What is Epsom Salt?
Epsom salt is made up of sulfur, oxygen, and magnesium. It is also called magnesium sulfate. It looks like table salt, but it’s not, and it tastes bad. It is an important micronutrient or trace element that is found naturally in earth and helps plants take in other nutrients.
Epsom salts are also used by people. Some people put it in their bath water because they think it will help with muscle pain and other health problems. Some people mix it with water and drink it to get rid of different problems. There may be some truth to some of these uses, but most of them aren’t backed up by strong scientific proof.
Do not use Epsom salt without first talking to your doctor or nurse. You should also stay away from Epsom salt baths if you are pregnant, have kidney problems, skin infections, skin rashes, or any other health problems.
What does Epsom Salt do for plants?
Gardeners have a lot of different ideas about whether or not Epsom salt is good for plants. Some farmers think that putting Epsom salts on their plants is what makes them grow so quickly, while others say that putting Epsom salts on plants doesn’t help them with their health and can even hurt the soil. We’ll look at different points of view and pieces of proof to see which plants, if any, would benefit from Epsom salts.
Improves Nutrient Uptake
Epsom salt has magnesium in it, which is an important plant nutrient that helps it do some of its most important jobs. One of these is that magnesium makes it easier for plants to take in other nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus, that they would need to grow well without. So, Epsom salt is useful for giving the plant magnesium, and it also helps the plant get the right amounts of other important nutrients from the dirt.
Helps In Strengthen The Seedlings
One of the most important parts of Epsom salt is magnesium, which can make the cell walls of new plants stronger. Seedlings are stronger when their cell walls are thick. They can handle harsh conditions and transplant shock.
To make your plants stronger, try these two methods:
Spread out a cup of Epsom salt over 100 square feet of ground. That is, one cup of Epsom salt is enough for every 100 square feet of ground.
You could also put one tablespoon of Epsom salt in the hole where you want to plant the seed. In each pot on your seed box, put one tablespoon of Epsom salt.
Helps plants grow greener
One of the main parts of Epsom salt is magnesium, which is said to make plants healthier. This is because magnesium helps plants make chlorophyll, which is what gives leaves their color and makes the plants’ leaves look fuller. Photosynthesis is another process that chlorophyll helps the plant do. This is how the plant makes food and energy for itself.
Provides Micro nutrients
Magnesium and sulfur are two micronutrients that are good for plants that can be found in Epsom salts. Different gardeners have different opinions on these micronutrients. Some say they are not very important for the plant, while others say they are essential for its growth. If these elements are important or not for your plant will depend on the type of plant you have.
Some types of beans and many green vegetables will grow well even if they don’t have much magnesium in their soil. Epsom salts would not make a difference in how well these plants grow. Epsom salts contain micronutrients that would be good for plants like roses, peppers, and tomatoes because they need a lot of magnesium to grow well.
Roses grown with Epsom salts had more flowers with bigger blooms than roses grown with only commercial fertilizers, according to studies done by the National Gardening Association. Pepper plants that were grown with Epsom salts also had bigger peppers.
Keeps pests away
Some garden bugs, like voles and slugs, can be scared away with Epsom salt. Putting Epsom salts on your plants might make the slugs in your garden less likely, but it probably won’t be the magic bullet you’re looking for. On the other hand, Epsom salts shouldn’t be your first choice if you want to get rid of bugs. If you are using them to help your roses grow, though, the fact that they can keep some pests from setting up camp is a nice bonus.
Balances Nutrient Levels
In some types of soil, Epsom salts can help keep the amounts of nutrients in check. If you think your plants aren’t doing well because they need more nutrients, you can test the dirt to find out what’s missing. A lot of farming soil or soil that has been worked too hard is low in magnesium. This nutrient needs to be added back in so that plants that grow in that soil stay healthy. Soil that has been used for years to grow tomatoes might not have enough magnesium. Adding Epsom salts to the soil could restore the magnesium levels and make future crops better.
Lowers the pH of the soil
Some soils have a pH level higher than 7.5, and adding Epsom salts to them might help bring it down. Soils that are too alkaline will make it hard for many plants to grow, so lowering the pH level will be very helpful in these cases. The Epsom salts should be mixed into the soil. Over time, they will make the soil more acidic.
Get rid of weeds
Weeds can be killed with very concentrated Epsom salt. For a stronger treatment, some people mix it with vinegar. But watch out. Epsom salt water can hurt plants close if they take it in through their roots or if the mist from the spray hits them.
When To Use Epsom Salt on Plants
How can you tell if the magnesium level in your soil is low? It can run out if you don’t keep putting more before the plants can use it up. Send a sample of your garden dirt to the county extension service and let them know what you want before you add Epsom salt for plants.
Instead of sending soil samples from plants in pots, look for signs that the plants aren’t getting enough nutrients. One plant that probably needs sulfate is one that goes greenish-yellow or yellow all over.
If the lines on a plant’s leaves stay green but turn yellow in the middle, the plant may need more magnesium. It’s known as interveinal chlorosis. Other things, like soil pH and weather, can make it hard to figure out the exact cause of a problem, but your extension service worker can help.
When Not to Use Epsom Salts in the Garden
It is known that Epsom salts can help some plants in some cases. Because Epsom salts contain a lot of magnesium, they are mostly good for plants like roses, tomatoes, and peppers. But Epsom salts shouldn’t be used in all cases. These are the ones below.
As a Main Fertilizer
There are micronutrients in Epsom salts that are good for the growth of many plants. However, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are often written as N-P-K in gardening terms, are the most important nutrients for plants. Epsom salts have a nutrition value of 0–0, which means they don’t have any nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium in them at all. If you do decide to use Epsom salts on your plants, you should know that they are not the same thing as fertilizer. For plants to stay healthy, you should feed them a balanced fertilizer instead of Epsom salts, which don’t have any of the nutrients they need. Epsom salts can be helpful, but they shouldn’t be the main thing you feed your plant. Instead, they should be used as a secondary ingredient.
Plants Lacking Magnesium
If you notice that your plant is lacking magnesium, you might immediately think that your dirt is also lacking magnesium. In fact, a plant lacking magnesium doesn’t always mean that the soil it is grown in lacks magnesium. There are plants that don’t get enough magnesium because the dirt has too much phosphorus, which stops the plant from absorbing the magnesium properly.
However, adding Epsom salts won’t help in this case because the phosphorus level in the soil needs to be lowered so that plants can receive magnesium. Putting Epsom salts in the soil won’t help and will make it take longer to figure out why your plants aren’t doing well. It is important to test your soil to find out what the real problem is before you treat it for a shortage by mistake.
Soil That Is Acidic
If you want to neutralize alkaline soil, you can use Epsom salts. If you want to neutralize acidic soil, do the opposite. If your soil is already acidic, you shouldn’t use Epsom salts in your yard because it could make the problem worse.
How Much Epsom Salt For Plants
Epsom salts can be used in the yard in a number of ways. The right amount to use will depend on the method you choose and the plants you are treating.
Use two tablespoons of Epsom salt per gallon of water to give your plants an extra boost of Epsom salt that can be used in the garden or on houseplants. Do this once a month, in addition to your normal watering. Add half a cup of Epsom salts to the soil around the base of a rose plant to help it grow new leaves and flowers.
When you plant roses for the first time, you should put one spoonful of Epsom salts in the hole before you put the plant in. An Epsom salt feed once a month can help shrubs like azaleas and rhododendrons, and trees can be treated with Epsom salts about three times a year.
How to Apply Epsom Salt to Plants
Most of the time, gardeners use Epsom salts as a spray on the leaves. To use it on plant leaves, just mix the right amount of Epsom salt with water and spray it on. It’s best to do this in the spring, right when the new leaves start to appear, and again after the flowers have died. To water plants at the soil level, you can mix Epsom salts with water and use it as a soil spray. You don’t have to mix Epsom salts with water first; you can add them straight to the soil or work them into it.
What Plants Don’t Like Epsom Salt?
Some plants don’t need Epsom salt because they get enough magnesium from the dirt or don’t need much. Some of these are:
Green beans and leafy greens
Trees with cones
The same is true for tropical trees and Epsom salt.
Pitcher plants, sundews, and Venus flytraps are some other plants that don’t like Epsom salt.They eat bugs. They have learned to grow in poor dirt, and a little can kill them.
Conclusion
Epsom salts are good for some plants, like roses, tomatoes, and peppers, because they contain vitamins. In some cases, they can help make the soil better, but in others, like when the soil is acidic, they would make it worse. Because they don’t have any important nutrients, Epsom salts shouldn’t be used instead of a balanced manure.