High energy consumption of desalinated saline water (DSW) caused a bottleneck, hindering the application of DSW drip irrigation in agriculture. In fact, the appropriate salinity level for agriculture drip irrigation could be much higher than potable water. Therefore, new desalination technology (e.g. capacitive deionization, blended desalinated water), owing its low energy consumption and meet the target salinity threshold removal according to crop requirements, has attracted extensive attentions. However, the DSW target salinity threshold may drastically increase the risk of emitter clogging, and reduce the operational performance of drip irrigation systems. Thus, this study assessed the DSW salinity threshold from the perspective of emitter clogging. The results suggested that the DSW salinity threshold should be kept below 5 g/L to maintain the favorable anti-clogging performance of drip irrigation. Emitter clogging was increased gradually between the salinity 1–5 g/L, while, sharped increase was observed at salinity above 5 g/L. Compared with 5 g/L, the treatments 7–9 g/L, significantly increased calcium fouling (12.5–26.4 mg/cm⁻²) and silica fouling (5.3–11.9 mg/cm⁻²), which could be attributed to, the rapid increase of calcium sulfate and calcium phosphate, and the key water quality parameter i.e. Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ concentrations, which greatly enhance the flocculation between silica particles and accelerated the polymerization of silicon. Furthermore, 7–9 g/L treatments aggravated the synergistic interactions among calcium fouling and silica fouling. Overall, these findings would provide a new perspective for DSW salinity threshold selection, with potential implications for sustainable development of agriculture water desalination.

淡化盐水（DSW）的高能耗造成了瓶颈，阻碍了DSW滴灌在农业中的应用。事实上，农业滴灌的适宜盐度水平可能远高于饮用水。因此，新的海水淡化技术（如电容去离子、混合淡化水）以其低能耗和满足作物需求的目标盐度阈值去除而受到广泛关注。然而，DSW 目标盐度阈值可能会大大增加灌水器堵塞的风险，并降低滴灌系统的运行性能。因此，本研究从发射器堵塞的角度评估了 DSW 盐度阈值。结果表明，DSW盐度阈值应保持在5 g/L以下，以保持良好的滴灌抗堵塞性能。在盐度 1-5 g/L 之间发射器堵塞逐渐增加，而在盐度超过 5 g/L 时观察到急剧增加。与 5 g/L 相比，7-9 g/L 处理显着增加钙污染（12.5-26.4 mg/cm^-2 ) 和二氧化硅结垢 (5.3–11.9 mg/cm ^-2 )，这可归因于硫酸钙和磷酸钙的快速增加，以及关键水质参数，即 Ca ²⁺和 Mg ²⁺浓度，大大增强了二氧化硅颗粒之间的絮凝作用，加速了硅的聚合。此外，7-9 g/L 处理加剧了钙污垢和二氧化硅污垢之间的协同作用。总体而言，这些发现将为 DSW 盐度阈值选择提供新的视角，对农业海水淡化的可持续发展具有潜在意义。