Salt-affected ground
Bringing salt-sealed ground back into production
A railway embankment had left 17 acres of a Manitoba field saline-sodic and sealed at the surface. Fourteen months on, independent testing put the soil back in the normal range.
The problem
Ivan grows cereals on the Manitoba prairie. On one 35-acre field, a railway embankment cuts straight across the natural drainage line, holding saline groundwater up near the surface.
Around 17 acres had gone saline-sodic: electrical conductivity as high as 7.5 dS/m, sodium at 1,152 ppm, the surface sealing and crusting over, and winter wheat yields down by 60 to 80%. Parts of it had stopped growing anything at all.
What we did
Ivan applied TerraScape Mastersoil 150 at 15 lb/ac — about 16.8 kg/ha — together with gypsum at 1,400 lb/ac.
The polymer’s job was to stabilise soil aggregates and reopen vertical permeability, so that rain could carry the salts downwards instead of pooling and evaporating them back to the surface.
Application rate: 15 lb/ac (≈ 16.8 kg/ha), applied with gypsum at 1,400 lb/ac
Mastersoil 150 was applied together with gypsum, which is itself a recognised treatment for sodic soil, so these chemistry results belong to the combined treatment and not to the polymer alone.
What we measured
| Measure | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sodium | 1,152 ppm | 319 ppm | −72% |
| Mobile chloride | 2,660 lb/ac | 396 lb/ac | −85% |
| Exchangeable sodium percentage | 8.4% | 2.6% | sodic → normal |
| Calcium-to-sodium ratio | 5.8 : 1 | 23.1 : 1 | 4× improvement |
| Surface conductivity | 5.58 dS/m | 3.00 dS/m | −46% |
Winter wheat yield off the treated ground
Treated
40 bu/ac
Control
—
Where this sits now
- Below six inches, conductivity has since risen again — the embankment blocking the drainage is still there, and no soil amendment can move it.
- Restored drainage also carried copper and manganese down with the salts, into the low range, which now needs watching.
- This field is continuing recovery; untreated neighbours showed no change.
Wondering whether your ground would respond?
Tell us about the field. We’ll say whether it’s the kind of soil the trials point to.