Information that may help you.

Vinegar:
Rid your garden of bugs and aphids by spraying your plants with a solution of vinegar and water. 1 cup vinegar to a gallon of water. Vinegar is a natural pesticide so you can get rid of many critters by using a solution mixed with water.

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Epsom Salt:
Studies show that magnesium and sulfur, two components of Epsom Salt may:
Help seeds germinate
Make plants grow bushier
Produce more flowers
Increase chlorophyll production
Improve phosphorus and nitrogen uptake

Magnesium and sulfur are the two major components of Epsom Salt. Crop researchers have determined that magnesium is:

A critical mineral for seed germination.
Vital to the production of chlorophyll, which plants use to transform sunlight into food.
An aid in the absorption of phosphorus and nitrogen, two of the most important fertilizer components.

Sulfur, the other major component of Epsom Salt, is also an important plant nutrient.

Sulfer may:
Contribute to chlorophyll production.
Make the primary nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) found in most fertilizers more effective.
Although magnesium and sulfur occur naturally in soil, they can be depleted by various conditions, including heavy agricultural use over time. But unlike most commercial fertilizers, which build up in the soil over time, Epsom Salt is not persistent so you can't overuse it. Tests by the National Gardening Association confirm - roses fertilized with Epsom Salt grow bushier and produce more flowers, while the compound makes pepper plants grow larger than those treated with commercial fertilizer alone.

Garden tips:
Houseplants: 2 tablespoons per gallon of water; feed plants monthly.
Tomatoes: 1 tablespoon per foot of plant height per plant; apply every two weeks.
Roses: 1 tablespoon per foot of plant height per plant; apply every two weeks. Also scratch 1/2 cup into soil at base to encourage flowering canes and healthy new basal cane growth. Soak unplanted bushes in 1/2 cup of Epsom Salt per gallon of water to help roots recover. Add a tablespoon of Epsom Salt to each hole at planting time. Spray with Epsom Salt solution weekly to discourage pests.
Shrubs (evergreens, azaleas, rhododendron): 1 tablespoon per 9 square feet. Apply over root zone every 2-4 weeks.
Lawns: Apply 3 pounds for every 1,250 square feet with a spreader, or dilute in water and apply with a sprayer.
Trees: Apply 2 tablespoons per 9 square feet. Apply over the root zone 3 times annually.
Garden Startup: Sprinkle 1 cup per 100 square feet. Mix into soil before planting.
Sage: Do not apply! This herb is one of the few plants that doesn't like Epsom Salt.

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I use epsom salts on everything and it seems to work just fine. For blooms on my Hibiscus I put a cup of coffee grounds once a month from Feb - Oct here in my zone. Then its rest time for them. I save my coffee grounds daily to apply to Hibiscus plants. They grow nice and bloom so beautiful. An elderly gent at a Hibiscus show and sale told me his secret......hope this helps.....Russ

Hello All,

im growing Longan trees !

Questions : may i use the epsom salt for my trees ? anyone experiences about the longan tree and using epsom salt ?

experts please consult me

thanks

Did you read the post immediately above yours? Epsom salts alone cannot help your plant unless the soil doesn't have enough available sulfur (very unlikely) or enough Magnesium. Any other reason for adding additional Mg to the soil has only the potential to limit, unless you're using it to bring a Ca:Mg ratio back in line to prevent a Ca deficiency.

It's always the grower's choice because it's the growers tree, but adding an element or compound aimed at providing your plants a little more of this and that because you heard it's supposed to be good for the plant far often than not proves to be limiting, not beneficial.

Al

Well, be that as it may. I learned to add Epson salts to my plants by my grandmother who has always had the worlds most spectacular gardens and a green thumb like you wouldn't believe (though I dont know that any h=of her ground was really deficient to start with. Its just something she has always done and had great success with. However, I also live in an area where the soil has too little magnesium according to the reports I have read so I cant seem to go wrong or add too much Epson salts. Its improved the health of my plants and garden and I would not shy away from trying it on just about anything.

If you've had good results - why change; however, that doesn't change the fact that adding something (aimed at providing a single nutrient - like Epsom salts/Mg) to your soil, particularly to a container soil, without good reason is far more apt to be limiting than a plus. A review of Liebig's Law of the Minimum will clearly illustrate that an excess is as potentially limiting as a deficiency. As far as adding singular elements to garden soils ..... w/o a soil test, it's little more than a shot in the dark. I'm not trying to be difficult - just wanting to keep it real. Where you wouldn't shy away from using it, I would offer others the advice that it's simply not a good practice when there are fertilizers available that supply ALL essential nutrients in a ratio that 99% of all plants appreciate.

Best luck with all your gardening endeavors (and I mean that).

Al

Bradley,

Neither one of them.

Tapla is spot on with the advice: I see all over the internet from so-called "experts" that 1 tbsp per gallon is ideal but there are NO scientific studies that backup that claim, several universities recommend Mg be in the 25-75 ppm range and S in the 60-220 ppm range in water. That equates to 1/2 tsp Epsom Salt per gallon or broadcast dry at 1/2 lb per 1000 sq ft. As for vinegar: just don't do it, acetic acid kills plants.

Where acetic acid is concerned, the dose makes the poison. I regularly use white vinegar as an acidifier when my plants get chlorotic in winter due to an upward creep of pH and it's limiting effect on Fe availability, but it also works effectively as a broad spectrum herbicide at higher doses.

Thanks for the back-up. ;-)

Al

vinegar kills weeds, i would not put it on my plants

Thousands of growers use white vinegar as an acidifier to lower the pH of tap water used to irrigate plants.

Al

i use it to kill weeds.

As I said, the dose makes the poison. You can buy horticultural/industrial grade vinegar that contains 30% acetic acid (regular vinegar is only 5% and not very effective as a herbicide because it usually doesn't kill the roots) and use it to kill plants, or you can use it to lower the pH of your irrigation water, for which it works splendidly without harm to your plants.

You might regularly consume alcohol, which can also kill you if you drink a sufficient volume. Vinegar & plants have the same kind of relationship.

Al

To just re-state a bit what Al has said, it is the dilution that is important. Household vinegar (5%) when sprayed directly on plant foliage in sunlight can have herbicidal effects but typically takes more than a single application to be 100% effective. Horticultural vinegar (20%) is more effective for this purpose. But neither kills plant roots, only desiccates the foliage to the point where it is not able to photosynthesize.

Household or table vinegar (the 5% stuff) used to acidify tap water for acid loving plants is highly diluted - the typical recommendation is no more than a cup of vinegar to a gallon of water. And you apply it to the soil, not directly to the plant foliage. Believe me, that's not going to kill anything!!

And I realize this is a very old thread but where do these bizarre ideas come from?? Neither of these products will induce flowering.......has no one heard of fertilizer?? If in fact it is a nutrient deficiency that is even causing lack of bloom?

I have used epsom salts on mine, also on Hydrangeas when the leaves started to yellow, and it works. I mix it in water and water with it, I have not sprayed the leaves.

For my Hibiscus which spends October-May in the house, blooms have been rare until this summer. I discovered a local organic product that I used in May and again in July, and have had about a dozen blooms, sometimes 2 at a time. That may not sound like much but it's a 5 gallon and we don't exactly have a tropical climate here in the Seattle area.

http://hendrikusorganics.com/organic-fertilizers/organobloom-5-2-4/

"It works"? ONLY if you have a Mg deficiency. In any other application it has only the potential to limit. The only exception to that statement I can think of would occur in the potentiality of there being too much Ca available and an excess of Mg was required to keep a workable balance between Ca and Mg.

Some people think greener automatically means healthier. It doesn't. You can make your plant greener by providing nutrients it doesn't need - nutrients that can only limit the plant's potential - just as Epsom salts does if there is already an adequate supply of Mg in the soil. If a grower is repotting as needed and using an appropriate fertilizer, there should be no reason to ever apply supplemental Mg to your potted plants. The practice is far more likely to end up being a negative than a positive, even if the grower does prefer being fooled by using an excess of one nutrient to mask a deficiency of another, or to hide a problem that might be cultural in nature (other than nutritional).

There simply is no substitute for a well-reasoned nutritional supplementation program - all the nutrients used by plants, provided in as close to the ratio at which the plant actually uses the nutrients, and at a concentration high enough to ensure no deficiencies yet low enough that it doesn't impede the plant's ability to take up water (and the nutrients dissolved in that water). Adding a little of this and that in order to make a plant greener or ______ (pick an adjective) is what growers who lack a basic understanding of a plant's nutritional needs resort to.

Al