Can Vitamin B1 Help New Garden Transplants?

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Early fall is for planting, as we are fond of saying. The days are cooler, and the soil is still warm. Those are ideal conditions for a healthy start of new cool season annuals, perennials, trees, and shrubs.

If you’re at the nursery this weekend checking out the latest in plants for your yard, you might just take a stroll down the garden chemical aisle. You may notice, on the shelf, a product of dubious value: Vitamin B-1. A typical label on such a bottle will tout its benefits for transplanting fruit trees, bare rootstock, flowers, vegetables and cuttings.

Gardeners, their parents and their grandparents have heard this refrain at nurseries for decades: “Get a bottle of B-1, it will help reduce transplant shock for that new plant you are buying.”The truth, though, is the same as it has been for nearly 90 years: it isn’t the Vitamin B-1 (thiamine hydrochloride) in the bottle that reduces transplant shock.

First a definition of “transplant shock” from Purdue University:

“Transplant shock is a term that refers to a number of stresses occurring in recently transplanted trees and shrubs. It involves failure of the plant to root well, consequently the plant becomes poorly established in the landscape. New transplants do not have extensive root systems, and they are frequently stressed by lack of sufficient water. Plants suffering from water stress may be more susceptible to injury from other causes such as the weather, insects, or disease. When several stresses are being experienced, the plant may no longer be able to function properly.”

And right there you have the answer to effectively reduce transplant shock: water correctly.

Thiamine exists in nature, produced for plants via leaves and sunlight. Plants, as well as soil microbes, create their own Vitamin B1. Thiamine is a cofactor (molecule that binds to an enzyme to help/allow it to function) important in the construction and break down of carbohydrates for growth or energy storage/release.

In the 1930’s, thiamine was shown to increase root development in plant tissue cultures - in the lab - especially in the dark. But those results couldn’t be replicated consistently in the field.

Research at the University of California has shown that the addition of Vitamin B-1 to a plant doesn’t make any difference at all.

Garden author Robert Kourik reported on his website: “The sun set on this persistent myth many years ago. Sunset Magazine reported in 1984 of studies which disproved the value of a vitamin B1 drench at transplant. Yet this horticultural “snake oil” still clutters many retail nursery shelves.

What does work in that bottle prominently labeled “B-1”: the other ingredients - usually micronutrients or auxins - might make a difference in roots and growth of new plants.

Back in the 1940’s, naturally occurring plant growth regulators, known as auxins, were isolated and tested. Auxins were found to stimulate cell elongation in roots and stem tissue. Bingo!

Around that time, a commercial product, Transplantone, was developed that contained auxins and thiamine. Later research showed that it was certain auxins, not the thiamine, that encouraged roots.

But the die was cast: gardeners got into the habit of getting vitamins for their plants.

What does stimulate root growth? A rooting hormone containing auxins such as Indole Butyric Acid, Naphthylacetic acid or Paclobutryzol.

Below the paywall:

What’s inside a bottle of Superthrive?

More information, including a transcript of today’s newsletter podcast, including more myth busting information about pot shards, landscape fabric, wood chips, and why you don’t want to pull out big weeds!

Remember: subscribers also have access to the entire back catalog of Beyond the Garden Basics newsletters and podcasts. $5 a month or $50 a year. If you learned something, tip me! Thanks.

One surprise that popped up in my research: the much-ridiculed Superthrive contains auxins...as well as, of course, Vitamin B-1. Anyone who has tried to pore through the densely hyperbolic endorsements on a Superthrive label looking for the ingredients, well...good luck.

However, I did find the ingredients on a 20 year-old, unused bottle of Superthrive sitting in my greenhouse. Is it the same formulation today? I don’t know. But seeing how they haven’t apparently changed the outside of the bottle much over the years, I have a feeling the insides are still the same.

The debate about the benefits of adding thiamine or other additives (including Superthrive) to plants still rage, with proponents citing research supporting their viewpoint.

Bottom line: The benefits of root formation contained in a bottle of Vitamin B-1 or any other additive product are the auxins, if any, that are included. Small amounts of nitrogen can also encourage root development. Other fertilizer ingredients that might be contained do not necessarily reduce transplant shock, but may provide other plant benefits. Putting the right plant in the right place, with healthy soil, along with the proper amount of sun, water and fertilizer, is all most gardeners need for success.

Today’s Newsletter Podcast Busts More Garden Myths

In today’s newsletter podcast (above), Linda Chalker-Scott tells us: “Vitamin B1 - thiamine - does not reduce transplant shock”, says Chalker-Scott, who is also the author of the book about horticultural myths, “The informed Gardener”.

“We tend to think of things in the context of what we do for ourselves, and especially when we take vitamin supplements - and many of us do take Vitamin B1 supplements,” says Chalker-Scott. “And so you just kind of extrapolate that and think, well, it must be good for the plants too. And what people don’t realize is plants make their own thiamine. So they certainly don’t need us to add that. iI’s just an extra cost and waste of resources.”

There could be other ingredients, such as small amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium in that B1 bottle on the nursery fertilizer shelf that actually may be good for your plants, says Chalker-Scott. “Sometimes there’s also a hormone, usually an auxin, such as IAA, or NAA or something like that. And those actually do have a stimulatory effect on rooting, so that type of rooting hormone or transplant hormone actually does do some good. And so those mixtures of transplant elixirs, if they happen to have a little bit of that hormone, they will have an effect. But it certainly is not the B1 that does it.”

Today’s newsletter podcast is an interview with Linda Chalker-Scott who busts quite a few other garden myths, including:

• Putting pot shards or other material in the bottom of a potted plant container will improve drainage (it doesn’t).

• Using a breathable landscape fabric will keep the weeds out (Nope. Nor does that fabric remain able to move air and water through it for very long).

• Arborist wood chips can transfer diseases to your yard (we busted that myth here recently in the “Disease Triangle” edition of the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter).

• Don’t yank out big weeds. Mow them as short as possible instead. Pulling destroys the soil structure.

• Adding sand to clay soil improves the drainage. (No. You’re making adobe bricks, unless you’re adding over 50% sand by volume to the total volume of existing soil.)

• Replacing native soil with potting mix in a new planting hole makes for a happier perennial, shrub, or tree. (No. It just leads to a pool of water that engulfs the plants’ roots for an extended period of time. (Sad, stinky, dying plant).

Give a listen to the podcast above for more details. You can find a transcript available towards the bottom of this newsletter.

Meanwhile, back at the B-1 nursery shelf…

“Research has shown that the addition of Vitamin B-1 to a plant doesn’t make any difference at all,” echoes Fran Clarke, a University of California lifetime Master Gardener and Community Forester for the Sacramento Tree Foundation. “One test showed that plants given Vitamin B-1 didn’t do as well as plants given just plain water. The benefits to a plant contained in a bottle of Vitamin B-1 are the small amounts of fertilizer that are included. Diluted liquid fertilizer or fish emulsion would accomplish the same task at a fraction of the cost of a bottle of Vitamin B-1.”

The addition of thiamine (Vitamin B-1) is unnecessary at transplanting time for another reason: plants, as well as soil microbes and organic mulch, manufacture their own Vitamin B1.

How did Vitamin B-1 end up on the garden shelf? Its history goes back generations. In the 1930’s, thiamine was shown to increase root development in plant tissue cultures (in the lab), especially in the dark. That success, though, could not be replicated in the field. Back in the 1940’s, naturally occurring plant growth regulators, known as auxins, were isolated and tested. Auxins were found to stimulate cell elongation in roots and stem tissue.

The benefits to a plant contained in a bottle of Vitamin B-1 are the small amounts of auxins, if any, that are included. Small amounts of nitrogen can also encourage root development.

Which auxins stimulate root growth? As Chalker-Scott explained, a rooting hormone containing auxins such as Indole Butyric Acid, Naphthylacetic acid, or Paclobutryzol.

An organic source of auxins? Seaweed extracts.

The best way to lessen transplant shock? Install the right plant (one without a tangled mess of roots) in the right place (non-crowded, sun or shade? dry or wet? protection from winter cold or not?) at the right time (Fall is for planting…but not for summer annuals), using proper planting techniques (dig wider, not deeper).

So if you still think B-1 (thiamine) is going to help reduce transplant shock, I can save you a lot of money. Just go to the grocery store, buy some generic brand Vitamin B1 in the pharmacy aisle, and throw a tablet in the soil when you plant. If it will make you feel better…

Transcript of today’s Podcast: Garden Myths, with Linda Chalker-Scott of Wash St. U.

Farmer Fred :

There’s a couple of books that came out about a decade ago that are still sitting on my garden bookshelf and they’re excellent reference books. One is called the “Informed Gardener”, and the other is called “The Informed Gardener Blooms Again”, they both explode a lot of garden myths, and they’re written by Linda Chalker-Scott.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

Well, thank you, Fred. Glad to be here.

Farmer Fred :

And Linda Chalker-Scott works for Washington State University. She is a part of their horticulture department there. And as part of the WSU horticulture website she has maintained over the years, a list of so called truths that have damaged both plant and environmental health, things that you would think would be just common sense that you’ve heard for years, so they must be right. Well as the title of a 1970 Firesign Theater album, once proclaimed, Everything You Know Is Wrong. And it’s certainly very true when it comes to horticulture as things change, plant names change, chemicals change, research changes. Well, your book is certainly a compendium of information that is going to make people scratch their heads…

Linda Chalker-Scott :

or sometimes worse. Yes.

Farmer Fred :

But just looking through the index as far as the the myths that you tackle, there are several that I have checked marked that people may think, oh, that can’t be true. But it is. And first off, you deal with the myth of drainage material in containers. And for years and years and years, we have heard about when planting in containers put some gravel or some broken up shards of a pot at the bottom to improve drainage. And it always struck me that wouldn’t that actually clog up the drainage holes, but you take it a step further and look at the flow of water involved.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

You know, and Fred, I used to do the very same thing. In fact, many of these myths, if not all of them are things that I used to do. And this is even when I was getting my PhD in horticulture, so it’s not for lack of knowledge, it’s, it’s just understanding now a lot of a lot of these myths that have just come across as being fact and drainage one is a really interesting one, because intuitively, it just makes sense. You know, to all of us, if you think about water, you know, percolating through soil that all of a sudden when encompasses pebbles or, or pot shards, it’s gonna flow faster. And actually, what happens is that it stops flowing and starts moving horizontally through that same soil that it’s already in and creates this perched water table.

Farmer Fred :

And that would explain sometimes the white ring you might see around a ceramic pot.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

Exactly.

Farmer Fred :

But it’s interesting that it actually inhibits the flow of water through the drainage holes.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

Yeah, and the reason is because water moves really readily through soil or materials that had about the same particle size and pore size. And once it started to encounter something that A little bit smaller or bigger than it stops. And it’s not until you get a lot of gravitational force behind it, it continues to move downwards.

Farmer Fred :

And a lot of people complicate matters by having a few if any drain holes and there may be too small and then they put the pot straight on the ground, and that inhibits the outflow even more.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

Oh yeah,

Farmer Fred :

so it’s always a good idea to raise your containers off the ground by a quarter inch or a half inch or so on a plant stand or some container legs just to allow some airflow beneath it and also to help keep those holes unplugged

Linda Chalker-Scott :

right.

Farmer Fred :

And so I guess the bottom line would be to whatever you fill the container with be consistent.

Unknown Speaker :

Exactly. And it makes a little bit tough you know when you get down to those drain holes if you’re using some kind of potting media that is kind of run through the draining holes and what I’ve found is if you just take just a little piece of newspaper or tissue paper, something that’s going to break down pretty quickly and just to temporarily cover that hole. It’ll hold the soil in and then by the time that paper breaks down, you know the soil is not going to be moving through there anymore.

Farmer Fred :

Another myth that you explode in your book The informed gardener has to do with landscape fabric and and for years and years and years, a lot of us use landscape fabric because oh, it allows air and water to flow through. So just put down this plastic like material and cover it with mulch and you’ll never have any weeds again.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

Well, and you know, it does have its purposes as a temporary barrier. In fact, I think that using it between rows in your vegetable garden is a great way to keep that area of you know, weed free. But the problem is, is that those holes that are in those fabrics stay clear for about a day and then they start filling up with you know, bits of soil and other materials and then you’re restricting constantly the movement of water and air through that fabric. Plus, it doesn’t stop weeds from growing as you’ve probably seen in older landscapes where there’s been fabric down for a while, you know, dirt starts to settle on top of it. weed seeds blow in and then you have a nice crop of weeds going right on top of your fabric.

Farmer Fred :

And a lot of times too, you’ll see those weeds and You’re gonna yank them out and you bring up half the landscape fabric with it.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

That’s right. You have time for a little story. A little story. When we moved into the house we have right now I’d gone out to work a new bed, put some perennials in, it kept on hitting something hard about six inches below the surface of the soil, finally dug it all up. And it was fabric that the previous owners had put down to keep the weeds out. And it was just completely colonized with bind weed and with horse tail, it was just a mess. And so it obviously wasn’t keeping them out at all. But it was really inhibiting water movement, earthworm movement, you know, anything that needs to go up and down in the soil gets really bound up by these fabrics.

Farmer Fred :

One thing I have noticed in areas where I have put down a landscape fabric and then went to remove it when I removed it. roots from nearby shrubs were close to the surface.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

Well, yeah, and that’s and that’s partially because they’ll go through, you know, before you have edge seams of fabric coming together, you know, they’ll find those those breaks into go through them. And more damaging is when you do pull those fabric sets and you’re yanking up all those fine feeder roots from your trees and shrubs.

Farmer Fred :

The option then is what?

Linda Chalker-Scott :

Well, the option is not to use them in the first place. But if you do have them down and you want to remove them and use something that’s a little bit more root friendly, I would certainly not be removing it in the summer when you’re really going to be having a lot of water stress anyway, and wait till wintertime when trees have gone dormant and you can remove those fabrics and replace them with a different kind of mulch.

Farmer Fred :

Yeah, and that’s the key isn’t it putting down an organic mulch Exactly. And that can be maybe wood chips or wood your own trees chipped and shredded, sometimes it’s a good idea to invest in a chipper shredder, rather than a roto tiller because with a chipper shredder, you can take those fallen tree limbs or prunings and make a really nice mulch and you’re not importing somebody else’s problems into your yard with their chipped wood.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

You know I keep on saying that’s what I want for Christmas is my very own Shredder. reason because I would love to be able to use you know the downed limbs and other cuttings and shred them up and use them on my own landscape. Barring that, I do use arborists, wood chips for the very same reason. Although I don’t know where they come from at least they’re local. And it’s keeping them out of landfill and they make a really great organic mulch for landscape.

Farmer Fred :

Do you let them age before you use them?

Linda Chalker-Scott :

I personally don’t I’ve never had a problem and sometimes with some of the work that I was doing with students, we didn’t really have the luxury of letting them sit. We had to use them right away. And actually I love I love them because they smell so great when they’re fresh and I really like working with men. A lot of concerns with wood chips in terms of well would they have you know, if you have diseased Woods chipped up, is that going to be a problem? Research has shown that no, we don’t transmit disease from disease wood down through many inches of mulch down to roots. And I I always caution people you know if you’re concerned about pest pathogens now by all means let them sit on site. For a while, and compost, but I’ve seen no damage from anything using fresh chips.

Farmer Fred :

And being a lazy kind of gardener. I really like your advice when it comes to using wood chips as a mulch as far as you have to take the weeds or get the weeds down before you put the mulch on, obviously, but what I like is you say to prune or mow the perennial weeds at the root crown, because pulling them out destroys the soil structure.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

Exactly. And you’re just like me, I’m also a lazy gardener and a cheap gardener. So anything I can do to save myself some labor I do. Yeah. And if you wait until things are really starting to go dormant anyway, and then you’re mowing them down they have less of a chance of coming back.

Farmer Fred :

For years we have heard some rather unsound advice if you have clay soil add sand to improve its texture. But seems to me that’s a recipe for making bricks.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

That’s exactly right. That’s how you make concrete, isn’t it? Yeah.

Farmer Fred :

How did that ever start?

Linda Chalker-Scott :

it’s partially because of what the perfect soil consists of and if you look at a soil triangle, you know the ideal loamy soils are a certain mixture. sand and clay and silt. And that’s what makes a perfect loam. And so if somebody has a landscape that maybe isn’t as perfect, you know, they’re thinking, well, the easiest way to solve that is is to add, you know what they’re missing. But unfortunately, most of us don’t know exactly how much we would need. And the problem is, especially with a clay soil that you have to add about 50% more volume of sand just to get that to more Sandy texture. If you add just, a little bit of sand. It creates some, as you say, Adobe, and so you’d have to just add an awful lot of sand to really change the texture. And then the problem is, is that you know, you’re, you may you may understand the boundaries of your property, but your trees and shrubs roots don’t, and they’ll continue to grow outside your boundary. And if you’ve changed the texture, you know, dramatically from what the surrounding soil is like. You’re going to get to have a problem with water movement, air movement and root movement.

Farmer Fred :

We see that a lot with people who will dig a hole to plant a tree or a shrub and instead of using their native soil, go out and buy some premium potting soil And throw that in the hole and plant their tree or shrub in that. But as you just pointed out, what happens is the surrounding water will flow into that nice loose soil and it’s like a constantly flooded zone.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

Exactly, and then and it dries out faster too. So the summer when you’ve got the drier time of year, you’re gonna have that area evaporating water faster and surrounding soil doesn’t so the roots are exposed to constant drought or constant flooding. It’s not a great way to get your plants established.

Farmer Fred :

In your book, The informed gardener you also tackle an another myth and it’s one that I can’t believe is still around yet people will buy vitamin b1 and you talk to anybody and they’ll describe how they put in a new tree or a shrub or a plan this Oh yeah. And I added vitamin b1 to reduce transplant shock,

Linda Chalker-Scott :

right? Well, that’s what marketing will do for you and especially when we tend to think of things in the context of what we do for ourselves and, and you know, if we take vitamin supplements many of us do take Vitamin B supplements. And so you just kind of extrapolate that and think, well, it must be good for the plants too. And what people don’t realize is plants make their own. So they certainly don’t need us to add that it’s just an extra cost and waste of resources to add those kinds of fertilizers to plants.

Farmer Fred :

And it isn’t the vitamin B1 in that bottle that’s probably doing your plant any good. There’s a small amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and perhaps some micronutrients that are the real keys to that.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

Right. And sometimes there’s also a hormone, usually an auxin that might be IAA, or NAA or something like that. And those actually do have a stimulatory effect on rooting, so that that type of rooting hormone or transport hormone actually does do some good and so those mixtures of transplant elixirs, if they happen to have a little bit of that hormone, they will have an effect but it certainly is not the B1 that does it.

Farmer Fred :

So if you think thiamine is going to help reduce transplant shock, I can save you a lot of money. Just go to the grocery store, buy some vitamin b1, the generic brand and throw a tablet in them. If you pick up a copy of the informed gardener, you’re going to find all sorts of exploded myths, the myth of wound dressings. We talked about how we didn’t talk about hot weather watering, but briefly it talks about there really is no damage to a plant, if you will water your plant on a hot afternoon is there.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

As long as you’re not using saltwater, there’s absolutely no damage and you’re just going to reduce the shock to it of being drought stressed. What usually happens is what people do water watering when they see wilt and then of course, those leaves have been fatally wilted, they’re going to develop brown edges and so people tend to blame the watering rather than the lack of water for that brown development. That’s not the water that’s burning the leaves.

Farmer Fred :

And it’s why I like is a lot of your solutions: Apply mulch.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

That’s right, I like that. Yep, I did to you know, a decent healthy soil. You’re gonna have decent healthy roots and a decent healthy plant.

Farmer Fred :

Linda chalker Scott, author of two great books, the informed gardener and the informed gardener blooms again, thanks for a few minutes of your time.

Linda Chalker-Scott :

Thanks, Fred. I enjoyed it.

As you may be aware, the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, after 412 episodes, has been retired. However, the Beyond The Garden Basics newsletter and podcast with Farmer Fred will continue publication! But the only way it will survive is through your support. Thank you for being a paid subscriber.

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Thank you for supporting Farmer Fred’s Ride for the Kids, a charity 100-mile bike ride in Sacramento County on Saturday, Oct 4, put on by the Rotary Club and supporting the Crisis Nursery Center of the Sacramento Children’s Home. Mission Accomplished! You helped the Sacramento Children’s Home with your nearly $3,000 in donations. Thank you!

Fred Hoffman is a University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener in Sacramento County.

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