Interesting Ways To Use Epsom Salts In Your Garden
Having green spaces and in particular, a vegetable garden, is always a big advantage, because it is very pleasant to grow beautiful and delicious things! Both amateurs and the most experienced are therefore often interested in methods to promote healthy and abundant growth.
Although not popularly known, Epsom salt can do real wonders if you know how to use it — no, not as a foot bath or a relaxing bath — but in the garden, where Epsom salt, which is also often called magnesium sulphate, is a natural fertilizer.
Let us tell you more about its benefits and the possible uses of this great natural product on your plants. Below are 13 interesting ways to use epsom salts in your garden.
What Are The Benefits Of Epsom Salt?
Epsom salt is composed of hydrated magnesium sulfate, a natural mineral first found in the waters of Epsom wells in England. It has a variety of home remedy applications – the two best known, being a saline laxative and pain reliever. What many people don’t realize is that Epsom salt also has several uses in organic gardening for healthy plants.
Thanks to its richness in sulfate and nutritious magnesium, the natural mineral nutrient that is Epsom salt has many virtues for the garden which are useful at all stages of growth. In a nutshell, this salt adds the following benefits to your garden:
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It solidifies the seed and allows it to better absorb minerals.
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In addition, it allows the roots to be stronger.
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It offers longevity and vigor to plants to avoid dead plants and grasses.
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It promotes photosynthesis processes as well as those related to chlorophyll.
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These trace nutrients allow the plant to develop fruit and flowers in abundance.
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It causes plants to green even more and yellow even less. The flowers are brighter in color, and the fruits are bigger and tastier because they have more energy and therefore produce more sugar.
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And most importantly, it does not accumulate in the soil or water over time.
Now let’s break down in detail how Epsom salt optimizes your garden to the fullest potential.
Interesting Ways To Use Epsom Salts In Your Garden
1. Improve Seed Germination
Using Epsom salt as a soil amendment before seeding will give your garden a boost from the start. Magnesium facilitates seed germination and helps strengthen cell walls, resulting in more and stronger plants.
Thus, it contributes to the development of seeds. The chemical reaction generated by magnesium sulfate causes an acceleration of the reproduction phenomenon, that’s too much biology jargon, right? Let’s just say it promotes the multiplication and growth of plants.
For best results, apply 1 cup of Epsom salt per 100 square feet of cultivated soil or mix 1 to 2 tablespoons into the soil at the bottom of each hole before seeding.
2. A Salt that Protects Against Salt
Magnesium sulfate is also beneficial for potted plants as it removes common salt that naturally accumulates in the container. They undertake this job by blocking the cells at the level of the roots of plants and prevent them from assimilating nutrients in the soil. Thanks to Epsom salt, potted plants can eat properly, which promotes their growth.
3. Increase Nutrient Uptake
Many commercial fertilizers add magnesium to help plant roots absorb essential nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur). For those who are for all organic matter to nourish their gardens, adding Epsom salt to the soil will improve absorption naturally, eliminating the need for processed chemical fertilizers.
4. Countering the Shock of Transplanting
We have all seen how our plants and seedlings wilt when we move them from a small pot to a larger one, indoors to outdoors, or from a greenhouse to the ground.
Try feeding the transplants with Epsom salt once they are in their new environment to help the injured roots overcome the shock of the transplant. Remember to add a layer of soil over the salt strewn with holes so that the roots do not come into direct contact with these concentrated minerals.
5. Green Foliage
Plants that don’t get enough magnesium can be identified by their yellowing leaves. Indeed, magnesium is an essential element in the production of chlorophyll. Try sprinkling Epsom salt around your plants for healthier foliage.
About 1 tablespoon per 12 inches of height once a month will benefit the plants in your vegetable garden, as well as any trees, shrubs, flowers, and herbs that you want to green.
6. Prevent Curling
Short-term curling, a very common defect in plants, can also be caused by a deficiency of magnesium in plants. Again, add Epsom salt to the soil around the base of the diseased plant.
For faster absorption, you can also mix 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt in a gallon of water and apply directly to the leaves.
7. Garden Pests
Although Epsom salt does not dehydrate slugs and snails like table salt (sodium chloride), it can still be used to deter pests. Hydrated magnesium sulfate crystals are sharp, and when sprinkled around plants, they can scratch and irritate the body and feet of unwanted creatures in the same way as diatomaceous earth.
Keep in mind that Epsom salt dissolves very easily in water, so any amount of rain will likely wash them away.
8. Growing Sweeter Fruits
The production of fruit bodies is the most trying process in a plant’s life cycle. Apply Epsom salt to fruit and walnut trees, shrubs as well as vines using the same methods and amounts as given above to stimulate chlorophyll levels inside the plant cells. Increased energy means more sugar, which allows the plant to produce sweeter, healthier fruits.
9. Grow Tastier Tomatoes with Epsom Salt
Epsom salt promotes the growth of fruits and helps in the development of vegetable plants, such as tomatoes. For starters, it helps prevent blossom end rot. This disease is usually caused by a deficiency that causes the tip of the fruit to darken.
Tomato vines are among a handful of ordinary garden residents whose ratio of fruit to plant size is heavier than average, resulting in an even greater probability of magnesium deficiency. For this reason, tomatoes should be fed Epsom salt twice as often as other plants.
Additionally, because tomato vines are prone to calcium deficiency, which causes the flower tip to rot, the majority of tomato fertilizers contain calcium which will compete with magnesium for root absorption. Therefore, foliar feeding is the most efficient method of delivering magnesium to these plants.
For tomatoes growing in the ground, pour 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt mixed in 4 liters of water. Do this once a month from planting to harvest. This natural blend promotes growth and prevents rotting during flowering.
10. Grow Healthier Peppers
Peppers are another popular garden plant with an above-average size-to-fruit ratio. As such, they should also be fed magnesium every two weeks for better yields of larger fruit.
Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt for every foot of height around the drip line of your bell pepper plants once a week.
11. Beautiful Abundant Roses
Don’t you wonder why your neighbor’s rose bushes are denser than yours and produce so many flowers? The answer is very likely to be Epsom salt.
Not only does this help roses produce larger flowers in greater numbers, many successful rosaries will agree that the magnesium also helps the growth of new canes from the base of the plant. And of course, Epsom salt increases the production of chlorophyll, which means your leaves will brandish a stronger color.
For maximum benefit, roses should at least be fed Epsom salt at the time of planting, then at the first sign of new growth, and once more when the flowers are in full bloom.
12. A Substitute Foliar Fertilizer
In principle, fertilizer is an organic or human-designed material that stimulates plant growth. In the same way, Epsom salt is a substance containing nutrients essential for plant growth. It promotes better yield since the natural nutrients which it comprises are easily absorbed by the plants.
Epsom salt is often used as a foliar fertilizer, meaning it is sprinkled directly on the leaves. To do this:
Dilute a large teaspoon of salt in 1 liter of water and spray the mixture on the leaves of your green plants once or twice a month.
They will be more powerful and greener because the salt activates photosynthesis.
13. Enhance Your Lawn
It is pleasant to see very green lawns. Like all other plants, lawns need nutrients to optimize their development. And you can cheaply get that optimization in magnesium sulfate which participates in the formation of chlorophyll, thereby giving plants their green color.
However, it is advisable to follow some recommendations so as not to abuse this. Thus, the amount to be used varies depending on the surface to be treated:
1.5 kg of Epsom salt is enough for 25 m2;
3 kg are needed to maintain 50 m2 of grass.
It is advisable to seek the help of a specialist or to draw up a calculation sheet so as not to make a costly mistake in the exact dosage of the product
Another thing! Note that the addition of magnesium sulfate should preferably be done in spring.
How to use Epsom salt in Your Garden?
When planting, sprinkle about 250 grams of Epsom salt per 10 m² of land and turn the soil over before planting your seeds or plants.
At least once or twice a month, water the plants with a mixture of 3 liters of water for a tablespoon of Epsom salt. This chemical-free watering brings nutrients to the soil.
Every two weeks sprinkle a tablespoon of this salt on the tomato and pepper plants. For rose bushes, you can use a teaspoon occasionally.
For a green lawn, gardeners should sprinkle 1.5 kg of Epsom salt per 25 m². Thank you for reading 13 Interesting Ways To Use Epsom Salts In Your Garden
