Anyone use epsom salt as fertilizer for houseplants?
grice
16 years ago
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meyermike_1micha
16 years agoRelated Discussions
How frequently can you use Epsom Salt?
Comments (16)My grandmother, who taught me most of what I know about gardening, put a tsp. into her watering can (2 gallons) every time she watered her flowers. I usually use a tsp per gallon once a month on my blooming plants, and on plants that are looking poorly. I don't want to start the "Epsom salts doesn't make roots grow" argument, so I won't go into what I was taught in college or told by the FL extension service guy, but I know that if plants' roots in Florida hit hardpan and start looking poorly, putting a cup of ES around them seems to help a lot. This is especially true for gardenias, for some reason....See MoreEpsom Salts anyone?
Comments (9)Previous posts have eluded to the idea of determining first-off if you have a need for Magnesium (Mg) in the soil. If that is the case and you will need to also adjust pH (which almost all of us in the NE need) then epsom salts is less benefital and almost always the more expensive when comparing to dolomitic limestone. I would be careful to keep track of the other important soil cations, especially calcium and potassium. Just adding Mg repeatedly without the other 2 can lead to other problems....See Moreusing epsom salt for peppers and eggplant
Comments (9)That's a much talked about "home remedy" for gardening. Not completely clear what it's remediating though, in that if your soil magnesium is fine, it won't really do any good. Also, most fertilizers include it. FWIW, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant really do need magnesium. I'd just do a soil test before wasting your time on this. Do you see evidence of magnesium deficiency in the plants you grow? That could be yellowing of leaves starting with the lowest older ones and moving upward. Also yellow stripes on veins (chlorosis) may indicate Mg deficiency. Strongly acid soils are more frequently magnesium deficient, and I believe that Florida soils are often only slightly acidic. Soils over limestone (like mine) never are. Pretty easy to OD on epsom salt, though, which can burn your plants. So if you do decide that your soil really has a magnesium deficiency (that's the first step), use it carefully. It is *not* a general purpose fertilizer...See MoreEpsom salts...can I mix with FP? (Silica or anyone else!)
Comments (24)Thanks Silica, Josh, and Cory! Silica is right about the lime. I looked at my bag and it says it is derived from dolomite lime...here is a pic of the back and front. According to the analysis, it should be 10% Mg.. Josh, I applied what Silica said (1 tbsp/gal warm water) and my trees are fine, in fact, the one with the deficiency I think already looks a little more green. The green in the middle of the leaves appears to have spread out a little toward the edges overnight. I will water thoroughly today and may give it another application of ES. This one has some pretty bad leaves. Those of you who do not add lime (dolomitic) to the 5-1-1, learn from my mistake....See Moregrice
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