All plants have necessary requirements which help them to grow. Without sunlight, water, fresh air, the correct temperature, and essential nutrients, plants would not thrive. Combine these factors with room to grow and care and attention from the gardener, and you should have a garden full of beautiful, healthy plants!
You can give human vitamins to your plants. Expired vitamins will enhance plant growth when added to compost, fertilizer, or even simply dissolved in water. Vitamins aid root growth, assist in producing healthy plants and fruit while helping the plant recover from stress and shock.
We all know the health benefits of taking vitamin tablets and the consequences of having either too many or not enough of the correct vitamins and minerals in our daily diets. Like humans, plants have specific requirements and need to be fed essential nutrients regularly. So, can you give your plants human vitamins, and what happens if you do?
Can You Give Plants Human Vitamins?
Plants don’t necessarily need human vitamins to survive, but there is no harm in giving your vitamins to plants. Gardeners generally give their plants fertilizers and plant foods at certain stages during the year to provide them with extra nutrients, so adding human vitamins to the mix will not harm them but may add to the additional nutrients that they need.
Various plant growing methods like hydroponics could benefit from receiving human vitamins. Adding vitamins to the soil in your garden can enrich it and improve the nutrients in the ground.
As long as you know what the vitamins contain and why you are giving them to your plants, they should flourish.
The Benefits Of Giving Human Vitamins To Plants
When plants get stressed by environmental factors like the weather or being transplanted or when their crops are harvested, they need time to recover. The recovery time could take up growing time while the plants readjust to the stress.
By giving your plants supplements and vitamins, you can help your plants to recover faster. These are some of the benefits of giving your plants extra vitamins.
- Assists in the quick recovery from stress and transplant shock
- Promotes healthy plant growth and fruit
- Assists in converting the energy in plants from stored compounds
- Aids in the production of essential compounds
- Vitamins could increase the plant’s resistance to disease and insect attacks
Which Human Vitamins Are Good For Plants?
Plants rely on nutrition from carbon, hydrogen, oxygen in the air, and fertilizer, and organic matter in the soil. As long as they have enough phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium, plants will grow well on their own.
Plants don’t require the same vitamin supplements as humans, but they can benefit from certain vitamins that humans need.
Different plants have different requirements. For example, while spinach and broccoli need high nitrogen levels to grow well, too much nitrogen can stunt fruit production in tomatoes. Always research which minerals the vitamins contain and give the correct vitamins to the specific plant.
Individual and multivitamins can safely be used for plants. These are some of the human vitamins which can benefit plants:
- Vitamin A – aids in the production of carotenoids which give plants their color. Supplements can be given to all plants.
- Vitamin B – stimulates flower and root growth. Studies show that plants that receive vitamin B supplements produce a higher yield than those which did not receive the supplement. Fertilizers with added vitamin B increase the vitamin content in barley, spinach, and soy.
- Vitamin C – helps with photosynthesis and offers the plant some protection from smog and air pollutants. All fruits and vegetables can absorb additional supplements.
- Vitamin D – assists in root growth and with absorbing calcium into the stems. Mushrooms will benefit from additional supplements.
- Vitamin E – vital for plant development and seed longevity. Additional supplements would benefit fatty plants like nuts, seeds, and avocado.
- Calcium – stimulates the root system of the plant and provides structural support to cell walls. Broccoli, eggplant, cauliflower, spinach, tomatoes, and peppers will thrive with extra calcium added to their fertilizer.
- Iron – essential for the synthesis of chlorophyll and to maintain chloroplast structure and function. Most of the root vegetables would benefit from extra iron supplements.
- Zinc – is responsible for synthesizing specific proteins in plants and is essential for the formation of chlorophyll. Corn, sweet corn, and edible beans require additional zinc for crop production.
How Do You Give Human Vitamins To Plants?
The best way to feed human multivitamins to plants is by dissolving them in water and spraying them over the plants, or by crushing the tablets into a powder and mixing them into the fertilizer or compost, which you then spread over or blend into the soil.
Some tablets are harder to crush and take longer to dissolve. So, an excellent idea for crushing the vitamins before throwing them into the compost is grinding them together in a coffee grinder or a pestle and mortar to break them down.
Some plants like spinach will absorb the vitamins easier by taking them in through their root systems. Dissolve the crushed vitamins in water and then water the plants once a month with the mixture.
When adding vitamins to plants ready for transplanting into a hydroponics system, simply drop the vitamins into a bucket of clean water and leave them to dissolve. Once dissolved, agitate the water to mix and allow the plant’s roots to soak in the water and absorb the vitamins. Remove as much of the wet clumpy soil as possible from the roots and then transplant it into the hydroponics system.
What Are The Effects Of Expired Human Vitamins On Plants?
If you do have expired vitamins, they are safe to give to your plants in controlled doses. Toss your expired vitamins into your compost pile to improve the nutrients of the soil.
Some vitamins like calcium, vitamin C, vitamin D, and Calcium stimulate the growth of most plants when added to compost or fertilizer, while vitamin D and iron negatively affect the growth of plants when added to water.
If you consider mixing your expired vitamins into your fertilizer, compost, or water for feeding to your plants, check which plants would benefit from soil-based or water-based supplements and adjust according to each plant’s requirements. This will help to keep each plant healthy and free from the harmful effects of excess or unneeded vitamin supplements.
Conclusion
Expired human vitamins can safely be used on plants when mixed into compost, fertilizer, or diluted in water.
While human vitamins can be given to most plants, they can negatively affect others. Always do your research on what your different plant’s needs are before experimenting with the vitamins.
Some plants might not need specific vitamins as they produce enough for their needs, while others could benefit from additional supplements to increase their nutritional value for human consumption.
References
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