ASHS 2025 Conference

Climate change presents a serious challenge for the future of agricultural production, with communities around the world undergoing agroecological disaster as a result of rapidly developing climatic conditions. Among the most pressing concerns for coastal production is sea level rise and salt intrusion into agricultural soils. Such is the case with Florida, which is regarded as a developing “ground zero” of the climate crisis. Along with California, Florida is the largest tomato producer in the country but is greatly at risk from sea level rise and saltwater intrusion, and tomato crop suffers considerably under salt stress. However, regenerative agriculture (RA) techniques present an opportunity for reducing the effects of saltwater intrusion, as they can enhance crop resistance to stresses and facilitate Na leaching out of soil biomes and improve crop yields. This research project aims to test two RA techniques (green manure and mycorrhizal inoculation) as ameliorating agents of salt stress in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum cv. “Sanibel”). In greenhouse controlled conditions, two treatments of pigeon pea green manure was applied to soil prior to the planting of tomatoes (0g mulch [control] and 60g) and tomatoes were subject to two mycorrhizae inoculation conditions (no inoculation [control] and inoculation with the salt-resistant species Glomus intraradices). Tomato plants were then subjected to four irrigation water salinities (0, 4, 8, and 12 dS m-1). Saline treatments were prepared using Instant Ocean® Sea Salt and distilled water. Tomato plant chlorophyll content and fruit texture quality parameters were analyzed in order to determine the salt-stress ameliorating efficacy of these regenerative techniques.