Organic grower's secret for great citrus trees?

[Doug]

Many years ago there was a gentleman who had a commercial organic citrus grove near Orlando. I think his name was Lee, and I was very impressed with his success. I visited with him several times as I was starting my own grove in that area. He produced copious quantities of compost for his trees, but he claimed his secret was sea salt. Now, I understand citrus trees are not considered salt tolerant but I can't get his beautiful healthy trees out of my mind as I have now started another grove in Costa Rica. Has anybody heard of this practice which seems to counter popular advice?

[Guanabanus]

Perhaps he used minute quantities of sea salt in sprays. 

Many kinds of plants benefit from minute quantities of Sodium, such as found in many conventional fertilizer blends:  Sodium Borate and Sodium Molybdate.  Since Sea Salt is way more than half Sodium Chloride, one could easily over-do the dosage, of both Sodium and Chloride.

I use Kelp.  It provides some Sodium and Chloride, as well as a little of all the other essential elements and all the beneficial elements,  as well as many elements of no known nutritional use to plants (but some, such as Iodine, are useful to animals who eat the plants), and contaminants.

[Tropicdude]

The healthiest mango tree groves here on the island are those that are about 2-3 miles from the beach and get that ocean breeze, which I think has minute levels of salt,  those trees hardly ever need to get sprayed for fungi.

I think there is a thread in here somewhere were they had a pretty good discussion on sea water as fertilizer.

[Millet]

Its hard to argue against success.  But salt and citrus trees do not mix. - Millet

[RVACitrus]

Its hard to argue against success.  But salt and citrus trees do not mix. - Millet

It's not uncommon for people to confuse correlation and causation... this common foible is the root of most superstition. A young boy checks his batting gloves a couple of times and then hits a big double? It's the gloves that did it, not the extra batting cage time he spent over the last couple weeks, not just luck, not just a bad pitch. 

It's much more likely that Lee's citrus do great despite the salt, than that they're doing great because of it.

[Tom]

RVACitrus, I couldn't agree more with what you said. It's definitely a weak link. Different soil types and other things we probably don't even know about cause erroneous answers, often unintentional. Magic like Dumbo's feather usually don't work. However I do believe in the placebo affect ! That's where the confusion comes into the equation.

Old proverb from somewhere : 'the best fertilizer is the master's footprint'.  When I was farming I read an article about farming by looking out your windshield. That doesn't work and gives a false sense of security. You must get out and look at what's going on. A quick ride by isn't going to get the job done.

Daddy said long ago, ' if you could take out the economics of real estate development, given enough time, the best farmers would end up with the best land every time everywhere '. The older I get the more I think there is no doubt about it.

Tom

[fyliu]

It could be that Lee was just too nice to disappoint Doug with an empty response.
The other salt as fertilizer thread was interesting though. I forgot what the conclusion was.

[Mike T]

Sodium is an essential micronutrient and when it is totally excluded in experiments plants struggle. Chlorides are a different story and should be avoided. In many areas there should be enough natural sodium and it fall in the rain especially in coastal areas. I think it wouldn't take much to reach excessive and adverse levels.