Studies Using Sugar Water to Grow Plants

Plant Growth and Osmosis

• Students at Michigan State University conducted an experiment in May 2004 to see if they could grow plants faster from seed using sugar water. The seeds used in this experiment were sweet peas, and the control group used fresh water. Over the course of six weeks from March 21 through May 5, the students recorded the data after planting six seeds in a sugar-watered soil and two in fresh water. Only the fresh water seeds sprouted. Their conclusion was that the osmolality of the sugar water did not allow for transport of water into the seeds and therefore no growth occurred.

The Effect of Sugar on Bean Plant Growth

• In a California Science Fair Project of April 2005, a student from Southern California University showed the results from her experiments with sugar on bean plant growth. She experimented with 36 bean plants over 28 days to see if a solution of 50 g of sugar water was the best concentration for increasing plant growth.

  She used a control of no sugar, a group of 25 g of sugar per liter of water, another with 50 g and the leftover with 75 g of sugar per liter of water. The beans received 24 hours of sunlight and 22.18 ml. of water per day. At the end of the experiment, she removed the beans from the soil, rinsed them carefully and measured their growth from tip to end. Her results showed that the concentration of 50 g of sugar per liter of water produced the healthiest and largest plants.

Plantorade?

• In this experiment in December 2005, students from the University of Miami used the sports drink Gatorade as the fluid source for their plants, in comparison with Brita filtered water and tap water. Their logic was that the sports drink replenishes the human body and perhaps would also invigorate the growth of their plants.

  Marigolds were the plant of choice, and they used 30 seeds each in 500 ml of soil, set up to grow in a greenhouse in groups of three. Every day, they added 100 ml of the chosen fluid to the plant soil. The result of the experiment after six weeks showed that Gatorade severely stunted the early growth of the plants to the point of killing them. The Brita water caused the greatest growth, followed closely by the tap water.

The Radish Project

• High school students from Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts tested the notions that plants grow better when growers add certain substances to the water. In this two-week-long project in March 2007, aspirin (Bayer) water, brown sugar water, carbonated water and vitamin D water were tested against plain water. All the variables were consistent and they planted five radish seeds in each cup.

  Expecting the aspirin water to be the most vigorous, they were surprised to find that the carbonated water was the winner, slightly larger than the aspirin group. The vitamin D group did not sprout at all, the sugar group had three sprouts, the plain water had four sprouts while the aspirin water and carbonated water sprouted all their seeds.