Mixing Unsulfered Blackstrap Molasses To Emerald Harvest Nutrients Question

[kingkola1]

This is my third grow. I am using 75% of the recommended nutrients recommended by Emerald Harvest, RO water, MHand HPS lights in 1/3 perlite, 1/3 fox farms and 1/3 coco with gnat nix on top. My1000W HPS light is now 22" from the top of the bud canopy, have good air circulation, ventilation, and try to keep the temperature between 70 and 80 F with the humidity at 50%. I am in week 7 of flower and thought I might try unsulfered organic Bootstrap Molasses at 1 tablespoon per gallon to increase the size and density of the buds. I think it is ok at add molasses during my mid week waterings mixed in with my normal Cal-Mag if I don't let it sit tool long, but also was wondering if it would be okay to use during the weekly Sundays feedings (i.e., will the molasses adversely affect/react with the other nutrients in the feed water and do more harm to the plants than good?) I have also read conflicting amounts from 1/2 teaspoon per gallon to 3 tablespoons per gallon. Please advise if it is okay to add with the Sunday feedings and how much is optimal to obtain larger, more dense buds.

As a side note, I noticed that when I mixed it with my mid-week cal-mag waterings (at 1/2 teaspoon per gallon) that it looks okay initially, but if I let it sit for an hour or so, I get little 1/8" flaky things floating around in the water like a precipitate of some kind. The pH and TDS were slightly higher than normal when using Molasses but not terrible and easily handled. Also, any concerns about ants or other pests using Molasses for an indoor grow?

 

[KeithVi]

Re: Mixing Bootstrap Molasses (unsulfered) to Emerald Harvest Nutrients Question

This is my third grow. I am using 75% of the recommended nutrients recommended by Emerald Harvest, RO water, MHand HPS lights in 1/3 perlite, 1/3 fox farms and 1/3 coco with gnat nix on top. My1000W HPS light is now 22" from the top of the bud canopy, have good air circulation, ventilation, and try to keep the temperature between 70 and 80 F with the humidity at 50%. I am in week 7 of flower and thought I might try unsulfered organic Bootstrap Molasses at 1 tablespoon per gallon to increase the size and density of the buds. I think it is ok at add molasses during my mid week waterings mixed in with my normal Cal-Mag if I don't let it sit tool long, but also was wondering if it would be okay to use during the weekly Sundays feedings (i.e., will the molasses adversely affect/react with the other nutrients in the feed water and do more harm to the plants than good?) I have also read conflicting amounts from 1/2 teaspoon per gallon to 3 tablespoons per gallon. Please advise if it is okay to add with the Sunday feedings and how much is optimal to obtain larger, more dense buds.

As a side note, I noticed that when I mixed it with my mid-week cal-mag waterings (at 1/2 teaspoon per gallon) that it looks okay initially, but if I let it sit for an hour or so, I get little 1/8" flaky things floating around in the water like a precipitate of some kind. The pH and TDS were slightly higher than normal when using Molasses but not terrible and easily handled. Also, any concerns about ants or other pests using Molasses for an indoor grow?

Following.

 

[Scientific]

I added 1 tsp/gallon molasses at the end of my last grow and I frankly don't think it made any difference, but I also don't think it hurt anything. Do you have more than one plant so you could do an A/B test, one with molasses and one without (or even and A, B, C... n test with different levels of molasses)? I would be interested to hear about your results.

Molasses is mostly just sugar, so I don't think it should interact much with the mineral salts in fertilizer as long as it's diluted with plenty of water.

That's interesting about the precipitate (although strictly speaking things that float aren't precipitating, it seems to me). No idea what would cause that unless it has something to do with the pH of the solution?

 

[kingkola1]

Thanks Scientific. The precipitate flakes were about 1/8" to 3/16" in size and did actually settle to the bottom of the reservoir until I stirred it up then they sort of floated around inside the liquid rather than floating to the surface. Everyone says my plants look great but the buds end up a little less dense than they normally see from a dispensary so I am trying to improve the smell and density on this grow. I try to stay organic (Emerald Harvest is working on getting their organic cert still). I do have more than one plant but I have been growing several different plants at once so a side by side may not tell much. I select seeds that have close to the same flowering weeks, then raise and lower the different plants to the light so the canopy top is flat and then rotate them every other day or so under the light so every bud gets close to the same light. The variety is fun but it is a bit more work (but then I enjoy working with the plants).

Last Thursday I watered with RO water and Cal Mag plus 1/2 tsp of Molasses per gallon. Yesterday I fed them with the EH nutes and 1 tablespoon per gallon Molasses since 1 to 3 Tablespoons seems to be more the "norm" from my reading than teaspoons. Thanks for the input. All I can do is compare this grow to previous grows and make a judgement call on how much molasses helped improve the density and smell.

The industry is ripe for a "Design of Experiments". I would love to do that if I had the space and equipment for such a project. There seems to be a lot of folklore around the internet because the growing has been so secretive until now with the new laws.

 

[Scientific]

The industry is ripe for a "Design of Experiments". I would love to do that if I had the space and equipment for such a project. There seems to be a lot of folklore around the internet because the growing has been so secretive until now with the new laws.

I have been hoping that the US federal government would drop cannabis from Schedule 1 to make it easier for scientists to do some rigorous research on a substance that people have been using for thousands of years, but the bizarro world of the Trump administration is now predictably doing exactly the opposite of what makes sense and the Justice Department under little Jeff Sessions seems to want to go back to Nixon-era repression, so I guess folklore is gonna have to do for a while longer yet.

(BTW, it's "blackstrap," not "bootstrap," LOL. Looks like your autocorrect doesn't know from molasses. )

 

[kingkola1]

Thanks Scientific, I am not sure how to fix the Blackstrap typo in the title though. Lets see if this reply from the Advanced section works.

 

[kingkola1]

Seemed to only change the title in my reply, not in the main post.

 

[TheMadDabber]

I have been hoping that the US federal government would drop cannabis from Schedule 1 to make it easier for scientists to do some rigorous research on a substance that people have been using for thousands of years, but the bizarro world of the Trump administration is now predictably doing exactly the opposite of what makes sense and the Justice Department under little Jeff Sessions seems to want to go back to Nixon-era repression, so I guess folklore is gonna have to do for a while longer yet.

(BTW, it's "blackstrap," not "bootstrap," LOL. Looks like your autocorrect doesn't know from molasses. )

Idk. All the politicians lie. And obviously so do real estate owning billionaire tv actors. Great the guy isn't paid for by lobbyists, but the other 99% are. And they are only using his administration to further corrupt the minds of emotionally over reactive Americans. Order from chaos. Always has been their strategy, and still is.

It's the college and common sense educated citizens of our country need to unite and stop using emotion to reason. A decision made from a emotional response isn't a very good one at all. If they keep us at ends with one another, and generate the conflict, with a beneficial resolution for them premeditated, America will crash and burn at the expense of their need to control a free body of people. Truth is democrats are just as bad as republicans.... a bunch of cheerleaders for corrupt politicians.

News flash there are more solutions to a problem than just the liberal and conservative rhetoric shoved down our throats on a daily basis.

 

[kingkola1]

Lets please stay on topic here...

 

[Scientific]

Lets please stay on topic here...

Sorry, my bad. Back to molasses.

 

[Autoflower420]

I use it almost every feed mollasses don't feed the plant it feeds the soil so can use it as much as u choose I give it every weekly for sure if not more