You can’t purchase it through your local co-op. It’s not a snake-oil concoction being sold by a shady salesman. The super food for your plant is so common it can be found on the shelves of any grocery story. Cue the drumroll . . . It’s sugar!

“Every time I spray my fields, I put sugar in with the mix,” says Bill Darrington, a 5,000-acre farmer from Persia, Iowa, who’s also made a living as a crop consultant. “I mean every time I spray, it doesn’t matter the time of year.”

A simple chemistry lesson explains why Darrington’s crops have such a sweet tooth.

“Nitrogen requires carbohydrates to provide protein to plants,” he says. “Sugar is a cheap way to provide the necessary carbohydrates.

“If you think this sounds foolish, you need to brush up on what photosynthesis is,” he adds. (Remember, photosynthesis is the chemical process that uses sunlight to turn carbon dioxide into sugars that plants use as energy.)

Darrington adds 1 pound of sugar per acre to each sprayer mix. Alternatives to sugar include fulvic acid, humic acid, and compost tea. Molasses will also work at about 8 ounces per acre.

One year Darrington couldn’t find enough sugar and he had one more aerial application to make, so he went to the local Walmart and stocked up on RC Cola and dumped that into his mix. “I just couldn’t stand the thought of spraying one more time without adding sugar that will provide energy for my crops,” he says.

“If you want to get kinky, throw some Gatorade in,” he jokes.

Big benefits from gypsum
Darrington is also a big advocate of gypsum, which is hydrated calcium sulfate. Darrington credits gypsum with:

  • Improving soil structure
  • Preventing soil crusting
  • Decreasing water runoff and erosion
  • Preventing water logging of soil
  • Binding organic matter in clay soils
  • Improving water-use efficiency
  • Preventing some diseases

Gypsum can also be a fix for soil compaction

“You can’t fix compaction with tillage,” says Darrington. “That’s only a short-term fix. Sometimes compaction can be a chemistry issue.”

According to Darrington, compaction is more likely to occur when calcium levels are too low or high, magnesium is too high, or sodium is too high.

To fix poor ratios, Darrington recommends applying gypsum, ammonium sulfate, or lime.

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