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Gardening in Oz

Sea water incursion

21 years ago

Hi

I'm hoping someone can help.

3 days ago we had king tides cover our yard with about 100 mm sea water for a couple of hours ( the suburb is in reclaimed land and our yard is lower in the middle, once it came over the edge it just filled up, and then took a while to drain away)It last happened 5 years ago with a storm surge, but not since. Our neighbour of 85 yrs age (borne in his house) said he had never seen seawater come in like that before, but the presence of salt crystals on the ground after rain make me think it is not too uncommon.

Anyway, to the specific problem - We have some poincianna trees that are about 2&1/2 yrs old and about 3 - 4 metres tall, and had been growing beautifully. They are planted around a gazebo in a raised bed with block edging that is about 200mm above the water level. However, due to the shape of the garden, for 2 of the trees the raised garden extends only about 1 metre radius from the trunk on one side - this means about half of the roots outside this radius were in ground covered by the sea water.

Since then, these 2 trees' leaves have turned very pale green, then yellow, and then fallen off. Though the new growth at the tips is still looking good.

We have tried lots of water to dilute the salt, and our neighbour suggested a kelp solution; which we have done but do not know yet whether that will help.

There doesn't seem to be anything on the web about this, except a site that suggests gypsum will improve sodic soils, but I'm not sure if the addition of sodium chloride salt is the same as a sodic soil.

Any rescue/rehabilitation ideas?

Thanks

Samphire

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Comments (4)

User
21 years ago
A lot of my plants died after Cyclone Justin passed over Townsville when I lived there, and the cause of that was only salt water from the swimming pool, which would be no where near the salt content that yours received.

Like you I also tried watering to flush it away, it didn't help at all. Then again anything is worth a try though so good luck whatever you do, sorry I have no remedies......MM.
User
21 years ago
Hi Samphire, I've been on the net checking it out for you, and I think that, from what I've read, gypsum is worth a go. Make sure you water it in well and where possible fork it into the soil a little. Have you considered trying to build up that low area in your yard? Heaven forbid that it happens again, but if it does, it might just help a little. Good luck with your repairs! Dee.
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Samphire
Original Author
21 years ago
Hi mistymorn & deejaus

thanks for your responses. As I said, we did the kelp solution and then followed deejaus' suggestion with gypsum. I'm pleased to say the trees are doing fine - the new growth at the tips(which I thought would've been most vulnerable) survived well, and more has started. Also, regrowth is occuring where the leaf stalks fell off the branches. Even 2 of the foxtail palms seem like they'll survive - same thing new fronds and the growth spear survived while older fronds truned brown and died. They didn't get much exposure at all, but since they are a mountain/rainforest plant maybe they are more sensitive.

Anybody know why the new shoots weren't affected?

Regards
Greg
User
21 years ago
I have no idea Greg, but was very pleased to read that your plants are doing fine,
with the regrowth and all, maybe it was just time for the older leaves to die.

Greg Thank you for those Birthday Wishes as I was answering this post have you got ESP. I had a terrific two days been up the Sunshine Coast took a bootload of plants to a Gardenwebber up there and Saturday spent many hours at the Eumundi Market what a wonderful place that is .
MM.

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