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Epsom Salt Burn?

J

jlacosta

I think I may have burned my plants. That is if it's possible to overdose on epsom salt. I used 2 tbsp on 1 liter of water and foliar sprayed on my plants 4 days ago.

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Any advice on what I should I do?
 
A little goes along way... And wait until it drys before you turn the light on again. I foliar right before my lights go off. I prefer using Cal-Mag from Botannicare with my nutes ... but I have used Epsom Salt in the past.
 
When is it okay to use epsom salt?
-When you have diagnosed your plant as being Magnesium deficient or locked out. The leaves appear evenly striped, with a pale streak running cleanly down the center of each interveinal region on the leaf.
-When you are already correcting the CAUSE of the initial deficiency or lockout. This means identifying and fixing all soil, water, fertilizer, and envrironmental problems and actively addressing them.

How should you apply Epsom salt?
-Using a Magnesium compound as a foliar spray is less risky than adding it to your fert solution (unless you have calculated what you need or are using CalMag Plus). Fill a spray bottle with lukewarm tap water. Add one drop of dish soap and 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of Epsom salts. Allow to dissolve. Mist lightly, not to runoff or beading, onto affected leaves just when the lights come on. Repeat daily until pale stripes disappear.
 
Beginning when the blossoms on your tomatoes or peppers first appear, apply a foliar spray made up of 2 tablespoons of Epsom salts to a gallon of water once a month, as a substitute for one regular watering. Every six weeks until harvest, work 1 tablespoon of the compound per foot of plant height into the soil around the vegetables. Early in the season, the Epsom salts should aid in root and cell development, photosynthesis and plant growth and stave off blossom-end rot. Used late in the season, the result should be greater tomato and pepper yield.
 
Yes, that is definitely fertilizer burn. Not the worst I've seen, but pretty bad. Make sure you only use plain water for the next several waterings to help flush out the excess. Note that the old growth will not return to normal, but your new growth should start coming in fine. 
 
Brain Strain Pepper Head said:
A little goes along way... And wait until it drys before you turn the light on again. I foliar right before my lights go off. I prefer using Cal-Mag from Botannicare with my nutes ... but I have used Epsom Salt in the past.
 
When is it okay to use epsom salt?
-When you have diagnosed your plant as being Magnesium deficient or locked out. The leaves appear evenly striped, with a pale streak running cleanly down the center of each interveinal region on the leaf.
-When you are already correcting the CAUSE of the initial deficiency or lockout. This means identifying and fixing all soil, water, fertilizer, and envrironmental problems and actively addressing them.How should you apply Epsom salt?
-Using a Magnesium compound as a foliar spray is less risky than adding it to your fert solution (unless you have calculated what you need or are using CalMag Plus). Fill a spray bottle with lukewarm tap water. Add one drop of dish soap and 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of Epsom salts. Allow to dissolve. Mist lightly, not to runoff or beading, onto affected leaves just when the lights come on. Repeat daily until pale stripes disappear.
 
Beginning when the blossoms on your tomatoes or peppers first appear, apply a foliar spray made up of 2 tablespoons of Epsom salts to a gallon of water once a month, as a substitute for one regular watering. Every six weeks until harvest, work 1 tablespoon of the compound per foot of plant height into the soil around the vegetables. Early in the season, the Epsom salts should aid in root and cell development, photosynthesis and plant growth and stave off blossom-end rot. Used late in the season, the result should be greater tomato and pepper yield.
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Thanks for the how-to. I definitely used too much.

geeme said:
Yes, that is definitely fertilizer burn. Not the worst I've seen, but pretty bad. Make sure you only use plain water for the next several waterings to help flush out the excess. Note that the old growth will not return to normal, but your new growth should start coming in fine.
Click to expand...
I guess I'll charge this to experience and still lucky I didn't kill the plant.
 
Not saying not possible but ive never heard of burning plants with epsom salt. Other nuits yes but not epsom. You can however get to much salt buildup in your soil if not careful and that isn't good for plants. 
Botanicare as mentioned has some great products including one called clearex or something like that that will flush your soil of buildup.
 
Unless someone else pointed it out but 2 tablespoons per litre is too much. You only need 1. Ontop of that you risk locking out calcium by just doing a spray with epsom so you MUST be sure you need the magnesium.
 
Sarge said:
Unless someone else pointed it out but 2 tablespoons per litre is too much. You only need 1. Ontop of that you risk locking out calcium by just doing a spray with epsom so you MUST be sure you need the magnesium.
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The rate suggested on the pack here is 10 g per litre that works out as 2 tablespoons per 3 litres.
 
The plant in the photo appears to be a perfect example of Calcium lock out caused by the likely bonding of Ca2+ with the SO42-.

Taking into account the bumpiness from the overdose of Magnesium sulphate it doesn't appear as it needed additional Magnesium or sulphate in the first place.
 
harry said:
The rate suggested on the pack here is 10 g per litre that works out as 2 tablespoons per 3 litres.
 
The plant in the photo appears to be a perfect example of Calcium lock out caused by the likely bonding of Ca2+ with the SO42-.

Taking into account the bumpiness from the overdose of Magnesium sulphate it doesn't appear as it needed additional Magnesium or sulphate in the first place.
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Sounds much better than two tablespoons per litre as above!
 
Chemistry wasn't my strong point(well it was until I gave up on it) but I do agree with you about binding.
 
I read a post on this forum that suggested 2 x tablespoons per litre on here... like you I tried it and it burnt my plants pretty bad.
 
I did a flush as has been suggested and the new growth has come back strong.  The burnt leave look a little ragged, but as long as they pod up I wont mind how they look tbh.
 
I've since moved to 2 x teaspoons per litre and I'm seeing some benefit to the flowers and not so much havoc to the leaves.  
 
Hope the flush works for you...
 
Harry and Sarge, I kinda' got a little paranoid now as the other plants have worsened a little but still continues to bloom. I will know in a couple of days if they will set. This is the first time I'm actually growing habs so my worries of having them pod up were a little too much that I had to use epsom salt as per a website I read. So yeah, I'll probably stay off the salt and work on the calcium deficiency. Unfortunately, there aren't any cal-mag nutes available here in Manila so I am trying to make my own Cal-Phos which is still 2 weeks before it's ready.
 
Rainman said:
I read a post on this forum that suggested 2 x tablespoons per litre on here... like you I tried it and it burnt my plants pretty bad.
 
I did a flush as has been suggested and the new growth has come back strong.  The burnt leave look a little ragged, but as long as they pod up I wont mind how they look tbh.
 
I've since moved to 2 x teaspoons per litre and I'm seeing some benefit to the flowers and not so much havoc to the leaves.  
 
Hope the flush works for you...
Click to expand...
 
I too actually read it on pepperjoe's faq site and and I think a post here too. As stated, 2 tablespoon for a regular spray bottle. I was under the impression that a 1 liter bottle was as regular as they can get but it seems like he might have interchanged tsp with tsb. It killed the one and only wild brazil that germinated that I ordered when I was in the US. I think it's because it had smaller leaves that it was more sensetive than the habs. I flushed and gave them a foliar bath yesterday and today. everythign seems to have gone back to normal (like they stopped burning) and hopefully, new growth will be normal.
 
Regular spray bottle is a bad way of showing how much of what to use. A regular spray bottle here is 250ml. Another popular size is 2l. Then there's everything in between.

Have you tried dissolving egg shells for calcium? You can use a mortar and pestle to grind them to a powder but it would still take time to break down and become usable. There is a way to break it down much faster. Not sure if its with vinegar or bicarbonate dissolved in water. What about blood bone, that should be readily available and is dirt cheap. Good way to get some calcium in there amongst other nutes. I'm not sure though that if there is a lockout what would happen if you hit it with calcium. Would they bind or would they balance. Im not sure.
 
Hi Sarge, that's exactly what I am doing. Ground up egg shells, semi-roasted and fermented in vinegar. 1 part shell 5 part vinegar. It's supposed to produce calcium phospate after 4 weeks of fermentation. Mine is still 2 weeks to go. It's derived from a korean style farming.
 
http://gilcarandang.com/recipes/calphos/
 
Had to edit my first post when I realized the language was Filipino. The new link should be a better reference on how to make organic calphos.
 
jlacosta said:
As stated, 2 tablespoon for a regular spray bottle. I was under the impression that a 1 liter bottle was as regular as they can get but it seems like he might have interchanged tsp with tsb. It killed the one and only wild brazil that germinated that I ordered when I was in the US. I think it's because it had smaller leaves that it was more sensetive than the habs. I flushed and gave them a foliar bath yesterday and today. everythign seems to have gone back to normal (like they stopped burning) and hopefully, new growth will be normal.
Click to expand...
The rate I have foliar fed Epsom Salt at is half a teaspoon of Epsom Salts per litre. I agree with Sarge on a regular size spray bottle being an ambiguous metric.


jlacosta said:
Hi Sarge, that's exactly what I am doing. Ground up egg shells, semi-roasted and fermented in vinegar. 1 part shell 5 part vinegar. It's supposed to produce calcium phospate after 4 weeks of fermentation. Mine is still 2 weeks to go. It's derived from a korean style farming.
 
http://gilcarandang.com/recipes/calphos/
 
Had to edit my first post when I realized the language was Filipino. The new link should be a better reference on how to make organic calphos.
Click to expand...
The predominant product from dissolving egg shells in vinegar is Calcium acetate via the reaction of Calcium carbonate with acetic acid. Calcium phosphate is a minor pre-existing component of the egg shells. Calcium acetate is desirable as it is water soluble.
 
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