Little tricks can make a big difference in the vegetable garden. We discovered an interesting home remedy that should increase tomato yields and protect plants from disease, heat and drought. Find out here why it is worth watering tomatoes with aspirin.
Aspirin is one of thelesser-known home remedies for the garden, but its effect is scientifically supported. From preventing disease to increasing yields, this tiny tablet can do a lot of good for your plants. However, it is not a panacea. Let's explore the benefits and bust the myths when it comes to using aspirin for tomato plants.
Aspirin in the garden? This speaks for its application
Aspirin is a drug that is used for problems not only to humans but alsoto help the plantscomes. While it is often prescribed to us for headaches, experienced gardeners use it as a means of maintaining the immunity of vegetable plants. This in turn is crucial for a rich harvest.
The key to this is the salicylic acid it contains. This acid is produced naturally by plants as part of their immune response, but often too slowly to be effective. Giving aspirin to the tomato plants should help them get the salicylic acid from outside and grow healthily. Over the years, scientists have looked at the potential benefits of using aspirin on tomatoes. According to the results, the home remedy is really useful for the following purposes.
Prevent diseases on tomatoes
When tomatoes are affected by a disease, the gardener often feels powerless. The seeds have been grown, diligently cared for and planted, and now everything is slowly being lost. To give the tomatoes a chance against diseases, you can try watering the plants with aspirin.
According to oneUnited States Department of Agriculture studyTreatment with salicylic acid can activate the immune signaling pathway of plants. This does not combat the pathogen directly, but rather encourages the plant to use its own defenses. The researchers applied the active ingredient in its pure form shortly after sowing with a spray solution and root watering.
This study was conducted in a laboratory, so its effectiveness in your garden has not yet been proven. The range of diseases against which it is effective is also unknown. However, the meaningful laboratory results suggest that a wide range of diseases are affected. Since the study was conducted with pure salicylic acid and not with aspirin, the effective dosage is also unclear. However, most studies recommend a ratio of one 250mg tablet dissolved in 5 liters of water.
Tips for use in your own garden:
The mixture can be used as a foliar spray or root watering, or you can soak the seeds in the mixture before planting. The morning hours are particularly suitable for watering or spraying with aspirin to avoid leaf burns. You shouldn't change the ratio either, as too much aspirin can have negative effects.
Increase heat tolerance and drought resistance
Tomato plants are often stressed by fluctuations in temperature and water. They respond quickly to drastic changes in ambient temperature and watering. That's also the reason whyDon't put tomatoes outside before the Ice Saintsmay.
In onestudy published in February 2000tested the hypothesis that acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin – ASA) and salicylic acid (SA) improve the stress tolerance of bean and tomato plants. The researchers found that soaking the seeds in an ASA or SA solution increased the plants' tolerance to heat, cold and drought stress. They achieved the same results when the mixture was applied as a soil fertilizer.
According to the scientists, the compound did not directly make the plants resistant to stress, but rather activated the plant's own defenses early on to promote tolerance.
How to achieve the effect in your own garden:
Water your tomato seedlings briefly in an aspirin solution before planting or water the soil after planting to trigger this reaction.
Water tomatoes with aspirin for higher yields
Experienced gardeners often use tricks to achieve greater yields in their own garden. What scientists in onestudy conducted in 2006 and 2007discovered could be the answer to higher tomato yields when growing your own tomatoes.
The use of salicylic acid on the leaves of tomato plants had amazing effects on both fruit and yield. The plants produced more and larger fruits. Plant growth and the chlorophyll content in the leaves also showed slight improvements.
How to use?
The study provided clear instructions for using salicylic acid to achieve these results: spraying four times, 10 days apart, two weeks after planting.
What aspirin is not suitable for
There are many myths regarding the use of this or that home remedy in the garden. A large part of them are not supported by science and can be classified more as experiments. When it comes to aspirin, there are three popular uses that have not (yet) been scientifically proven.
Aspirin cannot help with the following problems with tomato plants:
- Repel pests:Aspirin can improve plant resistance to disease, but there is no scientific evidence that applying it to plants can deter pests. Treatment with the home remedy can strengthen the plants' immune system in the fight against pest infestation, but it will not get rid of the pests.
- Improve seed germination: Although this effect of aspirin on the seeds of tomato plants was examined in a study, the results were inconclusive and no further studies have been conducted on the topic since.
- Heal sick plants:Disease resistance and disease healing are two completely different tasks. You can use aspirin or salicylic acid in the early stages of growth of tomato plants to strengthen their own defenses against diseases. However, the tablet has no healing effect on plants that are already diseased.
Watering tomatoes with aspirin: Here's how to do it correctly
Tomatoes respond particularly well to watering and spraying with aspirin. However, caution is advised because certain mistakes can have a devastating effect on the harvest.
To strengthen plants and increase their resistance to various diseases, it is necessary to prepare a solution of 2 aspirin tablets and 7 liters of water. This solution is used to water tomatoes every three weeks.
If you want to spray the tomato bushes with aspirin, the dosage is different: in this case you need 1 aspirin tablet and 5 liters of water. To keep the solution on the leaves longer, a little grated laundry soap is added to it. It is important to carry out the treatment at dusk or in cloudy weather to avoid burning the leaves. This method can also be used every 2-3 weeks.
Conclusion
Despite some myths, there are many scientifically recognized and significant effects of using aspirin in the garden and for tomato plants. Try out the methods described on your plants yourself and see for yourself how effective the home remedy is.
