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Post by daylilydude on May 9, 2015 7:07:50 GMT -5
In your garden... your thoughts??
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Post by coppice on May 9, 2015 14:24:06 GMT -5
If you ask Carolyn Male, its how we water that causes BER. I try to get and keep to a schedule watering tomato. And compost all my egg shells.
I haven't noticed a big improvement with epsom salts when I used it.
Oh, and I gave up on Roma-tomatoes.
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Post by paulf on May 9, 2015 16:23:39 GMT -5
Don't use it, never have, don't see any usefullness for it.
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swamper
Pro Member
Posts: 208
Joined: March 2011
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Post by swamper on May 10, 2015 5:52:16 GMT -5
epsom salts are most useful if you're growing in organic mixes especially container growing. they nearly always run short on Magnesium eventually. if you're growing in our young glaciated mineral soils it probably wont help much since magnesium is commonly abundant. I cant speak for older weathered soils. purplish leaf surfaces and petioles indicate Mg or P deficiencies on some plants like tomatoes or peppers.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 10, 2015 12:39:09 GMT -5
When I need to use lime (my soil is acid), I use dolomitic limestone which contains magnesium. So I have seen no need to use Epsom salts.
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Post by daylilydude on May 14, 2015 19:03:45 GMT -5
Well I'm taking the plunge... Got out my 3 gallon sprayer and mixed up the epsom salts and gave the tomatoes and peppers a sprayin... hope this doesn't kill'em...
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pattis
Junior Member
Posts: 27
Joined: December 2010
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Post by pattis on Feb 4, 2016 14:24:54 GMT -5
Did you notice any difference? Did you just spray your plants or did you use it as a drench as well?
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Post by september on Feb 29, 2016 15:31:06 GMT -5
Bumping this for Daylilydude ... I'd like to know the answer as well! Did you notice any difference in your garden plants?
I've used Epsom salts on seedlings when I can't take time to pot up to a larger size, but I can't honestly say I've noticed a difference, because I do normally get them into new quarters within a few days anyway, so they'd have fresh mix and room to stretch their toes which would skew any Epsom results.
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Post by paulf on Feb 29, 2016 17:27:44 GMT -5
My suggestion is to do a soil test. If your soil is deficient of magnesium or any other mineral that's how you tell if it is needed. If I used Epsom salts on my soil I would be OK with the sulfur content but would have too much magnesium. None of my garden shows signs of low Mg so foliar spraying Epsom salts would have no effect. Where you need it, use it; it may work wonders.
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Post by daylilydude on Mar 2, 2016 6:01:20 GMT -5
pattis, september, Thanks for bringing this back up... Now I sprayed only half my maters and peppers with this just to be able to see the difference. As far as the maters, all I noticed was much darker green leaves, but now my peppers that I sprayed produced almost twice as many peppers as the ones I didn't spray.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Mar 5, 2016 11:22:52 GMT -5
The limestone available locally this year has less magnesium than in years past. Previously it was about 21% calcium and 10% magnesium. This year the most magnesium-rich limestone I could find was 24% calcium and 6% magnesium.
Well, the itty bitty expensive bags of Epsoma Organic Garden Lime have the right amount of magnesium, but it would be too pricey to buy the quantity I need for over 20 Earthboxes plus my garden beds.
Hopefully the 6% magnesium lime will work all right in my Earthboxes this year. If not, I may have to pony up the $$ for the Epsoma next year.
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Post by horsea on Mar 7, 2016 1:41:28 GMT -5
As I understand things, we shouldn't have to fiddle so much with specific nutrients. Most of the time, if we just use a compost made of a wide variety of kitchen and other wastes, somehow things seem to balnce out. And as far as BER goes, I think sometimes a drainage problem might be involved, though not necessarily all the time. And variety matters to, as you know. Just saying.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Mar 7, 2016 9:42:06 GMT -5
It's true that you shouldn't have to fiddle so much with nutrients when growing in-ground, but growing in Earthboxes is a very different situation. Earthboxes work great as long as things are set up properly using the correct components. But, they can fail spectacularly if you do things wrong. However, with the nematodes I have here, tomatoes are definitely going to fail spectacularly if grown in-ground - I've been there, done that. So, I fiddle. It was nice to hear that the Epsom salts worked so well for Richard last season, though.
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Post by w8in4dave on Mar 8, 2016 9:38:39 GMT -5
One reason I have not used earth boxes. I don't want to have to deal with fiddling around with it. But we have good ground. it's been resting the last couple of years. This year crack it open again!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Mar 11, 2016 12:12:27 GMT -5
Congratulations on having good soil!
Floridian gardeners can only dream about being able to just stick seeds/transplants in the ground and have them grow well.
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Post by w8in4dave on Mar 11, 2016 20:12:31 GMT -5
When I say fiddling around I mean water all the time and stuff! Usually right when it's hot we want to go up north, So we do come back in 3 or 4 days and Bam the weeds grew like weeds and everything needs watered. I usually lose my potted plants outside because of not being watered while we were gone.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Mar 11, 2016 20:22:40 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL I found a dolomite fairly cheap for the EBs on ebay, with free shipping. I'll find the link and post it. They also had other things like calcium nitrate at a good price.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Mar 11, 2016 20:54:06 GMT -5
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Post by paulf on Mar 12, 2016 11:25:17 GMT -5
My garden needs a dose of elemental sulphur every couple of years to knock the pH down from 8.5 to a reasonable 7.5 or so. My best price, including the local farm chemical place, was on Amazon. $28 for a 30 pound bag with free shipping. That will be a three application amount in the space needed. There are deals out there if you look hard enough.
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Post by paquebot on Mar 15, 2016 0:58:16 GMT -5
I've had a bag of Epsom salts in the garden shed longer than I've been on the Internet so that goes back to the '90s. Someone told me that I should use it with my tomatoes but now it's years later and still no good reason. Maybe I'll just dump it in the next compost tumbler batch just to get rid of it. Of course, no way to determine if it will do any good other than just being there.
Martin
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Mar 15, 2016 8:01:48 GMT -5
Martin, if you aren't going to use it in the garden purposely, then don't waste it. Use it for a good soak in the tub after playing with tomatoes.
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Post by daylilydude on Mar 16, 2016 4:20:15 GMT -5
Martin, if you aren't going to use it in the garden purposely, then don't waste it. Use it for a good soak in the tub after playing with tomatoes.
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Post by coppice on May 9, 2016 3:54:32 GMT -5
If you eat eggs, and are willing to dry the shells. A years worth of eggshells aught to step into any vaccuum soil needs filled.
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Post by Gianna on May 9, 2016 21:46:55 GMT -5
I'd never used epsom salts and saw no reason to.. Until this spring on my pepper and tomato seedlings. I'd read about it, so in a what-the-heck moment, I tried some. It's impossible to know if it's what made the difference, but I grew the most healthy looking young plants ever. There was more than one variable however, but I'll definitely be using the stuff in the future. I also like the possibility of doubling my pepper production.
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Post by brownrexx on May 31, 2016 8:38:28 GMT -5
I would always recommend a soil test performed by a laboratory before adding anything to your soil. Epsom salts are commonly recommended but my soil test shows that I already have excess magnesium in my soil so adding more could possibly be detrimental. I see no reason to add it.
I always say that adding minerals or nutrients without testing first is like salting your food before you taste it.
BTW, my soil test costs only $9 at Penn State University's Ag Lab. I also add $5 to see my level of Organic Material.
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Post by daylilydude on May 15, 2017 19:54:10 GMT -5
coppice, paulf, swamper, Laura_in_FL, pattis, september, horsea, w8in4dave, pepperhead212, paquebot, have any of you tried this weed killer with Epsom salts in it?? Weed killer – Use Epsom Salt as a weed killer by mixing 2 cups with with 1 gallon of vinegar. Add a liquid dish soap into the mixture and put into a spray bottle.... then just spray the weeds while avoiding your flowers and other plants.
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 15, 2017 20:05:45 GMT -5
Vinegar alone is used as a weed killer, though stronger acetic acid is needed for some really noxious weeds (I have some 20%, that kills about anything, but roots can still survive, so it has to be reapplied to some). It seems that the magnesium sulfate would neutralize some of the acid, though I have never mixed any, so I'm just guessing.
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Post by horsea on May 15, 2017 21:46:21 GMT -5
Nah, I don't kill weeds by any method other than digging them up - mostly dandelions. The rest of the weeds + plenty of grass between the beds I mow. The effect is quite nice if I say so myself. I wish I had not struggled for so many years trying to get rid of weeds between the beds. Mowing is easier.
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Post by september on May 15, 2017 23:17:38 GMT -5
coppice , paulf , swamper , Laura_in_FL , pattis , september , horsea , w8in4dave , pepperhead212 , paquebot , have any of you tried this weed killer with Epsom salts in it?? Weed killer – Use Epsom Salt as a weed killer by mixing 2 cups with with 1 gallon of vinegar. Add a liquid dish soap into the mixture and put into a spray bottle.... then just spray the weeds while avoiding your flowers and other plants. Thanks, I'll put that on the back burner for when I start getting thistles and odd weeds behind my row of potted tomatoes against and old fence line. I get most of the weeds pulled at the beginning of the season, but some roots always survive to reappear late.
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Post by brownrexx on May 16, 2017 9:19:12 GMT -5
Gardening in containers must be a whole different thing.
I garden in-ground and see no reason to add Epsom salts or anything else other than some blood meal for nitrogen. My soil test shows that I have excess of all nutrients so adding anything else would be detrimental.
Adding fertilizer is not the answer to every little thing as many people seem to think.
Right now I have some curly leaves on all of my tomato plants but they don't have a deficiency or a disease that I should spray something for. They are unhappy because the nights have been cold. They will straighten out now that it is warmer.
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