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Article: Will salty water sabotage almonds?
- Article from:
- Agricultural Research
- Article date:
- July 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 U.S. Government Printing Office. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Tomorrow's growers of crisp, flavorful almonds may find themselves in a crunch as competition for prime land and pure water heats up.
Orchardists of the future will likely have to pay more for clean water for irrigating their trees. Or, in some Western states, they may have to make do with salty, second-rate water perhaps laden with boron, selenium, and other contaminants.
To see how newly planted orchards might fare in tough times, ARS researchers and their university colleagues monitored young trees growing on clay loam soil in Central California. For the first 7 years of the 10-year test, they gave the 900 trees different amounts of salty water. ...