A Pain In Molasses

[rrog]

Please, please I am not looking to open up another epic molasses debate.

My simple question: Can adding sugar source to soil have any ability to literally sweeten a bud? I can't see how. Adding complex sugars would seem to cause the fungus and bacterial flora to swell. Groovy.

I understand that Sucrose is too large to pass through the root cell walls. Adding a complex sugar like sucrose with an acid can cause hydrolysis breaking the Sucrose into Glucose. Glucose passes OUT through the roots constantly, as the plant feeds the bacteria and fungus with exudates. That's Glucose traveling from the inside of the root out. Groovy.

I have looked and can't find real documentation of soil-glucose uptake by a plant. There are many products that purport to do this, but there are products that claim a lot of stuff, so the commercial availability of these "sweeteners" does not sway me. Groovy.

Then there's the "add a sugar and Citric Acid to affect the Krebs Cycle" concept. This is supposed to supplement the plant's natural sugar-creating tasks, creating an overall sweeter smoke. Sure sounds more legit, but I have grown very wary of claims that we can improve or even modify the plants natural activities in a proper soil.

If it's possible to enhance the smoke quality, I'm all for it. The cynical side of me sees this as yet another commercially-driven scheme.

Am I wrong?

 

[mad librettist]

heya rrog, I have a simple experiment for you.

smoke a bowl of nicely cured good quality bud. Note the nice flavors.

now sprinkle some sugar on top of a fresh bowl of the same stuff and smoke it. Does sugar taste sweet when it burns?


"sweet" aromas have nothing whatsoever to do with sugar. we associate the two because plants trying to get us to eat them show us they are edible by putting out appetitive odors.

also smell some sugar. what does it smell like?

 

[heady blunts]

it's all malarky. too bad 90% of folks that walk into a hydro store are suckers.

 

[rrog]

Thank you MadL and Heady. So you would agree with my skepticism. Let me broaden this further. Could adding sugar solution to soil positively affect the flavor / aroma in some indirect fashion?

There are many old timers that have techniques they believe improve the smoke experience (aroma and taste). I have a harder time dismissing their anecdotal evidence. I've read where they believe the bud actually contains more sugar, but maybe they're simply not understanding what is really happening (if anything).

Is there any value to a carb load late in flower to affect smell / taste?

 

[heady blunts]

they are misguided unfortunately. as mad said, there's no direct correspondence between adding sugars to your soil and a sweet smoke.

perhaps what happened was they were running a less than healthy soil, and when they added sugars (prob molasses) toward the end of flower it gave their plants much needed micronutrients, as well as stimulating a bacterial bloom.

when a bacterial bloom occurs, predator populations increase, and so on, until you end up with a temporary bump in plant-available nutrients from dead microbes and rich excrement.

so my guess would be they found a temporary improvement to their shitty farming skills, but they're def not understanding what is happening or why.

another way of saying this: if your plants are growing in an ideal, closed-loop ecosystem, adding molasses at the end of flower is not going to improve the taste or aroma of your smoke.

 

[rrog]

Well, that's my perspective as I outlined. Thank you.

 

[Greenheart]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=176686

I found this one well worth the read. Very well documented and touches on the subjects of flavor, potency, yield, and even a slight difference in bloom time using a product called Bud Candy, a control group, and a mixture of Molasses, Raw Cane Sugar (Panela), and Maltose.

 

[rrog]

Thank you Green. I will read that thread and see what's been written. I do not want to duplicate threads

 

[mad librettist]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=176686

I found this one well worth the read. Very well documented and touches on the subjects of flavor, potency, yield, and even a slight difference in bloom time using a product called Bud Candy, a control group, and a mixture of Molasses, Raw Cane Sugar (Panela), and Maltose.

I only skimmed but is this correct? -


the "control group" was one plant, as were the other two "groups".


Have you ever grown 3 of the same thing and had totally identical results?

if he had 12 plants of all sorts in each group, and could show a tendency for bud candy fed buds to be more frosty regardless of position in room, other factors, and such, I might be interested

 

[rrog]

Reading the thread that Green linked. There's a quote from Ed Rosenthal -

"...you can supplement your nutrient solution with extra
sugars to boost the natural levels created by photosynthesis and make your
plants more vigorous and productive. The real icing on the cake, though,
comes from the fact that a little extra sugar will improve not only the
yield of your garden but also the flavor of your favorite herb."

He goes on to say that you can measure the increase in sugar with a refractometer:

"...you can even measure the amount of sugar (on this scale, we call it “brix,” pronounced bree) in your plant with a device called a refractometer... you can squeeze a drop of juice out of a leaf and then place it on the refractometer’s viewing plate. Look through the lens and you will see an obvious line running across a column of numbers."

It's this seemingly endless stream of conflicting data that keeps me asking questions.

 

[schwilly]

As far as affecting smell and taste, it is entirely possible.

When I was a youngin running a small patch across the tracks behind my mom's place....getting sentimental

Anyways, my first year with the patch I absolutely drenched them with molasses. I was embracing that naive idea that molasses is some kind of wonder sludge, and the more the better.

One particular plant with denser buds developed a termite issue and subsequently a mold issue so I pulled her during the "carbo loading" with zero flushing.

Those buds stank heavily of molasses once dry. And smoked like garbage.

Now I don't believe that there was actual sucrose from the molasses in the buds, but I do believe that it shows that plants are capable of taking up some fairly complex molecules, not that it's some kind of radical idea or anything.

 

[mad librettist]

As far as affecting smell and taste, it is entirely possible.

When I was a youngin running a small patch across the tracks behind my mom's place....getting sentimental

Anyways, my first year with the patch I absolutely drenched them with molasses. I was embracing that naive idea that molasses is some kind of wonder sludge, and the more the better.

One particular plant with denser buds developed a termite issue and subsequently a mold issue so I pulled her during the "carbo loading" with zero flushing.

Those buds stank heavily of molasses once dry. And smoked like garbage.

Now I don't believe that there was actual sucrose from the molasses in the buds, but I do believe that it shows that plants are capable of taking up some fairly complex molecules, not that it's some kind of radical idea or anything.

sounds more like surface residue to me.

 

[heady blunts]

here's what to do with your carbs: feed them to endurance athletes.

(it makes them sweeter)

 

[heady blunts]

jk!

here's what to REALLY do with your molasses: use it to brew ACT!

 

[rrog]

That beautiful ACT!

 

[BigDawg]

are you guys saying molasses is a waste, or should only be fed to keep the living bacteria alive or healthy?

im also a bit confused on when or why you should use simple or complex carbs. mollasses is a simple i get that.

 

[rrog]

I think most agree molasses has great benefits to the micro-life, if given in moderation. My question was simply if the carbs helps taste / smell. I see no lab data to support the thought, but then you have old stoners that say otherwise, and that link to Shhh's experiment would say that carbs make bud taste better. Not a formal study for sure, but something you can't outright ignore.

 

[schwilly]

sounds more like surface residue to me.

No. The plant was lollipopped, there where no buds within 3 feet of the point of molasses application, no foliar. The inside of the top colas five feet up smelled like molasses. The only surface residue possible would have been from evaporated molasses and residual odor after an application swirling in the air. If that was the cause, I don't think the human nose would be detecting it in finished buds.

Nutes alter the character of ganj. Never smelled buds with a fishy hue to them?

 

[Headbandf1]

molasses was an old school way to get sulfur to your plants, now just feeds the micro O's

 

[mad librettist]

No. The plant was lollipopped, there where no buds within 3 feet of the point of molasses application, no foliar. The inside of the top colas five feet up smelled like molasses. The only surface residue possible would have been from evaporated molasses and residual odor after an application swirling in the air. If that was the cause, I don't think the human nose would be detecting it in finished buds.

Nutes alter the character of ganj. Never smelled buds with a fishy hue to them?

There is absolutely no evidence for what you are suggesting and it's a waste of time to argue about it.

I find it highly suspect that you detect fish in buds fed with fish and molasses in buds fed with molasses. If either were going to have a systemic effect altering taste, how likely is it that each time, it expresses itself as the very smells you detected while applying your ferts?

Sounds like you need to be more careful with the spray gun bro.