Denture cleaners for plants?

 Clearing out guest room, found bathroom/cosmetic supplies left by
guest.  Included packets of denture cleaners.  Powder that gets
dissolved in water?

Mentioned this to garden friend, who opined that there is something in
that stuff that is good for plants.  Is this weird
or possible?

TIA

HB

 Higgs Boson wrote:

It could contain minerals that are there to act as mild abrasives such as
lime, look on the pack for the ingredients.  Of course this would be the
most expensive possible way to buy a small amount of such things.

D

 On 10/24/11 1:44 PM, David Hare-Scott wrote:

If it does indeed include lime or anything else alkaline, DO NOT USE
IT!!  The soils and water in southern California all tend to be alkaline
already.

Actually, I use powdered sulfur repeatedly around most of my plants to
make the soil more acidic.  Only my dianthus, iris, and primulas prefer
alkaline soil.  My roses, azaleas, camellias, tea tree, citrus, heath,
liquidambar tree, and others all enjoy the sulfuric acid created as soil
bacteria slowly consume sulfur.

--
David E. Ross
Climate:  California Mediterranean, see
<http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html>
Gardening diary at <http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary>

 
<<Are they hard to grow?

 In article


I've never tried it, but . . .

http://www.plantea.com/plant-aspirin.htm

Plants feeling under the weather?
Give them aspirin water!

By Marion Owen, Fearless Weeder for PlanTea, Inc. and
Co-author of Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul
 

aspirin"Take two aspirin and call me in the morning."

We've all heard that advice from doctors. And moms have been dispensing
this all-purpose cure-all to their families as a standard way of
providing relief from headaches and sniffles, muscle aches and joint
pain.

Then it should be no surprise to learn how an important aspirin
ingredient--salicylic acid--is being used as an Earth-friendly first aid
for warding off plant diseases.

Meet Martha McBurney, the master gardener in charge of the demonstration
vegetable garden at the University of Rhode Island. In the summer of
2005 she tested aspirin water on tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, basil and
other plants after reading about it in a gardening publication called
the Avant Gardener (PO Box 489, New York, NY 10028). The results were
well, astonishing...

"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.

How much, and how often

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."

Aspirin improves seed germination

Martha also sprayed the aspirin water on the seeds they directly sowed
in the ground. The result, they discovered was 100 percent seed
germination, compared to spotty germination in the other trial beds.

Scientists at the University of Arizona and with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA), curious about findings such as what Martha
experienced, are studying how salicylic acid prods plants into releasing
their natural defenses against harmful fungi, bacteria and viruses.
According to an article by Dean Fosdick of the Associated Press, "They
envision it as a commercially viable alternative to synthetic pesticides
in a natural way to extend the life of susceptible yet popular crops."

Is it organic? Well, not really. Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is
'derived' from the white willow tree, Salix alba. Studies are now being
conducted on plants using pure willow extracts to compare the effects to
aspirin.

cut flowers

Cut flowers that last forever?

Well, not quite. But current research may explain a modern-old wives'
tale of adding an aspirin to a vase of cut flower to keep the blooms
fresh longer. Here's the explanation: The cutting of flowers is
perceived by the plant as a wound, and so it stimulates the production
of a substance that not only helps the plant fight off bugs, but also
hastens aging or wilting, such as in the case of a cut flower.

Aspirin halts the formation of the substance, which in turn, keeps the
flowers looking young and not wilting prematurely. (For more helpful
tips about keeping cut flowers looking fresh, naturally, click here).

Scientists laughed, at first

Plants weren't the only things affected by the aspirin water. At first,
scientists at the University of Rhode Island gave Martha a bad time
about her experiments. Teased her, mostly. But by the end of the summer,
they were so impressed that they are now conducting their own formal
investigations.

healthy houseplant

"I've recommended it to just about everybody. The people who've tried
it, that is, people who grow from oats to orchids, have found that
plants do remarkably better when given small amounts of aspirin water.
I've tried it on my houseplants, and it does really well. Plants are
more vigorous and I'm having fewer problems with aphids and the typical
things that can build up on houseplants over the winter."

aspirin on plants"Uh, Martha," I broke in. "My husband is losing his
hair. Maybe I should try aspirin water."

Martha didn't miss a beat. "Well, hey, you could give it a go!"

So the next time your plant is looking a little feverish or flushed,
consider reaching for some aspirin for treating what ails it.
------------

3 baby aspirin with 4 gal of water = 1:10,000, the recommended dosage.
[That is 243mg aspirin:512oz water.] (Notice how the ounces of water
seems to be double the mg of aspirin amount?!)

? of an adult aspirin with 4 gal of water = 1:10,000, the recommended
dosage. [That is 243.75mg aspirin:512oz water.]

I think it would be more like 1/5th of an adult aspirin to 1 gal of
water. [That is 65mg aspirin:128oz water.]

Seems ? aspirin (162.5mg) would need to be mixed with approx double that
number in ounces (325), or about 2? gal.

? aspirin (81.25mg) would be much easier to measure than 1/5th of an
aspirin. Mix would be about 81mg aspirin:163oz water, or about 1? gal
water.

Following this through, about the smallest you could reasonably go would
be: 1/8 aspirin (40.625mg) would mix with 81.5oz water, or about 2?
quarts.

Will add more links as find them and/or have the time... send me links
if you have them, please!!

----------
H2O2

1 oz 3% hydrogen peroxide to 1 quart water

16 drops of 35% hydrogen peroxide to 1 quart water

Mist and, or water plants. I do both frequently.
---------

-Salaam
--
- Billy
Both the House and Senate budget plan would have cut Social Security and
Medicare, while cutting taxes on the wealthy.

Kucinich noted that none of the government programs targeted for
elimination or severe cutback in House Republican spending plans
"appeared on the GAO's list of government programs at high risk of
waste, fraud and abuse."
<http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2011/mar/28/dennis-kucinich/re
p-dennis-kucinich-says-gop-budget-cuts-dont-targ/>

[W]e have the situation with the deficit and the debt and spending and jobs. And
it¹s not that difficult to get out of it. The first thing you do is you get rid
of corporate welfare. That¹s hundreds of billions of dollars a year. The second
is you tax corporations so that they don¹t get away with no taxation.
 - Ralph Nader
<http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/19/ralph_naders_solution_to_debt_crisis>