Boy what a difference a little epsom salt makes. From light green to dark green in a short time.
epsom salt
Wonderful healthy looking foliage!
Isn't it great!!!! I love it too...sure makes a lot of difference in my opinion too. I always foilage feed it diluted with water as well. They LOVE it! My tomatoes, cucumber, squash, bellpeppers and corn are having a good time!!!! lol, I don't think I've ever seen so many blooms in my garden as this year.
Great job rylaff :-)
Hugs
Julie
rylaff,
How did you apply yours. I just did the foliar feeding routine this afternoon. Did you water yours in or spray it on the foliage?
Judy
I pour some around my older brug plants Judy. On the seedlings I just sprinkled it around the plant then watered it in. I go back and dilute ES with water and spray mine as well.
The older ones I sprinkle it around. The ones in pots I mix with water and pour it on. When I foliar feed, I add a little in.
Give me an idea on how much to sprinkle in say a 5 gallon pot.
Thanks,
Judy
For my pots I drop a handful in a two gallon watering can and water the plant
You can't beat the color of your leaves, Lisa. Just great. I have been using Epsom slats for 2 years now and I love them. I just read you can foliar feed with it also. I will so that this week. I also add a handful of gypsum too. Hasn't killed anything yet. LOL Roses love it also!!
I use epsom for a lot of things. My palms love it too. Great stuff.
I've used it on roses before but am just now getting around to using it on the Brugs. Thanks for the info Rylaff.
Judy
PS I'm still getting comments ever once in a while about the squirrel picture, from people reading back issues of Judy's Journal.
ES is part of DH's magic "cocktail"...a barrel is mixed and ready to go: Epsom Salts, gypsum (calcium), a bit of dolomite, chicken poop and triple 14. It goes in around the planting area when the plant is put in the soil. Then I sprinkle ES and Calcium Nitrate around the plants or water it in on a regular basis. I have seen wonders work!!
need more info on this! I hve the chicken poop.
How much epsom S to a gallon.. handful?
small handful
So Carol, you use calcium in addition to gypsum? I can buy chicken poo, but have been using steer poo. I have added dolomite also trying to get pinker pinks but that changes the PH so I have been a bit nervous.
I believe in miracles. LOL
Kell...gypsum IS a non soluable form of calcium...calcium nitrate is water soluable. If we put it in a hole where the roots will touch it....we use the gypsum. As a drench or sprinkled on top of the soil to rain in, we use the calcium nitrate (which is 15.5-0-0). Just like in our own bodies, calcium needs the magnesium to be absorbed... Our soil (?)...a euphemism for dirt...is very lacking in both. Calcium helps in the absorbsion of other nutrients.
My mother (and, aren't mothers ALWAYS right?) always told me that avian poop had the highest nitrogen...so I work on that old (probably outdated) theory. Goat and sheep are next...
Speaking of pH...what is the ideal pH for brugs?
Thanks so much. I have the container in the garage. I use it for roses. Now I'll try it for my one and only Brug.
I just foliar sprayed all my brug this morning and in a gallon and a half sprayer I used 1 cup of ES. Hope I didn't use to much.
Carol, you should buy prilled gypsum. It is readily available and very soluble source of calcium. You can just put it right on top of your pots. I do it when I add a handful of Epsom salts, so there you get your magnesium too. LOL
Though I have read that gypsum really does not do much. But who to believe??
Here is good page for reference.
http://www.garden.org/subchannels/landscaping/ground?q=show&id=238&page=4
Kell, I know what you mean, they say it's good to absorb salt, but then another site says don't use it on salty soils unless it's sodium salts. Some say don't use it on clay, then another site will recommend it.
Here is one against http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda%20Chalker-Scott/Horticultural%20Myths_files/Myths/Gypsum.pdf
another http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/4DMG/Soil/gypsum.htm
another http://www.weedpatch.com/article_gypsum.htm
When we had our trucked in cinder soil analyzed by the Dept. of Ag. at the University of HI at Manoa (the extension service) they recommended ES and the gypsum to be used together as a soil additive. The available soils here are from the old cane fields, and are full of phosphate bound up in it.
When I had a funny nutritional gripe from some of my hoyas - wierd leaf discolorations - they recommend a drench of Mag. and Calcium....so I used Calcium Nitrate and ES for the drench. The new leaves are recovering nicely.
DH makes the cocktail. I know that I use about half a scoop (like a flour scoop...about 1.5 cups) and I sprinkle it under and around the brugs. We are back to fairly normal rains now....and the average is about 1/2" per day or night...it gets washed down fairly fast. I will start doing this every 2 weeks. They sure like it!!! Since they are planted in cinders with a bit of organic matter, and they are mulched, everything runs thru pretty fast.
Carol
I've used epsom salt for my tomatoes so I'll try it on my brugs next time I water.
Susie, do you use gypsum?? Everyone in my area uses ES but no one has mentioned gypsum. I live right in the middle of tomato country, so I'm going to check and see what the local tomato farmers recommend. Any number of local, old time gardeners say that our soil is about as good as it gets and needs little else...
Fascinating! But I read one of the links and says epsom salts can last for 1-2 years. how often do you apply?weekly? Monthly?
The "chicken poop" we get is a sanitized poultry product that is organic and is a very low, non burning 4-2-2 or something along those lines. We have used it with GREAT success. In Houston we get RAIN or DROUGHT.. and seldom even steady rains as I remember as a kid. We have a sprinkler system but it is city water and therefore treated...
Has anyone ever compensated for the chlorine and flouride in city water?/
Do you just broadcast sprinkle the epsom salts on other flower beds? (we have a lot of them)
Do you use just the regular ES or do you use the type that has added things especially for plants?
I personally buy it from where ever I see it cheaper. They have it at Lowe's garden center in the same sort of box they have at Walgreens for human use, just a different label. I do believe it all the same stuff. My only regret was not buying some at Walgreens last week when it was 2 for 1. I forgot!!
Edited to say I am talking about Epsom Salts. I have never seen ES with additives 2pugdogs. Where did you see it and what was added?
This message was edited May 31, 2005 7:11 PM
I use Gypsum, the university recommended it to bind up the sodium. I use ES on my plants in the spring. Winter cold can make them magnesium deficient and ES is the easiest way to give them a quick tonic.
This thread is too important to have been buried so quickly... so I'm bumping it up.
Judy
How often do you apply?
Can you apply with...say Miracle Grow at the same time or should it be done on different days?
Dee
I believe it is Schultz in a blue green box, found it at walmarts.
Walmart has it as well but go look in the cosmetics/toiletries/medicinal area. Walmart isn't as bad but you tend to see higher prices when it's sold in the garden center... like it's "special". Kind of like going to a pet shop to get airline tubing, air or water pumps, pvc connections. Don't! Just go to your favorite local hardware store like homedepot and lowes. All the tubing, connections and pumps you want in bigger quantities/sizes and much cheaper.
I don't like to mix epsom salts with fertilizer because it can form a precipitate. Here are some mixes that form precipitates:
Sulfate fertilize mixed with a calcium salt will form insoluble gypsum.
Sulfate fertilize mixed with magnesium or calcium salts can form an insoluble precipitate. Mix a small amount of fertilize with water in a clear jar and add a little epsom salts. If it looks like a snow globe in the jar, then don't mix the two. This is called a "jar test" and the white "snow" is precipitate.
Don't mix phosphorus containing fertilize with calcium, it can form insoluble precipitates. If in doubt, perform the jar test first. Don't mix Cal-mag fertilize with other fertilize in the same container, you will get precipitate.
Urea based fertilize can form a precipitate when Calcium or Magnesium is added. Be sure your nitrogen is ammonium nitrogen and not urea.
Magnesium and Calcium are SECONDARY nutrients, don't over-do it, excess Mg/Ca can cause toxicity. If you have too much Mg, you can cause other nutrients to become unavailable to the plant. If you have too much Ca, you can cause Mg deficiency.
Wow...really interesting Susie... will have to print that out and give it to DH.
Why not to use Urea. I found a fert 21-7-12 which sounded perfect (only one...everything else is way off) and it is Sulpher Coated Urea...
Hmmm. The only other fert i can get in any quantity is triple 14 or 16 or high phosphate.....
Thanks again,
Carol
thank you for bumping up this awesome thread! i was just wondering what i can do for my pale brugs.
love the green lush foliage, rylaff.
I just found this thread on epsom salts & i am going to try it on my brugs & roses. I see that some use chicken manure on their plants! Won't that burn the plants? I know chicken manure is good for chapped lips! IT won't cure chapped lips but it will sure keep you from licking them. Just thought I would bring that up as a joke!!!.
Jerry.
I don't know about the chicken manure, but the chapped lips joke is really funny.
Judy
So much to learn.
Here are some questions
Do I use epsom salts in addition to messenger and mighty plant? How about hydrogen peroxide and VF-11? Can I hurt them by using a combo of these?
Also how often should I fertilize?
Can I use any or all of this on seedlings? They are only a couple of weeks old and growing like weeds.
I have my first buds on a plant and I am so excited. I don't even know which one it is. I got it at a local nursery and it just said "Pink".
Like I said so much to learn
Linda
I can't seem to find chicken poo around here, but I already have bunny poo will that work with this brew?
Caren
Also... Susie, when you were going over using the brew with regular fert. were you saying not to USE them togeather or not to MIX them togeather? Like can I use MG one day then a few days later use the brew? Or is the brew a replacement for a MG like fert?
This message was edited Jun 10, 2006 9:27 AM
I have PLENTY of chicken poo. Any one want some? ..lol
My chickies turn out lots.
For those of us with hard water, epsom salts makes all the difference. Especially in pots, the soil depletes quickly.
Best deal I have found to buy epsom salts is Dollar General.
Comes in a paper quart for $.
I just shake some on and water. Easy.
Alice