# Blackstrap Molasses in hydroponics system



## her.moore (May 11, 2009)

Can i use Molasses in a hydro system? and much do i use? If it cant be done let me know. or is there something else that i can use?


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## rocweiler (May 13, 2009)

her.moore said:


> Can i use Molasses in a hydro system? and much do i use? If it cant be done let me know. or is there something else that i can use?


Don't pour molasses into your hydro system. You will end up clogging the pumps, lines, etc and causing a mess for yourself. Try finding Sucanat in it's powder form but I hear that can cause root rot in hydro. It's the raw sugar the plants need from the molasses but without the sticky mess. Might be able to get it at a health food store or all natural kind of deal but good luck I haven't ran into any yet but I'm in soil still and will cross that bridge when I get to it. Check this thread out. https://www.rollitup.org/harvesting-curing/115042-molasses-no-molasses-you-tell.html


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## HydroClosetGrower (May 13, 2009)

I was wondering the same thing and was really drawn to the idea of molasses so i added some to my res. after doing so, i would not recommend it. first, molasses has a big effect on ph. if you get the right amount in there and manage to balance the ph, it actually stabilized for me for a while, but the risks aren't worth it. if you have too strong a concentration or your ph gets out of whack, your res will get really funky really quickly. what i would actually recommend is getting a gal container and filling it with as much 1tbsp/1gal concentration as you'll need to semi-flush your plants by hand every once in a while. i think it is good during later flowering when nutrient uptake is critical. just my 2 cents


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## wilsoncr17 (May 14, 2009)

Try Sweet by Botanicaire, or Carbo Load from Advanced Nutrients. You can use the Sweet (Citrus or Berry) while flushing and it makes your weed taste like fruit. It's basically a specifically derived compund of carbs and sugars for growing. Honestlyy I think it works better than molasses or sugar, just cost more.


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## jointchief (May 14, 2009)

The active ingredient in sweet is cane sugar.


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## born2killspam (May 14, 2009)

wilsoncr17 said:


> Try Sweet by Botanicaire, or Carbo Load from Advanced Nutrients. You can use the Sweet (Citrus or Berry) while flushing and it makes your weed taste like fruit. It's basically a specifically derived compund of carbs and sugars for growing. Honestlyy I think it works better than molasses or sugar, just cost more.


I want pizza flavored buds.. Know any product that will do that??


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## Greyskull (May 14, 2009)

jointchief said:


> The active ingredient in sweet is cane sugar.


yep.
SWEET ROCKS
works great in recirculating hydro environments. plus its got epsom salt in it too... its great to use for all stages of growth. AND ITS ORGANIC (berry anyways)
so what it costs $60 a gallon?
I done a complete grow with & without, and I yeilded an addional 2oz from the 4x4/1k WITH sweet. thats a pretty good return on investment. not to mention the buds were a bit more resiny & tastier... 

SWEET is the poop


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## cbgreen (May 15, 2009)

you can go for the sweet rocks, or use honey solution as foliar spray, but try to avoid molasses (too much sucrose),try to avoid adding sugared solutions to the roots since the leaves have a greater intake of monosacharides
personally i'd go for the sweet rocks in your case if you want to spare yourself from daily foliar spraying.


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## hiteck8964 (May 16, 2009)

I have been running a GH waterfarm with unsulphured molasses, no issues. I use one tsp per gallon and let it dilute, im also running a airstone in the reservoir.


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## Greyskull (May 16, 2009)

^^^ what nutrients are you using with the mollasses?^^^


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## NeoAnarchist (May 16, 2009)

i tried molasses in my DWC and it pretty much almost killed my gro, had to take it out, i didnt know there was anything like that, that u could use in ur hydro system to help out like molasses would.


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## hiteck8964 (May 22, 2009)

Greyskull said:


> ^^^ what nutrients are you using with the mollasses?^^^



It was a schedule with a range of different types of nuts including Tiger bloom, big bloom, diamond nector, dark energy, grow big, kool bloom, and GH flora system.

just now finishing up with flushing now, well developed and very swollen colas. i was growing a hindu x skunk.


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## her.moore (Jul 2, 2010)

what week do you start using the sweet?


Greyskull said:


> yep.
> SWEET ROCKS
> works great in recirculating hydro environments. plus its got epsom salt in it too... its great to use for all stages of growth. AND ITS ORGANIC (berry anyways)
> so what it costs $60 a gallon?
> ...


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## Maca kizzle (Jul 23, 2018)

I use blackstrap unslphured molassis indoor and out no issue but indoor rtw only wow new would put it threw a pump really we all got to learn


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## PopeyeSpinach (Aug 13, 2018)

I also use it in hydro, i dk how much people put in that are clogging pumps, but i put in about 2 tablespoons to a 10 gallon res. just to feed the mycoz

Edit: whoa this thread is old


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## LinguaPeel (Aug 19, 2018)

Fuck molasses I use Skunk Cabbage extract


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## Kami Samurai (Aug 20, 2018)

I use it in my Bennie teas in dwc


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## xtsho (Aug 20, 2018)

Molasses doesn't do anything in hydro.


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## PopeyeSpinach (Aug 20, 2018)

xtsho said:


> Molasses doesn't do anything in hydro.


Except provide food for mykoz


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## Kami Samurai (Aug 20, 2018)

You can make your own Sweet Raw or Terpinator fo pennies on the dollar if you want a carb product. Sweet Raw is Just Cane sugar and Epsom salt. Terpinator you swap the cane for dark brown sugar and add pottasium sulfate. They do what molasses does in soil for hydro. There’s recipes online just google them.


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## GreenLegend420 (Aug 21, 2018)

her.moore said:


> what week do you start using the sweet?


in coco from seed and for everything else week 3+ flowering. Most people dont understand that sweet doesnt make your flower taste like grapes or berries or whatever. Sweet grape for example is made to enhance the flavor of grape buds and berry will enhance the flavor of berry buds. They add natural terpenes from plants that have the same flavor. According to botanicare, cannabis plants dont use up these terpenes they just store them within the plant.


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## Gorilla Mike (Aug 22, 2018)

her.moore said:


> Can i use Molasses in a hydro system? and much do i use? If it cant be done let me know. or is there something else that i can use?


A good rule of thumb with any hydro system is to only use nutes and supplements recommended by the hydro system company or the dealer you bought your system from. Most people on this forum recommend against it for various reasons, the main one being that it’ll clog up your plumbing! I agree. If you really wanna try using molasses in your grow, try switching over to soil. Molasses does make a noticeable positive difference in applications to soil and combined with good microbes, you’ll be amazed! I know this is more easily said than done, if you’re comfort zone is set in hydro and you’re not at all familiar with soil growing. Most personal growers grow because they like to push the inside of the envelope and think outside the box; its part of their nature. But even if its not, I highly recommend trying a comparison experimental grow. Start with fresh new seeds of your choice with one batch in your existing hydro set up and then next to that, if your light footprint is big enough start the same seeds in a two pot soil set up. Read up on the basics of soil growing but its not rocket science and if you’re good at growing in hydro, which is actually much more challenging then growing in soil, you’ll actually discover an amazing amount of nute recipes that include molasses.

I believe all of us growers are renegades at heart and we grow even when we know we’re breaking the law. But bad laws were meant to be broken! Even if small personal grows are legal in your neck of the woods, the simple (or as complicated as you want to make it!) ACT of growing marijuana indoors is an act of exploration and thinking outside the box. That’s how I went from a small hobby grower to a large-scale commercial one.

The reason I recommend setting up a hydro and soil-with-molasses grow in the same room under the same lights is that its much more easy to compare. Simply do what you’re already doing with your hydro system and right beside it set a two pot soil grow using the molasses nute recipe of your choice. I only recommend trying this if you enjoy checking your plants every day. A lot of hydro growers are not true growers and don’t like visiting their plants every day and do as little as possible and spend as little time as possible in their gardens—all they care about is the results. But I’m a “hands on” kind of guy and actually enjoy working with my plants every day. Doing so, makes you, encourages you to think outside the box and try new things.

For example, when I went from a small personal grower to a large commercial one, we decided hand-trimming was just not viable with hundreds of plants to harvest and trim. We got those big auto-trimmers with blades than could trim dozens of pounds of Bud per hour. But after a few years after experimenting with every new machine to hit the market (and they all used blades back then) we discovered they were damaging the quality of our Buds. Then, just about 4 years ago this revolutionary new automated trimming machine hit the market called a Tom’s Tumble Trimmer. It didn’t look like much and seemed a far stretch that it could claim to perfectly trim 60lbs of Bud per hour without even using blades! But being that my spirit has always been experimental and pushing the inside of the envelope I had the balls to try it out. My commercial grower friends down in California were raving about it and urged me to give it a whirl even though it looked just too simple to do the job right. It was thousands of dollars less then all the other big complicated bladed machines and my friends told me it never broke down, or needed any maintenance or even any cleaning and was an amazing work horse. After just one harvest we were totally impressed and my gang was thankful I tried it out. We were so happy with the purity of it, and its amazing speed at trimming perfect hand-trimmed-looking Buds while preserving over 90% percent of the trichomes and resin, we ended up getting 4 more.

So thinking outside the box and pushing the envelope when it comes to growing can be a good thing as long as you’re willing to learn from your failures. But if you try a good molasses recipe and with good soil growing technique you really can’t fail! But trying to run molasses through a hydroponic system is a disaster just waiting to happen! And so is going against all the good people here urging you avoid using molasses in a hydro system because even in soil, if you deviate from a proven recipe you’re going to see some strange things happening with your plants that you’re not going to be too happy about.


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