# Does Salting the Earth Really Prevent Things from Growing? How? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 12, 2004, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-salting-the-earth-really-prevent-things-from-growing-how/228812 "2004-02-12T08:18:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-salting-the-earth-really-prevent-things-from-growing-how/228812/1 "2004-02-12T08:18:48Z")
It is such a well-known cliché, I assume it won’t be necessary for me to back it up with a cite. Salting the earth supposedly makes it so nothing will ever grow there again. This belief supposedly even goes back to ancient times. But is it true? And if it is true, what agricultural principle does it work on? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-salting-the-earth-really-prevent-things-from-growing-how/228812/2 "2004-02-12T09:18:03Z")
With the exception of a relatively small number of species adapted to environments where salt is present (coastal and salt-lake areas, for example), most plants cannot tolerate a high concentration of salt in the soil - osmosis - the process where a solvent (in this case water) moves from a weak solution (water in soil) to a stronger one(salty, sugary plant sap), through a semi-permeable membrane, is upset by the presence of high salt concentrations and if a plant cannot take up water, it will die. Apart from that, too much salt can upset some of the life processes where ions play a role, so salt, in high concentrations, can actually be toxic. In most cases, salting the earth wouldn’t make the soil eternally infertile, as rain would wash the salt away (that’s how it all got in the ocean in the first place), but for ancient people, living pretty much hand-to-mouth, crop failure for even a single season would be disastrous - crop failure for more than a season would be, in practical terms, ‘forever’ because it would very likely result in starvation. ---
**Author:** ![mecaenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@mecaenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mecaenas)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-salting-the-earth-really-prevent-things-from-growing-how/228812/3 "2004-02-12T12:42:22Z")
Rain doesn’t always wash salt out of the earth, in fact it could potentially cause more problems by adding to the groundwater and causing the water levels to rise. Salinity is a big problem in Australia. **[www.salinity.org.au](http://www.salinity.org.au/content/index.cfm?childID=2&intro=true)** has more information about salinity if you feel so inclined. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-salting-the-earth-really-prevent-things-from-growing-how/228812/4 "2004-02-12T12:58:28Z")
Sure, but like I said, _in most cases_ it would wash out of friable cultivated soil relatively quickly (within a decade perhaps) ---
**Author:** ![dogbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea5d25/32.png) [@dogbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbert)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-salting-the-earth-really-prevent-things-from-growing-how/228812/5 "2004-02-12T13:48:08Z")
In Ca. there is a group pushing for laws against water softeners. Due to the brine tank wash potential to contaminate water supplies. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-salting-the-earth-really-prevent-things-from-growing-how/228812/6 "2004-02-12T19:28:38Z")
I don’t know if it really works, but the classic historical precedent was the Roman conquest of Carthage in 146 BC. According to [this](http://www.barca.fsnet.co.uk/punic3.htm) site, however, the salting of the fields didn’t actually happen (the fields were merely cursed) but was a later addition to the story. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-salting-the-earth-really-prevent-things-from-growing-how/228812/7 "2004-02-12T23:11:05Z")
After the 1953 East Coast floods in eastern England , when many acres of farmland was inundated by sea water , it took a few years before crops such as barley and wheat could be grown. Members of the cabbage family are more tolerant of salt so that crop can be grown in salt contaminated soil until the salt levels drop. Then the land can be returned back to grain production. ---
**Author:** ![Popup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@Popup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Popup)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-salting-the-earth-really-prevent-things-from-growing-how/228812/8 "2004-02-13T11:16:44Z")
> [@Jim B.](#): > > It is such a well-known cliché, I assume it won’t be necessary for me to back it up with a cite. Sure, but it still won’t hurt to point out that it’s a very old stereotype. It’s found in the Bible (Judges 9:45) > [@](#): > > And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that was therein, and beat down the city, and _sowed it with salt_. On the other hand, the idea that Carthage was sowed with salt is by modern historians taken with a grain of … something. When it comes to farming effects, there seems to be a large difference between species. Supposedly [asparagus](http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/tips/1998031825022979.html) likes salty soil.