Almost every household has sugar. It not only serves to sweeten, it also gives energy. It is therefore natural to think about whether it is also suitable as a fertilizer for plants.

In a nutshell

  • Sugar is an indirect nutrient
  • unusual for plant fertilization
  • is more suitable for feeding soil organisms
  • a few heavily consuming plants benefit from it
  • Sugar can clog channels

What table sugar is made of

Sugar in water is known as a household remedy to keep bouquets of flowers in the vase fresher for longer. So it seems to bring an advantage to plants. In fact, various crops can benefit from small amounts of sugar. However, the sweetener consists of different substances than, for example, a conventional fertilizer. Table sugar contains almost only simple carbohydrates.

sugar crystals

ingredients of fertilizers

Plants basically need nitrogen, phosphate, potassium and many other minerals and additives in small amounts for growth. All of these nutrients are not contained in conventional table sugar, but in any commercial fertilizer. Other household remedies such as coffee grounds or kitchen waste also contain substances that plants need.

What sugar is good for

While plants are not or hardly able to utilize the household sugar, the soil organisms in the substrate around the plant definitely benefit from small amounts of sugar. They can convert the carbohydrates into substances necessary for vegetables or flowers, especially nitrogen. So the soil life is activated.

Suitable plants

No special plants are suitable for fertilizing with sweeteners. This fertilizer is most suitable in garden beds with heavily consuming vegetables.

  • Potatoes: Since you prepare the bed for potatoes in autumn, often with manure or compost, adding sugar won't hurt. It helps soil organisms to break down certain minerals and nutrients. By spring, when you plant the potatoes, the added sugar will be gone.
  • Cabbages: Most cabbage varieties are pre-grown in early spring and then come onto the bed in early summer. Some types of cabbage, such as Brussels sprouts, stand in the vegetable patch for a very long time and therefore require additional fertilizer from time to time.
Kohlrabi
  • fruit vegetables: If you cultivate tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc. outdoors, you can prepare the beds intended for them in autumn or early spring. Manure or compost is worked into the substrate for this purpose. As with potatoes, adding sugar to fruit vegetables can do no harm to activate soil life.
paprika
  • Corn: Especially with sweet corn, a dose of the sweetener seems obvious. Maybe that affects the taste? However, corn does not absorb the sugar in its normal form either. The soil organisms have to process this first.
Corn
  • strawberries: Strawberries are planted fresh in late summer or fall. The bed is also created at this time and supplied with compost. Using household sugar makes little sense because the plants are not yet able to use it when they are planted. Sugar water can be used to fertilize old strawberry beds.
strawberries
  • Fruit trees and bushes: In the case of fruit, too, it is reasonable to think that adding sugar could affect the sweetness of the fruit. But like corn, it doesn't work that way. Trees and bushes are particularly at risk of attracting ants with table sugar. These then migrate into the branches and twigs and could start nursing lice that are there.

Notice: You can water the crown area with heavily diluted sugar water from time to time.

application

Household sugar should never simply be poured into the planting hole or mixed in large quantities under the substrate. The easiest and safest way to use it is to mix small amounts of sugar into the irrigation water. This should only happen now and then and not with every watering.

driven

Due to the extensive processing, table sugar contains hardly any other nutrients than carbohydrates, which is why it should only be used in moderation in human nutrition. The same applies to plants. You can't do anything with mere sugar. Instead, it can cause dehydration due to osmosis or clog the plants' pathways.

Notice: This applies mainly to the typical white table sugar. Sugar beets or sugar beet juice have other ingredients that are useful for plants.

ants and other insects

If you use household sugar in the garden, you always have to remember that you could use it to attract unwelcome garden dwellers. Above all ants and, especially if the sweetener has come into contact with moisture, wasps.

Source: Richard Bartz, Munich Makro Freak, A Formica rufa sideview, Edited by Plantopedia, CC BY-SA 2.5

Diseases

Mushrooms like to use sweets as a breeding ground. This is known, for example, from the honeydew that aphids form. Dangerous plant fungi can then settle on this. For this reason, it is important never to water plants from above with a strong sugar solution. The sheets should not come into contact with it, so that they do not stick together. This could also clog the stomata that the plant needs to breathe.

frequently asked Questions

Can other sweeteners be used?

You have to be even more careful with other types of sugar or sweeteners. Especially syrupy foods can severely affect the soil and roots. Artificially produced sugar substitutes offer plants no nutrients.

Is salt suitable as fertilizer?

As with sugar, it mainly depends on the dosage. Salt draws water from the environment, which can cause plants to dry out and burn. This is why salt was used as a weed killer in the past.

What about sugary foods?

In general, it is better to compost any suitable food or kitchen waste before using it as fertilizer. This could be fruit, for example. All processed or cooked foods, on the other hand, belong in the household or organic waste if they can no longer be eaten.

Are soda or cola good fertilizers?

It sounds easy if you water the plants with the rest of the coke or soda bottle and they will grow better. However, the opposite can happen because the sticky liquid damages the plant.

Category:

Garden maintenance