Sodium Chloride, also known as snow melt or rock salt, is a necessity in modern societies with winter weather. While applying salt to roads, walkways, and parking lots improves safety, salt is a menace to plant-life. Urban forestry and stormwater infrastructure heavily rely on roadside and parking spaces to function. As a result, are severely damaged or killed by rock salt. In areas subject to coastal flooding or seawater intrusion, saltwater often ruins the landscapes unless saltwater species are used.

We hypothesized that TreeDiaper® could mitigate the salt damages by washing away and diluting salty runoff with stored stormwater. As illustrated above, TreeDiaper® can be technically described as "'Solid Water' with Air Pockets" (SWAP). It is the water above field capacity, but it is not in the free-flowing liquid form, so it doesn’t fill the pores in the soil or run off. The presence of air pockets allows vital air supply to roots. The absorption or release is controlled the osmotic equilibrium between TreeDiaper and the soil. This osmosis balance can be disturbed by the presence of salt. In another word, salt would trigger the release of water from SWAP even when the soil is wet. The hypothesis is that the water that would otherwise be unavailable without SWAP will help to wash off the salt or at least dilute the concentration to reduce damage to the plants. 

To test this, we used a moderately salt tolerant shrub, Shamrock Inkberry Holly (Ilex glabra 'Shamrock'). Half of the shrubs were installed with pre-soaked TreeDiaper® mats, while the other half were covered only with mulch. All shrubs without TreeDiaper® died after ~30 oz of salt was applied to the root area, while all the shrubs with TreeDiaper® survived the salt exposure. The experiment was continued by applying more salt to the shrubs with TreeDiaper®. It eventually took an average of 60 oz of salt to kill shrubs with TreeDiaper®.

When dangerous winter conditions threaten safety, salt is a necessity. Safety is the top priority. When you must use salt, consider using TreeDiaper® to give your plants a better chance of survival.

In the winter of 2018-2019, TreeDiaper® saved plants along walkways and roads in Old Goucher of Baltimore, MD, according to the community coordinator, Mr. Mateusz Rozanski. Mr. Rozanski knew salt was killing his plants year after year, but TreeDiaper® but there was no way to save them until he found TreeDiaper®.