Learn how to make hostas grow bigger, bushier, and lusher by using Epsom salt in this article!
What Epsom Salt Do to Plants
Epsom salt is “hydrated magnesium sulfate,” it consists of 10 percent Magnesium and 13 percent Sulfur. Both of them are considered as secondary essential nutrients after Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium.
Magnesium in Epsom salt increases water retention, helps in the better intake of nutrients, and most importantly, in the creation of chlorophyll, on which the process of photosynthesis depends.
Similarly, sulfur also participates in the development of chlorophyll, increases the plant’s resistance to diseases, and helps in growth.
How Epsom Salt Helps Hostas
Application of Epsom salt in hostas reduces the stunted growth, makes their leaves greener and thicker as it boosts chlorophyll levels. It also facilitates bushier plant growth and their resistance to diseases and pests.
1. Get Rid of Slugs
Slugs are the most common pests that affect hostas. To get rid of them, place a tablespoon of Epsom salt in a shape of a ring around hostas to prevent slugs. The sharp crystals of Epsom salt will irritate their body, and they will avoid coming near your plants. Apply once a week for best results.
2. For Yellowing Hosta Leaves
Yellow hosta leaves can be a sign of Magnesium deficiency. As a solution, add a tablespoon of Epsom salt around the base of your hosta plant per 12 inches of its height, once a month (or more frequently, if required) until it starts to look green again.
3. For Lush and Healthy Hosta Plants
Even if your soil is not deficient in Magnesium, some factors like acidic soil, low soil temperature, cation exchange capacity of soil, excess potassium or sodium reduce the uptake of Magnesium from plant roots.
In that case, foliar feeding your hosta plants with Epsom salt solution is a good idea:
Mix 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt in 1 gallon of water and spray once a month on the foliage in the rapid growth period.
When growth slows, reduce the quantity to 1 tablespoon. The foliar application will keep your hostas lush and healthy.
4. Mix Epsom Salt with Fertilizer
You can also mix a pinch of Epsom salt with the all-purpose liquid fertilizer before feeding the hosta plants and then apply according to the instructions on the fertilizer’s packet to enhance its efficiency.
Tips and Warnings
As with any ingredient, the success of Epsom salt for hostas depends on its balanced use.
Avoid overdosing. Also, it is best to look for the sign of Magnesium and Sulfur deficiency in plants to get the desired results from Epsom salt application.
Grow Big, Bushy, and Lush Hostas With Epsom Salt: 4 Best Uses. Want to make your hostas grow bigger, bushier and lusher? Learn about this one single SECRET ingredient to do that.
Watering — Water regularly at the base of the plant. Hosta survive well in drought and I rarely water the plants, depending on Mother Nature to water them with rain. However, once in a while I want to give a hosta a growing boost. Drown the plant thoroughly once a week with a heavy watering.
Hostas love magnesium and therefore enjoy a shower of Epsom Salts. It easily dilutes in some warm water and can be mixed with any liquid fertilizer. When fertilizing please read the instructions and DO NOT over feed!
The best hosta plant food is a slow release NPK 10-10-10 fertilizer. Those three numbers stand for the amount of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium in the fertilizer. Slow release fertilizers feed the plant each time it rains or the plant is watered.
Avoid planting hostas in clay soils as they need rich soil abundant in nutrients. Improve soil nutrition and drainage by adding Miracle-Gro® All Purpose Garden Soil (in-ground) or Miracle-Gro® Moisture Control® Potting Mix (containers).
Space your hostas out as required by their spread at maturity. You won't go wrong adding organic matter to planting holes for hostas. Work in composted leaves, composted manure or whatever type of local compost you can get your hands on. Compost helps improve soil nutrition and moisture in a way that hostas love.
Coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen, an essential nutrient for plant growth. Nitrogen promotes healthy foliage and overall plant development. When used as a mulch or incorporated into the soil, coffee grounds provide a slow-release source of nitrogen for hostas.
Hostas emerge late in the season but quickly unfurl to fill their allotted space. They grow slowly and may take two to four years to attain their full size, longer for the largest species and cultivars. Allow plenty of room when you plant to accommodate for their mature size.
Root competition plays a very big part in stealing water from hostas, and if you don't get enough natural rainfall it can be almost impossible to water enough to keep them big.
Epsom salt can improve the blooms of flowering and green shrubs, especially evergreens, azaleas and rhododendrons. Work in one tablespoon of Ultra Epsom Salt per nine square feet of bush into the soil, over the root zone, which allows the shrubs to absorb the nutritional benefits.
Adding Epsom salts to soil that already has sufficient magnesium can actually harm your soil and plants, such as by inhibiting calcium uptake. Spraying Epsom salt solutions on plant leaves can cause leaf scorch. Excess magnesium can increase mineral contamination in water that percolates through soil.
Epsom salt promotes deep root growth for plants so during times of drought or little rainfall, Epsom salt plants will have deep roots to seek out moisture and nutrients. Plants with deep roots thrive when other plants with shallow roots shrivel up and die if water is not constantly provide to them.
Keep hostas watered throughout the hot months and apply a slow-release organic fertilizer in spring. An annual application of compost over the bed each fall nourishes the plants through the winter. Perennial hostas are easy-care, shade-tolerant favorites for your garden.
Standard inorganic granular fertilizers like 10-10-10 are quite inexpensive and remain in the garden 4-6 weeks depending on the amount of rainfall. Thus two to three applications are necessary, beginning as the hostas emerge and ending when their growth slows in the heat of summer.
Whatever you can do to keep the leaves dry will help. Forego overhead watering for drip irrigation or pushing the leaves aside to water just the soil at the plant base. Also, planting for good airflow helps. Is your Hosta completely defoliated with ragged stems left behind?
How often should a hosta be divided? Unlike some perennials, hostas can go for years without being divided—they just keep getting bigger. However, dividing them every four or five years encourages vigorous, healthy growth and will prevent crowding.
If you have garden tools, you can pry the root clump apart, but you won't be able to divide the system as precisely as you can when you're using just a knife. It's OK to cut through a hosta plant's roots because they'll grow back quickly once you've moved the plant to a different location with more space.
Introduction: My name is Nicola Considine CPA, I am a determined, witty, powerful, brainy, open, smiling, proud person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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