permaculture

[Robyn Francis <erda@nor.com.au>]

Re applying Epsolm salts as magnesium to the soil its important to know what
your Mg levels are. It's one of those critical catalyst nutrients and too
little or too much will inhibit the take up of Potassium, too much creates a
calcium deficiency, a calcium deficiency inhibits the ability of Rhyzobium
bacteria to form N nodules etc etc. It's one of the factors I appreciate
having a proper soil test analysis for to make informed decisions.
The dilution for fungicide use shouldn't upset soil chemistry if used in
moderation i.e. for soils already containing sufficient Mg.
I'm not sure regarding it's fungicidal action if it's the sulphur or Mg or
combination of the 2, but it really works.
I'd be cautious however of having/applying too much to throw things out of
balance.
Robyn
 
> Does the anti-fungal property come from the sulfate or the magnesium or
> both?

On 11/5/04 2:01 AM, "Toby Hemenway" <hemenway@jeffnet.org> wrote:

> On 5/9/04 4:22 PM, "Robyn Francis" <erda@nor.com.au> wrote:
> 
>> [Epsom salts are] also an excellent natural fungicide for powdery mildew,
> black spot etc
>> generally applied by dissolving 1 teaspoon of epsom salts in 2 gallons (9
>> litres) of water.
> 
> And there's a useful puzzle piece. If at that dilution it's still a potent
> fungicide, that would suggest my friend Anne would want to dilute it a great
> deal below that concentration before putting it on the soil, or it will kill
> soil biota. Maybe to 1 tsp in 10 gallons or so. That's going to be pretty
> dilute and will use many gallons of good clean water, since foot baths are 2
> cups (96 tsp) or so per gallon. Maybe down the drain is the best place,
> where it can be diluted with dirty rather than clean water.
> 
> The numbers confuse me a bit though, since Mollison states (DM p197) that
> Epsom salts can be applied to soil at 45g/m2, or about 15 tsp per square
> yard, which seems like it should be harmful to soil biota, even if the
> plants will like it.
> 
> Toby
> www.patternliteracy.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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