When farmers apply pesticides to their crops, 30 to 50% end up in the air or soil, not on plants. Fortunately, now hollow silk microneedles can be inexpensively produced to deliver vitamins or agrochemicals to plants, giving them, for example, iron to treat chlorosis disease, add vitamin B12 to tomato plants making them more nutritious, or among other among other things, to monitor the quality of fluids flowing into plants and detect when surrounding soil contains heavy metals.
news.mit.edu/2025/will-vegetables-future-be-fortified-using-tiny-needles-0429