sugar water?

[Stone]

Years ago, an orchid nurseryman suggested soaking some half dead orchids (not diseased but rootless and a little dried out) in sugar water to help stimulate them into growth. I never did try it.
Has anyone tried/heard of this??

 

[Ozpaph]

Ive heard that too, but never tried it. I suppose most things arrive within days by post nowadays.

 

[Brabantia]

On several occasions I read that one could watering a weakened Orchid with a water solution of honey.

 

[naoki]

I think we talked about a related topic here:
http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30667

I think Roy uses it for acclimation. Well, acclimation could be similar to dealing with half-dead. I was considering sucrose for acclimation after reading about the papers. Since then I saw a couple Japanese books mentioning sugar as the supplement for orchid fertilization scheme. But some web sites mentioned that it could be pretty touchy/risky (I forgot the details, but I think it was for Neo or Den. moniliforme).

So I'm curious about this topic, too.

 

[valenzino]

All orchids I import from far bare rooted,or i buy wholesale after the shows,that are not potted/already rooted....I use it....
I do 2-3 days before potting,let them soak in different solutions and one of those is water with shugar(sometimes honey,liquit fructose,pure glucose etc...depending on availability in my Kitchen)...

 

[Linus_Cello]

I tried it with an Eumilia Arias I bought from EYOF; it didn't make it after 2 years (tried growing s/h). I used dliuted molasses rather than sucrose.

 

[eggshells]

I use molasses as well. Haven't really noticed any difference. Haven't really hurt anything either so I continue to use it. Supposed to increase microbial activity in soil?

I also use it for worm tea brewing.

 

[MaryPientka]

I remember reading about this in the 1980s-a combo of honey and superthrive.

 

[TyroneGenade]

The sugar water would stimulate mycorrhizal fungi and actinomycete bacteria that will fix nitrogen and feed the plants. One nurseryman growing Disa would sow the seed and water with sugar water to stimulate the symbionts and get good germination.

 

[gonewild]

How could it hurt?

Fermentation of the sugar may contribute to lowering pH. Maybe that is good or bad?

Free sugar on the plant may also inadvertently feed harmful bacteria and/or mold that could result in a pathogen increase.

How can it help?
If sugar was a benefit as a plant nutrient supplement there would probably be plenty of published data about it.... is there? I see some mention of organic growers using sugar as a weed killer.

 

[gonewild]

Not exactly science but here is sugar info from an 8 year old Canabis forum, It actually very informative about sugar. It's too long to copy here so read it on the 8th post on this page.
One point that seems to be important is to not assume refined sugar is the same as molasses.

http://www.marijuanagrowing.eu/general-questions/using-sugar-glugose-when-flowering-t32889-10.html

 

[Chicago Chad]

I have used this product for the last 6 years on all of my species
http://www.technaflora.com/indexProduct.php?ID=106

 

[Happypaphy7]

If I remember correctly, it was some Asian Orchid vendor websites.
Royal Orchids, I think? They run two websites with different names but basically the same website layout, one for Aisa and one for USA.
This was years ago.
I've never bought anything from them, but they were selling bareroot orchids and under the "unpacking the order" information, they recommended using brown sugar for soaking the newly arrived plants.
Overnight soaking or a few hours of soaking in brown sugar water before potting plants up.
I always wondered why, but never tried myself.

 

[Stone]

Interesting. I was thinking along the lines of...a plant needs to manufacture carbohydrates before it can carry out any function (such as forming roots) and if that plant has lost roots for some reason it's leaves dry out and will no longer able to absorb or use much light. So if we could introduce carbs (together with moisture) into the plant somehow, this might trigger a growth response? I guess there's only one way to find out...

 

[Ozpaph]

Not exactly science but here is sugar info from an 8 year old Canabis forum, It actually very informative about sugar. It's too long to copy here so read it on the 8th post on this page.
One point that seems to be important is to not assume refined sugar is the same as molasses.

http://www.marijuanagrowing.eu/general-questions/using-sugar-glugose-when-flowering-t32889-10.html

very interesting, thank-you.
Do you think it has much to offer in bark based or inorganic mixes we use for paphs?

 

[Stone]

All orchids I import from far bare rooted,or i buy wholesale after the shows,that are not potted/already rooted....I use it....
I do 2-3 days before potting,let them soak in different solutions and one of those is water with shugar(sometimes honey,liquit fructose,pure glucose etc...depending on availability in my Kitchen)...

So if you have used it more than once and continue, you must believe it works? Which form of sugar do you think is the best and how much for how long?

 

[gonewild]

very interesting, thank-you.
Do you think it has much to offer in bark based or inorganic mixes we use for paphs?

I dont think so. (my thought). I just cant see how the plant can utilize it well enough to make it worth the effort. In that link it does mention that it has an chelating effect but there are better ways to get that done like with seaweed or citric acid. The idea that sugar will encourage beneficial fungi and bacteria seems like it is negated by the possibility it may also encourage detrimental organisms. Sugar may very well encourage organisms that cause rapid breakdown of the bark media.

The one time I did try sugar I got was an increase of ants.

 

[gonewild]

Interesting. I was thinking along the lines of...a plant needs to manufacture carbohydrates before it can carry out any function (such as forming roots) and if that plant has lost roots for some reason it's leaves dry out and will no longer able to absorb or use much light. So if we could introduce carbs (together with moisture) into the plant somehow, this might trigger a growth response? I guess there's only one way to find out...

I dont think the roots have the mechanism to transport carbohydrates. And doubtful the plants can use carbs that they did not produce themselves within their system.
I wonder what affect coating the leaves with a sugar solution may have on the leaf functions. Is there an osmotic effect where the sugar may actually pull nutrients out of the leaf?

Using sugar to feed bacteria that will fix nitrogen would be a very inefficient method. It is probably much simpler and more cost effective to add nitrogen.
Besides sugar contains unwanted extra potassium. oke:

 

[gonewild]

Here is a lot of discussion, some of it might even be true. https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=242428

 

[Ozpaph]

The one time I did try sugar I got was an increase of ants.

which bring scale etc etc - damned ants