Tomato Food

Thus far, I have learned that you can put the following things in the hole before you put your tomato plant in the ground:

• Fish heads
• Aspirin
• Garlic
• Banana peels

All these things, when decomposed by the beasties in the dirt, give nutrients to the tomato plant. Actually, you could probably put these things under any plant as the nutrients provided are useful to all plants.

I think the important thing is to break down the stuff into small bits so that the decomposition process happens faster.

You can also add these items to your compost pile/barrel (although probably not the aspirin).

I wonder, however, if there are enough microorganisms in potting soil to breakdown these things in a container…mmmmm….

Briefly, this is what each thing does;

• Bananas add Potassium, Calcium, Nitrogen and Manganese.
• Aspirin works to protect the plant from some diseases and pests.
• Garlic does the same as the aspirin.
• Fish heads provide calcium and nitrogen.

Sure, you can just buy something at the store in convenient powder or liquid form but then, what would be the fun on that?

Advertisement

Great idea but…

I want to spray my plants with aspirin. The original article (see this post) called for uncoated aspirin. I think the reason for this is that uncoated aspirin is easier to crush and dissolve in water, but it also may have something to do with the coating itself in coated aspirin. I did some research on the Internet and found different substances (like ethylcellulose and methylcellulose) used in the coating of aspirin. There is no way for me to know what effect those substances would have on my plants so I decided to use uncoated aspirin only.
BUT…
I could not find uncoated aspirin anywhere. I tried Walgreen’s. No go. I tried Dillon’s (a supermarket chain owned by Kroger) No go. I tried K-mart, Walmart. No go. All those stores only carried Coated and Enteric Coated aspirin. Finally, on my way back to work from lunch, I drove past a Deep Discount pharmacy and decided to try there and lo and behold they carried uncoated aspirin. You can tell it’s uncoated because when you handle it, you are left with a dusty residue of aspirin in your fingers. Plus, it did not say Coated anywhere in the bottle. I checked the ingredients on the back of the bottle and the only other thing in the pills was corn starch.

Let the spraying begin!

***UPDATE****
In the original article, the dosage for this is 1.5 aspirin (81 gr) per 2 gallons of water. I can only assume that 81g stands for 81 grams. 81 grams equals 81000 milligrams(1000 milligrams = 1 gram) My aspirin came in pills of 385 milligrams each so that means I would have to use about 210 pills to make the solution stated in the article!!!! That did not seem right so I went online and began researching this. I found this article where a more sensible recipe is given: 250 – 500 milligrams of aspirin per gallon of water. That would be one of my aspirin tablets in a gallon of water. Much better!
As for how often to spray, I will still follow the every 3 weeks schedule.

Aspirin for your plants

Really!

This is an excerpt from http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/aspirinforplants.htm:

“The dosage Martha arrived at after numerous experiments was 1.5 aspirin (81 gr. strength) to two gallons of water. Important note: The tablets should be the uncoated type. She also added two tablespoons of yucca extract to help the aspirin water stick better to the leaves. (The yucca extract can be substituted with a mild liquid soap).

SPRAYING

Finally, Martha divised a schedule of spraying once every three weeks, no matter the type of plant. The summer when Martha first started testing aspirin water was not the best, weather-wise. It was cool, rainy and damp. Yet, by the end of the season, the plants growing in the raised beds on which the aspirin water had been used looked like they were on steroids! They were huge and green and insects-free. Some disease seemed even to have reversed themselves on cucumbers affected by a virus.”

I am so trying this!!!