North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lisa Almarode <lisaalmarode@yahoo.com>]

I like this story!

Willow trees contains some natural sort of rooting 
hormone, and the active component of aspirin 
originated in willow bark - this is pretty tenuous, 
but might aspirin encourage rooting/root growth?

Lisa in Ashland Oregon
 
> This may not be directly relevant, but I remember a
> delightful & interesting story told to us by Dr.
> Gary Couvillon at University of Georgia.  He knew of
> a very successful nursery that had established a
> reputation over the years of selling trees that
> would not die.  Every tree or bush they sold
> included a bottle of "magic pills" with instructions
> to dissolve one pill in a 5 gallon bucket of water
> immediately after planting and each week thereafter
> during the first year and apply the concoction to
> the tree.  The nursery owner confided to Professor
> Couvillon that the magic pills were just aspirin,
> but he found it was an effective way to get people
> to water the young trees regularly. Earlier in his
> career, he had problems with having to replace trees
> that had died from lack of water despite carefully
> including instructions to water regularly.  
> 
> (The aspirin may, incidentally, have had some effect
> on eliciting pathogen defense response that would
> aid in warding off disease, but probably the main
> effect was to elicit the people to water!)


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