Using Epsom Salts to Help Roses

We have a question here, “I have heard that if you put Epsom salt water around the roses, it will prevent them from getting diseases and help them in their growth. Is that true?” 

It does help them in their growth. Having magnesium present, which is what Epsom salt is, helps the soil. If you’re using a good fertilizer like the Rohr’s All-Season Fertilizer, that green pelletized fertilizer that lasts for up to six months. That fertilizer already has a really good quantity of magnesium and iron in it. You’re keeping the plant super healthy and then it’s naturally more likely to be able to fight off diseases.

If you’re using the right fertilizer, you don’t necessarily need to do an Epsom salt drench as a secondary thing. If you’re using a lesser fertilizer that doesn’t have that ingredient in it, then it is something that could potentially help the plant. It won’t hurt if you have some to get rid of. That is just a micronutrient that will just remain in the soil until the plant needs it. A lot of times we’ll see it. The plants don’t absorb iron without magnesium being present, and Epsom salt is very high in magnesium. So it allows the plant to be able to better use the fertilizers that you are putting down.

I wanted to say also with the roses, there’s not a lot of plants I recommend preventatively spraying. However, that being said, roses are one of those plants. Even my own roses at my own house, sometimes if I wait until I see the problem, they’ve already done enough damage because I was at work for 12 hours and I hadn’t looked in two or three days. And so with those, I actually do recommend a pre-spray that’s got a fungicide and an insecticide in it, and it just protects the plant on all levels.

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