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Epsom salt foliar spray test

PepperWhisperer

PepperWhisperer

So, my third year plants are having some troubles. Very yellow on the tabasco and the goat's weed with darker veins. My guess is either Magnesium or Iron or both. Since epsom salt is so cheap, I decided to try that first. Here are the plants today 4/10. Sprayed with dilute mixture of epsom salt ~1 tsp in a quart of water (=1.2 Tbsp / gal).
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20130410_104552.jpg
 
That's the plan. It's not going to be up to academic publishing standards, but I won't be doing anything to the plants that they wouldn't normally experience from my typical garden maintenance routine. Pulling weeds, spot treating aphids, dumping kitchen scraps in the bed, watering.

I want to give the epsom enough time to work before I move on to other treatments, so no Iron ferts, no AACT (though I do plan on starting that on my new plants), no aspirin spray. If the epsom doesn't green the plan, I will try iron and make another post about that experiment :P
 
I love experiments, what I think is that doing foliar with Epsom salt is better than pouring it on the soil because it can build up in your soil.

I'd say try molasses before you go to iron supplement. The thing is that molasses has iron, magnesium, and calcium. It may benefit more, but if you're itchy about experiments go ahead and give it a try.

, Vegas
 
Yeah, I haven't figured out what I am going to do about Iron yet. I was thinking about dumping a few rusty nails into my tea bubbler . When I do a search for molasses foliar spray I get a LOT of results on forums for a different crop entirely :shocked:
 
PepperWhisperer said:
Yeah, I haven't figured out what I am going to do about Iron yet. I was thinking about dumping a few rusty nails into my tea bubbler . When I do a search for molasses foliar spray I get a LOT of results on forums for a different crop entirely :shocked:
Click to expand...

I notice that almost every time I go looking for something regarding planting, I get tons of hits for about every 420/weed/mary jane/etc site under the sun. I don't particularly care, but since I often am looking stuff up during breaks at work...lots of "oh crap!" moments when I don't pay attention to what I click on ;) I guess those guys are the kings of indoor crop growing...
 
PepperWhisperer said:
Yeah, I haven't figured out what I am going to do about Iron yet. I was thinking about dumping a few rusty nails into my tea bubbler . When I do a search for molasses foliar spray I get a LOT of results on forums for a different crop entirely :shocked:
Click to expand...

yeah ... seems like the pointy leaf fraction is everywhere ;-)

CHEERS
al
 
SeanW said:
I notice that almost every time I go looking for something regarding planting, I get tons of hits for about every 420/weed/mary jane/etc site under the sun. I don't particularly care, but since I often am looking stuff up during breaks at work...lots of "oh crap!" moments when I don't pay attention to what I click on ;) I guess those guys are the kings of indoor crop growing...
Click to expand...

LOL same here! one site was called CIMagazine, didn't think a thing of it until I opened the page.
 
SeanW said:
I notice that almost every time I go looking for something regarding planting, I get tons of hits for about every 420/weed/mary jane/etc site under the sun. I don't particularly care, but since I often am looking stuff up during breaks at work...lots of "oh crap!" moments when I don't pay attention to what I click on ;) I guess those guys are the kings of indoor crop growing...
Click to expand...
I used to be concerned about going to those sites, but they are a wealth of knowledge. I buy tons of supplies from a local Hydro store and it is a great place to bang around ideas. I crack a lot of jokes with the owner about being followed by the "MAN" They sell garden supplies, just like Home Depot, just more specialized. If you have nothing to hide I would not worry about it.
 
pepperproblem said:
I used to be concerned about going to those sites, but they are a wealth of knowledge. I buy tons of supplies from a local Hydro store and it is a great place to bang around ideas. I crack a lot of jokes with the owner about being followed by the "MAN" They sell garden supplies, just like Home Depot, just more specialized. If you have nothing to hide I would not worry about it.
Click to expand...

Unless you live in Kansas: http://news.yahoo.com/kansas-couple-indoor-gardening-prompted-pot-raid-182449463.html
 
Just did a light respray with the same solution. 4/12 @3 PM

Plants look roughly the same. Noticed some new leaf shoots on the goats weed that are bright(!) yellow.
 
pepperproblem said:
I used to be concerned about going to those sites, but they are a wealth of knowledge. I buy tons of supplies from a local Hydro store and it is a great place to bang around ideas. I crack a lot of jokes with the owner about being followed by the "MAN" They sell garden supplies, just like Home Depot, just more specialized. If you have nothing to hide I would not worry about it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not overly concerned, beyond the fact that I'd be browsing weed sites at work :)

I've been spraying my plants with both an epsom salt spray and a spray that has epsom salts and some mild kelp ferts. Seem to be greening up. I'll be adding some very dilute iron to it, to try and clear up the rest, I think my pH is too high and locked out some of the nutes.
 
The yellow leaves were only getting worse, but...on the lower parts of the tabasco, big healthy leaves are starting to bust out. I think maybe the upper parts near the pruning cuts are damaged and not able to produce healthy leaves? I cut back the worst parts of the tabasco and hit both plants with foliar molasses and fish+seaweed and top dressed with cow manure. The goat is overall looking strong and already setting fruit.

I think my winter pruning method was less than optimal.
 
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