How young is it safe to use epsom salts?

[MagicCannabus]

I have a couple seedlings which are showing mag deficiency. They are at most a week old. The soil they are in is probably a smidge hot for seedlings, and is probably locking out a bit of magnesium. There's dolomite in the soil already, I made sure of that, and it's quality soil. My mix is Pro-Mix Ultimate Organic Mix(25%), Pro-Mix for Containers(25%), and Miracle Grow Perlite(50%). That Perlite has a bit of nutrients in it too. I wanted regular perlite, but in this season, it can be hard to get what you want around here....

Anyway, I want to do an Epsom foliar. How diluted should it be? I've literally had plants in the past that I was totally unable to overdose with epsom foliar spray, so I know it's a pretty safe thing for plants, but these are way younger than I've ever done it to before. I just don't see any point in transplanting since in a week or two they'll be loving all that nutrition. Plus I have nothing to move them to anyway.

 

[flyfishinrock]

i dunno what to suggest, but if it were me I would do nothing maybe flush and see if they pull through. I say this because in my opinion it should take alot longer than a week for a mag deficiency to appear. If you really feel this is the cure go real light, as you said there is some in the soil already, you dont want to give them a toxic dose. good luck

 

[zolar]

put 1/2 or 1 teaspoon epsom salts in a gallon of water and use to water twice in 3 days and water with a small amounnt of plain water about an hour before watering with that

the moist soil will keep more nutes than watering dry soil would

personally i wouldn't feed until i had at least 2or 3 sets of normal leaves

 

[McBudz]

put 1/2 or 1 teaspoon epsom salts in a gallon of water and use to water twice in 3 days and water with a small amounnt of plain water about an hour before watering with that

the moist soil will keep more nutes than watering dry soil would

personally i wouldn't feed until i had at least 2or 3 sets of normal leaves

Exactly. For foliar 1/2 teaspoon per liter/quart will do alright. You may see a bit of residue on the leaf after it dries but it wont hurt it. Too much Mg though and you start locking out Phosphorous and Calcium. You should make sure you know the reason for the def. before supplementing. Is pH in check? Are you using RO water? Is so you need some sort of calcium/magnesium supplementation in your feeding plan. Such as cal-mag +. This will also increase your N (due to calcium/magnesium nitrates) so you may need to back off your veg nutes a bit while using cal-mag.

 

[MagicCannabus]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Maybe I will just hold off for a bit and then see. It looks just like mag def though. I've been growing for years and have seen it a lot. I have no idea why it's doing it though. None of the other strains in the exact same soil are doing it. Only the purple haze plants are doing this. I also threw a No Pest Strip in there just in case I have some parasite I'm not aware of. Seems unlikely this time of year, and it seems unlikely that only my purple haze would be effected while my Trainwreck crosses don't seem to have the same issue.

pH is fine(about 6.5-7 average), plenty of light, good soil, lots of drainage, good genes. I don't know. Could it be temperatures causing nutrient problems? Not sure I've heard of that happening, but my temps are not very good yet. Due to a poorly insulated house it's only 65 in there at night and about 70 during the day. In a week or two that should get better too. Maybe I'm over-reacting.... Maybe I should just be patient.

 

[flyfishinrock]

I like the temps your at personally. Got any pics of the plant in question?

 

[MagicCannabus]

I no longer think it's mag deficiency. It looked a lot like it at first, but then it started changing. Now it's basically a bunch of spots of discoloration along the central spine of the leaves. Looks a lot like calcium deficiency. I've been reading about how low temperatures can cause nutrient lockouts because of impacts on soil microbes, and my soil does have a type of compost in it. I talked to another guy on another forum who is using this Pro-Mix Ultimate Organic Mix, and he stated that his temperatures were low when he had similar issues to mine, but that they went away when his temperatures went up. I'll try to get some pictures up.

 

[Racefan]

drop ph to about 6.2 to 6.3 for soil grows. lower for hydro grows.