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Soil Electrical Conductivity: Managing Salts for Sustained High Yields

Mismanagement of salt applied during irrigation ultimately reduces production—sometimes drastically. Learn how to measure soil electrical conductivity for consistently high crop yield, quality, and profit. 

Managing salts: Why you should care more

Mismanagement of salt applied during irrigation ultimately reduces production—drastically in many cases. Irrigating incorrectly also increases water cost and the energy used to apply it. Understanding the salt balance in the soil and knowing the leaching fraction, or the amount of extra irrigation water that must be applied to maintain acceptable root zone salinity is critical to every irrigation manager’s success. Yet monitoring soil salinity is often poorly understood.

Measure EC for consistently high crop yields

In this webinar, world-renowned soil physicist Dr. Gaylon Campbell teaches the fundamentals of measuring soil electrical conductivity (EC) and how to use a tool that few people think about—but is absolutely essential for maintaining crop yield and profit. Learn:

  • The sources of salt in irrigated agriculture
  • How and why salt affects plants
  • How salt in soil is measured
  • How common measurements are related to the amount of salt in soil
  • How salt affects various plant species
  • How to perform the calculations needed to know how much water to apply for a given water quality

Next steps

Questions?

Our scientists have decades of experience helping researchers and growers measure the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. 

Presenter

Dr. Gaylon S. Campbell has been a research scientist and engineer at METER for over 20 years, following nearly 30 years on faculty at Washington State University. Dr. Campbell’s first experience with environmental measurement came in the lab of Sterling Taylor at Utah State University making water potential measurements to understand plant water status.

Dr. Campbell is one of the world’s foremost authorities on physical measurements in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. His book written with Dr. John Norman on Environmental Biophysics provides a critical foundation for anyone interested in understanding the physics of the natural world. Dr. Campbell has written three books, over 100 refereed journal articles and book chapters, and has several patents.

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