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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Things grow better with Coke???

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  • From: "Bill Shoemaker" <wshoemak AT inil.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Things grow better with Coke???
  • Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2004 08:05:23 -0600

When I was an undergrad at the U of I, I was involved in a research project where I measured the pH of the water being used to root red currant cuttings to observe how the cutting itself influenced the pH of the water. It would take about an hour a day. One day I was drinking a can of Coke and just out of curiousity stuck the pH probe in my can of Coca Cola Classic. The pH was 2.7. That's why Coke can clean battery terminals, pennies and all kinds of things. But remember, stomach acids are just as strong so when you gulp down Coke you really aren't increasing the acidity of your stomach. However, the acid in Coke is phosphoric acid so Indian farmers are applying foliar phosphorus to the crop and it is in a form that the plants can use immediately. So they probably assimilate it quickly and get a boost from it. Also, the Coke is highly carbonated so it releases CO2, which the plant can also take up and use immediately, bumping photosynthesis. Probably the worst part of it is 120 calories worth of corn syrup, pure fructose. I can't imagine all the critters that come looking for it. And what fungi develop on the plants as a result? Certainly a strange development.
 
Bill Shoemaker
Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
Univ of Illinois - St Charles Hort Research Center
Things grow better with Coke


Indian farmers have come up with what they think is the real thing to keep crops free of bugs.

Instead of paying hefty fees to international chemical companies for patented pesticides, they are reportedly spraying their cotton and chilli fields with Coca-Cola.

 




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