Get your plants and garden growing with Epsom salt

Are the leaves on your tomato or pepper plants turning yellow? Want more blooms on your rose bushes? Wondering why your lawn is looking brown? These problems may be the result of a lack of magnesium in soil, prohibiting roots from absorbing much needed nutrients. Give your foliage and flowers a boost by using Epsom Salt.

Magnesium and sulfur, the main components of Epsom Salt, can help to restore essential nutrients to soil. Although magnesium and sulfur occur naturally in soil, they can be depleted over time. Epsom Salt can also help with seed germination and the production of chlorophyll, which plants use to transform sunlight into food. In addition, Epsom Salt can aid in the absorption of phosphorus and nitrogen, two of the most important fertilizer components.

Epsom Salt's advantage over other soil additives is its high solubility. When distilled, and especially when applied as a spray, Epsom Salt can be quickly absorbed by the roots. But unlike most commercial fertilizers, which build up in the soil over time, Epsom Salt is not persistent so it can't be overused.

8 Great Ways to Get Your Plants and Garden Growing using Epsom Salt

1. Lawns: Apply three pounds for every 1,250 square feet with a spreader or dilute in water and apply with a sprayer.
2. Houseplants: Use two tablespoons per gallon of water; feed plants monthly.
3. Tomatoes and Peppers: Use one tablespoon per foot of plant height per plant; apply every two weeks to keep the leaves from yellowing.
4. Roses: Use one 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 one cup of Epsom Salt per gallon of water to help roots recover. Add one tablespoon of Epsom Salt to each hole at planting time.
5. Shrubs (evergreens, azaleas, rhododendron): Use one tablespoon per nine square feet. Apply over root zone every 2-4 weeks.
6. Trees: Apply two tablespoons per nine square feet. Apply over the root zone 3 times annually.
7. Garden Startup: Sprinkle one cup per 100 square feet. Mix into soil before planting.
8. Flowering plants: Put one tablespoon of Epsom Salt into one gallon of water. This mixture helps to force blooms.

Epsom Salt is extremely affordable and easy to find at most grocery, hardware or drug stores. For more information on Epsom Salt and its many uses go to www.epsomsaltcouncil.org.

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