admin
Gardeners are being urged to sprinkle aspirin on plants this summer.
While summer can be a real headache for gardening with so many vital tasks to complete while the sun is shining, one thing you can cure in your garden is weak or poorly growing plants – thanks to a simple household painkiller.
Aspirin might be better known for being a mild pain relief tablet than it is as a gardening feed, but many gardeners swear by the over the counter pills to boost their garden’s health.
Aspirin has been shown to increase plant size and yield on vegetables, while it also accelerates germination and even boosts resistance to some diseases and pests.
The US Department of Agriculture even found that aspirin produced ‘enhanced immune response’ in potato plants.
Aspirin works on plants because it contains acetylsalicylic acid, which is derived from salicylic acid, an ingredient found in willow bark and other trees naturally.
The miracle pills also reduce insect attacks on plants and even keep cut flowers alive for longer – there’s seemingly no end to their beneficial properties.
Best used on tomatoes, potatoes and peppers, to apply aspirin simply dissolve 250 to 500mg in 11L of water (so, an average watering can size) and spray it every three weeks.
Gardener The Rusted Garden tried this out: “The use of aspirin (for the salicylic acid) to grow healthier tomatoes has a scientific basis. Spraying or watering plants with an aspirin solution triggers their natural defence systems that fight bacteria, fungi, and viruses. What you are doing by using aspirin in your garden is triggering the tomatoes to fight off diseases and threats early. You are turning on all the natural defence systems of the tomato plant before a threat actually arrives.
“I plan to plant the tomatoes as I normally do and let them grow for 4 weeks. At four weeks, they will get their first dosing of aspirin water. I will follow up with dosing each plant every 2 weeks. Each plant will get drenched or sprayed. I will stop dosing the plants come September.”
The only thing to avoid is sunshine – don’t spray on very sunny days when bees are likely to be out, or use it in the late evening at a time when bees won’t be active, as its effects on bees in such doses could be harmful if sprayed directly onto bees.
