recently my Dragon Cayenne has been showing signs of Magnesium deficiency so I thought I would try an epsom salt spray. I followed instructions by pepper joe and mixed 2tbs in a litter of water and sprayed when the lights went off. I definitely would say I got a little carried away with the spraying because I misted all the leaves on the tops to the point they were dripping and then I sprayed from under and got all the bottoms of the leaves... I have read not to spray too much but i wanted to make sure i got every spot and before I knew it my plant was dripping from every leaf. anyway, the next morning all the leaves looked like crap with salt residue spotted all over them, I tried doing a spray with regular water to wash it off but it didn't clean them up that well. after about 2 days I noticed some of the leaves were drooping like they would from under watering and they were really soft and leathery feeling. they eventually curl up a little like a shriveled helium balloon and fall off. I feel like I over did the epsom salt and am slowly killing my plant. It hasn't sped up at all but its slowly still killing leaves a couple at a time a day. Since i did a foliar spray and did not water it into the soil would a flush make any difference? Is there anything I can do to get it back to normal or will it repair itself over time and regular waterings? I was thinking about just spraying the leaves with pure water a couple times a day to wash them off and let them soak up clean water but I'm not sure if that would be good either?
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Flush or not flush?
- Thread starter plantsonfire
- Start date
Rinse and water with ro or distilled to avoid adding more mag that is in tap water. Just until your plant comes around.
Ok, Thats what I was thinking. is it possible to mist the leaves too much through out the day? I figure since there are times it rains a couple days straight too much water on the leaves won't hurt as long as a turn my lights down. I have plenty of fans in the room and the leaves will pretty much dry in 5 - 10 minutes anyway so I don't think I will get any mold or sun burning on them. As long as we are somewhat on the topic of flushing, is there any reason or benefit to flush potted plants even if you have never over fertilized? Like just to wash everything out and start brand new again with fresh clean soil and fertilizers or is it best to let it all just build up into the soil and remain? I only have used Age Old Organics liquid fertilizer so besides my epsom salt accident I have never really over fed them with hard chemicals.
Thanks
Thanks
Just curious but did you check your ph? Age old is a pretty well balanced mix so it might have been something else that made it look like mag deficiency.
Maybe you have some osmosis happening on the leaves.
Water or moisture gravitates towards higher salt content, and can pass through a membrane (leaves) to get to the salt.
Too much salts on the leaves = the salts pull the moisture out of the leaves and into the salts.
its like when you put salt on a slug, the salt pulls the moisture out of the slug and into the salt, killing it via osmosis.
Epsom salt, though not the same as table salt is still a salt, so can still suck moisture into it.
EDIT; giving the plant a good rinse with water may help, I dont think flushing the soil will.
It may be too late for the damaged leaves, but the plant in general should recover..if it was the foliar spray that damaged it.
Water or moisture gravitates towards higher salt content, and can pass through a membrane (leaves) to get to the salt.
Too much salts on the leaves = the salts pull the moisture out of the leaves and into the salts.
its like when you put salt on a slug, the salt pulls the moisture out of the slug and into the salt, killing it via osmosis.
Epsom salt, though not the same as table salt is still a salt, so can still suck moisture into it.
EDIT; giving the plant a good rinse with water may help, I dont think flushing the soil will.
It may be too late for the damaged leaves, but the plant in general should recover..if it was the foliar spray that damaged it.
Two tablespoons per litre is wild, I'm not sure why that's posted. He even uses the super accurate measuring term, "bottle" (500ml, 1L, 1.5L?). I've foliared once or twice with epsom, but at a 0.5g per litre. Gives about 100ppm of Mg, more than enough, and a much more reasonable number than PJ is recommending...
When you are foliar spraying, it is ideal to cover the entire surface of the plant and to use a surfactant of some kind, even if it's just a drop of soap "per bottle".
When you are foliar spraying, it is ideal to cover the entire surface of the plant and to use a surfactant of some kind, even if it's just a drop of soap "per bottle".
