Most of my plants in my garden are dying (irrigation, fertilizers, vegetables)

[Bowdaddy]

We live in rural Michigan.We have a deep well which is a little salty.Most of my plants the leaves are drying on the ends and some of the plants have died.Some on the other hand seem to be ok, but mostly not I invested thousands of $ on my gardens.The local greenhouses don't seem to know if a salt well is the problem.Unfortunatley they can't find a fresh water well. Also rain collector barrels only hold about 35-60 gallons.Even this would take a long time to fill. Help,Any ideas out there.

[Rtom45]

pray for rain?
salt water could definitely be a problem - do you have any way to neutralize it before using it for irrigation?

[nitram]

Salty water is the worst thing that can happen to plants. Burns their feet (roots) off. If
you're getting brown crispy edges on your plants leaves, then you have what is called "salt burn".

[Bowdaddy]

Thanks for the info.Can they be fixed or am i out of luck

[arctichomesteader]

You can set up more than one single rain barrel. Just use a bunch of 30 or 55 gallon drums. Find clean drums that have held no chemicals or anything like that. You might find them cheap. Actually for water you won't be drinking large trash cans would work too. Do you have gutters on your home's roof(s)? With those on the house one good rain storm would fill the drums. Just re-route the downspouts to fill the drums instead of dumping it on the ground. Have gutters on any outbuildings as well (garages, etc.) to collect water. If no gutters, find areas where it seems to run down in large amounts, like where different roofs intersect, etc. If you use good water on the plants they might recover but it depends on how severe they were affected. If they're too weak they could succomb to it. Obviously even if they recover it will affect how much the plants produce (if talking vegetables/fruits).

[harry chickpea]

Get a couple of cheap air ring pools for your rainbarrels. A $40 one can hold 800 gallons of water. You'll need to find a level surface and prop the sides, and invest in a couple good pumps. The pools tend to fall over and go sploosh if not supported (24" wide 1/4" metal hardware cloth and some strong stakes). Trivia, I just figured out how much water it takes to simulate a 1/2" rainfall on a 100' x 100' garden. Ready? You may not believe it...

Roughly 3000 gallons. Pretty amazing.

I think, but don't hold me to this, that small amounts of epsom salts can mitigate a salt problem from fertilizers, and it might work with salt from a well.

[nitram]

Originally Posted by Bowdaddy

Thanks for the info.Can they be fixed or am i out of luck

You need to leach the salts out with fresh water in order to save the plants.