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Using Molasses With Hydro


Meangreen222

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I just tried molasses in my water for the first time in my recirculating DWC system, I'm running it with nutes in RO water. PH fluctuation seems normal so far, I'm on day 2, the only problem is a buildup of foam in the buckets that have air stones. I used a dose of one TSP of molasses per gallon. My question is, is this foam going to hurt anything? I've been using a spray bottle filled with RO water to pop the bubbles in the foam and it seems to be working out OK. I also run 1 ml per gallon of 29% H2O2, which is why I'm guessing that this is just a matter of the air stones blowing bubbles and not some crazy growth in my reservoir. Any input is appreciated.

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Welcome to the site!

i have two thoughts on this. the first is that even organic black strap molasses does not get broken down in DWC the same way it is in soil. for that reason, it is not advisable. There are specific products out there to add sugars to your plants. Bud Candy is on popular one, but i have never used that.

My second thought is that foam tend to occur in DWC when more biological agents are present. My hunch is that the molasses has caused this, as there are bacteria in the molasses that could cause this. in itself, this isn't anything to worry too much about. But i think taking molasses out of your dwc grow would be better for it in those ways, losing the foam and not adding things that cannot be taken up by the plant immediately.

Happy growing, and remember to take everything you hear here balanced against the common wisdom, basic biology, and your knowledge of your genetics in the plants, as well as the area they live in!

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I added it trying to add density to the flowers. And thanks for the welcome :)

You want answers or love?

Don't put that in there, just the regular nutes, no other mumbo-jumbo.

I've heard molasses is supposed to make the weed taste better if used in the last weeks of flowering, I would think sugar would dissolve better and still give the same result. If it does effect the taste at all.

Decent genetics, not to much stretching and plenty of light, give firm nugs, the last being the most important.

Edited by bob boberson
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there are so many products on the market that claim big buds or sweet buds growing hydro has its advanteges but it can be tricky at times in my experience keep it simple less is best find a method and products that work and stick with it for me i run general hydro nuts but i use advance big bud and bud candy in flower i have had great results! I have heard of people use molasses but it was black strap molasses and it was soil growers

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I'll be the first to admit that I'm a newb, but I've gotten comfortable enough with growing that I'm willing to experiment. I added 5ml of Earth Juice Hi-Brix molasses to one tote. The pics tell the story. I don't know about the smokeability, but I'll let you know in about six weeks or so. These plants are only a few days apart. The first two pics are with molasses, the last pic without. I haven't had any issue with foaming.

 

 

 

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Keep us updated.

 

 

I will. It's interesting to see these plants side by side. I know much more about how we use sugars to generate ATP, which is the energy that we use. It's a metabolic process of respiration. But plants use transpairation, and that's really different. I'll tell you what I see. The plants without molasses are building typical buds. Airy buds, like I'm used to seeing. Nice big full colas, which start nine or ten inches below the tip. Based on my experience, they'll fill up nicely and produce some beautiful tall buds. The plant that got molasses at four weeks is distinctly different. The buds are stacking in the nine to ten inch range, but they are staying separate. Instead of a really large airy cola, they are producing large dense nuggets. The calixes seem to be exploding from them. I know that the plant uses the energy from the light, along with the nutrients, to produce the sugar necessary for growth. I'm hypothesizing here, but by dumb luck I might have provided them with sugar at just the right time to promote individual bud development. I gave them another shot of molasse this week, so it was 5ml into six gallons of nutes at four weeks, and 5ml again at eight weeks. Don't know if I'll do it again, but I've definitely got more density in the plant that got molasses. The foliar development looks better also. Trichomes look almost identical at eight weeks, but the nuggets look heavier. And I have to admit that I'm having fun!

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I will. It's interesting to see these plants side by side. I know much more about how we use sugars to generate ATP, which is the energy that we use. It's a metabolic process of respiration. But plants use transpairation, and that's really different. I'll tell you what I see. The plants without molasses are building typical buds. Airy buds, like I'm used to seeing. Nice big full colas, which start nine or ten inches below the tip. Based on my experience, they'll fill up nicely and produce some beautiful tall buds. The plant that got molasses at four weeks is distinctly different. The buds are stacking in the nine to ten inch range, but they are staying separate. Instead of a really large airy cola, they are producing large dense nuggets. The calixes seem to be exploding from them. I know that the plant uses the energy from the light, along with the nutrients, to produce the sugar necessary for growth. I'm hypothesizing here, but by dumb luck I might have provided them with sugar at just the right time to promote individual bud development. I gave them another shot of molasse this week, so it was 5ml into six gallons of nutes at four weeks, and 5ml again at eight weeks. Don't know if I'll do it again, but I've definitely got more density in the plant that got molasses. The foliar development looks better also. Trichomes look almost identical at eight weeks, but the nuggets look heavier. And I have to admit that I'm having fun!

 

 

What you're reporting is the type of thing I had read about and was trying to recreate, but I notice that you were using much less molasses than I was. I had read that you want to use one tsp per gallon, which is around 5 times what you used, that could have been part of the problem I'd imagine. Also, I still don't think the foam had anything to do with any type of growth, if it was a growth it seems like it would have kept growing after I changed the water, instead what happened was that the foam simply melted into the new water and disappeared.

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So... Do we have an official verdict on molasses?

 

 

Not an official verdict, but I'll tell you what I see. Side by side comparison. OGKush, nine and a half weeks in flower from the same mother. The plant that got molasses is still building seperated buds. They're dense! The plant without molasses is building colas, stacked up colas that are approaching a foot tall. It really is interesting to see the difference from giving them some readily available sugar. The seperate buds are more dense. Trichomes on both plants are just getting cloudy. Maybe a hint of amber here and there. It'll be interesting to see the difference in mass. I'm gonna go into flush soon, and I'll keep you posted. The colas without molasses are heavier. I know that because I've had to truss them up. But maybe the branches got stronger on the plant with the molasses bump.The no-molasses plant is getting so heavy that they flopped. I'm gonna try this again with more molasses next time. It's fun to play around a bit. I'll give you a smokeability report in a few weeks.

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Not an official verdict, but I'll tell you what I see. Side by side comparison. OGKush, nine and a half weeks in flower from the same mother. The plant that got molasses is still building seperated buds. They're dense! The plant without molasses is building colas, stacked up colas that are approaching a foot tall. It really is interesting to see the difference from giving them some readily available sugar. The seperate buds are more dense. Trichomes on both plants are just getting cloudy. Maybe a hint of amber here and there. It'll be interesting to see the difference in mass. I'm gonna go into flush soon, and I'll keep you posted. The colas without molasses are heavier. I know that because I've had to truss them up. But maybe the branches got stronger on the plant with the molasses bump.The no-molasses plant is getting so heavy that they flopped. I'm gonna try this again with more molasses next time. It's fun to play around a bit. I'll give you a smokeability report in a few weeks.

 

 

Thanks again for the information, it is much appreciated.

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I will never use molasses again as I have found something natural here in Michigan that has worked very well and leaves no residual poor taste. Albeit soil I grow in, I would venture a guess this would work well in a hydro setup as well. Go pick up a bottle of; or find someone that makes their own, maple syrup. 1tsp per gallon for soil, check your ppm for hydro setup. Enjoy!

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Molasses will destroy chlorine and chloramine in tap water, so its useful for that. In making compost tea or "cooking" soil it can be used to feed the microherd. With live plants, they exude their own sugars to feed the microherd, sugars that are specific to the plants needs and life cycle, so molasses isn't needed.

 

In DWC, you are running chem nutes that feed the plant regardless of exudates. All the extra sugar is going to do is cause a bacterial bloom in your res, which will probably lead to root rot. If you are running chem nutes in hydro, you want a dead res so adding sugar is shooting yourself in the foot. If you are running organic hydro, that's a different story.

 

As far as the plants taking in the sugars and changing flavors or the such..... That is some 17th century Jethro Tull thinking.

 

Unfortunately, none of the nutrients present in either rock or organic matter are directly available to plants. Jethro Tull (1674-1741), an early agricultural researcher, thought that plant roots had tiny mouths that they used to “eat” soil. This turned out not to be true, and plants have no way to take actual soil (rock or organic matter) into their tissue. Instead, they have to wait for nutrients to be released from the rock or organic matter in very small, chemically simple forms.

 

In the case of nitrogen, for example, nitrogen atoms that in a living animal are built into protein molecules containing hundreds or thousands of atoms must be broken off of these molecules (usually by the feeding of bacteria or fungi) such that they are present in the soil in very small, simple forms – most often the molecules NH4+ (ammonium) or NO3- (nitrate). With minor exceptions, these are the only forms in which plants can take up nitrogen. The story is pretty much the same for each of the other elements plants get from soil. That is, big molecules in rock or organic matter must get broken down by physical, chemical, or biological processes so that just the right small molecules or even atoms are present in the soil. For some elements like phosphorus, there’s only a very narrow range of soil conditions under which this happens, so these elements are ones that are most likely to be in short supply for plants.

 

Unfortunately (again!) having the right small nutrient molecules present in the soil isn’t enough. Just as a soccer ball must be moved by a soccer player to make a goal, a significant amount of water must be present in soil to carry nutrient molecules to (and then into) roots. Plants drink their nutrients – they don’t eat them!

 

Even if nutrients are present in the right forms with plenty of water, we still haven’t covered exactly how those nutrients get into plants. At one level, that’s really complicated – it involves elaborate protein “machines” built into the walls of the cells that make up plant roots. It also involves some complex chemistry and physics.

 

At another level, the way plants take up nutrients is simple, resembling the workings of a common children’s toy. Many small children I know have boxes with different shapes cut into the sides. A box like this comes with a set of blocks whose shapes match the shapes cut in the box. The protein “machines” that transport nutrients through the surface of a root are like the specially shaped holes in the box, and the nutrients are like the blocks – all the child (or plant) has to do is find the right block (or molecule) to go through the right hole.

 

One difference between children and plants is that while a child might struggle for a minute to find the right hole for one block, plants can move thousands or even millions of nutrient atoms or molecules through a single transporter in seconds (they also have millions of transporters). Another difference I’ve already mentioned is that while a child uses its fingers to bring the block to the hole and push it through, plants rely on water to carry nutrient atoms or molecules up to and through nutrient transporters.

 

The analogy to the child’s toy may make it sound like plants don’t make mistakes (most toy boxes will only allow each block through a single hole), but some nutrient transporters are actually not all that specific. A few, like the one that moves the essential element zinc, also unintentionally pick up elements like cadmium, which is quite toxic to humans. This is one of many reasons to keep lead, cadmium, and other metals out of our gardens and farm fields.

Edited by Petyr
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I was skimming through Jorge Cervantes' newest book the other day and it claimed that using molasses would add up to 20% more weight/size to your buds. I haven't grown in dirt in 10+years so I have no experience with molasses but it seems worth a try. I know it's supposed to stink after a week or so in your garden :lol: I've never heard of anyone using it in hydro with good results. I think it just makes a mess in the res.

 

Another thing I noticed is that you said you're using h2o2 so I would think that any beneficial bacteria coming from the molasses would be subsequently killed :( Just something to think about.

Edited by Motorbuds
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