3lb(Three Little Birds) with some Carbo load ingredients:
Molasses - Sweet & Super
Molasses was one sweet treat we were never without when I was growing up. We put it on bread with butter for a snack. It was great on hot cornbread and really flavored up beans if stirred in the pot when they were very hot. My grandpa would eat molasses over cottage cheese every morning for breakfast, and he stayed healthy to his death at a very old age.
Back then I would never have guessed that molasses would have any value in growing plants or use in insect control. My friend who grows organic cotton up in the high plains uses molasses and a nitrogen-fixing microbe as his only fertilizer. (Nitrogen fixing means the nitrogen is made available to plants as nutrients.) I asked him what the molasses did, and he said it made the microbes work better.
I had to find out for myself, so I did a test. I used two containers of equal size with equal amounts of potting soil and the same number of rye grass seeds. One container was given only tap water; the other was given equal water with two tablespoons of molasses per gallon stirred in. After 8 weeks, the molasses watered plants were almost twice the size of the plants in the other container.
I was amazed, but I didn’t understand how molasses could make that much difference. We had the compost in the potting soil tested and found that it contained some of the same free-nitrogen-fixing microbes that the cotton grower used. (He used an Agri-Gro product containing the microbes.) One of these nitrogen-fixing microbes is Azotobacter, a microbe that can fix nitrogen straight from the air without living on the root of a legume as long as it has a source of energy such as sugar or molasses. Both are rich in carbohydrates, a good source of energy. In lab tests, Dr. Louis M. Thompson discovered that if given sugar weekly, the Azotobacter could fix from the air the equivalent of a thousand pounds of nitrogen per acre in ten weeks.
We recommend that molasses, 1 to 3 tablespoons, be added to each gallon of liquid fertilizer mix. It definitely makes a difference. It is also used as a binder in all of our dry fertilizer formulas.
Every gardener has his or her own favorite fertilizer recipe. Both Howard Garrett and John Dromgoole have popular recipes that contain molasses and other organic materials. You can experiment with your favorites and come up with your own best recipe.
I always foliar feed my fruit trees early each spring with fish emulsion and seaweed. Now I add molasses to the mix. The strangest thing I noticed when using molasses with the mix was that the fire ants would move out from under the trees. I also got reports from Houston that fire ants would move away from the lawns after an application of dry fertilizer that contained molasses.
I got an opportunity to see if molasses really moved fire ants. In my vineyard, I had a 500 foot row of root stock vines cut back to a stump that needed
grafting. The fire ants had made themselves at home along that row because of the drip pipe that kept the soil soft and gave them a good supply of water. The mounds averaged three feet apart. There was no way a person could work there without being eaten alive!
I dissolved 4 tablespoons of molasses in each gallon of water and sprayed along the drip pipe. By the next day, the fire ants had moved out four feet in each direction. We were able to graft the vines without a single ant bothering us. With this success at moving the ants, I decided to spray the whole orchard and get rid of those pests. I learned, however, if the ants have no convenient place to move, they just stay where they are. I began wondering if the energy-rich molasses stimulate a soil microbe that the ants don’t like. This was the beginning of development of Garden-Ville Fire Ant Control.
A friend of mine up in dairy country uses a hydro cyclone to separate the liquids from the solids in cow manure. He noticed when spraying the liquids on hay fields that the fire ants tended to disappear. Tests of our compost have shown it to contain insect pathogens. The manure liquids and the compost tea both had some results as ant killers. The two together worked a little better. We knew that dormant oil sprays killed some insects, and that citrus peel extracts were used to kill insects, so we decided to mix orange oil with molasses and liquid cow manure. After months of research, we finally found the correct blend that not only killed ants, but any insects. It even smelled okay and would not burn the leaves of plants. It quickly degraded into a good energy-rich soil conditioner.
Needless to say, we offered our product to the market as Garden-Ville Fire Ant Control. We have many happy customers. You can even make your own if you don’t want to buy ours. More information is included in the article on fire ant control.
The Garden-Ville Method - Lessons in Nature
Sweet Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
In a blow against fertilizer empire giants hell bent on world domination that might have been better titled, Sweet Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope, the 3LB’s first posted our Molasses Manual at Overgrow and Cannabis World close to five years ago. Since then it’s been reposted and regurgitated at dozens of websites across the world wide web. In our eyes, this was a significant victory for our small rebel alliance of educated organic growers in the battle against corporate domination in the world of Horticulture.
We’ve all known the ag giant empire would attempt to discredit our efforts to teach growers. Just because a fertilizer or additive is advertised as some kind of special “magic bullet” for growers, it doesn’t mean there aren’t effective alternatives available at the supermarket or feed store, but please don’t remind the executives at
Advanced Nutrients we are teaching that as gospel, it upsets two things. Their ulcers and their bottom line.
The have let the 3lb’s know in no uncertain terms that they don’t like us telling growers that most, if not all, “carboload” products marketed to growers are really just an overpriced and overhyped repackaging of molasses. And now, in the AN forum at PlanetGanja, they’ve resorted to obvious attempts to mislead growers as a part of their effort to reap ever greater profits and market share for their “magic bullet” carboload product.
Here’s the question that was asked of “Advanced” - the European distributor of AN’s product line:
is carboload black trap molases? whats it consist of? i had a bottle way back and found it very sugar beet like. great stuff,but i found regular molasses to work similar.
thanx in advanced.
Despite the spelling and grammar errors, it would seem to be a legitimate question.
Here’s the reply from “Advanced”:
Carboload contains 5 simple and complex carbohydrates in the ratios that our favourite plants utilize. The ingredients are:
Arabinose
Dextrose
Glucose
Maltose
Xylose
Black strap molasses or black treacle is made from a blend of cane sugars.
Almost any form of sugar would be a good additive but according to the R&D scientists at Advanced, the Carboload ingredients and ratios worked better.
At the time “Advanced” originally posted that denial, we honestly didn’t notice. That post was made at PlanetGanja in Feburary, 2007, more than a year ago without much of anyone noticing. Then, last week, a friend of the flock brought it to the 3LB’s attention, and our rooster and hen research team of Foggy and Tweedy began to take a critical look at the purported ingredients of AN’s Carboload.
At first glance we noticed one glaring problem, the listing of the ingredients Glucose and Dextrose. The R&D scientists from AN must be trying to pull the wool over somebody’s eyes, listing those as two separate ingredients in order like that, because glucose and dextrose are two different names for the same thing! At least they were smart enough to avoid wording it that way on their current product label, but they certainly aren’t above using synonyms in their ingredient list on marijuana message boards.
Here’s a little blurb documenting glucose and dextrose as synonyms, just so you don’t have to take the 3LB’s word for any of the facts presented here:
Definition of Dextrose
Dextrose: Better known today as glucose, this sugar is the chief source of energy in the body. Glucose is chemically considered a simple sugar. It is the main sugar that the body manufactures. The body makes glucose from all three elements of food, protein, fat and carbohydrates, but in largest part from carbohydrates. Glucose serves as the major source of energy for living cells.
It’s hard to believe that anybody worth their salt who has earned the title “scientist”, wouldn’t actually know that dextrose and glucose are synonymous. To confirm our suspicion, it took us a grand total of a minute and a single google search to find dozens of sources that document this simple truth about dextrose/glucose. With that in mind, we had no other real option than to conclude that this was an deliberate attempt to make AN’s Carboload ingredient list look longer and more impressive to the uninformed.
It really doesn’t get any better the further we move down the list either. Every sugar on the list provided by “Advanced” is a plant derived sugar, all but Maltose are simple sugars, and there’s no reason they needed to try and hide that other than to try and mislead the public about the cost and effort that goes into manufacturing this product.
Again, for the record, we’ll document those facts for our Cannabis Chronicles readers:
Definition of Arabinose
Arabinose: (Science: biochemistry, chemical) a pentose monosaccharide that occurs in both D and L configurations.
D arabinose is the 2 epimer of D ribose, i.e. Differs from D ribose by having the opposite configuration at carbon 2. D arabinose occurs inter alia in the polysaccharide arabinogalactan, a neutral pectin of the cell wall of plants and in the metabolites cytosine arabinoside and adenine arabinoside.
That’s the most “obscure” sugar on the “Advanced” list, and all that scientific speak might not be easy to decipher, so we’ll try to hit the high points here quickly. Arabinose is sugar that’s present in the cell walls of all plants. Arabinose is a pectin.
That name might ring a bell, rather than being something exotic or uncommon, pectin is what grandma (and Welch’s) uses to thicken jams and preserves. Since pectins are something all plants seem to manufacture quite well on their own, we began to wonder if it’s use in Carboload might be to thicken a watered down product to seem to give it more substance?
Definition of Maltose
Maltose is made from two glucose units: Maltose or malt sugar is the least common disaccharide in nature. It is present in germinating grain, in a small proportion in corn syrup, and forms on the partial hydrolysis of starch. It is a reducing sugar. The two glucose units are joined by an acetal oxygen bridge in the alpha orientation. To recognize glucose look for the down or horizontal projection of the -OH on carbon # 4. See details on the galactose page towards the bottom.
Maltose is the only sugar on the “Advanced” list that’s not a simple sugar, however it’s not anything terribly exotic, or even unique to AN’s Carboload product. Malted barley is one of the primary ingredients in the beer brewing process, and
Earth Juice uses wheat malt as one of the ingredients in their “Catalyst” product.
As was pointed out in the definition, it’s even present in Corn Syrup, which might very well explain it showing up in a plant Carboload product. Corn Syrups are often less expensive to procure than Molasses, adding one important ingredient for fertilizer manufacturers, an increase in their bottom line.
Definition of Xylose
xylose Pentose (five-carbon) sugar found in plant tissues as complex polysaccharide; 40% as sweet as sucrose. Also known as wood sugar.
and/or
Definition of D-Xylose
D-xylose, commonly called wood sugar, is a natural 5-carbon sugar (pentose) obtained from the xylan rich portion of hemicellulose from plants cell walls and fibre.
In some circles, xylose is being touted as a “healthier” sugar than sucrose (common table sugar) and it is true that humans absorb xylose through a different mechanism than we do glucose or fructose (the two simple sugars that make up sucrose). However, that doesn’t mean it’s an exotic or costly ingredient in a carboload product, as one of the common dietary sources for xylose includes corn.
That’s a little more of the story behind the attempts by the Ag empire to strike back at the growing number of individuals who prefer molasses as a sugar source for use as a plant fertilizer. When it’s all said and done, it would appear that the claims by
Advanced Nutrients for their carboload product, that it isn’t solely molasses based, is likely true. By all accounts, including their own labeling, the majority of the sugars involved appear to be potentially directly related to, or derived from, corn syrup.
A little common sense detective work by our rooster and hen research team leads us to believe that AN is very likely using some sort of corn syrup as a base for their carboload product, since the sugars present in carboload also are inherent in corn. We don’t believe that corn syrup derived sources of carbohydrates have any advantages over molasses based sweeteners, in fact quite the opposite.
Corn sweeteners do not offer the rich mix of trace minerals offered by molasses. We can’t find any documented evidence that corn syrup will serve as a chelating agent like molasses. And, we’ve never heard about corn syrup deterring fire ants either. For more details about all those benefits of molasses, please read the other articles in the 3LB Molasses Manual.
Farm smart everybody, live and love well, and remember, if you are learning as you grow, then you are growing too!
Sweet Wars VI - HFCS Strikes Back
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) advocates will tell you that the high fructose corn syrup story is one of the most “revolutionary” in food science in the last few decades.1 Yet HFCS has been blamed for increases, outbreaks, and even epidemics, in human obesity. Some well respected scientists would like to link the ubiquitous nature of HFCS in our diet to increases in juvenile diabetes and other metabolic disorders.
high fructose corn syrup
Others, also well respected, will argue that not only is high fructose corn syrup cheaper than other sources of sugar, it’s actually superior to sucrose. It’s been said that HFCS produces better and more eye appealing breads and breakfast cereals, as well as superior cookies and cakes. So, why is there a problem, or controversy, and what might it all mean?
Our primary interest here at the bird’s nest in researching and writing this article is to examine the potential of high fructose corn syrup as an alternative to molasses as a soil sweetener and fuel for the soil microherd. But, with a number of various controversies swirling around this sweet man made invention, we’ll need to examine the whole HFCS story in little greater detail.
If you’ve had a sip of Coca-Cola or 7-Up, sampled the potato salad at a Blimpies or KFC, or eaten a sandwich with Ketchup or tartar sauce at almost any Canadian or U.S. fast food restaurant,
you can be almost 100% positive that you’ve just consumed some High Fructose Corn Syrup. It’s everywhere it seems. High Fructose Corn Syrup shows up as an ingredient in a variety of salad dressings and sauces, brownies and pies.
HFCS is an important ingredient in Mott’s Apple Sauce, McDonaldland Cookies, Taco Bell’s Carmel Apple Empanada, Subway’s Teriyaki Glazed Chicken Strips, and the Log Cabin Syrup served at Jack in the Box.2
Believe it or not, the term High Fructose Corn Syrup is a sort of an oxymoron. Contrary to it’s name, HFCS itself isn’t necessarily especially high in fructose. Unaltered or natural corn syrup itself is almost entirely glucose, so at the time this enzymatically altered sweetener was developed, the addition of any fructose to the corn syrup equation resulted in a product labeled- High Fructose. Hyperbole and marketing aside, the final ratio of glucose to fructose found in manufactured HFCS is pretty similar to table sugar.
fructose molecule
Sucrose is the more scientific term for what you and I know as table sugar, and it is approximately 50% glucose and 50% fructose. The final ratios of fructose and glucose in commonly used High Fructose Corn Syrups can vary, for instance there is a HCFS42 that is 42% fructose, and a HCFS55 that is, you guessed it, 55% fructose.3
As a matter of marketing, and for simplicity in use, high fructose corn syrup was developed and formulated to provide sweetness similar to table sugar. Beverage makers and food confectioners needed to be able to depend on HFCS to provide a similar level of sweetness as sucrose. This was considered to be an absolute necessity in order to guarantee that consumers would be unable to notice any differences in flavor or perceived sweetness.
fructose molecule
HFCS55 has sweetness equivalent to sucrose (table sugar). It’s used in many carbonated soft drinks in the United States and Canada. HFCS42 is somewhat less sweet, and is used in wide variety of products including fruit-flavored non-carbonated beverages and baked goods. HFCS is commonly used in products where its special characteristics such as ferment-ability, lower freezing point, surface browning, or flavor enhancement, could add perceived value to the finished product.4
None of those facts sound very nefarious, do they? So why is it then that HFCS is demonized and blamed for so many maladies? It’s the production of HFCS that gets some folks upset, and it’s not just a single facet of production that’s problematic. The first problem literally begins with a kernel of corn.
HFCS is generally made from transgenic (genetically modified / also known as a GMO - for genetically modified organism) corn, and that’s an issue in some circles. Some individuals worry about the long term health effects of the consumption of a vegetable that’s had foreign DNA inserted into it’s genetic code. Other’s worry about the almost inevitable escape of genetically modified genes from cultivation, and are concerned about the impact these artificially created genetics might have on wild plant populations. And finally, some ethicists take issue with the tight patent privileges associated with transgenic crops. It is illegal to save seed or otherwise breed or reuse GMO seed in any manner shape or form, effectively ending all traditional seed saving practices.
The actual growing part of production doesn’t have to involve transgenic organisms though. While GMO corn is normally used to produce HFCS, it can be produced from corn that hasn’t been genetically altered. But, that’s where the issue of the enzymatic process used to create High Fructose Corn Syrup rears it’s ugly head. At least one genetically modified enzyme is necessary as a part of the actual manufacturing process of High Fructose Corn Syrup, making it’s use in any product termed natural or organic quite questionable.
I believe the makers of 7-up were even sued over that product’s “All Natural” labeling in the USA, simply because it is sweetened by HFCS. It appears that beverage’s labeling has changed to - “100% Natural Flavors”. In my eyes this is a sign that despite the US government’s lack of standards concerning the word “natural” on foods, that labeling HFCS products as “natural” is too big a stretch for the admittedly plastic regulators under the current Bush administration.
With all of that in mind, here’s one more quick look at a few of the dueling sugars that are part of Sweet Wars, the following primarily derived from Wikipedia’s article on HFCS.
Cane and beet sugar
Cane sugar and Beet sugar are both relatively pure sucrose. While the glucose and fructose which are the two components of HFCS are monosaccharides, sucrose is a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose linked together with a relatively weak glycosidic bond. A molecule of sucrose (with a chemical formula of C12H22O11) can be broken down into a molecule of glucose (C6H12O6) plus a molecule of fructose (also C6H12O6 — an isomer of glucose) in a weakly acidic environment. Sucrose is broken down during digestion into fructose and glucose through hydrolysis by the enzyme sucrase, by which the body regulates the rate of sucrose breakdown. Without this regulation mechanism, the body has less control over the rate of sugar absorption into the bloodstream.
suger beet
The fact that sucrose is composed of glucose and fructose units chemically bound complicates the comparison between cane sugar and HFCS. The accuracy of saying that sucrose is “composed of 50% glucose and 50% fructose” depends on the context and point of view. Sucrose, glucose and fructose are unique, distinct molecules. Sucrose is broken down into its constituent monosaccharides - namely fructose and glucose - in weakly acidic environments by a process called inversion. This same process occurs in the stomach and in the small intestine during the digestion of sucrose into fructose and glucose. People with sucrase deficiency cannot digest (break down) sucrose, and thus exhibit sucrose intolerance.
Both HFCS and sucrose have approximately 4 kcal per gram of solid if the HFCS is dried; HFCS has approximately 3 kcal per gram in its liquid form [8].
Honey
Honey is a mixture of different types of sugars, water, and small amounts of other compounds. Honey typically has a fructose/glucose ratio similar to HFCS 55, as well as containing some sucrose and other sugars. Honey, HFCS and sucrose have the same number of calories, having approximately 4 kcal per gram of solid; honey and HFCS both have about 3 kcal per gram in liquid form.
Maple syrup
Maple syrup is a sweetener made from the sap of maple trees. In Canada and the U.S. it is most often eaten with pancakes, waffles, french toast, cornbread or ice cream. It is sometimes used as an ingredient in baking, the making of candy (confection), preparing desserts, or as a sugar source and flavoring agent in making beer. Sucrose is the most prevalent sugar in maple syrup.
Sweet sorghum
Sweet sorghum is any of the many varieties of sorghum, a cane-like plant with a high sugar content. Sweet sorghum will thrive under drier and warmer conditions than many other crops and is grown primarily for forage, silage, and sugar production. Sweet sorghum syrup is called “molasses” or “sorghum molasses” in some regions of the U.S., but the term molasses more properly refers to a different.
