iterations are fine, we don't have to be perfect
My 2nd Location:Florida HardinessZone:10 AHS:10 GDD:8500 Rainfall:2in/mth winter, 8in/mth summer, Soil:Sand pH8 Flat

 
Carla Curry
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posted 4 months ago
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Himalayan salt has 84 trace minerals and minerals, such as, calcium, phosphorus, iron, phosphorus, magnesium and more.  I would think it would help plants more than hinder their growth.
 
Nancy Reading
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Hi Carla, welcome to Permies!
I expect the poison's in the dose. I wonder if anyone posting above has more feedback now?

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

 
Joylynn Hardesty
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I don't know about Himalayan salt in the garden, but Dr Redhawk recommends sea 90 in this post.

'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
How Permies Works Dr. Redhawk's Epic Soil Series

 
Anne Miller
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I am a tightwad so this sounds expensive to me as Himalayan salt is expensive.

Epsom Salts for me is a better alternative because it has similar minerals and is cheaper and more readily available.

Here are some threads about using Epsom Salts:

https://permies.com/t/15219/Epsom-Salt-fertilizer

https://permies.com/t/72950/sea-water-epsom-salt

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Michael Cox
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Himalayan salts do have those beneficial minerals in trace amounts - but the sodium chloride salt is still the overwhelmingly most prevalent component, and in most soils it can accumulate with time and drastically reduce fertility. Personally I wouldn't be considering using it at all.

Better is to look at the deficiencies of your local soil types and work out how to ameliorate those directly. In my case we have very alkaine soils due to the chalk, and most soluble trace mineral are in short supply. We have used a supply of very fine granitic rock dust as a supplement, which releases those trace minerals slowly.

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