Download Take an aspirin with soapy water

American Agriculturist
www.FarmProgress.com – July 2014
Crops
9
Take an aspirin with soapy water
By JOHN VOGEL
OUR doctor might have told you:
“Take an aspirin and call me in the
morning.” Now, plant doctors suggest that almost the same medicine may
help vegetable crops ward off or cure plant
disease “headaches.”
Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is an
Earth-friendly first aid for warding off
plant diseases and may have other benefits of turning on plant defenses, contends
Martha McBurney. The master gardener at
University of Rhode Island tested aspirin
water on tomatoes, cucumbers, beans,
basil and other plants.
“It helps boost their immune systems,”
she explains. Aspirin is an activator of
Systemic Acquired Resistance, or SAR.
When under stress, plants naturally produce salicylic acid, but not fast enough
and in sufficient quantities to really help
in time. So the bugs get them, and diseases
get them, and they show even more stress.
Y
How much, how often
Keep in mind that this is garden-scale
— not field-scale. McBurney used 1.5 uncoated aspirins to 2 gallons of water and
added two tablespoons of yucca extract
to help the aspirin water stick to the leaves
better. A mild liquid soap would do the
same, preventing the aspirin water from
beading up and rolling off leaves of broccoli and kale plants. She sprayed the plants
every three weeks.
Despite a cool, rainy, damp summer,
“the plants were huge, and green and with
no insects. We even saw some disease
problems that reversed themselves. We
think we got a virus on the cucumbers, and
the aspirin water seemed to reverse it. The
cucumbers ended up being very healthy,”
she says.
Field-scale potential?
Early this year, USDA’s Agricultural
Research Service scientists at Beltsville,
Md., concurred that the SAR plant response may have commercial potential.
ARS Molecular Biologist Yan Zhao is
studying how salicylic acid prods plants
into releasing their natural defenses
against harmful fungi, bacteria and viruses.
Zhao reported evidence that pre-
Key Points
■ Aspirin water generates a immune
system response in plants.
■ Rhode Island master gardener notes the
response in vegetables.
■ ARS researchers are studying its
commercial potential for crops.
treating tomato plants — a potato relative
— with salicylic acid can prevent potato
purple top phytoplasma infections from
occurring, or at least diminish their severity. Salicylic acid seems to offer “relief”
to crop plants by priming their defenses,
according to the ARS researcher.
SAR strategies in the field have had
mixed results. It’s effective in some crops
against certain pathogens, and ineffective
in other crops or against other pathogens,
notes Zhao. ARS has found that many
widely planted potato varieties respond
to salicylic acid.
So, is this the summer to be doing a little
field or garden research trial of your own?
Plop an aspirin or two in a gallon of warm
soapy water and give it a go.
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POTATO-TOMATO POTENTIAL:
ARS Molecular Biologist Yan Zhao (left)
watches as visiting scientist Wei Wu
pretreats a tomato plant with salicylic
acid, testing its effectiveness against
phytoplasma bacterial infections.
ARS PHOTO