Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - RE: [Market-farming] Sugar as a soil amendment for insect pestsup pression

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Wiediger, Alison" <awiediger AT HART.k12.ky.us>
  • To: 'Market Farming' <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Market-farming] Sugar as a soil amendment for insect pestsup pression
  • Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 09:08:51 -0500

I agree with Bill, except that the sugar providing "food" for microbial life
might have a large effect on those soils where microbial life is not as
active. On a soil like Marlin's, where OM is probably already high, and
microbial life also populous and diverse, the effects could be minimal. I
can't remember whether sucrose benefits bacterial or fungal populations
more, but it could shift toward one or the other - benefiting a plant that
was needing that particular microbial life. For instance, some types of
fungi can "strangle" pest nematodes, and many vegetables "like" a
bacterially dominated soil. So, the plant wouldn't directly benefit, but if
the soil was deficient and the sugar caused a "bloom" of microbial life,
making some nutrients more available, the plants could indirectly benefit -
and healthy plants are typically more resistant to both insect and disease
issues.

Alison Wiediger, Au Naturel Farm

> ----------
> From: Bill Shoemaker[SMTP:wshoemak AT inil.com]
> Reply To: Market Farming
> Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 9:02 AM
> To: Market Farming
> Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Sugar as a soil amendment for insect
> pestsuppression
>
> I don't think it makes sense. As soon as the sugar gets blended into
> the soil it'll start dissolving. Then it becomes food for every living
> organism in the soil. Sure, the plant takes up moisture and very small
> molecules and ions in the water, but most of the sugar would be consumed
> by soil organisms before the plant has a chance. And what suger makes it
> into the plant through moisture uptake by the roots would travel in the
> xylem vascular bundles. Food used by the plant travels in the phloem
> vascular bundles. And that's the only way sugar gets into fruit tissues,
> by the phloem. Any sugar (sucrose) that is available in the plant gets
> used right away for building plant tissues. It wouldn't hang around and
> wait for the plant to make fruit 2 months later.
>
> .
>
> Bill Shoemaker
> Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
> Univ of Illinois - St Charles Hort Research Center
>



  • RE: [Market-farming] Sugar as a soil amendment for insect pestsup pression, Wiediger, Alison, 04/26/2004

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page