Hi Susan,

Salt water is desalinated to produce fresh water suitable for human consumption or irrigation. One potential by-product of desalination is salt. Desalination is used on many seagoing ships and submarines. Most of the modern interest in desalination is focused on developing cost-effective ways of providing fresh water for human use. Along with recycled wastewater, this is one of the few rainfall-independent water sources.

A combination of increased water usage and lower rainfall/drought in Australia caused state governments to turn to desalination. As a result, several large-scale desalination plants were constructed.

Large-scale seawater reverse osmosis plants (SWRO) now contribute to the domestic water supplies of several major Australian cities including Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and the Gold Coast.

Cordially,

Yalcin TEPE

EC of sea water is about 35- 40 dS/m. i used such a saline water to germinate some seeds. barley, Niger seed, etc. some of them can germinate in this condition. I provide this saline water from wells. 

I probably should have worded this question better.  Has anyone irrigated plants with sea water.  Apparently yield is increased on coconut palms with this treatment

I don't know the coconut palm example you are talking about, but in general salinity is stressful to most crop plants. So prolonged irrigation with sea water reduces yields. That being said, salt tolerance has evolved many times in different taxa, and many species inhabiting coastal regions can tolerate high salinity.

Here a a few papers that could be useful:

Article Improving crop salt tolerance

Article Evolution of Halophytes: Multiple Origins of Salt Tolerance ...

I hope this paper can help you

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00572-004-0345-y

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377405001757

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0176161704000902

http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajb/article/view/42896

http://www.actahort.org/books/609/609_6.htm

Thanks everyone :)