what does molasses actually do for a plant

i hear alot of people talking about watering with molasses during flowering. i was just wondering how plants benefit from this. im starting to think that maybe i should start watering with it.

that article isnt that helpfull to noobs like us. we know molasses does something good. its sugar based. its a teaspoon per gallon? but the real question is,when should this be applied/ last weeks of flowering or now while its flowering? is it called flushing?

every watering. whenever you want. i used it every watering throughout flowering

also, i heard that a spoon full of sugar into a gallon of water ( and letting it sit over night) will do the trick 2. is this true?
i know molasses is more concetraded.

i use a product by the name of sugar daddy.think its the same as mollasses.

http://www.htgsupply.com/viewnutrientimage.asp?ID=23699108

olskool said:

i use a product by the name of sugar daddy.think its the same as mollasses.

Hi-Tech Garden Supply

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why do you spend your money on that when you can buy molasses at the supermarket?

Molassess has a lot more than just sugar it has other nutrients that promote root growth. I use 1 tsp per gallon everyday in my soil grow.

My only question is .........I'm not done feeding, can I just add the molasses to the water and fert blend. I've seen others say water/molasses one watering and then water/fert next. Continuing this cycle. Why not just all together water/molasses/fert all in one shot. Don't understand why that would be a problem?

i didnt buy my nutriants. if the sugar daddy doesnt have that much sugar,then can i add a spoonfull to the mix/ or will that mess things up?

We're getting into a pretty good discussion on this in the Advanced forum..
The gist of what I know is that plants become low on their own carbohydrate reserves late in flowering.. Its actually known that extended dark periods stimulate the plant to dump alot of carbs/sugars into the rhizosphere around the roots.. These carbs are necessary as a chemical energy source to perform chemical tasks to prepare raw nutrients to build amino-acids and other good things the plant needs to fully mature in a healthful manner.. Its pretty well known that carbohydrates can't travel through the roots, and up the xylem, but there are beneficial bacteria and protozoa etc in the rhizosphere/soil that feast on the energy they get from the carbohydrates, they can penetrate the intercellular region of the roots, and they can carry out various enzymatic reactions to prepare what the plant would have difficulty doing itself at this stage in its life cycle..
It seems to be a symbiotic relationship, but I'm not sure why the plant dumps its carb load.. I'm thinking it may be to prevent a runaway reaction that would leave the plant completely depleted of some necessary building blocks..
And molasses is very complex indeed.. It contains a whole lot of more complex sugars/carbs ontop of sucrose.. Yeast love it, it has everything they need.. I'm an avid fermenter, so I have alot of experience with this.. There are even better things than molasses for helping these little guys thrive.. Brew shops etc carry specialized micronutrients and energizers probably very similar to expensive carb loading suppliments..
Sucrose alone only contains hydrogen, carbon and oxygen.. Microorganisms can only use it as a raw source of oxygen/energy.. It lacks the complexity needed for building necessary molecules/ions..

holy moly doc, so what your saying is, that mollasses replaces w/e the plant dumps,which in turn sucks up the mollases,replacing or adding w/e it dumped out.if u know something thats better than molasses,can u please post it. thanks doc

Not exactly.. More like the molasses suppliments what the plant dumps, then the micro-organisms feast on the whole shebang, and dump the results of various enzymatic conversions in the intercellular regions of the roots.. Some of this stuff may travel up the xylem directly, others may linger to convert something else that will travel upwards..
Essentially the molasses isn't for the plant itself, its for the bacteria/protozoa etc.. The plant may directly uptake some choice nutrients etc, but it won't deal with the carbs directly.. It benefits from the fact that the organisms took those carbs and the energy they had to offer, and produced essential building blocks that the plant has difficulty producing on its own..
When I used to do hydro I adopted to using a double resevoir system.. O
ne was typical DNF nutes, and the other was a natural nutrient concoction created by goldfish and nitrifying bacteria.. (Plus I never saw any reason to not add molasses since it was suggested on overgrow).. The table got 2 feedings from each per day..
Crops I did after adding the bacteria culture remained much more vibrant near the end of flowering.. They looked like they had weeks to go at first glance, but they were milky, and had a flavorful smoke even though they were only getting officially flushed in the DNF res.. The goldfish poop converted by the bacteria raised the ppm quite a bit.. I almost feel sorry for killing so many goldfish..
I only wish I'd put 2+2 together at the time, and had thought about using my fermentation addidtives.. One guy in the other thread mentioned he'd looked at his AN carb loading suppliments, and they were similar to brew store additives.. I haven't had a chance to look into that myself yet though..

Mollasses promotes beneficial microbes in the soil to allow the plant more available nutrients from organic matter. You defeat the purpse if you use chems.

I don't think you defeat the purpose entirely, I don't think there are any grows outside of laboratories that have no organic component in the medium at all, but I do agree that it is more fundamentally beneficial in an intensely organic medium..

Chemical fertilizers have been shown to reduce beneficial microbes in the soil. It can take years to rebuild soil structure after being intensly farmed using modern chemical fertilizers. This is a major problem in the American midwest its called the mining of "young coal" carbon is drawn out of the soil by plants but never replaced. Eventually it will not matter how many chemicals we spray on our crops we will have robbed the soil of any available carbon. Adding mollasses and then using chems is just silly. We need to look at soil as a living ecosystem not just a medium.

hey thanks everyone. im not a beginner grower, i just never really understood how it would help a plant, and have never tried it. but i guess i might as well give it a try.

Yeah, it comes premixed in a lot of organic nutrient mixes. I use the Earth Juice Catalyst alongside FF Big Bloom then about a half an hour later I add FF Tiger Bloom and Earth Juice Bloom, and they certainly react very happily to it. The Earth Juice Catalyst has the molasses premixed in it. All of Earth Juice is Organic, and with my mixed up soil, its all going into a very organic medium. I think that may be why my Grape Ape isn't happy, its organic medium is sick... lol.... Im just hella this G-13, it really cerebral. hold on .... anyways, I am sure that the molasses plays its part in maintaining the balance of the medium during the transition from veg to flower, and keeping the macrobiotic environment thriving, especially when you have that helpful fungus down there.... can't remember the name of it at the moment.... I will check and post it later...

NewGrowth said:

Chemical fertilizers have been shown to reduce beneficial microbes in the soil. It can take years to rebuild soil structure after being intensly farmed using modern chemical fertilizers. This is a major problem in the American midwest its called the mining of "young coal" carbon is drawn out of the soil by plants but never replaced. Eventually it will not matter how many chemicals we spray on our crops we will have robbed the soil of any available carbon. Adding mollasses and then using chems is just silly. We need to look at soil as a living ecosystem not just a medium.

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you say farming in the west,what about the little people in the west ,that have yards, nothing wrong with that soil, right? but i do understand bout the over fertilizing of farms and what happens,big issue that goes unnoticed by alot of folks.
as Johnny 5 would say, "more input"

NewGrowth said:

Chemical fertilizers have been shown to reduce beneficial microbes in the soil. It can take years to rebuild soil structure after being intensly farmed using modern chemical fertilizers. This is a major problem in the American midwest its called the mining of "young coal" carbon is drawn out of the soil by plants but never replaced. Eventually it will not matter how many chemicals we spray on our crops we will have robbed the soil of any available carbon. Adding mollasses and then using chems is just silly. We need to look at soil as a living ecosystem not just a medium.

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In fermentation, well fed yeast are more resilient to extreme environmental factors like high alcohol content.. You can typically push a couple extra % abv if you add the proper nutrients.. Seems somewhat analogous to what harsher fertilizers would do to the ecostystem below.. Anybody who has ever done hydro knows that algae, bacteria, and other things can thrive in a nutrient tank.. If these things aren't posing an actual problem, you might as well use them like you would in soil..
If adding a few carbs wasn't simple and cheap, I may lean the other direction outside of soil, without a nitrifying bacteria as well.. When I was doing hydro I always used molasses.. Then at one point I added goldfish and a nitrifying bacteria into the regimen, and my plants loved it late into flowering compared to previous crops using clones from the same mother, and the same setup disregarding the addition of the goldfish..