by Ross Clark

Believe It Or Not:  The Brown Bottle Sacred Cow, Defrocked

Most of you are probably familiar with the tale about the emperor’s new clothes.  This is an “emperor’s new clothes” story. 

Just in case you have forgotten it . . . Once upon a time, there was a very self-important ruler of a small kingdom.  His word was law; no one dared to disagree with him.  Everyone bowed and smiled as he passed by.  The imperial life was good; he was a very secure, very relaxed monarch.  One day an enterprising tailor received an audience with the emperor, to show him a truly remarkable new line of clothing no one else had ever seen or worn.  Naturally, that idea had great appeal for the ruler.  As the tailor lifted, carefully displayed and oohed and aahed over the clothes, the emperor became more and more pleased and excited.  However, as each of the emperor’s close advisors quietly watched, it became obvious to each of them that the tailor was showing the monarch invisible–or imaginary–clothes.  Naturally, each of the advisors kept it to himself, dared not say anything, and continued to smile and nod his approval.  So, the emperor bought the “clothes” and wore them as he rode a white horse in a parade down the main street of his capital city.  Everyone bowed, smiled, and secretly noted that the emperor was not wearing a stitch of clothing.  But no one dared to utter the naked truth.  No one, except one little boy, who cried out, “Why look, the Emperor has no clothes on!”  Naturally, once the truth came out, there was quite a general commotion, with everyone laughing and repeating what had been obvious from the beginning:  The emperor was wearing nothing at all!

I am that little boy, and I have been watching the emperor and hearing about his new clothes for years.  Only, it’s not clothes, folks.  It is B-vitamins.

Fortunately for us, plants will tolerate some unnecessary treatment we give them, and thrive in spite of it.  One of those totally unnecessary things is feeding our plants B-vitamins.  Do you swear by it?  Have you heard bonsai gurus swear by it?  Do you do it regularly, especially after transplanting or root pruning?  Then, by all means, continue to do it if you believe in it, if it makes you feel better.  But you should know that there is no experimental evidence to suggest that giving plants B-vitamins by any method at any time for any reason helps the plants.  If you supplement with B-vitamins, you are making yourself feel better, not your plants.

Vitamins are essential for basic metabolism.  Without B-vitamins, our cells cannot release energy from carbohydrates, make proteins, and do other basic tasks that keep us alive.  Without vitamins for metabolism, we would die quickly.  (Fortunately, B-vitamins are fat-soluble, so to an extent our bodies store them in body fat for later release.)  Animals cannot make most of the vitamins they require.  We have to eat plants and other animals to acquire the vitamins we need to stay healthy and develop normally.  If our diet does not provide adequate vitamins, or as we get older and our intestines don’t absorb them efficiently, we often take vitamin supplements or higher doses. 

So, if we have to get many of our vitamins from outside ourselves, don’t all organisms need vitamins from elsewhere?  No, they don’t.  Plants (and some other organisms) make all the vitamins they need for metabolism.  There is no evidence that plants need any vitamins from external sources.  The only raw materials plants need to make all of their required vitamins are a balanced supply of certain inorganic chemicals in the soil (non-carbon-containing ions in water), carbon dioxide from the air, and sunlight.  When roots need B-vitamins, those vitamins are moved into the roots from other parts of the plant, or synthesized from raw materials, using the energy stored from photosynthesis to drive the vitamin synthesis process.

When I was young in the 1940s, my mother used to feed me a few drops of brown liquid from a medicine dropper every morning.  It smelled just like that stuff you can buy in the brown bottle from the bonsai supply place.  Hey; it was the same stuff; what she gave me were B-vitamins.

Today, many people, at least once in a while, give their plants the same treatment my mother gave me.  Back in the 1980s, the dosage was one drop per gallon; today, it seems to have been increased to about a bottle’s capful per gallon.  Are bonsai today healthier today than in the 1980s because of more B-vitamins?  Of course not.  But whoever makes that brown liquid stuff is smiling all the way to the bank.  And I’m still smiling at the bonsai’s new clothes.

So, who of you will tell the nationally known sensei that B-vitamins are a bunch of bunk?  Well, don’t look at me; I certainly won’t say it.  I’ll just bow and smile and agree.  And, if it makes you feel better, just keep feeding your plants those B-vitamins.  At the concentrations you use, you will not hurt your bonsai.  If you feel better because of it, you certainly will take better care of your bonsai.  That’s what really matters.

It would not be right for me to take up newsletter space without a positive lesson, so here goes.  What should you do after repotting to lessen transplant shock?  Well, to lessen water loss, we all know we need to put recently repotted trees in a low moisture stress location, in the shade, where they will not lose moisture as fast.  And at the other end of the plant, we need to get the roots back on track to increase their ability to absorb after being pruned back.  The best way to do that is to keep the roots moist (but certainly not wet), and warm.  In extreme cases or when a repotted plant is in precarious condition, you might want to use a heated propagation mat; it will help speed up the formation of new young roots.