...for discerning weeders A SALTY TOPIC
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Peanut Butter Challenge Events
2 3-4
Deceptive Name
5
Weed Control
6
Book Review
7
Air Potato
8
Wildlife Happenings
8
Updates and Info
9
All A-Buzz
10
Contest
11
Birthday Greetings
11
Last Word
12
HAVE YOU LOGGED ON TO VMS LATELY? DON’T FORGET TO KEEP YOUR HOURS UP TO DATE!
Epsom salts for the bath for your tired, achy body after a gardening session: check. Epsom salts to clean your tile grout: check. Epsom salts for soaking your sore feet: check. But Epsom salts for your garden? Is that a sound practice? Well, it depends on who you ask. There is not a lot of actual research on this subject (more on that below) but there is an awful lot of anecdotal evidence/recommendations/testimony. So what are Epsom salts? How could they benefit your plants? How to use them specifically? Epsom salts are a naturally occurring inorganic salt (chemical compound) containing magnesium, sulfur and oxygen, with the formula MgSO4. Epsom salts are named for a bitter saline spring located in the town of Epsom in Surrey, England. The spring occurs where the porous chalk of the North Downs meets non-porous London clay. Town residents discovered early on that the spring water tasted nasty. This discovery is believed to have occurred during the 17th century. Although drinking the water was not a good experience, Epsom residents soon found many other uses for their icky water and a legend was born. The town acquired the 17th century version of being a spa/resort attraction to travelers who found the water to have many soothing properties. At some point it was also discovered that the magnesium and sulfate contained in Epsom salts were two elements crucial to plant growth. While sulfur is almost never lacking in the soil, thanks in part to synthetic fertilizers and acid rain, magnesium can become scarce in soil, usually because of erosion or depletion of the topsoil or a pH imbalance. Depletion via leaching is particularly common in very sandy soils, in areas that receive torrential rainfall (hmmm, sounds familiar….). The general role that magnesium plays in plant growth is in strengthening plant cell walls, allowing the plant to take in the nutrients it needs. It also aids in seed germination, photosynthesis and in the formation of fruits and seeds. Some plants, such as lettuce and spinach, are not bothered much by a lack of magnesium while some, such as tomatoes, can suffer substantially in their fruit production as a result of magnesium deficiency. In fact, tomatoes are one of the three garden plants for which Epsom
An Okaloosa County Master Gardener Publication
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by K. Harper salts are most often recommended, the others being peppers and roses. Gardeners may know that tomatoes and peppers both belong to the Solanaceae or nightshade family while roses are of the Rosaceae family. These plant families are noted for having heavy nutritional needs which will not surprise you if you’ve grown any or all of them! It logically follows that a magnesium deficiency would be detrimental to all three. So, if some of your plants aren’t performing up to snuff and you’ve done your due diligence in determining via a soil test that your soil does in fact lack magnesium, here are some suggestions for using Epsom salts as a remedy: Roses: The claims for the benefits of Epsom salts for roses include that they make the foliage greener and more lush, and produce more canes and more roses. The recommendation for applying to existing rose bushes is to either mix ½ cup of Epsom salts into the soil around the rose bush and water that in well or dissolve ½ cup of the salts in water and use that to water the rose bush. This is recommended for spring, just as the buds are beginning to open. An Epsom salt foliar spray (1 tbsp. of Epsom salts per gallon of water) is also suggested for roses with the caution to avoid leaf scorch by not over-using foliar spray and don’t spray leaves on hot, sunny day. Tomatoes and Peppers: These may show signs of magnesium deficiency late in the season, when their leaves begin to yellow between the leaf veins and fruit production decreases. Whether you will get more and/or larger fruits will depend on other factors as well, but using Epsom salts before the plants start to decline may help: either mix in 1 tbsp. of Epsom salts into the soil at the bottom of the planting hole when setting out transplants or mix the 1 tbsp. in a gallon of water and water the seedling. Continued on page 2
November, 2014