Costuluto Genevese tomatoes
I’ve always used powered Epsom Salts in the bottom of my hole when I transplant my tomatoes in late spring. I read it helps with producing more blossoms and hence more tomatoes. It’s also good for peppers and roses. Epsom salt is a natural mineral that was originally found in a well in Epsom, England. It is magnesium sulfate. Magnesium is critical for seed germination and Sulpher is used for lowering the pH level in alkaline soils like we have here in New Mexico. Sulfur, is also a key element in plant growth.
What I didn’t know was that it is more immediately available to tomatoes and peppers when sprayed on your plant’s leaves vs sprinkling it on the ground. Dilute 1 tablespoon of Epsom salts with one gallon of water, and applied as a foliar spray. When applied this way, Epsom salts can be taken up quickly by plants.
Here is an internet article on Epsom Salts that goes into more detail about it, a trial using it, and how to use it. From now on I will be spraying it on my plants instead of adding to the soil.
I do not add Epsom salts to my other vegetable plants, just my tomatoes and peppers.
Here is the complete article from Garden.org on Epsom Salts.
giantveggiegardener 
Do you add epsom salts when satarting from seeds?
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I use to add Epsom salts, 1 TLB to the bottom of the hole when I TRANSPLANTED the tomato and pepper plants in the garden, not while they were growing under the lights. You can do that, or from this article, for a quicker response, spray them with a gallon hand sprayer with 1 TLB water on the leaves. I might wait about a month and spray them in June if you go that way. Either way is helpful but spraying tomatoes/peppers will evidently get you quicker results. I do not use any scented Epsom Salts which a lot of them are, now in the stores. get unscented.
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hmmm. . . I don’t use it, but I know that people used to a long time ago here. The soil is alkaline, but I never had a problem with it. . . . or at least not that I am aware of. Only palms and maybe bamboo express symptoms of nutrient deficiency that might be related to the micronutrients that they crave being unavailable at a slightly alkaline pH, but I have been able to correct the problem by just giving them more micronutrients, rather than adjusting pH.
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Oh, now that you mention it, we have tried the bluing fertilizer for hydrangeas, which does actually work! Oh duh!
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From this internet resource (https://www.pthorticulture.com/en/training-center/myth-series-epsom-salt-decreases-the-ph-of-growing-media/)
“In most cases, a plant will take up the same number of magnesium ions as sulfate ions so the net result is that there is no change in the pH of the growing medium around the plant root. In almost all cases, Epsom salt has little influence on the pH of the growing medium”.
I use it to produce healthy plants and produce more flowers. More flowers=more fruit.
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That’s really good to know about spraying the epsom salt onto the leaves! I’ve always just used it in the soil, too.
I also use epsom salt with tomatillos. I am curious, though, when you grow tomatillos, do you also protect them from leafhoppers with row cover like you do your tomatoes?
Thanks!
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