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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Sugar as a soil amendment for insect pestsuppression

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  • From: "Bill Shoemaker" <wshoemak AT inil.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Sugar as a soil amendment for insect pestsuppression
  • Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 10:29:24 -0500

Good points Alison. I suspect that fungi would really benefit from the sugar
more than bacteria. The impact on microbial populations would clearly
indirectly impact the crop. But I don't think it would have a major
influence.

Bill

>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
>>
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