介绍:
We all know vinegar is a home all-star. It can serve as a cleaner, an insect killer and something else. However, now it has another use — serving as a drought-fighter.
Recently, researchers have discovered a new but simple way to fight drought: Vinegar can help plants fight drought.
A warming climate brings increased risk of drought. The researchers are surprised to learn that maybe a little vinegar can help. They have found that growing plants in vinegar makes them more resistant to drought. This means that worries about climate change affecting the world’s supply of food will be much fewer in the future.
The discovery was made after the researchers studied the Arabidopsis, a plant known for its ability to survive in dry weather. Researchers found that when the plant was placed in drought-like conditions, it produced a kind of chemical called acetate, the main component of vinegar.
This led the researchers to a discovery: Plants have a change that decides how they produce energy. Normally, plants break down sugar for energy, but in times of drought, they turn to the acetate-producing pathway. Plants that produce more acetate are able to deal with drought more easily.
Then the researchers experimented further by adding dilute vinegar to the soil of other plants before they stopped giving them water completely. After leaving the plants for 14 days, they found that 70% of the plants treated with dilute vinegar had survived, while the untreated plants had dried up and died. This is a hugely important discovery.
Is it likely that people will spray vinegar across their fields to fight drought? We don’t know yet, but it can be a good way to keep plants healthy.
