Interesting Case of Salt in Coachella Valley

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You may have noticed I've changed the title of this post. I talked with Michael Cahn from UCCE Monterey and yes, that is salt on the surface of this soil, and its pretty impressive and all, but this stuff is pretty likely calcium carbonate or calcium sulfate which precipitate out pretty easily and present less harm to the plant than something like sodium or chloride.

So it's still a salt, but not one which is super harmful to the plants. Lots of you are seeing this white stuff on the bed tops and furrows right now, again it's most likely calcium carbonate or calcium sulfate. More to come on this subject later.

Eggplant planting in the Coachella Valley. White material in the furrow is very likely calcium carbonate or calcium sulfate, which are salts.