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Plants dont need you to add sugar to their soil; they make their own. Through the process of photosynthesis, which is powered in nature by energy from the sun, plants turn water and carbon dioxide into sugars. Plants use their self-made sugars as a fuel for growth and reproduction.
Sugar you add to the soil will instead feed soil microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi. These naturally occurring microbes are natures recyclers; they help to nourish plants by breaking down the bits of organic debris in soil into their nutrient componentsincluding the potassium, magnesium, nitrogen, and other elements that are essential for plant life. In this sense, sugar could benefit the plants in your garden by boosting the microbial population, thereby speeding up the rate at which nutrients become available.
But plants already have a process for encouraging microbial life. Soil scientists have discovered that plant roots exude sugarssugars produced by photosynthesisas a way of developing mutually beneficial relationships with microbes. By controlling the types and amounts of sugars they release, plants can select which kinds of microorganisms will colonize the soil around their roots. Not coincidentally, plants choose to feed the microbes that will provide them with the nutrients they need most. Compared to this sophisticated à la carte system, a sprinkle of processed sugar from your pantry is just junk food for bacteria.
By the way, theres another reason some gardeners haul the sugar canister out to the garden. Sugar added to the planting holes of vegetable transplants is said to discourage root knot nematodes, a destructive soil-dwelling parasite that plagues many Southern gardens. Doug Hall
((Plants produce glucose through photosynthesis. Sugar is a form of glucose.
Adding sugar water to a plant does, in the short term offer small benefits as the plant is able to absorb small amount of glucose instead of using photosynthesis to produce it.
Long term use of sugar water on plants will result in the death of the plant! To much sugar in the soil solution prevents or hampers osmosis, resulting in ineffective water and nutrient uptake by the plant. This results in discolouration, stunting, wilting and eventually death.))
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this is for the for pro- sugar users--- "Minute amounts of can be absorbed." by the roots..
Here is a cool thread which debates the use of "sugar water" for plant roots..
http://www.treeworld.info/f29/sugar-water-trees-good-bad-soil-561.html
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hydro growers also state that sugars are absorbed in higher amounts because of the given environment~
There are also some sugars that are more important to your plants than others. xylose and arabinose are two of those sugars. Both, arabinose and xylose, are sugars naturally produced by plants. They are both also monosaccharides which means they are simple sugars therefore they are used more easily by the plant.
Glucose should be the main ingredient of the product since it is the main product of photosynthesis. Glucose is a monosaccharide which is used for energy and for starting cellular respiration in the plant. The name glucose comes from the Greek word glykys, which means sweet, plus the suffix ose, which denotes that it is a carbohydrate. Glucose is critical in the production of proteins and in lipid metabolism. Glucose is also used as a precursor for the synthesis of several important substances such as starch and cellulose. Starch is a way in which plants store energy and cellulose makes up most of the structural parts of plants.
Fructose is a monosaccharide and is a main component of most tree fruit, berries, and melons. It is the sweetest naturally occurring sugar and is twice as sweet as the disaccharide sucrose which consists of glucose and fructose bonded together.
Also the disaccharide maltose is an important sugar since it can be broken down by enzymes into 2 glucose molecules.
These are all sugars that occur and are produced naturally by plants. By adding a supplement containing these simple and complex sugars along with a well balanced nutrient, a plant will increase the levels of sugars in the leaves and throughout the plant.
