Tomatoes can grow in salty soil

There is no better way to eat a fresh tomato than by adding a little salt. But when you grow these juicy tomatoes, the salt in the soil or saline irrigation water can kill these plants.

Juicy tomatoes growing in salty soil
But plant scientists in the Middle East have discovered that the addition of a desert root fungus, Piriformospora indica, first isolated in India, to the soil protected tomato plants from the harmful effects of salt.

They planted tomatoes in a greenhouse as a commercial producer would, half in soil with mushrooms. For 4 months, they watered about half of the tomato plants with and without mushrooms in the soil with about one-third as much salt water as seawater. The leaves of tomato plants from infected plants contained more of an enzyme that removes harmful sodium from the cells.

In addition, tomato plants have been able to maintain appropriate levels of potassium, which is necessary for tomato growth, reports the team in Scientia Horticulturae.

A 65% increase in efficiency
In plants irrigated with salt water, fungal root infection increased tomato yield by 65% compared to uninfected plants. Even infected tomatoes irrigated with unsalted water obtained better results, with a 22% increase in yield.

Others had shown that the fungus improved the growth of barley and rice grown in salty conditions. And another fungus had been shown to be beneficial under low salinity conditions.

These performances are important, the phyto-scientists say, because by 2050, half of the world's cultivated soils will be salty. And adding mushrooms to the soil can be an inexpensive way to deal with this change.