Feeding cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, plants with baking soda in greenhouses and open ground

Any gardener dreams of harvesting an excellent harvest, but many are wary of using industrially produced fertilizers. Nevertheless, the plantings need to be fed and protected from pests. At the initial stages, folk methods can also cope with these problems, for example, soda for cucumbers in the garden has long established itself as an effective remedy.

Chemical characteristics of baking soda

In a chemical sense, soda is sodium bicarbonate (also known as sodium bicarbonate or sodium bicarbonate). This is a salt with a pronounced alkaline reaction, externally representing a fine white powder with a salty taste.

Sodium bicarbonate is very poorly soluble in cold water. But when the temperature rises to +600C and above, it begins to decompose into sodium carbonate, water and carbon dioxide. This process looks like “boiling” of the solution with a characteristic hissing sound.

When exposed to an acidic environment, soda also breaks down into water, carbon dioxide and some salt. For example, the product of the common household reaction of “quenching” soda with vinegar becomes sodium acetate, a well-known food additive and preservative.

Baking soda is a safe, environmentally friendly product for humans. It will also not harm the bees, since many beekeepers use soda to treat them.

Can it be used on the seeds themselves?

Yes. Potassium permanganate is usually used to disinfect them. But, if you treat spring seedlings with baking soda, then each seed will have antiseptic properties. Bacteria will be completely absent.

The method consists of the following steps. Take special cotton pads or small pieces of cotton fabric. They are moistened with the solution. It is prepared from strict proportions. For one liter of water 5 grams of powder. Afterwards, each seed is laid out very carefully.

Functions of sodium in plant tissues

Having familiarized ourselves with the chemical properties of soda, we can conclude: sodium bicarbonate is a source of sodium for plants. In plant tissues, sodium performs important functions:

• participates in the movement of carbohydrates and other substances across cell membranes;
• participates in the activation of a number of enzymes.

Sodium is necessary for such an important process as osmosis. It is thanks to it that plant cells can absorb water with nutrients dissolved in it. Osmotic pressure ensures normal tissue turgor.

Important! If there is a lack of sodium, plants are unable to absorb water even with increased watering. In addition, in such a situation, their resistance to frost sharply decreases: cytoplasm with a low salt concentration freezes faster than with a normal one.

Potential Harm of Excess Sodium to Plants

Despite the important role of sodium in the plant cell, deficiency of this element occurs extremely rarely. This element is carried away by cyclones from the surface of the seas and oceans and is contained even in ordinary rainwater. Therefore, signs of its acute shortage are observed mainly when growing plants on “empty” artificial substrates, when watering with water with low mineralization.

In the garden, you can much more often see the consequences of excess sodium. However, it can be difficult to recognize, since it manifests itself indirectly - through signs of potassium and calcium deficiency.

The fact is that a large amount of sodium in the soil upsets the balance of cations. This element displaces potassium and calcium ions from the soil-absorbing complex, which become inaccessible to plants. At the same time, the phenomenon of soil salinity or the “salt marsh effect” is rapidly developing.

Excess sodium in the soil is well tolerated only by halophytes - plants with high osmotic potential, such as wormwood, immortelle, licorice, quinoa, etc.

Crops that can be fed with soda

All of the above means that not all crops can be fed with soda. It is advisable to use this product only for plants that can actively remove sodium from the soil:

• tomatoes;
• potato;
• eggplant;
• peppers;

All crops that can be fed with Soda (click to expand)

• beet;
• swede;
• cabbage;
• celery root;
• onion;
• garlic.

It is better not to use soda as a top dressing for cucumbers and other pumpkins. Natural sources of sodium are sufficient for these crops.
“Nowadays there are often recommendations to water cucumbers with soda solution. Supposedly, this increases their productivity. I strongly advise against doing this. In 2013, we conducted a similar experiment in our greenhouses. Such fertilizing did not have any effect on productivity. On the contrary, we observed a negative effect: the developing greens acquired bitterness. Hybrids genetically free of bitterness produced watery fruits that quickly spoiled.”

A. Nedzvetskaya, greenhouse agronomist

You should be very careful about online recommendations and check the information you receive. Watering with sodium products, which includes soda solution, is not beneficial for all plants.

Soda for mold on seedlings

White mold, also known as powdery mildew, is caused by fungal spores. It attaches to a young leaf and begins to develop, quickly spreading to other parts of the plant and nearby seedlings. The attack, whose spores are carried by the wind, slows down growth and can completely destroy all plants. Prevention against mold begins with the disinfection of seeds in a soda solution (5 g: 1 l). Then they are lowered into moist, not wet, soil. For prevention, from time to time the seedlings are sprayed with a soda solution (1 tsp: 1 l).

Soda and other sodium fertilizers

Baking soda is not the only substance that can serve as a source of sodium. There is a group of mineral fertilizers containing this element in large quantities. Moreover, in most of them, sodium goes “hand in hand” with potassium:

Potassium is more important for plants than sodium. As Yu. Khodakov, corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, wrote, even if there are no sodium salts in the soil at all, the seeds will still sprout, and without potassium, plants do not develop at all. Therefore, if there is an urgent need to feed your plantings with sodium, it is better to choose not soda, but some other fertilizer.

Tip #1. The safest sodium-containing fertilizer is sodium humate. It is suitable for feeding any crops, regardless of their osmotic potential. In addition, it does not harm the soil, but rather enriches it with valuable humic acids necessary to maintain fertility.

Is baking soda good for tomatoes?

Spraying and fertilizing tomatoes and other garden crops with soda is a common practice. All you have to do is go online and you can get dozens of recipes and find out that this is a harmless and harmless substance that brings only benefits. But is it?

What is soda

Two types of soda are usually used for feeding:

1. Calcined, with the chemical formula Na2CO3. Contrary to the name and the belief of some gardeners, there is no calcium in it at all. This is the sodium salt of carbonic acid, carbonate. Used to make glass and detergents.
2. Baking soda is white small crystals used in industry, cooking, and medicine. Sodium bicarbonate, chemical formula NaHCO3, acid salt of carbonic acid.

Sodium for plants

The active ingredient in soda is Na. Its functions:

• regulates the transport of carbohydrates;
• activates individual enzymes;
• participates in the cellular movement of useful substances;
• increases winter hardiness of perennial crops;
• With its deficiency, chlorophyll is formed worse.

This is a microelement, the need for which is very small. Contained in almost all soils, sediments, tap and artesian water.

Botanists classify sodium as a conditionally (not vital!) element necessary for plant organisms. Why conditional? Because if there is a lack of Na, it is successfully replaced by potassium. But not the other way around!

What does baking soda do to the soil?

This is carbonate salt. Getting into the soil, it changes its physical and chemical properties:

• makes it sticky (earth is like plasticine);
• disrupts the structure;
• causes physiological drought - there is water in the soil, but it is not absorbed by the plants, no matter how much you water it;
• pectinization of humus occurs (swelling), it stops performing its functions.

The desire to feed tomatoes with cheap fertilizer (which in fact is not such) results in soil salinization. The more fertile the land, the faster it deteriorates. Chernozems suffer the most, as they are rich in humus.

Soil salinity falls into three categories. The most dangerous is soda (carbonate). Depending on the degree, it reduces the yield by 25-100%.

Of course, to be left with empty beds, you need to work hard; usually the soil turns into plasticine gradually, and the owners do not associate this with the addition of sodium salts. But what advice! Water the garden or greenhouse with a soda solution at a concentration of 50 g per 1 liter, sprinkle dry powder! What are the tips on soil deoxidation worth? By the way, sodium is a trace element!

An additional danger is that Na is very poorly leached from the soil. It’s easy to destroy the soil in a few seasons, but it will take decades to restore its fertility and fine-lumpy structure.

You can, of course, manure your garden every year and sprinkle lime or chalk under the plowing, while your neighbors do this much less often. Ultimately, a good way is to replace the soil throughout the entire area. But isn’t “cheap fertilizer” too expensive?

Excess sodium for tomatoes and other plants

Carbonates in high concentrations are toxic to tomatoes. They can cause marginal burns of old leaves during foliar treatment and damage to outer root cells when the soil is moistened. If vegetables are watered with soda, the sodium concentration in the soil solution will be many times higher than the norm:

• photosynthesis will slow down;
• protein synthesis will be inhibited;
• other elements are absorbed less well;
• The osmotic pressure in the cells will increase.

With regular use of carbonates on tomatoes:

• the fruits will become ugly;
• productivity will decrease;
• the taste will deteriorate.

But the main thing is that water stops being absorbed. Even if there is more than enough of it in the ground. Of course, tomatoes need less moisture than peppers, but they can also die from physiological drought, standing “knee-deep” in water inaccessible due to soil salinity.

Do tomatoes need additional nutrition with sodium?

In relation to Na, plant organisms are divided into three groups:

• most crops react extremely negatively to the addition of the element, these include cucumbers and peppers;
• tomatoes have average salt tolerance, but do not need additional fertilizer with soda;
• microdoses of Na may be required for vegetable crops from the Chenopoaceae family (beets, spinach, chard) and Cruciferous plants (cabbage, radishes, turnips, radishes, horseradish).

To feed the latter group, small concentrations of potassium chloride are usually used, which is much more easily washed out of the soil than soda. Tomatoes receive the required doses of sodium from precipitation and from the soil.

Can baking soda kill pests on tomatoes?

Scientists unanimously say that if you treat tomatoes with soda, there will be no benefit. But it will wash away the aphids. Like a soap solution, an infusion of any insecticidal plant. It is useless to spray tomatoes against spider mites.

Baking soda works against slugs and ants, although there are many more effective remedies. But here you need to sprinkle dry powder, and this is fraught with consequences.

How baking soda fights tomato diseases

Na has nothing to do with late blight. Only copper-containing drugs can contain its spread.

The fight against other diseases has an effect, but it is insignificant - to destroy pathogens by alkalization, you need to spray the tomatoes with a solution with an prohibitive concentration of carbonates. And the substance does not act on all pathogens - no serious studies have been carried out due to phytotoxicity and negative effects on the soil.

Baking soda can help prevent disease. But isn’t it better to replace it with biological products that are truly harmless and more effective for plants, such as Fitosporin?

Previously, soda was used to treat roses for cutting in greenhouses together with whey. There it acted not as an active substance, but as an acidity neutralizer. Now this has long been abandoned.

Using soda to feed plants

If you still decide to feed the plants with soda, you need to properly prepare a solution that will be safe for the soil. To do this, 1 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate is diluted in 5 liters of warm water. After the solution has cooled, watering is carried out:

• for tomatoes - 1 liter, in the ripening phase of the first bunch and again in mid-August;
• for peppers and eggplants - 1 liter, when setting the first fruits and in the phase of their technical ripeness;
• for beets, other root vegetables, garlic and onions - once, generously, 5 liters per 1 m2;
• for cabbage - 1 liter 2 weeks after transplanting the seedlings into the ground and again at the beginning of setting heads.

Since soda solutions have a weak alkaline reaction, they are more effective on acidic soils. When prepared in low concentration, in neutral soil, they will also not do much harm.

Watering beets and onions with soda solution does not affect the yield, but slightly increases the sugar content of root crops and bulbs.

How to prepare a soda solution

An aqueous nutrient solution of sodium bicarbonate is used for foliar irrigation and root watering. Their compositions vary depending on the purpose of use. In any case, there are a number of restrictions when preparing solutions that protect plants from possible harm:

• in order to avoid spontaneous occurrence of chemical reactions, it is not recommended to use aluminum, metal utensils or made of polymer materials;
• containers that are dirty or dusty are not used for the same reason. First they are washed;
• mixtures are prepared immediately before use. Three hours after production they are no longer effective;
• they can be heated to no more than 55 °C. At higher temperatures they lose their valuable properties.

Baking soda as a fungicide and antiseptic

A completely different matter is the use of soda as a protective agent against fungal and bacterial infections of plants. In this case, the fungicidal and antiseptic properties of sodium bicarbonate are scientifically substantiated and confirmed by numerous observations.

Practice shows that soda copes well with the initial stages of the following diseases:

• various leaf spots;
• powdery mildew;
• fruit rot;
• grape oidium;
• late blight

To treat diseased plants, you need to prepare a solution according to one of the following recipes:

Both of these remedies are considered universal. They cannot be called strong, but for the prevention or treatment of small lesions, soda solutions may well be useful. After treatments, you need to carefully monitor the condition of the plants. If the disease progresses significantly, you should not wait 5-7 days and re-spray earlier.

In cases where it is not possible to stop the spread of infection with soda, you must immediately apply a chemical fungicide.

Treatment of leaves with soda solution is possible even in those crops for which watering with this product is not recommended. For example, on cucumbers, soda helps to cope with powdery mildew in the initial stage of the disease.

How will it affect late blight of tomatoes?

Tomato plants are often susceptible to disease, their leaves, shoots, and fruits suffer. Timely actions prevent the parasites from progressing, and destruction of the crop will be impossible. Sodium bicarbonate is an excellent pest control agent.

Only in this case, preventive actions are much more effective than the treatment itself. Therefore, an experienced gardener will begin spraying the plants after planting has begun.

The procedure is repeated after 10 days. This approach is due to the fact that it is necessary to avoid even the early appearance of late blight. Tomatoes can be affected by parasites very quickly; if they are on the leaves, the taste will change greatly.

On the other hand, the use of the solution will increase the amount of sucrose in ripening fruits. The required mixture is prepared: add 3 tablespoons to a 10-liter bucket of water, without a slide!

Baking Soda for Pest Control

Many summer residents get rid of a number of garden pests with the help of soda. Sodium bicarbonate demonstrates noticeable effectiveness in relation to the following species:

• Aphids and weevils. For 10 liters of warm water, take 2 tablespoons of soda, a third of a bar of laundry soap, 1 tablespoon of iodine (see → how to use iodine as a fertilizer + reviews). Everything is mixed, and the affected plants are sprayed in places where insects accumulate.
• Slugs and snails. A layer of dry soda is scattered around the plants.
• Wireworm. Add 1 teaspoon of soda to the planting holes for potatoes.
• Leaf-eating caterpillars. Mix soda and wheat flour in equal proportions. The leaves are generously powdered with the prepared mixture.

Sometimes soda helps drive ants away from the beds. To do this, the found anthill is turned with a shovel and generously sprinkled with dry soda. But at the same time, you need to remember about the possible negative effect of sodium bicarbonate on the soil.

Both baking soda and soda ash can be used against pests. Calcined has a stronger effect, therefore it is preferable for extensive damage to plants by insects.

Soda against powdery mildew:

The white or gray powdery film initially affects the lower leaves of the seedling and then gradually spreads to the entire plant. Photosynthesis is disrupted, the leaves turn yellow and fall off. When treating plants, you need to make sure that the bush is completely covered with the solution. The treatment is repeated weekly.

on currants

Baking soda changes the pH of the fungus and kills it.

• To spray the affected currant leaves, prepare a solution of 1 tbsp. soda, 1/2 tsp. liquid soap and water (4 l). Processing frequency is every 10 days.
• Dissolve 1 tbsp in 4 liters of water. l. soda, 1 tsp. liquid soap, 1 tbsp. vegetable oil and 1 aspirin tablet. The bushes are sprayed with a disinfectant composition once every two weeks. Thanks to the action of aspirin, the powdery film will not spread further.

on gooseberries

The whitish coating on gooseberries is removed twice: before flowering and after.

• Dissolve 2 tbsp in 10 liters of water. soda and 50 grams of grated soap.
• A mixture of milk, soda and water (1 l: 4 tsp: 4 l) is used to treat the affected areas once a week.

Reviews about the effectiveness of baking soda

Reviews from gardeners about the use of soda are mixed. In some cases, it does not help cope with diseases, but in others it is quite effective. Much depends on the phase of development of the infection and the resistance of the pathogen. The same goes for pest control.

Reviews regarding the use of soda as a top dressing are also quite contradictory:

“My neighbor constantly waters her greenhouse with soda and says that this makes her tomatoes grow larger. But personally, I did not notice any supernatural effect. Neither my tomatoes nor peppers became larger or sweeter. True, cabbage and beets responded well to such feeding. My cabbage suffers from clubroot almost every year, and after watering with soda, all the roots were clean. Phoma blight was not detected on the beets, which is also not uncommon in my area” (Tatyana, Moscow region).

Indeed, watering with sodium bicarbonate can correct the situation with diseases of roots and root crops. Clubroot and fomoz actively develop on acidic soils, and the soda solution serves as a deoxidizing agent. In addition, the antiseptic and fungicidal properties of sodium bicarbonate have an effect here.