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Molasses to boost soil microbial activity has been talked about for many decades and the theory has been that it provides an energy source for microbes that can be utilized equally well by all soil organisms.
However, field applications that I have studied, have not tended to produce many convincing responses. For instance, Recent research by SWEP laboratories, has begun to shed light on this issue by looking at soil biology from a balance perspective (according to the principles of the Mikhail System) that has shown some significant effects on soil biology, but are now finding that the soilfoodweb is much more complex than expected - something Dr. Elaine Ingham (
www.soilfoodweb.com) could have told them many years ago.
Results of these studies appear to indicate that the lowest application rates work best for fungi and cellulose utilizers, while some bacteria showed the opposite response, with activity increasing as the application rate increased. So my 'take' on this is that BALANCE is the prerequisite to consider, involving the type of microbes you want to supply, based on what you are attempting to accomplish.
With regard to feeding compost tea microbe population (liquid environment, not solids), in my opinion there is no equal in the field, to Dr. Ingham. However, tea must be aerated and fed more than just molasses to accomplish such objective effectively. [11]
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I love molasses, I use direct in the end, make my own em1,
seagreen