Does Sugar Help Your Lawn? Everything You Need to Know
Sugar is not just for coffee (and cake) anymore
Sugar has a myriad of uses, from baking cakes to keeping flowers fresh, but does sugar help your lawn? It sounds fairly incredible, but the answer is a resounding yes. Sugar has a few primetime uses for helping to keep your yard looking and feeling its best. Here is the scoop on how to use sugar in your yard effectively.
How Sugar Impacts Plants
Sugar is often used as a DIY weed deterrent, but how in the world does that work? It boils down to the chemical properties of the sweet substance and how it interacts with plants of all kinds. Plants grow best in soil that is rich in nitrogen, as the element is the basis for green, leafy goodness, in addition to promoting the absorption of other required nutrients.
On the other hand, sugar is a carbon nutrient and contains no nitrogen whatsoever. As a matter of fact, it limits nutrient absorption, so it also limits growth in plants that are not adaptive to low-nitrogen environments. In other words, pouring sugar over your newly-planted herbs is not a great idea, but it is a nifty notion to pour it over unwanted weeds. The sugar limits access to nitrogen, thus controlling pesky weeds and other invasive plants. Before sprinkling sugar across your lawn, consider consulting a local lawn care service to ensure it’s the right move for your yard.
Using Sugar On Your Lawn to Kill Weeds
Sugar does not kill weeds directly, but it limits the pesky plant’s access to necessary nutrients, sending them to that great garden in the sky. Here is how to use sugar as an organic weed control for yard visitors.
First of all, sugar works best for broadleaf and annual weeds when compared to perennials and standard grasses, so identify your problem weeds before starting.
Start with 1 cup of sugar. Don’t oversaturate the yard as sugar attracts insects and animals.
Choose from powdered sugar, granulated sugar, or even a molasses spray, which is made by mixing 1 ¾ cups of molasses to ten gallons of water in a sprayer.
Sprinkle or spray the sugar around the base of any unwanted plants, such as weeds. Exercise caution and avoid accidentally coating other plants. Make sure you apply a generous coat over the offending weed’s root area.
Check the spot in one day or two, recoating if necessary until the weed starts showing signs of decline.
Using Sugar On Your Lawn as a Fertilizer
In rare cases, sugar makes for a decent lawn fertilizer, though not in the traditional sense. Sugar adds no necessary nutrients to the mix but it limits nitrogen absorption. In most cases, you want to give plants ready access to nitrogen but without overdoing it. Soils excessively rich in nitrogen prioritize certain plants over others, such as shrubs and grasses over flowers.
In these cases, using a small amount of sugar as a fertilizer helps keep things even, giving flowering plants the same access to nitrogen as foliage. Sugar is not a substitute for other fertilizers, as it contains no useful nutrients. Use it sparingly as an add-on.
Spread 4 to 5 pounds of granulated sugar over 10 square feet of soil. Stick to gardens and other parts of the yard where you want to encourage flower growth over foliage growth.
Water the grass lightly after applying the sugar to discourage curious insects and animals from taking permanent residence in your yard.
Make sure to follow this up with an actual fertilizer that, you know, fertilizes the soil.
Tips for Putting Sugar on Your Lawn
To be clear: You can’t spread pancake syrup over your yard and expect fantastic results. Here are some tips to use sugar to help your lawn out of a weed-infested slump.
Remember, sugar is best for certain weed varieties like broadleaf grass and perennial grass. Verify your weed types before starting the application process.
A little goes a long way—start with 1 cup or even a handful of sugar when killing weeds.
Only use a sugar solution, at most, once a month to avoid eliminating crucial nutrients.
This process also works best in early spring before weeds have a chance to seed and take further root.
Inspect your lawn regularly for fungal growth after applying a sugar solution, as sugar and fungus go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sugar is good for plants, despite limiting nitrogen absorption. However, the sugar that is healthy for plants is typically the same sugar created by plants as part of photosynthesis. In other words, table sugar is not good or bad for plants on its own, just keep track of nitrogen levels in the soil. But don’t worry, sugar won’t kill your grass.
Sugar water helps the microorganisms in the soil break down nutrients, thus helping certain plants grow. In other words, it is okay to water plants with sugar water, but exercise caution and never rely on sugar when fertilizing your grass. Sugar is not plant food and, if applied too liberally, kills the plants you intend to help.
Like sugar, the common household staple baking soda has uses in the yard. Baking soda boosts your plants to resist pests, fungal growth, and more. So, baking soda is good for your plants in certain instances, but exercise caution, as using too much could kill your plants. It’s great for hunting for pesky weeds, but not great for tending to a sensitive garden.