Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates provide the energy to the soil system, which helps to stimulate natural existing soil microbes. Carbohydrates contain complex starches and simple sugars.

Carbohydrates are used by the plant and offer some unique benefits.

1. Provide an energy source to stimulate soil microbes.
2. Enhance soil aggregation and water infiltration.
3. Provide bio-stimulant properties and an aid to hormone synthesis.
4. Provide sugars for root elongation and seed germination.
5. Aid with anion retention.
   
   Carbohydrates are broken down during plant respiration to release energy, water and CO2. This is similar to human metabolism where we metabolize oxygen and food in order to live. Like humans, respiration in plants is highest at warm temperatures. Respiration is very high in cool season plants in hot weather, respiration may deplete all of the carbohydrates in the plant.
   

Growth is the irreversible change in size. Plants grow in two ways: cell division and cell elongation. Cell growth takes an enormous amount of energy. Producing cell walls, cell constituents, proteins, genetic material, etc. requires energy derived directly from photosynthesis or indirectly through stored carbohydrates.

Storage is the last of the four major processes but may be the most important. Carbohydrates and sometimes proteins are stored for future use by the plant. Storage products are utilized for respiration during periods of stress to help maintain the plant when photosynthesis is not occurring or occurring at low levels. The level of storage is a good indicator of how well a plant will survive stressful conditions, including heat, drought, cold, disease, etc.

All cultural practice that affects growth, such as fertilization or mowing, uses up carbohydrates that would otherwise be sent to storage. Great care must be taken not to cause a depletion in reserves, which reduces the ability of the plant to withstand stress.

Water and Plant Growth

Water is the most abundant material in a growing plant. The weight of water contained in a plant is usually four or five times the total weight of dry matter. Water is one of the components of
many of the complex substances found in plants, but water alone is never found in a pure state in the environment of living organisms.

Water serves many functions within the plant:

• It helps to create a solution of mineral nutrients and the complex substances manufactured within the plant.
• It is a raw material for the process of photosynthesis-the basic process underlying all life.
• It acts as a temperature regulator in that water vapor given off by leaves produces a cooling effect.
• It even acts as a structural agent. When plant cells contain an abundance of water they are turgid and the plant stands erect; when there is a moisture deficiency, the cells are flaccid and the plant droops and wilts.
• Water dissolves the soil minerals which are essential to plant growth and the major part of plant nutrients are believed to be taken into the plant while they are in solution.
• Water moving through the soil performs a function in the flushing of pore spaces aiding in gas exchange.
• Water is the key to the plant regulating it temperature. Water is given off by the leaves through the process of transpiration, and the evaporation of this water creates a cooling effect.