Tomato Experiment with asprin spray.

Richard, its not in the least scientific but I have been spraying mine and they really are looking better than I have ever grown before. Not sure if it will save then from blight but even so their general health seems to be A1. I had 5 containers of Orla spuds that were looking rather suspicious blight wise but not conclusive, I sprayed them a month ago and just got over 7lb out of one container. There may be something in it, keep us posted.

Will do Bill. I've been spraying my spuds as well, but as they're first earlies and salad types, they've all been eaten long before blight is a threat.
Have to agree though my Toms are looking healthy so far, but as I said early days yet.......
If this works out, It'll be a huge boon for me as I just don't have space for a green house.

Like wise Bill, please bookmark this thread and report your own results.

I am also adding Epsom salts to the occasional watering but you can add it in the spray with the asprin, there is a guy on you tube (Baconsoda, highly recommended) who did this but he accidentally added far too much Epson salts and it burnt some of his leaves, so check the dose. Lots on google about it.

If your really concerned how about Bordeaux spray? anything to keep that devastating disease at bay.

I haven't tried Bordeax spray yet, to be honest I blanched a little at the thought of all that copper sulphate getting into the soil. I used epsom salts spray on my shallots to perk them up, I'll give the Toms a wee spray as well (carefully)

I cant quite understand about burdeaux spray, I have seen people claim it is organic though clearly it is a chemical compound. The French use it extensively in wine production and have done so for 100 years. Even our Victorian ancestors used it, if it was that toxic I think we would have heard about it by now. Consider that the shop bought potatoes we eat are sprayed with complex chemicals up to 15 times and it doesn't look so bad to use if it saves your tomato crop. Always try some on the neighbours first of course.

I just sprayed my toms with a very weak aspirin solution just the once before they starged to set fruit. They look ok, but not leaving any untreated, I wont really know if it made a difference. As regards Epsom salts, I dont foliar feed, I just bung a spoonful into the water every so often. Very haphazzard, but thats me all over.

The problem with this is that aspirin is very poorly soluble in water so even if you crush it up very small you are likely to get an incredibly weak solution. Using 'soluble' aspirin tablets would help but they contain other substances so you wouldn't know which, if any, was having the effect.

The many scientific trials that have been done used salicylic acid which is not the same as acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin)

I'm just using cheap soluble aspirin! It's more of a "folk" trial than a scientific test....

Early on in the season I had a tom plant that had floppy leaves at the top, I thought it was a goner. I posted on here for advice we put it down to poor root system so I watered it with aspirin not sure if it was a coincidence but the plant picked up and now looks the same as the rest.

I've just got some tomato plants that aren't as happy as I'd like, despite a good season and feeding, I'm going to give Willow Water a go. Organic and hopefully no solubility problems.

As a chemist, the popular use of the word "organic" infuriates me. In chemistry an organic compound is one which contains carbon and hydrogen, and may contain other elements too. As such, salicylic acid is organic, but so are many many other chemicals including things like petrol and DDT. Copper sulphate is not organic - it is an inorganic salt.

If you go with the more popular definition of organic, which effectively seems to be "natural" (whatever that means), you can't guarantee that it is safe. There are huge numbers of highly toxic natural compounds, some are found in toadstools as just one example. Even if you say that they have to come from plants or animals rather than from artificial manufacture, there are still many that I wouldn't allow anywhere near my food.

The problem with trying to kill things that you don't want, whether they are insects, fungi, becteria or whatever, is that whatever you use, if it is effective it is by definition a killer. If it is a chemical it is going to have other effects than just killing the specific thing that you are targetting. That is why things like nematodes which prey on one particular species and netting are (to my mind) better than so called "organic" slug pellets or insecticides. Guarding against fungal diseases such as blight is harder because the spores are very small, so you have to decide how much poison you are prepared to tolerate to balance the risk of losing your crop. In my case the answer is none. I won't use bordeaux mixture. I'll moan a bucketful if I lose my tomatoes to blight, but that's the risk I take.

Aspirin is not a poison, and has beneficial properties if taken in moderation. I see no harm in applying aspirin if you want to - it is an organic chemical in the chemical sense and in the naturally occurring sense, although any that you buy in a shop is almost certainly manufactured artificially rather than distilled from plant material. I have no idea if it will do any good, but good luck, and let us know if it works!

When I was in the food game, I used also to sell cut flowers and always advised dropping and aspirin in the vase before adding water and the cut flowers.
never thought about using it for toms and tatties.

Well I was replying in the tenor of the thread and more making the point that Willow Water should be soluble without additional chemicals. No one said aspirin was poisonous. I have often made the point on other threads that just because something is called "organic" doesn't mean it's not nasty. As a scientist, I could get really cross about the use of the term "seed potato" but it's not constructive or helpful to the discussions (I know what an organic compound is, too but that is not how the term is used in gardening).

Sorry, didn't mean to offend.