Is Sugar Water Good For Plants?

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What best care can you give your house plants or garden? A widespread belief is that sugar water is good for plants and can help promote healthy and abundant plant growth. But is sugar water actually good for plants?

Sugar water is not good for healthy, growing plants. While it can help to revive dying plants, it is not necessary to feed plant sugar water as a regular part of their care. Sugar water can actually lead to growth issues, harm your plant, and help kill a plant’s root system. There are some instances, however, when sugar water can help around the garden or the backyard.

Keep reading to learn more about proper plant care, what to feed your healthy plant instead of sugar water, and how sugar water can be properly used in a garden.

Table of Contents

Why Sugar Water is Not Good for Plants

In humans and animals, sugar can give a boost of energy, and certain kinds of natural sugar are vital for cell growth and organ function.

If you’ve ever been feeling low or tired and felt energized by a sugary snack or drink, you’ve experienced the temporary boost that artificial sugar can give the human body.

But the sugars most beneficial to plants are the sugars that they naturally produce through photosynthesis. Light and CO2 are absorbed by the plant’s leaves and turned into food. Moisture and nutrition are absorbed by the roots. The plant’s cells use this energy to manufacture simple sugars, which fuel cell growth.

Here is a short video explaining the process.

Basically, all the sugar a plant needs can be manufactured internally with no help from sugary water. In fact, sugar water can harm a plant’s natural nutrient cycle and cause cellular damage.

Sugar Can Reduce Nutrition for Plants

Sugar water can actually make it more difficult for plants to get vital nutrients and moisture out of the ground. Plant life uses its roots to help absorb the naturally occurring water and nutrients in the soil, and these are used to promote new growth, develop seeds and flowers, and fuel photosynthesis.

But sugar water can actually weaken the roots’ ability to absorb nutrients effectively and damage plant cells. You see, plants can’t easily absorb table sugar. Most roots are too small to absorb sugar crystals, but the amounts of sugar that do make it into a plant’s system via the roots can still cause damage.

Excess sugar that finds its way into a healthy plant via the roots can lead to a cellular breakdown and a sick plant. The rest of the sugar simply collects on the surface of the root system, and this can lead to the plant’s roots becoming blocked by a layer of sugar crystals and unable to absorb beneficial water or elements.

This, in turn, leads to dehydration. If the plants cannot absorb water, the plant has nothing fueling growth or life and will die.

Sugar Can Dehydrate Plant Roots

One thing that sugar does very well is absorb moisture. So while it’s blocking water absorption by roots and encouraging mold growth, it can also dehydrate the cells of a plant’s root system.

The one main thing that all cells need to survive is water, whether that cell is found in a human, animal, or plant. The less moisture a cell has, the less healthy it is, and dehydration will kill healthy cells and, eventually, the surrounding tissue.

This accelerated dehydration is especially harmful and can kill the entire plant quite quickly. With even less moisture coming in, the plant will begin to starve, and the drying root system can be an optimal place for harmful molds to grow.

Sugar Can Encourage Mold Growth and Kill Plants

Another reason to avoid adding sugar water to healthy, growing plants is that it can encourage mold growth near or in the root system. You may have observed a dead or dying plant succumbing to mold. Once mold gets ahold of a living thing, it can kill and kill quickly.

Sugar is one of the substances that mold absolutely loves, especially if it’s moist and abundant. Mold, however, is absolutely catastrophic for the health and survival of the plant. Mold can attack and eat away at a plant’s root system and destroy healthy cells. Once the root system dies or weakens, the plant can’t get enough energy and will begin to fade.

So if your plants are growing normally in healthy, well-watered soil, there’s no reason to use sugar water at all. Plants are actually fairly hardy on their own and make ample use of natural resources to grow, live, and reproduce.

All Plants Need is Healthy Soil, Water, and Light

Yes, that’s it. All a plant really needs to grow well is healthy soil that’s appropriate for its species, sunlight, and water. Not all plants can thrive in the same soil types, and different plant species have different requirements for water and shade.

Some plants thrive in lower light (such as moss), and others need a copious amount of sunlight. Likewise, some plants need a lot of moisture, and others can thrive even in infrequent rainfall. But all plants need some amount of light and water to thrive.

Basically, though, that’s all a plant needs. As long as the plant has enough water, light, and soil appropriate to its species, a plant will thrive. Exceptions include the introduction of pests, harmful fungi, or toxins in the ground.

Sugar Water Can Attract Pests

Another drawback of watering your plants with sugar water? This sweet substance can actually attract harmful pests, including aphids, beetles, and rodents which can eat, damage, or kill your garden plant life.

Animals respond much better to sugar than plants do, and the sweetness of sugar is a tremendous draw for a wide variety of insects and mammals. But everything a plant needs to attract the right kind of animals for the right reasons (such as pollen, fruit, flowers, and nectar) is already a natural part of the plant’s biology and doesn’t need added sugar to grow.

So, while plants do sometimes use beneficial animals like bees, butterflies, and birds to pollinate and spread seeds, those creatures don’t need added sugar to be attracted to a flower or a seed pod.

Homemade Plant Food Can Be Used Instead

If sugar water won’t help a plant grow any stronger or healthier, what can be used instead? Simple homemade plant food can be easily whipped up and fed to your plants in moderate doses once a month.

Simply start with 1 gallon of fresh, clean water, and add 1.5 tablespoons of Epsom salt, 1.5 teaspoons of baking soda, and a little under .5 teaspoons of household ammonia. Stir gently to combine, and use the formula in place of regular watering once per month for healthy amounts of plant-friendly nutrition.

Compost Nourishes Best

What’s the best thing you can actually feed to your plant? Compost! Plants love the nutrients released by decomposing materials like banana peels, coffee grinds, potato peels, and any other plant-based, organic matter.

If your plants are outdoors, compost can help attract earthworms, whose waste nourishes the soil and improves the microbial quality of dirt.

Natural fertilizers like manure are also great for an outdoor vegetable garden and can help boost early plant growth considerably. So, if sugar water won’t help grow your vegetables, is there anything it’s good for? Sugar water does have a few uses around the garden and, in some cases, may help plants that are already struggling.

Sugar Water May Help Dying Plants

The one place where sugar water may actually benefit a plant is if the plant is dying or struggling due to poor soil nutrition.

The sugar water does not directly help the plant. Rather, it helps feed microorganisms in the soil, which enables them to break down components in the earth that make up a plant’s natural food source.

So, if your plant is struggling due to poor soil quality, sugar water can help improve the health and vitality of microorganisms in the soil, which will increase the suitability of the environment for plant growth.

Keep in mind this will only work if your plant is struggling due to poor soil quality. Sugar water won’t help increase plant growth due to any other reason, and an excess of sugar water, even in this scenario, can be harmful. So, use sparsely, and cease sugar water used once the plant begins to gain strength.

Sugar Water Can Help Preserve Cut Flowers

While sugar can harm healthy living plants, it often helps revive and prolong the appearance of flowers that have already been cut and are in a vase. This is because the plants are gaining moisture and nutrition through their stems, as opposed to a root system.

Simply trim the worn or unhealthy edges of the stems, and re-immerse the flowers into some fresh, lightly sweetened water. One teaspoon of sugar to a quart of water should do the trick here.

Sugar, in this case, can help give a boost of energy to plant cells that are weakening thanks to the absence of a root system. The sugar is easily absorbed through the stems, and there is no narrow root system to be blocked or endangered by the sugar.

Sugar Water Can Kill Weeds

We’ve already determined that sugar water is bad for plants, so where can it possibly benefit your yard? As a simple yet non-toxic substance, you can actually use sugar water to kill off unwanted plant life, such as weeds.

Have a weed problem but are unsure of the safety of harsh chemical herbicides? Try sugar water instead. This liquid can help kill pesky plants that grow between concrete slabs, between bricks, or anywhere else where you don’t want plant life thriving or taking root.

Use Sugar Water to Trap Pests

Here’s a great use for sugar water inside or outside a home. Use it to trap and kill annoying or dangerous pests. Flies, hornets, and gnats are naturally attracted to sweet things, and sugar water can make an effective trap for pesky or stinging insects.

Wasps and flies will be attracted to a small pitcher of sugar water, stop in for a drink, tumble into the liquid and drown. This is a great way to help reduce excess numbers of flies or wasps around the house and in your garden.

Sugar Water Can Feed Beneficial Animals

What do we mean by that? Well, plant life benefits from the presence of animals like bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and any other creature that can pollinate a flower or enjoy the nectar.

Use sugar water in hummingbird feeders or near natural honeybee hives to help give these beneficial, busy, and helpful little creatures a boost of energy and encourage them to check out the rest of your garden.

Make sure that the bees are being supplied with sugar water at absolutely minimal depths so that they can drink happily but not drown. Commercial bumblebee feeders are great for this purpose.

Sugar water, in this context, won’t attract the wrong kind of animal life and will help attract and retain animals that can help your garden flourish.

Conclusion

Sugar water is harmful to healthy, growing plants. Plants already produce natural, simple sugars thanks to the process of photosynthesis and only need sunlight, moisture, and appropriate soil to flourish. Using sugar water on healthy plants can lead to dehydration, mold, and the eventual death of the plant.

Sugar water may, however, improve the soil quality of weak soil enough to help struggling plants thrive if used in moderation for a brief time. Sugar water can also be used to preserve cut flowers, trap pests, and attract beneficial animals like hummingbirds to your garden.

In place of sugar water, try compost, manure, or a gentle homemade plant food to help your plant thrive and grow. Above all, make sure that your plants are getting the right amount of sunlight and water for their species and are in the correct soil type.

Sources

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