Molasses opinions, yay or nay?

[NorthernGreener]

Hey folks, I've been reading about using Molasses in my grow and since this is my first grow I'm just looking for everyone's thought for and against using, thanks in advance.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Molasses, just say no.

 

[Nate_in_AK]

Molasses, just say no.

I'm interested in your thoughts on this? I bought some unsulfured blackstrap am planning to use 15ml/gal during flower added to base nutrients.

 

[Ponky]

I've tried it. Liquid. Powdered horticultural. Meh. It's just cheap bio matter. Notice nothing.

 

[Nate_in_AK]

Thanks for the feedback. That's maybe depressing, but....

If I'm honest with myself, I'm just this casual grower who is having a good time watching the grass grow. My methods usually lack scientific reasoning, and I'm impatient and always want to mess with things. If I had more space I would be tempted to get more tents just so I had more plants to play with. I read some neat blogs so now I expect this $12 bottle of molasses to unlock world class flower of such quality as to invoke jealously in all who smell it. </s>

P.S. - I'm still putting on my plants.

 

[Ponky]

Thanks for the feedback. That's maybe depressing, but....

If I'm honest with myself, I'm just this casual grower who is having a good time watching the grass grow. My methods usually lack scientific reasoning, and I'm impat ient and always want to mess with things. If I had more space I would be tempted to get more tents just so I had more plants to play with. I read some neat blogs so now I expect this $12 bottle of molasses to unlock world class flower of such quality as to invoke jealously in all who smell it. </s>

P.S. - I'm still putting on my plants.

There is no secret sauce. I've grown the same weed 10 different ways and the result is weed you can't differentiate. Cure for 7 days. Or cure for 6 months. Hydro. Promix. Fancy feed. Simple feed. Spray. No spray. If you grow it right. It's right. If you mess it up. It will let you know. If you let it grow up strong and healthy it doesn't matter how you do it. It all works. Just find what you like. Get more tents if you can. It's fun.

 

[Nate_in_AK]

There is no secret sauce. I've grown the same weed 10 different ways and the result is weed you can't differentiate. Cure for 7 days. Or cure for 6 months. Hydro. Promix. Fancy feed. Simple feed. Spray. No spray. If you grow it right. It's right. If you mess it up. It will let you know. If you let it grow up strong and healthy it doesn't matter how you do it. It all works. Just find what you like. Get more tents if you can. It's fun.

I feel pretty certain that I have noticed the quality of my flower increase around the 30 day mark in the jar. This could be an indication that I'm not treating it properly before the jar, of course.

 

[Ponky]

I feel pretty certain that I have noticed the quality of my flower increase around the 30 day mark in the jar. This could be an indication that I'm not treating it properly before the jar, of course.

I also felt like my extended curing was a plus. But I asked others. They're notice anything less than a 7 day cure as harshness. They prefer weed within 8 weeks of harvest. And when I pulled out my 1 year cured Banner it was fine. But smoked more like tobacco than an oily smokey joint of the fresh kush. Furthermore when it's day 4 drying and you pinch of some dry buts from the outside of a nug people find that to be super smooth and tasty. And you literally have a few hours window to sample that piece before it sweats.

 

[NorthernGreener]

When I first read about Molasses during flowering I thought it was supposed to bring out the flavor as I've read further it seems it's more about making my soil more lively and help my plants grow stronger and help with absorption but there seems to be no real hard evidence to support that it will help my already healthy plants if anyone can change my mind on the subject please go ahead and try

 

[Ponky]

When I first read about Molasses during flowering I thought it was supposed to bring out the flavor as I've read further it seems it's more about making my soil more lively and help my plants grow stronger and help with absorption but there seems to be no real hard evidence to support that it will help my already healthy plants if anyone can change my mind on the subject please go ahead and try

I mean it is bio matter. On the commercial scale it has claimed benefits. Help a field process manure or something. And simple sugars are used by soil bacteria. I've just never noticed a difference. With or without. If you had a fallowed field and you had horticultural molasses and wanted to use it out there the research papers are there in PDF for all to see.

I would hope someone that does living soil could provide their experience. I've wondered if I missed something when I was using it.

 

[Grapefruitroop]

Thats pretty much whats up....
Sugars feeds bacteria...also fungi..
Has plenty of potassium....some minerals...
If you wana boost specifically flavor try potassium sulphate or fulvic acid instead!

 

[Imzzaudae]

I start with a compost bin full of worm castings, then add hardwood wood chips and other organic materials like ground up leaves, grass clippings, rabbit poop, a couple of hundred worms and table scraps to feed the worms in a large pot of living soil. If you are doing this kind of organic growing adding a little Un sulfured molasses to feed soil microbes is a great way to keep your soil happy and alive. I also plant a cover crop of clover on top. This makes things happen, if you look after and feeding worms in the your soil in this kind of grow you feed the microbes in the soil sugar, not the plant. It's just a little different way of looking at things. If you are growing in anything other than living soil like this don't give the plant molasses. These pots are put together in the spring and tended to for a year before seedlings are transplanted into them the fallowing spring. I do things like boil egg shells, put the water and shells in a blender then water my pot with it. This is a way of adding Calcium a little at a time the first year. I also water with 1 TBS of Epson salts once in a while to help with Magnesium. I feed my worms Avocados, They love them and breed like crazy. There are more little tricks but this kind of grow is not for everyone. It takes patients and a lot of time.

 

[mancorn]

Feeding plants sugar is not going to impart flavor to your plants. If you feed with french fries it doesn’t make a Happy Meal flavor. If it did, then we would all use fruit juices, candy, spices, etc to make yummy flavored buds. I think where people get confused is the use of molasses for feeding microorganisms. If you make Active Aeration Compost Teas (AACT) you need a source of sugar to feed (and grow) microorganisms, and while you can use any kind of sugars, molasses is the most prevalent. The idea being that you get a source of microorganisms (compost), and soak it in water, add oxygen (with an air pump) and sugar (molasses) and after a few days the population explodes and you have a big bucket of microorganisms that you can add to your soil. The thing is you normally only add enough molasses to feed the critters for a few days (at which point the microorganisms will start eating each other), so by the time you use your tea it shouldn’t contain hardly any molasses.

 

[Ponky]

I start with a compost bin full of worm castings, then add hardwood wood chips and other organic materials like ground up leaves, grass clippings, rabbit poop, a couple of hundred worms and table scraps to feed the worms in a large pot of living soil. If you are doing this kind of organic growing adding a little Un sulfured molasses to feed soil microbes is a great way to keep your soil happy and alive. I also plant a cover crop of clover on top. This makes things happen, if you look after and feeding worms in the your soil in this kind of grow you feed the microbes in the soil sugar, not the plant. It's just a little different way of looking at things. If you are growing in anything other than living soil like this don't give the plant molasses. These pots are put together in the spring and tended to for a year before seedlings are transplanted into them the fallowing spring. I do things like boil egg shells, put the water and shells in a blender then water my pot with it. This is a way of adding Calcium a little at a time the first year. I also water with 1 TBS of Epson salts once in a while to help with Magnesium. I feed my worms Avocados, They love them and breed like crazy. There are more little tricks but this kind of grow is not for everyone. It takes patients and a lot of time.
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Have you found a way to use wood ash in any beneficial way? Had an old neighbour show me once. But didn't really retain it.

 

[Imzzaudae]

Not for Cannabis plants. I always thought wood ash was acid. Turns out wood ash is very alkaline. You may get away with a little in the compost bin but it would mess up the grow pot acidity.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

I say no because it's the OP's first grow. Let the basics sink in first.

 

[CannaTech]

When I first read about Molasses during flowering I thought it was supposed to bring out the flavor as I've read further it seems it's more about making my soil more lively and help my plants grow stronger and help with absorption but there seems to be no real hard evidence to support that it will help my already healthy plants if anyone can change my mind on the subject please go ahead and try

This depends on 100% how you are growing, If you are a semi organic chemical farmer, molasses (black strap preferred) will be beneficial for your microbes. The theory behind molasses at the end of the cycle is to kick the microbes into gear and get them to convert the last of the nutes in the soil into something useable by the plant. This leads to expending the nutes at the end of the cycle.

If you are a a full organic farmer you are probably already using it to brew teas with, when you are in this situation and constantly feeding your soil with teeming microbe teas, you are not going to notice a difference.

As other growers have said, grow healthy plants and you wont notice a difference, but there is some fact behind the usage of it, just depends on the situation.

 

[Wanda_Cosma]

I've used blackstrap while making compost tea or worm casting tea before but it's just to provide trace minerals and maybe feed microbes if you're giving it to plants outside in the earth. If you use kelp meal you should be covered with the trace minerals anyway.

 

[Madbud]

Have you found a way to use wood ash in any beneficial way? Had an old neighbour show me once. But didn't really retain it.

Wood ash adds potassium. Molasses as stated is to feed microbes in living soil.

 

[Ponky]

Not for Cannabis plants. I always thought wood ash was acid. Turns out wood ash is very alkaline. You may get away with a little in the compost bin but it would mess up the grow pot acidity.

Good to know. Organic is way more complex than I know.