Epsom Salts are used in addition to fertilizer. The magnesium helps green up the foliage. Plants need trace minerals, magnesium being one of them. Some fertilizers contain trace minerals. I use a product that contains several of the trace minerals, instead of Epsom Salts, in addition to fertilizer. I d/c feeding about 4 weeks before dormancy. If your first frost is mid Oct I'd stop fertilizing in mid Sept. I feed with a water soluable fertilizer once a week during the growing season. I also give a dose of slow release fertilizer (like Osmocote) at the beginning of the season and sometimes a couple months later. I also give the plants stuff like compost tea, kelp extract, fish emulsion, etc about 1x/mo and a foliar feed with the Spray n Grow trio also 1x/mo. BTW if you use Epsom Salts it's 1 tbls to a gallon of water 1x/mo. The product I use is called Cal Mag Plus and I use it about 1x every week or two. Not all of us do the same thing. We figure out what works for us thru trial and error. Eventually you come up with a system that works for you.

Thank you so much for clearing that up. I will keep fertilizing them : )

Happy Labor Day!

Keriann~