"Watering tomatoes with Cola?"

[COMPOST CORNER]

I have heard that if you use Cola to "water" tomatoes, they take up the extra sugar, resulting in a sweeter tomato. I was wondering if anyone had ever tried this?

[starloc]

Not tomatoes......but ive watered citrus with cocacola , seemed to like it BUT in the house i then got flys attracted to the sugar in it on the compost

[Snadger]

I've heard of some strange uses for coca cola, but...........

Imagine the sugar would attract wasps and lead to moulds and fungi growing on the soil.
Why not try one to see what difference it makes?

[hamsterqueen]

my husband used to empty the dregs of his lager into the christmas cactus (it was in his uncivilsed youth) it had beautiful flowers!

[cupcake]

I have heard that if you use Cola to "water" tomatoes, they take up the extra sugar, resulting in a sweeter tomato. I was wondering if anyone had ever tried this?

No, I prefer mine in vodka! (cola that is)

[rustylady]

I really can't see it working. Sweetness of tomatoes depends on variety and growing conditions. Plants produce their own sugar during photosynthesis, and I know I was at school a long time ago, but I don't think they can absorb sugar through their roots.

[coreopsis]

No, I prefer mine in vodka! (cola that is)

I thought you were watering tomatoes with vodka,brilliant,Friday evening visit in the greenhouse and Bloody Mary straight from the bush

[Bren In Pots]

Have a look on google for an American called Jerry Baker he mentions using cola as a fertilizer.
Don't think i fancy using it the ants would have a frenzy

[Welsh Wizard]

The pH of coca cola is around 2.6. Not quite battery acid, but not too many orders of magnitude away. Which possible plant nutrient deficiency could the coca cola prevent? Last I heard, industrially produced high fructose corn syrup was not an ingredient for healthy growth of human beings, let alone plants, which basically need just water, sunlight and NPK plus trace micronutrients in varying degrees.

This is so stupid, it is almost as bad as the idiots who buy rock dust (ie unwanted mine tailings) at gold dust prices in the belief it improves yield (it doesnt).

That coke is a highly polluting luxury good. It is totally unsuited as a fertilizer. The very fact idiots water their plants with it shows they have no appreciation of the embedded nonrenewable energy in the product. People who water their plants with Coke display exactly the kind of behaviour that is causing our world to become a big denuded, polluted junkyard. If you do this you are behaving in a manner that is crass, and uncaring for the environment. If everyone watered their tomatoes with coca-cola, what next?

[esrikandan]

The pH of coca cola is around 2.6. Not quite battery acid, but not too many orders of magnitude away. Which possible plant nutrient deficiency could the coca cola prevent? Last I heard, industrially produced high fructose corn syrup was not an ingredient for healthy growth of human beings, let alone plants, which basically need just water, sunlight and NPK plus trace micronutrients in varying degrees.

This is so stupid, it is almost as bad as the idiots who buy rock dust (ie unwanted mine tailings) at gold dust prices in the belief it improves yield (it doesnt).

That coke is a highly polluting luxury good. It is totally unsuited as a fertilizer. The very fact idiots water their plants with it shows they have no appreciation of the embedded nonrenewable energy in the product. People who water their plants with Coke display exactly the kind of behaviour that is causing our world to become a big denuded, polluted junkyard. If you do this you are behaving in a manner that is crass, and uncaring for the environment. If everyone watered their tomatoes with coca-cola, what next?

I think this is a bit harsh. The OP was just wondering if anyone had tried this.

Whether or not you believe Coke to be an unneccesary luxury good does not make it so for everyone.

[starloc]

The pH of coca cola is around 2.6. Not quite battery acid, but not too many orders of magnitude away. Which possible plant nutrient deficiency could the coca cola prevent? Last I heard, industrially produced high fructose corn syrup was not an ingredient for healthy growth of human beings, let alone plants, which basically need just water, sunlight and NPK plus trace micronutrients in varying degrees.

This is so stupid, it is almost as bad as the idiots who buy rock dust (ie unwanted mine tailings) at gold dust prices in the belief it improves yield (it doesnt).

That coke is a highly polluting luxury good. It is totally unsuited as a fertilizer. The very fact idiots water their plants with it shows they have no appreciation of the embedded nonrenewable energy in the product. People who water their plants with Coke display exactly the kind of behaviour that is causing our world to become a big denuded, polluted junkyard. If you do this you are behaving in a manner that is crass, and uncaring for the environment. If everyone watered their tomatoes with coca-cola, what next?

As well as a minor alteration to the pH , theres more to it than that, In coke you have phosphoric acid this is an additive that makes the compost absorb water better , naranja orange oil , a natural pesticide as well as many other chemicals that can help plants

the fruit and veg extracts in it should (and do) seem to feed plants exactly whats in it who knows but a lot of it is `natural` type ingredients, many of which are proved ingredients in fertilisers and `natural` pesticides, remember that compost tea has plant/veg extracts and sugar in it!

Saying the sugar in it makes fruit sweeter could be possible ( havent got a clue! ) , maybe something else in it does , maybe the fruit isnt sweeter at all ,
a well fed plant will give better fruit , and if coke feeds it then it would give sweeter fruit than an unfed plant, wether the coke fed one would be better than a tomato feed fed one who knows, especialy as every tomato feed is different, so adding coke to the feeding even with another feed could give better fruit (but then again it mightent....)


Coke does also work well ( diluted ) as a foliar spray to kill lots of insects, just like spraying dilute guiness on will feed a plant

But of course using it as a feed or insectacide is illegal as its not licenced and could harm a plant if not diluted enough as caffine in small amounts makes it flower but also higher levels watered in soil can slow root growth

[Bigmallly]

The pH of coca cola is around 2.6. Not quite battery acid, but not too many orders of magnitude away. Which possible plant nutrient deficiency could the coca cola prevent? Last I heard, industrially produced high fructose corn syrup was not an ingredient for healthy growth of human beings, let alone plants, which basically need just water, sunlight and NPK plus trace micronutrients in varying degrees.

This is so stupid, it is almost as bad as the idiots who buy rock dust (ie unwanted mine tailings) at gold dust prices in the belief it improves yield (it doesnt).

That coke is a highly polluting luxury good. It is totally unsuited as a fertilizer. The very fact idiots water their plants with it shows they have no appreciation of the embedded nonrenewable energy in the product. People who water their plants with Coke display exactly the kind of behaviour that is causing our world to become a big denuded, polluted junkyard. If you do this you are behaving in a manner that is crass, and uncaring for the environment. If everyone watered their tomatoes with coca-cola, what next?

I think you are being a little unfair on CC's original question.

YouTube - My tomato plant grew a foot in Mom's house...

[Snadger]

I'll stick around...........this thread could get interesting!

[starloc]

Caffine ( some types ) is used to stimulate plants to flower more to try to reproduce so will probably be one thing you would want when feeding with coke

Cocacola is said to contain caffine citrate , in old recipies by the inventor he lists it

this patent is about the use of caffine in fertilisers

AGRICULTURAL COMPOSITION - Patent application - The use of a member of the caffeine family as a plant reproductive growth stimulator, and in the promotion of maturity in

In the patent , first example of agricultural formula , containing molasses, caffeine, phosphoric acid ( all in coke ) and a bit further up the page states an essential oil is necessary, coke has some herb oils and the citrus oils in its formulation, so it seems coke could be a good fertaliser!

EXAMPLE 1 ( from the patent on link above)

[0077]An agricultural formulation according to the present invention was prepared by admixing the following components.

TABLE-US-00002 Raw Material % w/w Water 37.910 Caffeine 0.020 Sodium Molybdate 0.015 Boric Acid 0.600 Phosphoric acid 33.500 Citric Acid 5.000 Copper sulphate 0.450 Manganese sulphate 1.000 Magnesium sulphate 6.300 Iron Sulphate 1.500 Zinc sulphate 1.450 Cobalt sulphate 0.050 Nickel sulphate 0.005 Urea 11.200 Molasses 1.000

[Welsh Wizard]

OK, to answer the original question: I haven't tried it because its a bad idea. Coke= ph way low, pricey, polluting, and made by dubious multinational company. Water: ph near neutral, cheap (free if you collect it yourself), low pollution, made by rainclouds. No contest IMO. A plant physiological mechanism for roots to uptake sugars exists, and has been proven by science; thus it may make your tomato sweeter, but at what cost? Do you really want your tomato taste to be created using coke? What about all the empty bottles?

It feels similar to food adulteration carried out by a purveyor of low quality goods? If a supermarket added artificial sugar syrup into their natural products to make them taste better wouldn't we be up in arms? (Oh wait, didn't they did that already?)