Can You Use Too Much Molasses?

Tony Aroma · Jul 17, 2009

The reason I ask is that I always give my used soil to my wife for the house plants. The other day she was transplanting with some of my soil and noticed the runoff water was brown. Looked like coffee. I've never seen this with my plants, but then I don't water that much and get very little runoff. The only thing I can think of is a build up of molasses. Nothing else I use is that dark brown color. I use molasses with just about every watering. Could I be using too much? If so, is that a bad thing?

Payaso · Jul 17, 2009

Well I have seen that also with reused soil and nothing happened bad...

But too much molasses?

I suppose you could pour so much on the plant that it clogs the roots and a gazillion ants could infest the place, but perhaps not.

magiccannabus · Jul 17, 2009

In flower I would hold off on it. I used it a lot like that too and the nitrogen from it caused me delays and other problems. I can't conclusively say it was the molasses, but I really think I was using a lot more than necessary. Try reducing the dose, and slightly reducing the frequency. It's great stuff if used right though!

Clackamas Coot · Jul 17, 2009

Tony Aroma said:
Can You Use Too Much Molasses?

Once the urban myth got up and running about how molasses could 'sweeten' up buds or make them smoother or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah......it was a given that the 'more just has to be better' would come to pass.

I add about 1 tsp. per gallon a couple of times per month with fish enzyme and seaweed extract and apply as a soil drench. I spray my plants with the same diluted mixture in the alternating weeks. I add even less to the occasional compost tea brew - maybe 1/2 tsp. per gallon of water.

HTH

CC

Tony Aroma · Jul 18, 2009

I don't know about sweetening buds, but I use it to feed the soil. And I use about a TBS per gallon. Last grow I did use it throughout on just about every watering. Maybe next time I'll cut back to once every two weeks or so.

Patient 957 · Jul 18, 2009

Jef Tek told me to be careful with molasses during the last 4 weeks of flower - he said it will burn the plant black...

JackTheGrower · Jul 18, 2009

Found this..

http://www.bfa.com.au/_files/AOJ iss61_p20-21.pdf

Molasses has iron.. and some other stuff.. I look it as Iron and a soil biology booster.

So in my opinion.. Yeah there can be too much to do any good..

What the effects on the soil biology from a lot of "Unsulfured molasses" would be I don't know.

Sugars in general are used to stimulate microbial activity but then again we shouldn't rob Peter to pay Paul on the sugars because our MJ uses it's sugars to manage the Rhizosphere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizosphere_(ecology)

Interesting

Again, the best results appeared to be at the lowest application rate (two litres per hectare), with lactic acid bacteria and yeast predictably giving the strongest response, but with fungi and cellulose utilisers also responding (at the lowest
rate). Interestingly, photosynthetic bacteria showed the opposite response, with activity increasing as the application rate increased.

So in simple terms use in moderation to find the happy medium?

Jack

emmy75 · Jul 18, 2009

Tony Aroma said:
I don't know about sweetening buds, but I use it to feed the soil. And I use about a TBS per gallon. Last grow I did use it throughout on just about every watering. Maybe next time I'll cut back to once every two weeks or so.

wow a tbsp per gallon. thats alot of molasses. but honestly i used to probably use that much too when i first started. but then Jaykush told me to use alot less.

now i use a drop or two per gallon. probably equivalent to like 1/4 tsp.

relief · Jul 18, 2009

I use black strap molasses as a cal/mag replacement in my RO water and have never looked back. It's also a VERY good source of potassium and other minerals (completes my compost tea). I use it from start to finish in both regular watering and compost tea (1 tablespoon per gallon).

No need to buy cal/mag and potassium additives (.5-.5-10).

My grow this year started late. Germinated seeds in may and the widows are already over 6 feet tall from top of pot to top of plant. Should be around 8 to 10 feet tall by the time they start flowering.

White rhinos.

Rhinos on the sides and 4 foot bagseed plant in the back.

White widows.

JackTheGrower · Jul 19, 2009

What's a cal/mag and potassium additives (.5-.5-10)??

Jack

relief · Jul 19, 2009

JackTheGrower said:
What's a cal/mag and potassium additives (.5-.5-10)??

Jack

Molasses has 10% potassium which is K in N-P-K, it has very little to no nitrogen

or phosphorous (P). Molasses also has calcium, magnesium, iron, vitamins and other trace elements needed by plants.

Cal/mag is an additive that gives you Calcium and Magnesium and iron.

Cal-mag

Why buy this, when molasses has calcium, magnesium and iron.. plus potassium and other vitamins for a fraction of the cost? If you're growing in hydro then you would by this (dont want to clog up your system), but if you're growing in soil... buying cal-mag is a complete waste of money and inferior to molasses.

Congobongo · Jul 19, 2009

I never understood the the carbohydrate products to "sweeten" buds. I thought the whole point of photosynthesis was for the production of carbohydrates for energy.

relief · Jul 19, 2009

Congobongo said:
I never understood the the carbohydrate products to "sweeten" buds. I thought the whole point of photosynthesis was for the production of carbohydrates for energy.

It does sweeten buds, but not in the way most people think. The carb is an energy source for the microbes in the soil that release nutrients and minerals that the plant uses to sweeten it's buds. Molasses will change the taste due to certain minerals.

Same thing with our peach orchid, we brew large amounts of tea for our peaches and people drive for miles to purchase them. The molasses isn't sweetening the peaches, its just boosting the microbe activity which in turn sweetens the peaches.

We buy molasses in 55 gallon barrels which gives us K and minerals, we use cow crap for N and for P we use bone meal. Very cheap for large operations. To get the bone meal ready for teas, we compost it with cow manure and add some previously brewed tea to that to jump start microbe activity. This will triple the speed of microbiology in the compost. We also add 1 gallon of 24 hour brewed tea, to tea we're about to brew. Also, we dont need worm castings for microbes, the previous tea has supplied them.

This is after 8 hours (small 40 gallon container for cannabis). Otherwise we would have to wait 24 to 48 hours to get this much foam on top. I didn't add any earth worm castings, just a gallon of tea from an already brewing tea.