Supplementing with Glutathione?

Supplementing with Glutathione?

If you’re growing fruits and vegetables, you want your plants to produce a plentiful, high-quality crop. Glutathione is a natural substance that can help your plants remain strong and healthy. In this article, we’ll explain what glutathione is, why it’s useful, how it improves crop quality & yield, and how to apply it.

What is Glutathione?

Glutathione is a molecule that plants make naturally. It acts like a protective shield, helping them fight off damage from pests, diseases, or other stresses such as heat stress, heavy metal/salt toxicity and drought. As an antioxidant, it maintains the health of plant cells, preventing damage that can weaken plants or reduce crop quality. While plants produce their own glutathione, adding extra can give them a boost.

Why Use Glutathione?

Abiotic (environmental) or biotic (pest & disease) stress can harm your plants, leading to smaller harvests or poor-quality fruits and vegetables. Glutathione helps by strengthening plants’ natural defences, allowing them to resist these threats and focus on growing produce. It’s a natural fit for organic gardening since it’s already part of a plant’s defence system, supporting healthy growth without chemical sprays. Although it may not be allowable under organic rules, I believe it is compatible with the organic ethos. The rules, after all tend not to make any sense. Synthetic vitamin C can be added to organic food products, but cannot be used on the plants. Make that one make sense.   

Benefits of Glutathione for Fruits and Vegetables

Studies show that glutathione can improve how your fruit and vegetable plants handle abiotic or biotic stress.

Here are some key benefits, explained simply with research to back them up:

Fights Disease Damage: A study titled “Glutathione—the ‘master’ antioxidant in the regulation of resistant starch accumulation and metabolism” showed that higher glutathione levels in plants helped them resist viral infections.  

Supports Plant Defences: Research titled “Mitigation of Environmental Stress-Impacts in Plants: Role of Sole and/or Combinational Exogenous Application of Glutathione” found that glutathione helped plants like tomatoes and peppers cope with biotic stresses, including diseases. It boosted their antioxidant systems, reducing damage and supporting better growth.

Enhances Photosynthesis Under Stress: A study published in Scientific Reports (2016), titled “Exogenous glutathione improves high root-zone temperature tolerance by modulating photosynthesis, antioxidant and osmolytes systems in cucumber seedlings,” demonstrated that glutathione application (0.5 mM, ~153.66 mg/L) improved photosynthetic efficiency in cucumber plants under high root-zone temperature stress. By protecting chloroplasts and stabilizing photosynthetic enzymes, glutathione helped maintain higher rates of photosynthesis, leading to better growth and higher yields.

Promotes Growth and Biomass Accumulation: Research in Frontiers in Plant Science (2021), titled “Glutathione Metabolism in Plants under Stress: Beyond Reactive Oxygen Species Detoxification,” found that exogenous glutathione application increased shoot and root biomass in plants under salt stress. The study showed that glutathione enhanced cell division and expansion, leading to larger, healthier plants.

Boosts Chlorophyll Content for Better Growth: A study in Scientific Reports (2024), titled “Exogenous glutathione protected wheat seedling from high temperature and water deficit damages,” investigated wheat plants treated with glutathione (0.5 mM, ~153.66 mg/L) under heat and drought stress. The results showed that glutathione increased chlorophyll content and protected photosynthetic machinery, resulting in enhanced plant growth and grain yield.

Improves Seed Germination and Seedling Vigor: A study published in Scientific Reports (2024), titled “Exogenous glutathione protected wheat seedling from high temperature and water deficit damages,” showed that applying glutathione (0.5 mM, ~153.66 mg/L) to wheat seeds and seedlings under heat and drought stress significantly improved germination rates and early seedling growth. The study found that glutathione enhanced root system development and increased chlorophyll content, leading to stronger seedlings with better photosynthetic capacity.

Enhances Seedling Establishment: A study published in Plant Science (2008), titled “Glutathione synthesis is regulated by nitric oxide in Medicago truncatula roots under cadmium stress,” found that applying glutathione at 0.8 mM (~245.86 mg/L) to Medicago (alfalfa) seedlings under cadmium stress improved seedling establishment and root growth. The study showed that glutathione reduced oxidative stress and supported root development, leading to healthier seedlings.

How Reducing Stress Improves Quality and Yield.

When plants are stressed, they divert energy to fighting off these threats instead of producing high-quality fruits or vegetables, resulting in fewer or lower-quality crops. Glutathione helps by strengthening plant cells and boosting their natural defences, allowing them to resist stress more

effectively. This leads to better yields and improved quality.

Better Cucumber Health and Yield: Research titled “The Role of Glutathione in Plant Response to Abiotic and Biotic Stress” indicated that glutathione enhanced cucumber plants’ ability to resist fungal pathogens. This led to healthier plants with increased cucumber yields and improved fruit quality, as they were less affected by disease stress.

These studies confirm that glutathione can increase the amount and quality of your fruits and vegetables by reducing pest and disease stress, helping plants thrive and produce better harvests.

How to Use Glutathione?

Using glutathione powder is easy to fit into your gardening regimen. Here’s how, based on study methods:

Glutathione is water-soluble.

Spray on Leaves: Mix 100-300 mg of glutathione powder per litre of water.

Root Drench: Dissolve 50-150 mg of glutathione powder per litre of water.

Apply every 1-2 weeks or when the plant is suffering from stress, and combine with your organic fertilisers for a bigger boost. Store the powder in a cool, dry place to maintain its potency.

Seeds Soaks: Soak seeds in a 100-250 mg glutathione per litre solution for 12-24 hours before planting.