Epsom salts for your veggie garden??

Debora Cadene 6/18/2012, 8:03 pm

Is this really good for the garden and if so, how do you personally use it? (I promise not to run to the garden and douse it with salt and water till I know how it works.. Very Happy

)

cheyannarach 6/19/2012, 12:06 am

I'm not sure but I am bumping it to get an answer/opinions because I saw someone talking about this before but I can't remember who it was!

FamilyGardening 6/19/2012, 12:17 am

we started using epsom salt this year....so we are just learning....

here is a good video we watched awhile back Very Happy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS1CDJ98ZAQ
hugs

rose

**rowena___.** 6/19/2012, 7:13 am

epsom salts are magnesium sulfate, which CAN be good for the garden if there is a deficiency of magnesium or sulfer. Smile

if you are not certain they are needed, you should probably hold off.

**RoOsTeR** 6/19/2012, 7:37 am

Baby steps Very Happy

Stick with Mel's Mix and learn the basics first. There's no point in adding extra ingredients and suppliments to your garden if they're not really needed. Learn what's going well for you first without any interference. IF you do decide to add anything to your garden, add it to one plant only and compare your results to the same plants you added nothing to.

rose1971 6/19/2012, 9:21 am

I've always used Epson salt in my garden. I usually do it only once per month. I use one of those miracle grow bottle feeders that you can hook up to your hose. I put 4 tablespoons of Epson salt fill the bottle to the line with water. Shake and hook to the hose and water. I would NOT do it more than once per month as it really won't need it. I use no type of chemicals or pesticides and this year seems to be going great with growing.

quiltbea 6/19/2012, 9:43 am

I have an established garden and heard good things about epsom salts so this year with my tomatoes, to each hole I added a half cup of greensand (for all kinds of micronutrients), and a handful of dry powdered milk (hopefully to prevent Blossom End Rot) and a smaller handful of Epsom slats. Mixed it together with soil in the hole. Added a scoopful of my compost and stirred again, then planted the transplants. I, too, wanted to see if it made a difference. Its too early in the season for definite results, but so far, my plants are all looking hearty, healthy, full and robust and I've removed many suckers. They've grown lots since planted and most have blossoms and some are forming baby tomatoes. So far, so good.

Epsom salts for your veggie garden?? 06-17-19

Epsom salts for your veggie garden?? 06-17-19

Its still very early in our tomato season, but here's a couple of Green Zebra plants. I'll keep you posted on how it worked for my tomatoes this year.

kat51415 6/19/2012, 6:52 pm

QUILTBEA:

to each hole I added a half cup of greensand (for all kinds of micronutrients), and a handful of dry powdered milk (hopefully to prevent Blossom End Rot) and a smaller handful of Epsom slats.

So my son called me having kittens because we have Blossom End Rot on HIS tomatoes. So far, this is the only crisis we've had in the garden this year (knock on wood). Please enlighten us newbies what the addition of powdered milk does to prevent BER. Will it help clear it up if already blighted?

**walshevak** 6/19/2012, 7:51 pm

Blossom end rot is caused by erratic watering and/or lack of calcium. The lack of calcium can by a true lack of calcium or an inability of the plant to use the available calcium due to a lack of magnesium. Adding powdered milk (or crushed tums) and epsom salts corrects the calcium issue, ( there is also a commercial spray available), but will not fix any tomato that already has blossom end rot. It will help prevent new fruits from developing BER.

Kay

**Turan** 6/16/2017, 11:02 pm

I wrote in another thread about how high calcium and potassium levels in the garden can tie up the magnesium making it unavailable for the plants, this being the situation in my greenhouse.

Here is a picture of what the leaves on beans will look like. First the interveinal areas look almost swollen and then they die. When I noticed it starting this spring I gave every thing a spray with water and Epsom salts.

Epsom salts for your veggie garden?? 2017-025

Epsom salts for your veggie garden?? 2017-025

Here is the leaves that developed after I gave them a foliar feeding of Epsom salts
Epsom salts for your veggie garden?? 2017-024

It was dramatic how fast everything improved.

Interesting article that talks about all this.
https://garden.org/learn/articles/view/68/

**sanderson** 6/18/2017, 9:53 pm

Thank you for the before and after photos. Nice testimony.

AlwaysHotinFL 6/19/2017, 9:35 am

I'm curious Turan, how much did you dilute/add? What exactly was your mixture?

CapeCoddess 6/19/2017, 10:22 am

I was just reading Mel's 'Answer Book' this morning and he suggests 1/2 C to 1 gal of water for watering toms with BER, and 1/2 C to a bucket of sun warmed water for general watering of the garden.

In the thread 'How to Grow Better Tomatoes' is says 1t to 4 C warm water for foliar spray.
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t20767-how-to-grow-better-tomatoes?highlight=tomatoes

CC

**Turan** 6/19/2017, 11:07 am

I use 1 TABLESPOON Epsom salts per GALLON of water. I just checked double checked myself, 4 sources, all say to use 1-2 T/gallon of water.

I have a big 2 gallon green plastic watering can with a shower type head on the spout. I keep it filled with water and sitting in the greenhouse, so the water is warm. Epsom salts dissolve much easier in the warm water. Being all exact and stuff I toss a palm of my hand full amount, roughly 2 tablespoons, into the 2 gallons of water and stir with a trowel. Then I water plants over the their tops, I don't worry about the undersides of leaves. For the beans I sort of wildly wave the watering can in a swinging motion to get the pole beans wet as well.
Dignity is my middle name. What a Face

**Scorpio Rising** 6/20/2017, 8:25 pm

Turan wrote:I use 1 TABLESPOON Epsom salts per GALLON of water. I just checked double checked myself, 4 sources, all say to use 1-2 T/gallon of water.

I have a big 2 gallon green plastic watering can with a shower type head on the spout. I keep it filled with water and sitting in the greenhouse, so the water is warm. Epsom salts dissolve much easier in the warm water. Being all exact and stuff I toss a palm of my hand full amount, roughly 2 tablespoons, into the 2 gallons of water and stir with a trowel. Then I water plants over the their tops, I don't worry about the undersides of leaves. For the beans I sort of wildly wave the watering can in a swinging motion to get the pole beans wet as well.
Dignity is my middle name.

It is your middle name! Bottom line, might help, won't kill anything, why not?

Cajun Cappy 6/21/2017, 12:36 pm

i argued for years with my buddy about using epsom in the garden. What bothered me was the salt name. I mean it's like biblical ya wanna ruin a guys field ya salt it...

Yea I know now it aint really salt at all but the name just put me off. I tried it sparingly last year and noticed an improvement in our peppers so this year I really poured it on. Put a heavy sprinkling of it down on the 4 sq I was gonna put bell peppers in(neva had luck with em) and when I dug holes to put the plants in I sprinkled a spoon full in each hole. Since then I put a couple spoons in our watering hose dispencer every week or so. Bottom line we made big pretty bell peppers for the first time in 16 years of trying. For peppers at least I am now a big believer in Epsom salt. Funny thing is all other peppers did fine with out it.

**Turan** 6/21/2017, 12:54 pm

Cajun Cappy wrote:i argued for years with my buddy about using epsom in the garden. What bothered me was the salt name. I mean it's like biblical ya wanna ruin a guys field ya salt it....

You can well understand then my consternation when the soil expert helping me interpret my soil test told me to, 'salt your garden'. It was actually so salt deficient it was making it hard for the plants take up the water I was providing. BUt my head had a real hard time with this.

dstack 3/19/2023, 10:34 am

I know this is an old thread, but since I just wrote about this, I'd like to share my experience with Epsom salt. I know I'm echoing some of what has already been said here. I don't recommend it without proper soil testing. You could be making your soil imbalances worse – and harming your plants in the process.

Why You Should't Use Epsom Salt In Your Garden

OhioGardener 3/19/2023, 10:49 am

dstack wrote: I don't recommend it without proper soil testing. You could be making your soil imbalances worse – and harming your plants in the process.

I fully agree. A quality compost-based soil, such as MM, will have more than enough minerals and nutrients for the microbial life to make plant available without adding amendments like magnesium and sulfur. Too much magnesium will inhibit calcium uptake, resulting in problems such as Blossom End Rot, and adding sulfur to the soil can result in salt buildup.

dstack 3/19/2023, 11:00 am

OhioGardener wrote:
dstack wrote: I don't recommend it without proper soil testing. You could be making your soil imbalances worse – and harming your plants in the process.

I fully agree. A quality compost-based soil, such as MM, will have more than enough minerals and nutrients for the microbial life to make plant available without adding amendments like magnesium and sulfur. Too much magnesium will inhibit calcium uptake, resulting in problems such as Blossom End Rot, and adding sulfur to the soil can result in salt buildup.

Exactly. I didn't even get into the salt buildup in the blog.

**sanderson** 3/19/2023, 11:37 pm

In the early days of the Forum, we posted things that would not be approved today. The reason may be a holdover from the early days of SFG when the native soil was amended and NOT the All New method of SFG where we ignore the native soil and create Mel's Mix.

Unless a soil tests low in magnesium and sulfur by an appropriate laboratory, or anything else, we don't need to add anything but blended/homemade composts.
https://calrecycle.ca.gov/Organics/Farming/Analyses/#:~:text=Primary%20Nutrients%20%20%20%20Nutrient%20%20,%20%20percent%20%203%20more%20rows%20

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