You could use table salt or, heck, sodium nitrate to give you some nitrogen while you're at it.
However, adding sodium (and chloride in the case of the table salt) has more potential to cause problems than would be worth it. I would just put salt on my food if I were worried about my diet. I hear people do it all the time.

Hi gargwarb, I use table salt and prefer sea salt which I use at home. My concer is not dietary but plant health concerns, however, my prefference would be to get my needs from my food rather than additives. Sodium nitrate sounds feasible as it could add nitrogen as well. N was not at issue as all three test reports showed somewhat more than enough N in the plant tissue. Next year at the first hilling I may add some. Thanks for the input. Happy Fourth

Sodium, vanadium, cobalt, nickel, selenium, aluminum and silicon are all elements found to have a beneficial affect on some plants, but are not generally considered essential nutrients.

An essential nutrient is a nutrient that no plant can complete it's lifecycle in the presence of a complete lack of it.

Nonessential nutrients such as those listed above are not necessary for plants to complete their lifecycle and do well, but some plants will do a little bit better with some/all of them.

Generally speaking I wouldn't go messing with nonessential nutrients in the earth. In a container I would play to my heart's content as I risk nothing more than the plant and the potting mix, but in the earth I would not go adding things like table salt just to boost sodium levels unless I was very confident in my math.

www.seaagri.com
Here is where you can purchase a sea salt fertilizer.

Um, that's great that you want adequate sodium in your diet, but that doesn't mean you have to spend money or risk robbing ions from other nutrients to deliver a nutrient that plants only care very slightly about.

That is: what is the botanical or geological reason for adding Na. Not the dietary reason. The botanical or geological reason. If you can't tell us why, then you don't understand NA/Na+ and you shouldn't be messing with something you don't understand.

Dan

When in doubt, pee on it. Pee has a ton of sodium

What lab did your soil and plant testing, can you post all of the analytical results?

A non-technical explanation: adding sodium to clay soils will cause the soil structure to degrade from porous to less porous as the tiny soil "clumps" will break apart into much smaller particles. Those much smaller particles will make it much more difficult for water to pass through the soil. Do a search for "sodic soils" and you'll see the relevance.

Michael

There are Macro Nutrients, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and Z and there are Micro Nutrients, Fe, Su, Cu, etc. but there are no non essential nutrients for plants or us. In a good healthy soil these will be in balance and this is where getting the soil nutrients in balance gets tricky because a bit too much of one can inhibit the uptake of another, or as in the case of Ca and Mg they both need to be present in the proper ratio for either to be useable by the plant. Then your soils pH can influence which of those Macro or Micro nutrients are readily available to the plants.

What lab did your soil and plant testing, can you post all of the analytical results?

Especially if the results contain ESP or SAR.

But the results won't give dietary results for the OP, who ISTM from the given text to be looking for dietary Na, not fixing a deficiency in the soil.

Dan

Hi all, the testing lab is Midwest Labs in Omaha Nebraska. The service is excellent and reasonable. I was not going to plug them here. I have also used Acme Labs in Canada for other testing. Unfortunately this forum does not accept attachments and possibly for good reason so the reports must be all typed in. Tedious to say the least. Many scanners can make pictures of documents, perhaps that would be the way to post here. I think lab reports would make for great discussion as there are several capable respondents here. Of the reports that have been discussed here the varying opinions of what the report tells is interesting to say the least, ie no standard. Appearences of plants is one thing but lab reports can tell a better story in my opinion.

Of course table salt comes to mind as did urine, my prefference not DO, so I had thought that some one here had a better organic idea, such as some plant or weed that was a good carrier of sodium. Decaying vegitation seems to be a better carrier for nutrients than Scotts.

In extensive net searching I did find the link below from a Wisconsin farmer who thinks sodium and chloride are important. See page 10 of his Spring letter. Its pdf and takes some time to download.

Let's work together, check it out and find some answers. Happy fourth and best regards to all.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.midwesternbioag.com/news/

Let's work together, check it out and find some answers.

Far, far, far better is to know which questions to ask to get the proper, germane, and appropriate answers - not answers to non sequiturs or red herrings.

Questions such as 'why are many here questioning my wish to add Na to the soil?', and 'what is the ESP or SAR in my soil?' and 'what was the importance of my avoiding the question of the botanical and geological reason for adding Na?'.

Happy Fourth.

Dan

urine sure would be a way I assume cows and horses and bunnies have salty pee also?? if so maybe some soaked bedding or wet manure

Hi all, thank you everyone for your thoughts. As to why would I want to add sodium I believe Kimmsr said it best, so rather than rephrase I will quote him. He Wrote:
"There are Macro Nutrients, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and Z and there are Micro Nutrients, Fe, Su, Cu, etc. but there are no non essential nutrients for plants or us. . . . ."

This balancing act is really tough if you had been a MG or Scotts follower as I was. Finding Ca and Ng in the 5 to 1 ratio is a rarity. I've yet to see it here on any typed in soil test report, even harder to find in a foliar report. Here in Pa many farmers are wrestling with 15 to 1 and CEC of 85 % and higher Ca.

Good old manure sounds great except many farmers localy are using no till herbicide methhods. There have been reports of herbicde damage from manure that some unfortunate acquired. I would like to avoid that.

Apparently there are plants that need chloride, such as alfalfa, perhaps it and some others need sodium. If so my thoughts are to grow a mixed cover crop and add some rock salt after it gets established. Maybe some sea salt as a foliar spray.

Thank you everybody for your thoughts and input. Best regards.

Howdy pagardner,
I guess the best way to say what I'm thinking is this: Your garden doesn't need additional sodium.
Like justaguy2 said, it's not an essential element. Plants will do just fine without adding it to your garden, even if very low in the soil. When very low, adding a small amount of sodium could possibly provide some small benefit to some plants. However, the benefit derived will be exceedingly small. I don't say "might be" or "could be". I say "will be". The detrimental effects of over application of sodium can be quick, dire and difficult to correct. If you want a rate of use, quite frankly, I can't give it to you (aside from 0 lbs. per acre). If you want to apply sodium based on the opinion of a farmer who is quiet literally guessing (and from reading the link you posted, who sounds painfully under informed regarding soil chemistry and plant nutrient requirements), go for it. It ain't my problem. However, to slightly rephrase what dan staley said, if you have a specific question go ahead and ask it. For example: are you seeing a specific problem that you can trace directly back to a lack of sodium in the soil? Otherwise, a general "how about adding sodium?" will result in a "don't do it" from me.

pagardner, if you think what you quoted from kimmmsr supports your unsupported wish to add sodium, you really, really, really should step back and try to think through why you have confirmation bias wrt this issue.

Dan

Hi all, again thank you for your thoughts and input. I posted this subject because the testing companies find it to be important enough to test for it. In my situation it tested non existent and thought perhaps the forum supporters may have an organic idea on improving sodium.

However as some have pointed out there are soils naturaly or unnaturaly over supplied with sodium, perhaps the testing as standard is done not to point to shortages but overages. Overdoses could be very damaging as has been pointed out. It has also been pointed out there are no non essential nutrients for plants or us.

To further reasearch this issue I have called and asked to be called by the lab tec that performed the testing to get their opinion. I will call the farmer in Wis to get his reasoning and a list of plants that need it, if known. Perhaps what results from a deficiency.

After completing the above I will post it here, good bad or otherwise. Also, I appologize for my dryness, I do not type well, hunt and peck, and I do not wish to get overly lenghty with a post. Thanks again best regards to all.

Organic sodium differs from table salt (sodium chloride). Sodium from a plant for example, is much different than the sodium from table salt. For the basis of this discussion it would be best to assume that they are not the same at all. Plants face a dilemma about sodium metabolism. Uptake of ubiquitous sodium ions is desirable as a way to build osmotic potential, absorb water and sustain turgor, but excess sodium ions may be toxic.

Plants have a problem in dealing with cations. The potassium ion is the preferred inorganic cation of living cells, and plants are no exception to this rule; yet almost invariably the concentration of K+ in the soil solution is lower than the cytosolic K+ concentration (100-200 mM), meaning that plants must actively take up and concentrate K+ using various types of ion transporter [1]. Because Na+ is similar to K+, and many K+ transporters do not discriminate sufficiently between these cations, excess external Na+ can not only impair K+ acquisition but also lead to accumulation of Na+ in plant cells, and as Na+ is toxic to cells, this is undesirable.

First: If you're going to copy and paste someone else's work verbatim, you should site it rather than passing it off as your own. Most of your post was lifted from here

Second: if you are going to plagiarize, it's easier to get away with it if you remove the tags that refer to foot notes that you didn't copy and paste along with the body of the text. Case in point:"
"and concentrate K+ using various types of ion transporter [1]"
(oops!)

Third: This statement right here is utter jibberish "Sodium from a plant for example, is much different than the sodium from table salt. For the basis of this discussion it would be best to assume that they are not the same at all."
sodium is sodium is sodium. It is element (a soft metal). The nature of that atom can not be changed unless you add or remove electrons. If you do that, then it is no longer sodium.

Fourth: Did you have a point?

Fourth: Did you have a point?

Improper attribution, lack of citation and lack of understanding of chemistry aside, some of it does provide detail and support for my first reply above. There is that...

Despite the issues above, let us acknowledge that the OP didn't credulously run out and pee on the garden just because someone told them to do so, and instead gathered enough information to get some understanding on the issue.

Dan

Sure Dan, you and the "borrowed" literature are right on the money. And yes, pagardner absolutely deserves credit for due diligence before taking action.
That sirilucky person just happened to stumble bass-ackwards onto what is probably my hottest hot button.

Careful gargwarb, sirilucky may have been the author, no citation required. Just a thought.

Yeah, the thought crossed my mind for just a second but then I realized that anyone who understood this:

"The potassium ion is the preferred inorganic cation of living cells, and plants are no exception to this rule; yet almost invariably the concentration of K+ in the soil solution is lower than the cytosolic K+ concentration (100-200 mM), meaning that plants must actively take up and concentrate K+ using various types of ion transporter [1]. Because Na+ is similar to K+, and many K+ transporters do not discriminate sufficiently between these cations, excess external Na+ can not only impair K+ acquisition but also lead to accumulation of Na+ in plant cells, and as Na+ is toxic to cells, this is undesirable."

Would never say this:
"Sodium from a plant for example, is much different than the sodium from table salt. For the basis of this discussion it would be best to assume that they are not the same at all."

Then I checked the jibberish sodium statement above as well and found that it was also stolen, but from here.

Then to be extra sure, I did a search on the user name and with the use of google found that it is exceedingly rare that anything that the person says was not pilfered from somewhere. (try it, it makes a fun game) I found stuff from universities, other web forums, Suite 101, etc. It's all copy and paste with never a source sited. Once or twice is sketchy but the pattern, I feel, is deplorable.

The Google doesn't have a 'wisdom' button, is what I say, esp when folk go around cut-pasting random stuff.

Dan

gargwarb: agreed, hard to imagine how the 2 statements could exist in the same paragraph. An optimist might say it was simply a mistake, I'm not an optimist in this case. DEFINITELY, anything "borrowed" from copywritten material must be properly cited according to the publishers instructions. To do otherwise is plainly, theft.

Hi all, heard from the farmers biologist late yesterday. He was very curtious and helpful. He to is a stickler for soil tests, plant tissue tests, and others. Test, test, test.

On sodium he said "unless you have some acres that you can fallow, do not add sodium chloride to your soil." We went over the entire soil and foliar tests item by item and crops grown. His suggestion based only on sodium is that I would have room to add some manure. However, all other elements were satisfactory except K, potasium. Based upon my use of cover crops and leaves he believes K will come up while the other elemnts will even out. His cover of choice was barley, with some cowpeas, and winter rye. Test again next year and give him a call.

As said before, the sticklers for tests are right, test, test. But, look at the entire test before adding any one thing. And never ever add rock salt in the home garden, or the Hot gardeners miracle of the day without knowing why.

Best regards to all.