Tomato Plants

The horticultural world is full of tales of old wives and skeptical suggestions for magical remedies to cure any garden ailment. Sorting facts out of fiction can be a daunting task when there is so much conflicting information. This is not true anywhere other than Epsom salt and tomato plants. Epsom salt is the common name for a chemical compound called magnesium sulfate. It is widely recommended by gardeners for horticultural problems ranging from poor growth to pest control. This advice is often applied to tomato plants because they are called magnesium-hungry plants.

But does Epsom salt fulfill many of these promises? Or does it do more harm than good?

1. Blossom-end to prevent rot

Blossom end rot is a condition that affects the fruit of the tomato. When the plant is unable to take in enough calcium, it becomes deficient, and as a result parts of the fruit usually rot, which affects tomato gardeners. Gardeners will try anything to solve the problem - including Epsom salt. Unfortunately, the rotting problems at the end of the flower have nothing to do with magnesium. In fact, it has nothing to do with soil in general. The most common cause of the final rot of the flower is improper watering, which prevents adequate absorption of calcium. In soils rich in calcium or magnesium the plants may still flower and eventually rot.

To make matters worse, the use of Epsom salt for plants affected by the final rot disease of the flower can actually aggravate the problem. If the plant consumes too much magnesium, it will compete with calcium and cause less calcium absorption. When you are desperately trying to solve the problem with your tomatoes, that is the last thing you want - to avoid it altogether.

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2. Prevent pests

There are hundreds of natural pest control methods on the Internet. Each is labeled as a 'guarantee' to solve your problem immediately. Some claims may work, and some have no evidence to support them. Epsom salt is the latter.

Research on the effectiveness of Epsom salt as an insect repellent for caterpillars, locusts, flies, and many other insects has no evidence to support the claim. This also applies to tomato plant diseases. If you are looking for a solution to your pest problem, it is a good idea to use one of the approved methods.

3. Help the tomato seed to germinate

Tomato seeds are magical things. They are like tiny pockets of nutrients that contain everything you need to germinate and get started. That is, any use of additional micronutrients would, in a word, be ineffective - including magnesium added from Epsom salts.

When planting seedlings in magnesium-deficient soils, soil deficiency can be treated by adding a little Epsom salt to the planting hole. But when a seed germinates, it does not need the help of additional nutrients from gardeners to go.

4. Feed the plants adequately

Epsom salt is often recommended as a tomato fertilizer due to its magnesium content. At first glance, this may seem like a great idea, but the recommendation ignores two related factors.

First, as mentioned earlier, magnesium is a micronutrient. Tomato plants require only very small amounts of magnesium - much smaller than the amount of Epsom salt.

Second, the purpose of the fertilizer is to provide the various nutrients needed for plant growth or the nutrients needed for fruiting for a specific purpose (nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium).

Magnesium and sulfur alone do not provide enough nutrients to use as a complete fertilizer for your tomato plants. If your tomato plants are deficient in magnesium, you can add a small amount of Epsom salt to your fertilizer. But most general fertilizers contain everything the plant needs to grow effectively.

Epsom salt can be said to be an easily accessible, inexpensive solution to the plight of your tomato plants. Some claims are completely true (if you have a magnesium deficiency in your plant or soil), others may not give the results you expect, and may hurt your precious tomato plants in the long run.