Epsom salt...never would have thought of that!

I was doing some reading to see if I could figure out why my jalapenos were dropping their flowers (female flowers...with wee peppers behind them...the flower stem and all) and discovered that a shortage of magnesium in the soil (or oversupply of nitrogen) can cause that problem.

Makes sense...my beans are going nuts and they LOVE nitrogen...not more than 6" from my peppers.

Solution? EPSOM SALT! woohoo! Dissolve some in water and give them a foliar feeding (brush it on the leaves) and then pour the rest around the plants. It will help the peppers and tomatoes, potentially the eggplant and even quite possibly the squash plants (zukes and cukes.) I also sprinkled some on the soil around the plant bases and will dissolve that in when I water tomorrow.

If that is the problem (I'm sure it is...it also causes some leaf curl and yellowing leaves...I'm seeing some curl on newer bell pepper leaves and yellowing overall on the jalapenos) I'll see results in 24-48 hours.

How easy is that? I've always got it on hand.



Also...I checked on my fertile cuke when I was out there salting the peppers and tomatoes. The male flower is fully open and happy. The female flower (not visible in the photo below but over the day started to appear and should be open by tomorrow morning) is quickly maturing beside and a little below it! I'll go help them out (hand pollination) when I see them both open since I understand we have a shortage of bees this year.