Aspirin for Tomatoes: A Good Step for Prevention

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I have been using aspirin for 2 years now (on my plants) and this will be my third. It activitates a defense response in the plant and is believed to help them 'be stronger' in warding of fungi and pest attacks. That is Leaf Spot and Blights. I think it is true. Some of my plants got Leaf Spot and prevention allowed them to make it through Augusts. My incidence of Early Blight (by my diagnosis) was much less than previous years.

Prevention works!

Here is a link to a very good article: http://www.plantea.com/plant-aspirin.htm. Below are some passages I copied from the link.

"What caught my eye in the original Avant Gardener article was it said that aspirin is an activator of Systemic Acquired Resistance (SAR). And that plants, when under stress, naturally produce salicylic acid, but not fast enough and in sufficient quantities to really help them out in time. So the bugs get them, and diseases get them, and they show even more stress.
"But if you give them aspirin, it helps boost their immune system, kind of like feeding people echinacea so they don't get a cold."

The dosage that Martha used was 1.5 [uncoated] aspirins to 2 gallons of water. She also added 2 tablespoons of yucca extract to help the aspirin water stick to the leaves better. (The yucca extract can be substituted with a mild liquid soap.) Martha explained that the yucca (or soap) prevents the aspirin water from beading up and rolling off leaves of broccoli and kale leaves. Finally, she sprayed the plants every 3 weeks.
The summer when Martha first started testing aspirin water, was not the best, weather-wise. It was cool, rainy and damp. "But what happened was, by the end of the season, the plants in the raised beds with the aspirin water looked like they were on steroids!


"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 they aspirin water seemed to reverse it. The cucumbers ended up being very healthy."

Check out the site it is very informative: http://www.plantea.com/