Does anyone have pics of a plant before and after molasses use?

I use molasses. In flower, I mix in a tablespoon with my nutes. On alternate waterings I use water with a modest amount of Sweet.

I don't think the molasses is about making a difference in yield, potency, aroma, etc. It's about maintaining a healthy environment in the soil to ward of unpleasantness. Vague as hell, I know. But my understanding is that molasses has or promotes good bacteria which help prevent bad stuff.
 
molasses is not only a great carb, but its good for the roots, too. just dont go crazy with it. like 50-100ppm of it with ur regular food.
 
i like corn syrup over molases its easier to dilute and works just as good, as your only using molases for the sugars..... and only use it when flowering. 1 tbsp along with your regular feeding schedule
 
I like fresh baked bread, still warm with butter and molasses, soo good.

lol I have used it in my grow before it works good I guess, hydro or soil don't matter!
 
g13hydo said:
i like corn syrup over molases its easier to dilute and works just as good, as your only using molases for the sugars..... and only use it when flowering. 1 tbsp along with your regular feeding schedule
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corn syrup does not work. It has none of the trace elements that molasses has. This is the reason molasses has some benefit. Sugar, not so much..
 
i'm hearing people say.. it makes the buds bigger.. it makes it smell more.. has anyone acutally done an experiment with it and without it? using the same exact set up each time?

But i'm starting to agree that it prob just gives it the micro nutes it needs
 
I use Hi-Brix Growers Molasses by Earth Juice. NPK is 0-0-3 or, 3% Soluble Potash.

Molasses provides a natural energy boost, and growers that I know in Mendo report a 20% increase in yield.

Works great as a flush, and sweetens the buds.

We all use it. :)

Hope that helps.
-Farmer Tom
 
according to the grow bible, using molasses due to sugars increases bud weight like 35% or something like that..
 
g13hydo said:
i like corn syrup over molases its easier to dilute and works just as good, as your only using molases for the sugars..... and only use it when flowering. 1 tbsp along with your regular feeding schedule
Click to expand...

I don't get this 'only for the sugars' and 'only during flowering' stuff that so many growers seem to practice and suggest... I mean if sugars were good in that significant amounts were actually absorbed and utilized by the plant, thus resulting in faster/better/larger growth; couldn't we suppose that it would be conducive to those very same things during vegetative period? Who doesn't want bigger plants faster during any stage of growth?

I've done a little research on this, anyways. There are some references in another post I made a while back in a molasses thread, if you care to go searching. First of all, I doubt exactly how all of this plays out (and considering specific circumstances) is fully understood by the scientific community. The full extent of soil biology and the complex interactions between plants and microbes (and setting aside insects) certainly is not fully understood.

There are also some things about molasses people don't seem to understand. The problem is that so many equate molasses with sugar. Molasses certainly does contain sugar (get to that later), but really it is a by-product of the sugar refining industry.Molasses is derived from sugar cane. Blackstrap is what is left over after the juice has been boiled/cycled a few times and the majority of the sucrose precipitated out. Each cycle leaves the syrup with less sugar, as well as a more concentrated mineral content (there is also caramelized sugar left over in the molasses). Sugar cane tends to grow an extensive root system; roots can be found growing over ten feet below the topsoil, so sugar cane plants can seek out, acquire and collect nutrients in a way that many other plants cannot.

So molasses provides minerals, which are important to life; be it human, plant, or microbial. Then of course there is the added sucrose, which is a disaccharide, meaning it is actually comprised of two simple sugars (glucose and fructose).
Plant roots themselves actually exude a variety of compounds, including carbohydrates (sugars) and amino acids. A plant spends a good amount of energy carrying out the processes which acquire the building blocks for these compounds and assemble them, only to release them into the rhizosphere (the area immediately surrounding roots).

Of course they have a good reason for doing so, and it would be to attract beneficial microbes directly into the rhizosphere. What all of these microbes do exactly and what goes on between them and the roots is still beyond the scope of anybodies understanding. Aside from chasing away the 'bad' microbes, all of the bacteria and fungi in soil is actively consuming and excreting. They take in whatever it is that they can digest for energy (some can handle specific compounds which others cannot), they retain the nutrients in their bodies (thus they remain in the substrate) and they excrete 'wastes' which happen to be plant available nutrients/mineral ions. This goes back and fourth between microbes; bacteria and fungi are eaten by protozoa for instance, they excrete more 'waste' which more bacteria can pick up and further into more 'waste' and much of the 'waste' can be absorbed by the plant.

Bacteria digest proteins and excrete ammonium; protozoa or nematode eats bacteria and releases more ammonium; different bacteria take that ammonium and turn it into nitrites; still other bacteria turn the nitrites into nitrates. All of these are forms of nitrogen available to the plant. Some bacteria (and archaea) are even capable of making plant available nitrogen from the nitrogen gas plentiful in the atmosphere, again directly within the rhizosphere.

Fungi are also capable of utilizing carbohydrates, and some fungi just love to spread out their hyphae all over the place to seek out nutrients (including phosphorous) specifically for the plant (mycorrhizae, of course).

If you skipped those last couple paragraphs, the point is that there can be a hell of a lot of life in soil (there should be). Carbohydrates like sucrose are high energy food sources for this life, and they are all competing for it within the rhizosphere. When you apply molasses to soil the majority of the sugar within it is going to be used by the microbes and not the plant: the microbes will pay the plant back later.

However, aforementioned research (conducted on other plants) I have found indicated that the root system of those plants actually was able to absorb some of the exogenous sucrose (about 16% if I recall). Also, what was absorbed was most likely rapidly metabolized by roots cells because the tagged sucrose molecules were detected primarily in the roots tissues only.

 There are a variety of horticultural supplements derived from molasses and other ingredients (like sea kelp) that are intended to provide carbohydrates (among other things) for beneficial microbes.

I use raw molasses throughout my entire grow intermittently with liquid seaweed and some other supplements to provide carbohydrates as well as minerals and potassium. Potassium is lacking from many organic fertilizers, and guanos for example.
 
Great post Nullis. Although I have been using the molasses only during flower, I start using some Sweet during veg. And, I do reuse my soil, breaking it down and adding new stuff to it. So, I have a good environment going into veg hopefully.
 
tet1953 said:
Great post Nullis. Although I have been using the molasses only during flower, I start using some Sweet during veg. And, I do reuse my soil, breaking it down and adding new stuff to it. So, I have a good environment going into veg hopefully.
Click to expand...
I use it all through the grow. 1 tsp per gallon in veg. 1 tbsp the first 2 weeks of flower and then 2 tbsp all the way through until I flush
 
zubey91 said:
yeah great post Nullis.. thanks for the info I got Grandma's original molasses.
Click to expand...
this stuff is way better than Grandma's

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Grandma's is more for cooking and is refined differently trust me I've used it but if that's all you can get then use it
 
^This is what I've been using as well. I believe that Grandma's is 2nd molasses, left over after the 2nd cycle; Plantation is blackstrap/3rd molasses and so it has a higher concentration of minerals.
 
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