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In Today’s post, we will look into 5 powerful benefits of an easily available over the counter medication – The Aspirin Tablet in your garden and a simple DIY home made pesticide recipe if do not have stocks of your regular pesticide during the lockdown.
Technically, Aspirin is not an organic solution, however, it is a safe and very inexpensive option that contains far fewer chemicals than the store-bought chemical products for gardening. I think most of us might have exhausted their regular pesticide stocks during this lockdown period, especially the great neem oil. Do not worry and watch this video till the end.
Aspirin is chemically Acetyl Salicylic Acid and medically a non-steroidal analgesic and anti-inflammatory medicine, inexpensive and easily available in almost all medical stores.
So, what is the actual concept behind using Aspirin in gardening and farming. Salicylic acid is naturally found in willow bark and many other trees. Studies have found that the plant hormone salicylic acid is released in tiny amounts when plants are in stress. So this concept has been utilized and many benefits of Aspirin have already been proven. Here we are using Aspirin 350 mg dispersible tablet – brand names like Disprin, Ecospirin, Bayer Aspirin and so on. If you are not getting a dispersible tablet, you can crush the non-dispersible tablet and powder it and use it.
- Aspirin for Plant growth: Many university research studies have been conducted on this. They sprayed plants with an aspirin water once every three weeks for the course of an entire growing season and found that, the plants sprayed with the aspirin solution were found much bigger and had more fruits and flowers than their counterparts.
So, How to use Aspirin in your garden? You can dissolve one tablet of aspirin in one gallon of water and drench your plants with this solution once in a month. You can spray this solution on the leaves and also water your plants with this water. This enhances the immune system of plants and helps them in combating with pests and microbial attacks and prevents the formation of fungus leading to increased growth of plants and improves the overall health if your plants. - Aspirin Improves Seed Germination: A low dose of aspirin water significantly improves seed germination and in one study the plants treated with the aspirin water had a 100 percent germination rate, while the plants that weren’t treated had more inconsistent results. To make this solution or spray, drop half a tablet of a 350 mg Aspirin per gallon of water or a quarter tablet per litre of water and stir well. One method is to Spray on the seeds already planted and another method is to soak the seeds in this solution for 1 to 2 hours before planting them.
- Aspirin as a Rooting Hormone: As already discussed, Salicylic acid is naturally found in willow bark and many other trees. Willow bark extract is being used since ages as a Rooting agent to clone plant cuttings successfully. If you do not have rooting hormone powders like naphthalene acetic acid and indole butyric acid, you can use aspirin for this job.
Take one teaspoon of cinnamon powder from your kitchen and add it to 1 litre of lukewarm water and then drop in half a tablet of 350mg aspirin and stir it well. Then dip the cuttings into this solutions for about 30 to 60 minutes and then plant those cuttings into soil. If you are trying to root cuttings in water, drop half a tablet of aspirin per litre of water. If you are changing this water, you need to again add half a tablet of aspirin into the container till rooting starts.
- Aspirin as an anti fungal to treat Blight in plants: Blight means a specific symptom affecting some plants like tomatoes and peppers due to infections by pathogenic microrganisms, leading to rapid and complete chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues started from leaves, branches, flowers and fruits. The dosage is same, that is one tablet per gallon of water as a spray or drench your plant with this water.
- To keep Cut flowers stay fresh for a longer time: Put a 1/4th tablet of aspirin in a vase with fresh cut flowers from your garden to help them stay fresh longer. If the vase is larger add half a tablet.
Now! The PESTICIDE RECIPE:
– Take a Large Onion and drop it into a kitchen blender
– Add 4 fresh cloves of garlic into this.
– Add 2 teaspoons of Red Chilli Powder.
– Add 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon Powder.
– Blend this into a fine paste by adding some water.
– Now Add about 2 Cups of Water to this and mix well and allow it to steep overnight.
– Then in the morning, strain out the liquid using a nylon cloth or a fine sieve to get your pesticide concentrate. You can even store this concentrate in refrigerator.
– To Apply as pesticide, Use it in 1:5 dilution in water. That is to one cup of this pesticide add 5 cups of water and most importantly do not forget to add some 10 drops of liquid detergent soap for the surfactant effect and to coat the leaves and retain the pesticide effect for longer time. Use this twice weekly until all pests are eradicated. This will successfully kill common pests like aphids, mealybugs, whiteflies and many others.
