Wheat doesn't like salt or caffeine.
More wheat is grown than any other grain. It provides more nourishment for humans than any other food source. It gained this popularity because it adapts to different agricultural areas, is easy to store and can be converted into palatable food easier than any other grain. It does not play well with salt or caffiene.
Caffeine
Some plants--chiefly coffee tea, cocoa and cola nut, produce caffeine as a natural antibiotic and antifungal agent. The caffeine saturates the soil around the plant. Wheat grown in soil where these plants have been cultivated will fail to thrive. In one experiment, described by Scientific Inquiry Through Plants, a 25 percent concentration of caffeine-rich tea inhibited wheat seed growth almost completely. When campared with a control group of wheat seeds raised without caffeine, the seedlings fell two days behind the untainted wheat seeds; and, when growth did start, it was minimal. Increasing the concentration of caffeine didn't further inhibit plant growth and the plants did attain the same level of growth as the control group eventually.
Salt
Salt inhibits wheat germination and growth. Salt water changes the pH of soil and locks up nutrients that wheat needs to grow. Salt also affects the ability of the plant to take up water by altering the osmotic action by which water enters the roots of the wheat. Osmosis is the passive activity in which water and nutrients move from an area of low salinity to an area of high salinity. If the soil has a higher salinity than the wheat, no moisture will enter the roots of the plant.
Is There a Cure?
Contamination of salt or caffeine in the soil is difficult to remove. The plants that create caffeine tend to spread it in the surrounding soil. Overuse of caffeine-producing plants will usually condemn the field to single-crop use. Salt water affects all of the soil and can contaminate the soil very deeply if the soil is dry and has cracks. Flooding the soil may drive the salt deeper and make it harder to decontaminate. Salt can be washed away if the flooding is done carefully, but it can't be done immediately. Gypsum can neutralize salt, but it's too expensive to use for anything but dire contamination.
Tags: than other, control group, other grain, salt caffeine, Salt water, than other grain, wheat seeds