Dandelion Magnesium fertilizer? (For tomatoes)

[soladragon]

Hi guys.

Yesterday I noticed one of my tomato plants was a bit yellow and read up it needed some magnesium.

Well it was a wet day in the garden and I was bored so I decided to pick lots and lots of dandelion leaves as I read they contain a decent amount of Magnesium and other good things.

I got an old coke bottle and pushed all the dandelion leaves and other weeds I could grab inside along with some rain water gathered in a bucket.

Do you think this will work and infuse the water with magnesium and other nutrients?

[Aberdeenplotter]

No idea what you will end up with, but in a coke bottle, it could be an open invitation to a child to have a swig, even although it may smell and taste disgusting. If you do feel the need to experiment, please do so safely.

[Florence Fennel]

I use epsom salts, but I suppose you could be making a natural fertiliser, not sure about the magnesium content. I make comfrey tea in this way, but I use empty milk cartons partly to exclude light, but also because I can write on them to make it clear what they are.

[soladragon]

Thanks for the advice but it is in a safe location plus at the end of the day it is dandelion leaf and water.

[alldigging]

Thanks for the advice but it is in a safe location plus at the end of the day it is dandelion leaf and water.

At the moment it is... It'll soon be manky brew.

[soladragon]

At the moment it is... It'll soon be manky brew.

Mmmmm manky brew! I shall update whether the tomatoes yellow fades away or not.

[arpoet]

maybe instead of flaming then i would be better off picking them and putting them in my wormery.

[SarzWix]

Perhaps you could do a controlled experiment where you water X number of the plants with dandelion tea, and Y number of the plants with magnesium-containing tomato food? I'd be interested to see the results

[Feral007]

Me too Sarz. I'm interested in the tea's.

[soladragon]

I have poured it over one of my plants and still waiting to see if it is working Will let you know.

[snohare]

No idea what you will end up with, but in a coke bottle, it could be an open invitation to a child to have a swig, even although it may smell and taste disgusting. If you do feel the need to experiment, please do so safely.

Ha, yes, I almost got caught out by this the other week. I went to my allotment and the man who stays in the house beside it told me that he had chased some kids away, who were eyeing up a bottle of he-knew-not-what...in case it was pesticide, he felt obligated to hide it and let me know.
It was actually a bottle of compost bree, made in a converted wheelie bin by a friend, who has put in a tap at the bottom.
I had just never thought that there was any risk of anyone drinking it even though it was the same colour as coke, because the bottle looks ancient and it stinks to high heaven when you open it. Right enough, the bacteria might well be enough to poison anyone - the smell makes you think you'd go to hospital if you were stupid enough to drink it - but who would be that daft ?!
And then I realised... These kids were possibly the glue sniffers who lurk in the lottie at night sometimes, and leave their bags etc behind. So probably no sense of smell/taste left, and little or no instinct for self-preservation !

[themadcatlady]

theyd probably drink it and sue you for damages!