Topic: Aspirin as a garden fungicide

[Glock32]

Has anyone ever heard of using aspirin as a treatment for plant disease?  I am growing a bunch of pumpkin plants, and a lot of the leaves have succumbed to a white powdery mildew. I've never had this problem before and I attribute it to the fact that we have had unending downpours all damn summer (we had 30 inches of rain in the month of July alone).  The pumpkin plants are otherwise healthy and have so far been able to constantly produce new leaves to compensate for the diseased ones, but this is energy and nutrients that aren't going into the pumpkins.

I read about a treatment where you dissolve a regular 325mg aspirin tablet into a gallon of water and spray the foliage with this solution. It's supposed to trigger the plant's natural defense system, since the active ingredient in aspirin (salicylic acid) is derived from willow bark and that's the role it naturally performs in plants.

I just sprayed down four of my vines, so we'll see what happens.   

[AlanS]

I've heard of it, but never from a reliable source. It's always "my neighbor's cousin's in-law" or such. Keep us updated.

[Pandora]

Yes, do; I'm interested as well.

We've been sporadically putting eggshells around the bottoms of the tomato plants to ward off blossom-end rot.

[oldcoastie6468]

What are the results, Glock32?

[Glock32]

Unfortunately I can't really draw any conclusions. After I applied the aspirin solution, the weather improved and we had an extended period without rain. The fungus even on the untreated leaves died off in the drier conditions, so I can't say to what extent the aspirin worked or not.

But plenty of people on gardening forums swear that it works, and I will try it again if I have this problem next summer.  Growing conditions were just poor in general this season. Way too wet. My pumpkins are quite a bit smaller this year, and I think it's because the plant was having to devote so much energy to growing replacement vegetation.

I don't even do anything edible with pumpkins. I grow them for the hell of it, and because they make nice targets at the shooting range.

[Libertas]

Anything in the squash family makes good targets!   

[John Florida]

Unfortunately I can't really draw any conclusions. After I applied the aspirin solution, the weather improved and we had an extended period without rain. The fungus even on the untreated leaves died off in the drier conditions, so I can't say to what extent the aspirin worked or not.

But plenty of people on gardening forums swear that it works, and I will try it again if I have this problem next summer.  Growing conditions were just poor in general this season. Way too wet. My pumpkins are quite a bit smaller this year, and I think it's because the plant was having to devote so much energy to growing replacement vegetation.

I don't even do anything edible with pumpkins. I grow them for the hell of it, and because they make nice targets at the shooting range.

   Try cutting them into chunks and steam them till soft and add brown sugar and butter to taste,will taste like sweet potatos.  (mash them)


   You can also put olive oil on a frying pan and add the soft pumpkin to it with hot pepper flakes,good side dish.Need I say to add salt and black pepper to taste.