Lady Banksia Roses. Fantatstic but afraid I planted too close to other things. It needs it's own space and lots of it. The arch it is on will not hold it another year or two. Severely prune after it has bloomed and then stand back because it will come after you.
Wonder why the ES info is kept under wraps. I know there are do's and don'ts with it but the do's are unbelievable......organic and cheap. Be sure to go to the link in my first post. The bit about soaking in it is also great.
Epsom Salts
Texas Urban Forestry Service.
Texas Blacklands Division
Dallas----Matt Grubisch
Mgrubisch@tfs.tamu.edu
214-953-1190
Desoto Parks Dept. attempted to get him to come here for an inspection. He finally came when I, as a citizen, chttp://txforestservice.tamu.edu/shared/article.asp?DocumentID=541&mc=urbanontacted him.
I had some in the bathroom because we use it to soak our feet occasionally when its been a long day! :)
Here are some pictures of the salvias that received the alfalfa tea/epsom salt treatment. They were fed the solution about one month ago
more pictures. The previous one was salvia greggi. This one is salvia marcus
Other view of the marcus
They look just great so I guess it is safe to use it on Salvia. Maybe they were talking about the herb Sage, I asked them and they haven't responded yet.
Josephine.
Thanks Josephine. If I were to do the alfalfa/epsom application again, I would have used less epsom. Maybe one cup epsom salts with 8 cups alfalfa pellets to 20 gallons of water. I've read that adding one cup of molasses to the mix assists in the fermentation of alfalfa pellets--will try this next time.
Enjoy the 70s and 80s while they last,
Richard
Oh wow, Richard,
Been gone all afternoon with grandchildren and cannot wait to get in the garden tomorrow. Haven't gotten salvia yet but you can be sure I will by the end of tomorrow. Where do you get alfalfa pellets? I have been just putting a couple tablespoons of dry ES and then watering it in....so far so good.
LouC
Loquat, Good Friday
You can get alfalfa pellets and alfalfa meal at most feed stores. I did a search on yahoo yellow pages. There is De Soto Feed Store on S. Hampton. Give them a call, I bet they have it. Feed stores carry supplies for farmers and ranchers, thus you buy things in large quantities. I buy my alfalfa pellets from Wells Brothers Grain Store in Plano, Texas in a 50lb bag for around $9. A fifty pound bag is enough for a year (small yard).
There have been discussions on alfalfa pellets vs alfalfa meal. Alfalfa meal is basically fine grain alfalfa. If you crush the pellets you basically end up with alfalfa meal. The alfalfa meal is probably easier for use in a broadcast spreader or for throwing around plants etc.
Feed and grain stores also sell other great stuff for gardners; ex: dry molasses, compost, hay, etc
Alfalfa has so many uses in the garden. You can just throw in around the base of plants, you can make alfalfa tea (see previous post in this thread), you can crush it and put in a brodcast spreader to feed the entire lawn.
*alfalfa tea does smell a bit when brewing (takes about 5 days in mild weather/ 3 days in Texas summers). It will smell for about three hours after applying it to the lawn or plants.
It seems that my problem is more of an iron issue but wanted to stop back by this thread to say thanks to LouC because I will be trying more Epsom salt and another big thanks to Bettydee! Although Bettydee has opened a whole can o' worms for me! My tree problem will be moving back to the tree forum and I'm going to need her help! :)
I don't really have anything to say on this subject. Just wanted to thank everyone for their experience and advice and especially for the alfalfa tea receipe with epsom salt. I may have to try it this year. Our yard is looking sort of puny in spots.
Thanks again.
I have cleche too and did try the epsom salt too, it did good but I was later afraid to add it because I have such a high salt content in my soil, I figured it would burn the plants. I did the teas too this year. I put the water and pellets in the plastic wheelbarrel and now I will add the epsom salts to it.
Go to the very first link "Epsom Salts Council". It is not salt. They have an explanation about that.
Ohh I want to swim in it. I just went around and put it in my spray hose feeder so I might need more than I put in but we will see. If not I will do it again in 3 or 4 days. I also put peroxide in it alfalpa pellets, fungicide and sticker stuff(the stuff that magnifies the product so it sticks). thanks for the new and regenerated excitement.
Several years ago the magnolia tree in my brother's yard began losing leaves at an alarming rate. A horticulturist suggested Epsom salt and the results were very gratifying. I reminded him by e-mail just now and he thinks it might be a good time for another dose.
I did it a few years ago and my lady Banks was wild. Banans too but same principal.
LouC it took my Lady Banks a long time to bloom too. when it did it was going everywhere. I waited too long to cut it back, when I did it almost took the fence with it.
I used ES on my roses in front and I have had basal breaks on almost all of them!
So sorry to be so stupid. I really don't know what you mean by basal breaks. Is that good or bad?
LouC
Thanks LouC... I need help on that one too.:)
Me too B.B? what is that? little stems growing from the root? I lost almost all my bare roots to insufficient drainage in my clay. I tried to add stuff but I focused on my lasagna garden too much and they all died in that too. I need a watering system fast. I have never had this type of trouble as I have in this freaking Sunset Zone 11, clay, gopher, rabbit infested, alkaline and calcium infested yard. grrrrr.
Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, hellnzn.
I read on one of the threads....I thought this one but I know it is a little older so I could be wrong...that ES encourages basal breaks. From my understanding, basal breaks are when you get new shoots from the base of the rose. They are supposed to be thicker and sturdier as opposed to the ones starting on a thinner limb. I have to say I think it is true. Last year I kept getting new growth on the thinner limbs. After using the ES, there is at least one nice thick stem coming from the base of my roses except one. I will try to take a picture tomorrow.
Yeah I think it would have worked with me, because they were doing great but little by little i saw the stems all turning black and finally i saw that no matter how frequent or infrequent i was watering I was losing them, I even did peroxide several times but nope. I dug them upp soaked them in Mirical grow starter for a day and replanted them, if they die and I know they will, I will just take them back to Lowes or Home depot but this is nuts. i saw those thick stems come out of one a gopher ate last year. I dug it up, put a wire cage around it and one of those basal things is just growing tall as could be.
Glad to know this is a good thing. Told you whatever I know about anything I either just stumble upon it or learned about it on DG....and thank goodness for DG. All of my roses are bare because of black spot. We have such rainy and humid weather they didn't have a chance. I probably have done the wrong thing. Yesterday I did a severe pruning and doctoring. They are nothing but sticks after having been loaded with blooms. Our HOA picnic is here this Saturday and my yard is off kilter. Hardly anything is blooming...lot's of buds and promise.....it has either already bloomed and been dead headed (sp) or is just waiting. I have pictures from the two past years and it appears that everything is a month behind. Are the rest of you noticing anything different too?
Many of my roses have been resting also. They bloomed nicely from mid March to end of April. With all the rain and lack of sun, they stopped blooming and began resting early May. They just now are forming a flush of new buds. I'm sure the roots have been very happy with the rain. The extra root growth will come in handy this summer.
-Richard
My roses also produced blooms about mid to late April and are just now starting to bud up again. Despite the sun we've had the past week or so, they seem to be taking their sweet time. Also, I've been trying to avoid watering and been checking weather.com. Everyday is between 30 - 50% rain in my area....hasn't rained yet for about a good two weeks. finally I watered Sunday even though it was thundering and it looked like th sky was going to fall...low and behold, nothing. Texas weather!
Lou, I probably do everything all wrong, but if I have a troubled rose I also prune it hard. I love the way the new shoots look with there reddish green leaves. It just looks so much healthier to me. I have a yellow rose (don't know the name) that is looking pretty bad. I went ahead and cut one shoot down and I'm sure before summer is over I will get tired of seeing the poor thing suffer and it will get a hard pruning. I've been noticing black spot on my roses too lately.
Hellenzn11: Gypsum will help the clay problem. Mix it in at the recommended rate on the package and it will greatly improve the texture and tilth of your soil. I also mix in alot of fine mulch. I like hardwood best, but pine is good also. Anything will help, even lots and lots of shredded newspaper. These decompose quickly. If you can find a good source of manure spread some of that on or in. Earthworms will help also. Don't let it dry out completely. Forget about having Spring and Summer as your main growing season. Summer where you are is the dormant season. Where summers are hot and dry and Winters mild, late Fall, Winter and Spring are the main growing season. If you use gypsum and anything else I recommended, your soil will be much better by the time you plant your Fall garden. As to the critters, I've used fox and couger urine with ok, not perfect, results. I've been told that the self made stuff is just as good or better, but I've never used it.
All I know about epsom salt is that i wouldn't know how to garden without it...i worked for several years in greenhouses in the Houston area ................we used it especially on the bougainvillea hanging baskets. Let's face it, every plant loves to not have the magnesium tied up and not be released to the plant.................yeah big time for epsom salt on just about anything
gail
Sandy i use bags and bags of gypsum but the claY PARTICLES ARE EVEN LARGER THAN THE GYPSUM PARTICLES SO YOU STILL HAVE TO ADD OTHER materials to decompose in it as well and really it is such a huge job on all this land. It`s overwhelming. Thanks though if i didn`t use gypsum in the winter, I`d never dig a hole for my trees, rock hard ground
Another product I find very useful in addition to gypsum is called Soil Conditioner by Landscaper's Pride. Our soil has lots of clay in it...........whenver we plant anything into the ground, we dig a bigger hole than is necessary and then fill around the plant with this soil conditioner..............it works ' big time' well.
I planted Mexican flame vines up and down the fence line (you can imagine what the soil is like) and they are growing beautifully. I did the same with trumpet vines, esperanza, etc...
Gessie, what is in the Landscaper's Pride. It sounds interesting.
don't laugh, but I went to the storage unit so I could tell you.....there is nothing on the 40 lb. bags....I will ask the lady at Adam's Nursery in Rockport who got me sold on this.......she is very knowledgeable and will answer my question....get back to you.....
Oh my gosh! I've been to Adams nursery. We went down there for my DD graduation present. I bought a Luna hibiscus there. Really nice people. Where is Taft? Thanks for going to all that trouble to find out what was in it.:) Come to think of it I think I remember seeing that stuff the last time we were there. We were asking her about how to plant sweet potatoes.
She is sooooo nice and smart as a whip!!!! Adams is located right off 188 from Sinton to Rockport on the old hwy 35.....so she is about 20 minutes from where I live....i don't actually live in Taft but we have Taft addresses.
I still haven't called Thelma but will try to do so this week....
If you ever get back this way there is an awesome grower 3 miles out of Aransas Pass going towards Ingleside called Johnson's....they do their own growing....I don't believe that Thelma and her husband do any growing.....they have their own grower who supplies them.
The only problem with Johnsons is they don't tag anything and you are on your own........the owners haven't been there the last 5 visits.....however, a young woman uses Dave's Garden site to try to find out the names (LOL)
Oh I hate that. I will see if they sell that soil cond. here. Is it a liquid, I used one before and it was good?
I need a good soil conditioner too. After all that amending and tilling the ground look as if it cracking open. I wonder if that because we walk on it. it look so packed down now. I think I need to get me a mini tiller so i can break the ground up every once in a while ... especially to plant stuff.
This comes in a very big bag but is not as heavy as a bag of Miracle Grow or something like that.....light it is....
I bought a tiller which I still use for big areas....but to plant an individual plant in the open ground is where this stuff is wonderful....(I will call tomorrow and ask what is in it)
Gessie, we should be making another business trip down there some time this year, but I don't know when. What sort of things does the grower raise? Do they sell retail also?
They are all retail nurseries..................If I listed all the good nurseries around here, it would cover every corner of growing, period!!! Gill's Nursery on Airline in Corpus Christi is a winner, Turner's Gardenland in CC on the access road past Airline is outstanding, Adams, Johnsons, Lowe's on Airline right off of SPID before you get to Gill's on Airline,
Lowe's in Aransas Pass......................Bloomer's in Rockport. We have a lot of good nurseries....the smaller ones primarily have a lot of blooming tropicals, etc. Gills' in CC and Turners in Corpus Christi are full scale nurseries....Gill's has a special section for very unusual houseplants and outside, the world is yours!!!
gail
If you come this way, dmail me and i will give you my phone number.....