8 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2021
SPRING HOME & GARDEN 2021
Your soil has a sweet tooth
BY DR. MIKE BREDESON Agroecologist Ecdysis Foundation
Local farmer plants soybeans into a living cover crop (cereal rye) which was seeded following corn harvest the previous fall. Cover crops prevent erosion, purify water, provide wildlife habitat and build beneficial bacteria and fungi communities which will help feed and protect the new soybean crop. Courtesy photo
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Do you have a sweet tooth? If so, thank a plant. Plants have the superhero-like ability of turning an invisible gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), that is in the air all around us, into something we can hold in our hands and even taste — sugar. All the sugar you have ever eaten came from plants. Why do plants make sweet sugars? For plants, animals and most organisms, sugars are the building blocks that make up our bodies and also the fuels which keep us energized. The process of capturing a gas out of thin air and making it into sugar takes a lot of work. Sugars are energetically costly and thus very valuable to any organism which possesses them. If sugars are so costly and difficult to make, then why would plants push the majority of their sugars (about 60%) out of their roots and into the soil? For plants to give away so much energy seems like an awful waste.
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• • • • • • Locally Owned & Operated by: JOHANNECK WATER CONDITIONING, INC. 101 LITCHFIELD AVE SE, WILLMAR
WEST CENTRAL TRIBUNE — WILLMAR, MINN.
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