Salt life in soil

[Dan F]

Does anyone know how long it takes salt to leach out of soil?

We have a maintenance contract at a sorority house at the local university. About 3-4 weeks ago, the girls decided to initiate the pledges. Apparently, they thought it wise to do it on the front lawn. I'm not sure what exactly happened, but I am reasonably sure I would have liked to see it.

When we got there, there were piles of what appeared to be rock salt (may have been some sort of ice melter), cat litter and detergent on the lawn. Unfortunately, we did not have a shop vac with us and it rained that night. Now there are brown spots in the lawn that we need to re-seed. The problem is that we don't know when anything will grow there.

The house dad watered the lawn he said for four days straight, and we have had several good rains since then.

Does anyone have any experience with anything like this or are we the guinea pigs?

BTW, I have NO idea what the concentration would have been in pounds/square foot, if you are wondering!


Dan

 

[jimmyq]

if it was straight up salt (NaCl) it is very soluble in water and therefore shouldn't have a long life in the surface soil with sufficient irrigation, but without seeing some pictures of what happened I cannot comment further.

 

[Reed]

Home Depot - Medina Soil Conditioner.

Twice label rate, irrigate 2". Repeat.

Hurricanes do more than knock over trees - tidal surges bring salt water and had to remediate more than one landscape. Also de-icer accidents, had good luck working on piles left after trucks rolled over.