a question about salting the roads

when the salt melts ice and snow, it dissolves into the resulting water. the water has to go somewhere. now in city streets, there are drainage pipes it flows into. but on freeways, there is no sidewalk or curb, so instead of drainage pipes it just rolls off onto the ground next to the road

people have been salting the roads for years to deal with ice and shit....

yet all that saltwater saturating the ground next to the freeways, year after year after year does not kill off the plants.

grass and flowers and sometimes trees and shrubs grow right up on the side of the road regardless of all the salt.


why is this? i remember in history class talking about some ancient empire (i think it was the romans) who salted the earth of an area they were at war with or something, and things STILL wont grow there.....

so how come we can put so much salt water in the soil and the plants don't care?

 

They do get burnt but I imagine an appropiately salt-tolerant species are used

 

i don't really buy that story about the romans.

i know salt kills some things, but not all. my mom used to salt her asparagus patch because it would kill the grass but not the asparagus. but anyway, that is salt directly applied to the growing plant in the springtime. a majority of the road salt washes off in the winter when plants aren't growing anyway, so i would guess that the salt is mostly gone by the time the plants start taking nourishment in through their roots again. plus, there is very commonly a small strip of dirt or gravel right on the edge of the road; i would imagine most salt runoff would settle there rather than on the plants beyond.

i don't know, i'm just guessing here.

 

The salt they spread on the highways is not pure salt, there is sand too in the mix. Also think, there is ice, snow, rain to thin the salt content more and more.

I know if you put a salt block on the ground an area of about 3-4 feet around that block will be nothing but mud and dirt, no plants. Again that is a 25 pound block of pure salt in an area of 6 feet in diameter.

So in my attempt to answere your question its all in the concentration of the salt ratio to water ratio to land. Thin out the salt content and it will be okay, nfact it might even help.

 

Also, keep in mind, there are many different kinds of salt, and they do not all have the same effect on plantlife.

 

I'm harnessing my brain's power to help the plants grow. It is a very tiring job but I get paid by governments worldwide.