Epsom salt is the gardeners friend twice over – or upon consideration – I’ll go with three times!
First and second, Epsom salts contain two important macro-nutrients plants need to thrive, not merely survive. Third, gardeners can use some Epsom salts in the bath to soak away aches after a long day working in the garden.
Why Plants Might Need Epsom Salt
Epsom salt is a simple chemical compound of magnesium and sulfur linked together as magnesium sulfate. Both magnesium and sulfur are considered macro-nutrients – they are crucial to healthy plant life. Micro-nutrients are also important, but a plant can survive without them. More on micro-nutrients in a future post. When sulfur is in sulfate form, it is available to biological organisms.
Magnesium plays a crucial role in photosynthesis since it is the center of every single chlorophyll molecule critical for the plant to make it’s food. Magnesium is also needed for growth – to make cell walls, and for seed seed germination.
Sulfate helps the plant make the chlorophyll molecules in the first place, and helps release other soil bound minerals. Indeed, sulfur is occasionally used to help the necessary break down and restructuring of caliche soils. More about caliche in my YouTube video – here.
How to Safely Use Epsom Salt
First, like any plant nutrient, too much can harm the plants you wish to help!
It is better to use just as much as is recommended here. If you think your plants need more, consider getting a soil test.
Epsom Salt For Annual Plants
For the vegetable garden, scatter one cup of Epsom salt per 100 square feet, and work or water it into the soil before seeding or planting. For flower beds and container plants, dissolve one tablespoon of Epsom salt per gallon of water, and use this to water once a month.
Epsom Salt For Landscape Plants
All shrubs – but especially large evergreens such as honeysuckle, Texas rangers, yellow bells, and woolly butterfly bush – benefit from one tablespoon of Epsom salt per bush once a year – in spring (add this to your March Garden Calendar). Sprinkle the salts around the drip line of the shrub and dig or water it into the soil.
Treat trees the same way. They can use more. Plan on one Tablespoon per square foot of ground shaded by the tree at noon. Good news – even legume trees will like this. You shouldn’t give legumes nitrogen fertilizer but some Epsom salts work can lend a hand if they need it.
Long Day?
Gardeners can use some Epsom salts in the bath to soak away aches after a long day working in the garden. And you can add some dried flowers or rose petals to the bath as well – but drying flowers is a topic for another day.
Thanks for reading!
Jacqueline
More Soil Care Tips – every month!
The Month By Month Guide offers tips for all of your landscape plants (yes even lawns and roses) in every month of the year. I have a few copies left and am offering them to you – my loyal readers. When you buy from me you get a signed copy!
From the review:
“A great reference book is key to successful gardening in the region where you live. Arizona, Nevada & New Mexico Month-by-Month Gardening takes the guesswork out of gardening for anyone residing in the Southwest. With this book, you’ll know what to do each month to enjoy a thriving garden all year, from January to December. Chronologically organized, this guide is full of critical gardening when-to and how-to advice, along with illustrated step-by-step instructions.
The book’s author is Jacqueline Soule, a Tucson-based gardening expert. She knows this arid region inside and out, and she’s written several articles and books packed with her gardening advice. Arizona, Nevada & New Mexico Month-by-Month Gardening showcases Soule’s expertise in one easy-to-read guide.”
Profits from the sale of this book go to the Horticulture Therapy non-profit Tierra del Sol Institute. Recent price increase, due to the US Postal Service price increase in July 2024. It is now $30.
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