I agree with GF. I was skeptical about the fat in the Enfamil as well. Then again, Joe doesn't use much of it - feeding only a couple of times a cycle. Besides the fat there isn't anything bad in it. There are carbohydrates to feed the biota (like molasses does.) There is no miracle ingredient that I see...
Also, GF, you did say there was no sodium in Epsom! You are spot on. The only thing I would say is that all of the stuff plants need are parts of salts because they all carry a charge. Ca+, K+, NH4+... With chemical fertilizers folks tend to add too many and this is especially true in containers. A balanced organic soil takes care of these things by itself. An unbalanced organic soil does not. I'm sure you've seen people go too heavy with something like cotton burrs and have issues...
I am more familiar with how ions are moved around in humans and animals than I am with how it happens in plants, but I understand the lingo and it isn't that different. My calcium magnesium little transporter dudes thing is over simplified, but not total butchery. When a plant develops a magnesium deficiency it is rarely because there isn't enough magnesium in the soil. It is because there are too many other + charged ions in the soil. Adding extra magnesium in the form of Epsom salts will get some results because by increasing the amounts of magnesium available it will compete for transport by the little dudes more effectively. The big problem usually is that there are just too many cars (positively charged ions) on the freeway to begin with. You can add a whole bunch more positively charge magnesium atoms to the mix and make them more prevalent in the traffic jam, but what you really need is less traffic in general.
Here is a snippet from an article about this:
"A Mg2+ deficit can be caused by the lack of the ion in the media (soil), but more commonly comes from inhibition of its uptake.[3] Mg2+ binds quite weakly to the negatively charged groups in the root cell walls, so that excesses of other cations such as K+, NH4+, Ca2+, and Mn2+ can all impede uptake."(Kurvits and Kirkby, 1980;[57]
Ok, so we frequently have people who are relatively inexperienced with gardening in general - growing cannabis in containers. They are tempted by all the pretty bottles of nutrients and see others touting their merits on a regular basis. Maximum nutrition is the desired goal. A magnesium deficiency is the first problem these growers will see because it is the first nurtient to be outcompeted for transport. The same thing happens in people when they start overdoing the supplements.... Magnesium deficiency shows up early.
At first sign of a magnesium deficiency a grower should flush the living crap out of the container and resume feeding as normal. Hit the reset button. Reboot like you do if your computer is clogged up. Adding more stuff is not the answer. Adding a balance cal/mag supplement may be a good idea after the flush...
Also, GF, you did say there was no sodium in Epsom! You are spot on. The only thing I would say is that all of the stuff plants need are parts of salts because they all carry a charge. Ca+, K+, NH4+... With chemical fertilizers folks tend to add too many and this is especially true in containers. A balanced organic soil takes care of these things by itself. An unbalanced organic soil does not. I'm sure you've seen people go too heavy with something like cotton burrs and have issues...
I am more familiar with how ions are moved around in humans and animals than I am with how it happens in plants, but I understand the lingo and it isn't that different. My calcium magnesium little transporter dudes thing is over simplified, but not total butchery. When a plant develops a magnesium deficiency it is rarely because there isn't enough magnesium in the soil. It is because there are too many other + charged ions in the soil. Adding extra magnesium in the form of Epsom salts will get some results because by increasing the amounts of magnesium available it will compete for transport by the little dudes more effectively. The big problem usually is that there are just too many cars (positively charged ions) on the freeway to begin with. You can add a whole bunch more positively charge magnesium atoms to the mix and make them more prevalent in the traffic jam, but what you really need is less traffic in general.
Here is a snippet from an article about this:
"A Mg2+ deficit can be caused by the lack of the ion in the media (soil), but more commonly comes from inhibition of its uptake.[3] Mg2+ binds quite weakly to the negatively charged groups in the root cell walls, so that excesses of other cations such as K+, NH4+, Ca2+, and Mn2+ can all impede uptake."(Kurvits and Kirkby, 1980;[57]
Ok, so we frequently have people who are relatively inexperienced with gardening in general - growing cannabis in containers. They are tempted by all the pretty bottles of nutrients and see others touting their merits on a regular basis. Maximum nutrition is the desired goal. A magnesium deficiency is the first problem these growers will see because it is the first nurtient to be outcompeted for transport. The same thing happens in people when they start overdoing the supplements.... Magnesium deficiency shows up early.
At first sign of a magnesium deficiency a grower should flush the living crap out of the container and resume feeding as normal. Hit the reset button. Reboot like you do if your computer is clogged up. Adding more stuff is not the answer. Adding a balance cal/mag supplement may be a good idea after the flush...
I can honestly say I never saw any organic matter burn any plant the way the blue/green water does. I also use lavasand and/or decomposed granite sand in all my containers and beds to help with the cation exchange capacity in the soil. I have to do this because without OM in the soil, I have a high pH and elements are no available which will then give me the deficiency you speak of. Of course everything is about balance, just not the way the chemical fert companies want you to think of it. For example, 15-30-15. Some would call that a balanced fertilizer because it has equal amounts of N and K. Here again definitions are out of skew. It's the lay of the land in horticulture. So frustrating, but people just want to garden. Set it and forget it. Then, when it all goes dark they return the plant and want another. 
HC FTW kc 
