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Ripe, healthy tomatoes thanks to magnesium sulphate , Epsom salt, also called Epsom salt, is dirt cheap and can be used as a foliar feed or soil supplement. With this fertilizer you help your tomatoes, peppers and paprikas grow. In addition, the plants produce much more fruit due to magnesium sulphate. Epsom salt is not sufficiently present in potting soil for vegetable gardens, your vegetable garden soil and certainly not as standard in your sowing and cutting soil. Therefore an article about this extraordinary fertilizer, when and how it should be applied.
When and how does Epsom salt, magnesium sulfate or Epsom salt help?
Early in the season, Epsom salt helps your seeds to germinate. The development of the root system and the creation of cell walls also improves thanks to Epsom salt. How and when to administer it, you will read later. During the season, Epsom salt guarantees photosynthesis, the conversion of sunlight via the leaves of the plant into food in fructose and glucose or more easily 'sugar'. It makes your plants grow better and it prevents blossom end rot. Blossom end rot is the unpleasant surprise when your tomatoes, peppers or bell peppers rot at the bottom and months of hope and care go to waste. Late in the season, Epsom salt can help your plants to produce more and more and to keep your plants green longer. Your pepper plants will keep their shiny leaves for much longer.
Epsom salt is dirt cheap and is an organic biological product
Magnesium sulphate does not come from the sea but is made from dolomite, stones. Stones that cost little and are cheap to produce in contrast to sea salt for example. Magnesium sulgate is a product that simply occurs in nature and the soil so 100% organic.
What does Magnesium Sulfate or Epsom Salt consist of?
Epsom salt is not actually salt but a natural composition of about 10% magnesium and 13% sulfur, hence Magnesium sulfate. The rest is residue and unimportant. You can easily dissolve Epsom salt in water and plants can absorb it very quickly through the leaves. In young plants it is quite aggressive so it is better to administer it dissolved in water so that it reaches the plants via the roots (more about that later).
Magnesium and sulfur deficiency in your pepper, paprika and tomato plants
A deficiency of Magnesium and sulphur in the soil can mean bad news for your plants. Shy leaves, leaves that turn yellow between the veins and are worthless to your plants and last but not least you can also suffer from slow growing and ripening fruit.
Magnesium sulphate in your sowing and cutting soil
How should you administer Magnesium Sulfate?
Adding magnesium sulphate to your sowing and cutting soil
Add one tablespoon of Epsom salt per 10 litres of sowing and cutting soil. As previously written, Epsom salt stimulates the germination process, root formation and the production of cell walls.
Epsom salt as foliar nutrition.
Foliar spray during the season (after planting out). Spray until the leaves are wet, do not overdo it. Foliar feeding works faster than feeding at the base of the plant. Dissolve 5 grams of Epsom salt in 1 liter of water and spray your plants weekly. This ratio is not too intense, you can do little harm with it. If you choose to only use Epsom salt as foliar feeding monthly (for example, if you are traveling for a longer period and want to keep it simple for your plant supervisors), double the dose from 5 to 10 grams per liter and spray once a month. Start with foliar feeding when you see the first flowers. Also start with the 5 grams per liter mix and if your plants then develop fruit you can switch to the 10 gram mix which you only administer once a month. I personally give a foliar feeding of 5 grams per liter every 2 weeks.
Epsom salt as foliar nutrition
Epsom salt at the foot of the plants
Throughout the season: Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of Magnesium Sulphate per 30 cm of height of your plant at the base or the stem of your plant. For a tomato plant of 60 cm high, you can add two tablespoons. Start by prickling out in potting soil and repeat every 6 weeks until the end of the harvest.
Magnesium sulphate at the base of the plant
Epsom salt when planting your peppers, bell peppers and tomatoes
Add one to two tablespoons of magnesium sulfate to each planting hole.
Epsom salt in the planting hole So, now you know what a fertilizer of less than 2 euros per kilo can do for your fruit crops. If you found this information solid and valuable, you can share it via the social media buttons on this site. You can also support us by purchasing your vegetable garden supplies in our webshop. In this way you make even more information possible. Greetings and have fun in your vegetable garden, Tom
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