Aspirin water - holey schmoley

[Blueaussi]

Originally Posted by lrussillo

Seedling sprayed with aspirin water (3/4 aspirin/gal water) around April 20

How did you decide on that dose?

I read the abstracts on the papers you listed, and I would agree that sites like Pubmed are not trying to sell you something. Since early blight is sometimes a problem around here, I think it's worth a try. That article used a soil drench, though, and said they used 200 muM of salicylic acid as a soil drench. I don't know what unit of measure a muM is.

[JamesL]

Lrussillo,
Don't hesitate to give milk spray or aspirin a shot.
Both have been discussed here many times.
There is clearly a lot of research out there.
I have and still use both as part of the arsenal. In fact, I occasionally just add aspirin to "Fish Milk" Spray.
Many use it as a soil drench.

Another one on Aspirin -
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1209080025.htm
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=9344


Tom's Fish Milk
http://www.tomatoville.com/showpost....47&postcount=3

Some of the milk research I did a few years back.
http://www.tomatoville.com/showpost....2&postcount=13

My current version of Fish Milk
2 cups 1% milk to the gallon. 1 to 8 ratio.
Neptune's Harvest - 2tbs
molasses - 1 tsp

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by lrussillo

. . . Another interesting thing on powdery mildew--haven't tried this yet--info mostly anecdotal--spraying with a milk and water solution -- I've read from 10 to 40 % -- on a sunny day--apparently a reaction between sunlight and the protein in the milk kills the spores. Definitely will try that on the cucumbers, squash and zinnias--if only it worked on squash vine borers...

I have used milk spray on zucchini with apparent benefit. As I recall, the original research found it effective for zucchini as a powdery mildew preventative -- not as a treatment -- I also believe it suggested that around 30% the spray introduced other problems. I use about 15%, plus or minus a little. I have used it as a preventative to protect healthy leaves, removing any that developed powdery mildew, but someone, possibly here, or maybe at idig, reported better continued yields from the plants by spraying with the milk solution, but letting the leaves all remain, so I tried that, and yields were indeed better than when I removed any leaves upon which mildew was present -- and the mildew spots seemed to become inactive in response to the spray.

I always spray when not in sunlight, however, in time to let the plants dry before the sun hits them.

Other things to consider are that different types of plants are, I believe, affected by different powdery mildews, and different varieties of the same type of plant may have different natural levels of resistance/tolerance to powdery mildew -- both of which can make it difficult to make generalizations that are applicable across the whole garden. But the milk spray has certainly helped my zucchini.

Regarding squash vine borers, have you tried planting radishes around your squash? I've seen many claims that it helps, and I do plant the two as companions -- but as I've never had a big borer problem, I can't say whether or not the radishes play a role in protecting squash here or not.

[lrussillo]

Much interesting and good information to think about from everyone!

I used the concentration recommended by U Rhode Island master gardener--which is weaker than some recommendations. Here's one article http://www.plantea.com/plant-aspirin.htm

Will take pix. Plants are doing really well--have 6 to 7 leaves below flower buds--so at or close to Carolyn's recommendation for where they should be.
http://www.tomatoville.com/images/smilies/yes.gif

[lrussillo]

Squash borers are a problem in the southeast US. I have planted radishes with cukes--the powdery mildew eventually got to them. Had a few pepo winters that keeled last year (mildew and borers). This is my first year for zucchini. Am planning to cover them until they bloom and then wrap stems with stockings. Radishes everywhere! Also planted a tomato with zuchs and cukes--I have read that they deter the beetles. It's all one big experiment.

[barkeater]

[QUOTE=lrussillo;471469]Here you go--lots of research out there. google "salicylic acid and tomatoes"

http://ijagcs.com/wp-content/uploads.../1184-1187.pdf

CONCLUSION
"Salicylic acid is considered to be a potent plant hormone because of its diverse regulatory roles in plant
metabolism. It is well-established fact that salicylic acid potentially generates a wide array of metabolic responses
in plants and also affects the photosynthetic parameters which enhance plant growth and yield. It may, therefore be
concluded that the sustained increase in the observed parameters expectedly culminated in maximization of the
process of biomass accumulation leading to higher productivity, lycopene, vitamin C content of tomato fruit and as
well as fruit Brix index. "

irussillo, Thanks for posting all the studies. I am convinced of the benefits now. I won't be spraying my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant biweekly with aspirin water, but will soak my flats in aspirin water at transplanting time to maximize salicylic acid (SA) levels in the plants. Studies show even just soaking the seeds in SA is beneficial.

And, since many human fungal and bacterial infections are treated using the same metals used in plant disease formulations (such as copper, zinc, and manganese), its no stretch to believe aspirin would have beneficial properties in plants as it does in humans!

[ChrisK]

I have posted quite a number of good plant defense papers, of varying technical depth, in the Winter Reading thread.


Chris

Who spends ~50 hrs/week immersed in active research in the field.

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I had said in an earlier post here that I was most interested in finding out the mechanisms of those defenses before I'd feel comfortable ( last few words my new words) before trying to understand the results of others when there are so many variables out there as to where, when, and on and on.

This thread started with comments about aspirin being a growth stimulant and then went into possible protection from diseases.

I did a Goggle search and used the word tomato as part of the search since this was how the thread started, re tomatoes.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...+tomato+plants

The second link is for a separate source.

http://www.freshplaza.com/article/12...nts-discovered

Carolyn

[wormgirl]

I used the concentration recommended by U Rhode Island master gardener--which is weaker than some recommendations. Here's one article http://www.plantea.com/plant-aspirin.htm

PlanTea! I miss that stuff so much! It had an amazing effect on the soil of one of my houseplants once, and I was convinced. Wish she had been able to sell the formula to someone.

[lrussillo]

Here are the Belmonte and Principe Borghese--plants are growing like weeds--just shy of 8 weeks. http://www.tomatoville.com/images/smilies/smile1.gif

[wormgirl]

Gorgeous!!

[Slg Garden]

Wow! I use aspirin as a face scrub. I guess I'll have to share with the tomatoes. Did you plant them deep or at their potted dirt level?

[lrussillo]

Thanks!

I start them in a 16 oz paper soup cup filled 1/3 with seedling mix--then add soil as they grow to support them. They go into a mini greenhouse at about a month--earlier if the weather is above 50--so they are quite stocky--I plant them with about an inch below soil level.

[lrussillo]

[QUOTE=barkeater;471864]

Originally Posted by lrussillo

Here you go--lots of research out there. google "salicylic acid and tomatoes"

http://ijagcs.com/wp-content/uploads.../1184-1187.pdf

CONCLUSION
"Salicylic acid is considered to be a potent plant hormone because of its diverse regulatory roles in plant
metabolism. It is well-established fact that salicylic acid potentially generates a wide array of metabolic responses
in plants and also affects the photosynthetic parameters which enhance plant growth and yield. It may, therefore be
concluded that the sustained increase in the observed parameters expectedly culminated in maximization of the
process of biomass accumulation leading to higher productivity, lycopene, vitamin C content of tomato fruit and as
well as fruit Brix index. "

irussillo, Thanks for posting all the studies. I am convinced of the benefits now. I won't be spraying my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant biweekly with aspirin water, but will soak my flats in aspirin water at transplanting time to maximize salicylic acid (SA) levels in the plants. Studies show even just soaking the seeds in SA is beneficial.

And, since many human fungal and bacterial infections are treated using the same metals used in plant disease formulations (such as copper, zinc, and manganese), its no stretch to believe aspirin would have beneficial properties in plants as it does in humans!

I will be interested in hearing the results of soaking the seeds. Can't say this is scientific--but it looks from mine that the timing of spraying is a factor...Eva PB was the runt of the litter--slow to germinate and so behind the others when I sprayed--has put out buds with only 4-5 leaves below. I am thinking that once they have three sets of leaves might be the optimal time for the first spray. Keep us posted.

[Lindalana]

There are 2 most common doses of aspirin 81 mg and 325 mg. Which ones are we talking about when we say 1.5 uncoated tablets for 2 gallons or ?

[lrussillo]

1-2/2 325 mg./2 gal
or
3/4 325 mg/gal