Welcome to the Rusted Garden Homestead .
Today .
I'm going to talk about how to use Epsom salt in your garden on your cucumber plants on your tomato plants .
And I will show you examples of how to water them in .
Now , Epsom salt used to be loved .
Five years ago .
Youtubers were saying it's the best thing ever .
Now , Youtubers are saying , don't use it .
People are saying it's a fertilizer .
Then people are saying , no , it's not a fertilizer .
So before you use anything in your garden , you have to understand what it is .
Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate .
It'll say right there .
This is just from your local pharmacy , you know , pharmacy section at your grocery store .
It provides magnesium and sulfur to your garden plants .
I use a lot of compost .
I use a lot of mulch .
I feed my plants regularly .
They probably don't need any magnesium and they don't need any sulfur .
The problem with Epsom salt is people were using it every week , every two weeks .
Once a month , they were overdosing their plants with magnesium and sulfur that will cause a problem .
I'm going to show you how to use it , you know , simply and correctly .
So there are six macro nutrients .
The first ones are the primary ones .
The ones you always hear about nitrogen phosphorus and potassium .
Your plants need that in higher amounts .
They need nitrogen the most .
And we , and we're always adding nitrogen phosphorus , potassium to our gardens because those are the main macro nutrients .
The primary ones , the secondary ones which all plants need , but not nearly as much as the ones I just mentioned are magnesium , sulfur and calcium .
If you oversupply , magnesium and sulfur to your soil , it can , it can lock out the plant's ability to transfer other nutrients into their system .
So overdo it is going to cause a problem .
You only need to use this in my opinion .
Number one , if you're not supplying your garden with ample compost , manures , et cetera , maybe , maybe you're just getting started and you're building up your soil over time and you only really need to use it at planting just a little bit .
I'll show you how to use it .
And then maybe mid growth for like cucumbers , melons , zucchini squash , mid season .
Those plants are heavy feeders , they're really sucking the nutrients out of the soil .
And I do recommend using it more in containers where the root systems of your tomato plants , your cucumber plants pull out all the nutrients .
So I would really target this more for container growing to use it .
One tablespoon of Epsom salt into a gallon of water .
This is two gallons of water .
I put in two tablespoons .
This is a water soluble fertilizer , fertilizer in the sense that it's applying two secondary nutrients to your garden .
It is not a fertilizer in the sense that you can just use this and it's going to give your plants everything they need .
It is only for magnesium and sulfur .
So this has been mixed up .
It dissolves really quickly .
If I just say just put these in or maybe just , you know , drop seeds .
This is all I would do around the base , soak it in .
I'm done .
That's all you need .
If you want to add magnesium and sulfur to your garden , when the plants are bigger , maybe mid season they're producing , I would do the same thing and just water it in , you know , maybe twice as long get it to the root system and then you're done with it over using it is what the issue is .
Let's take a look at the tomato plants .
I also want to mention that magnesium sulfate is not a cure .
All .
Don't go running to it when your plants are yellowing .
If your plants are yellowing , the first thing you want to give them is more water soluble nitrogen .
When you look at this cucumber plant , there is some dust on here .
The leaves are nice and green bottom leaves , they're just all beat up really from the sun and from a cold spell we were having so I don't need to come out here and say , oh , look , you know , it's starting to yellow on the edges .
I need magnesium sulfate .
That's how you damage your plants .
You misdiagnose them .
Here's a better example of leaves that have yellow blotching and spot spotting .
They're just gonna die out .
It's fine .
The top growth is nice and dream .
So you have to be able to assess your plants in a healthy way .
Here's another example , sometimes people see that pattern and they panic and then they start throwing magnesium sulfate at it .
If your plants look like they're struggling , always give them a water soluble form of nitrogen first , like fish emulsion or agro thrive or something like that .
That usually takes care of the problem .
Use the Epsom salt in a strategic way just to give them enough magnesium and sulfur for them to manage for the year .
These guys are nice and green , nice and healthy .
They have not been given any Epsom salt this year .
And realistically , I don't use it every year again because now I've got so much compost going into my garden , they're getting what they need .
Let's pretend this is mid season .
This plant's like five ft tall .
This is how I would use it .
I would just soak around the whole base , putting it in so that it gets to all the roots that have moved away from the plant and that's it .
No more magnesium sulfate no more .
Some salt for my plants .
After possibly the mid season feeding , you just don't need that much .
So , yes , it's a fertilizer .
No , it's not a primary macro nutrient .
Supplying nitrogen phosphorus or potassium to your plants .
It only supplies magnesium and sulfur .
I think it's more important in your container plants at mid season when the plants have been taking all the nutrients out of the soil .
If you're using a chemical type water soluble fertilizer like miracle grow or plant expert or vigoro , I think is another one .
They will , they will typically have magnesium and sulfur already in there .
So you want to check the granular fertilizers you're using , you want to check the water soluble fertilizers you're using and make sure they're not already getting , you know , low amounts of magnesium and sulfur .
This is not a must , you don't have to do it , but I just wanted to show you the right way to do it and this is how I use it on tomatoes and cucumbers .
Thanks so much for watching .
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I'll show you how to take care of these tomatoes and cucumbers over the year .
Thanks for watching .