Molasses?

Dr.Nick Riviera said:

again, your reading comprehension skills suck

Click to expand...

Dr.Nick Riviera said:

I'll leave this here for you GAIN, Maybe you will actually understand it at some point,dunno?

Molasses for Plants
By Robert Pavlis on March 31, 2014

This is a hot gardening topic these days and many of the organic gardeners are promoting the idea that you should add molasses to your compost pile and to your garden. It makes the microbes grow better–they need to eat, don’t you know?

Molasses; should you eat it, or dump it onto your soil? You have come to the right place to get the facts.

Molasses for Plants


Molasses, What is it?
Molasses is a byproduct produced during the manufacture of sugar. Sugar cane or sugar beets are processed so that the sugar can be extracted. The material that is left after most of the sugar is removed is a black sticky material called molasses. Molasses contains sugar, some other carbohydrates, vitamins and a number of minerals like calcium and iron.

Molasses for Plants
You probably know that it is important to have microbes in your soil. If not, have a look atOrganic Fertilizer – What is its Real Value. If having microbes is important, than it makes sense that you should feed those microbes. Feeding them will make them healthy, and make them reproduce so that you have even more microbes. Guess what? Microbes, especially the bacteria, love sugar. It’s no surprise that they also love molasses since it is mostly sugar.

So far it all seems to make sense. Microbes are good for soil, and molasses is good for microbes, so why not add it to soil? The short answer is that there is nothing wrong with adding molasses to your garden, or to your compost pile. It will feed the microbes.

Does it Make Sense to Add Molasses?
I’ll save you the trouble of skipping to the end of this post–the answer is NO!

Understanding why the answer is no will help you understand your garden. Let’s have a look. In a normal garden, or compost pile, you have a large variety of microbes, all going about their daily lives. They find something to eat, they poop, and they die. This is a continual process that goes on a billion times a second.

Microbes are opportunistic in that their populations will increase and decrease as the conditions change. Let’s assume you have not been doing too much in the garden so conditions are not changing. In that case the microbe populations remain steady. Things are chugging along at a normal pace and everybody is happy.

Now you dump a lot of molasses on the garden. Instantly, microbes sense the extra food and they start to multiply. Bacteria can divide (ie double the population) every 20 minutes. The population explodes very quickly. All those bacteria need to eat, and they quickly consume the molasses you added. As the food source runs out there is a massive famine and most of the bacteria die.

What has the molasses accomplished?

Not much. It is true that all of the dead bacteria go on to feed other microbes, and they help build soil structure. The minerals in the molasses stay in the soil and plants can use them, but your soil probably had enough calcium and iron before you added the molasses. The vitamins in molasses are of no value to plants.

Is the massive population explosion good for your plants? I don’t think anyone knows, but most things in nature are better off without massive changes, and plant roots depend very much on the population of microbes around their roots. I just can’t believe a bacteria population explosion is good for the plants.

Molasses might make your compost pile work quicker, but the first rain, or your hose, will wash the sugars out of the pile removing any benefits.

Do You Need to Feed the Microbes?
The reason for adding molasses is to feed the microbes, so it is important to ask, “Should the gardener feed the microbes?” The answer is a resounding YES! However, there are many ways to do this. Adding compost, wood chips or other organic matter as a mulch is the best way. This provides a slow, steady release of food for the microbes.

Molasses is a product that we can use to feed people and animals. I’d rather eat gingerbread cookies than compost and wood chips. From an environmental point of view it makes more sense to put non-edible organic matter in the garden and keep the food in the fridge.

There is no “magic” in molasses. It’s just another source of organic matter that will be decomposed in the garden. All organic matter contains carbohydrates, sugars, minerals and vitamins, just like molasses. Don’t believe me …… consider the fact that molasses is made from plants; sugar cane or sugar beets.

References:

1) Photo Source: Йоана Петрова
http://www.gardenmyths.com/molasses-for-plants/

Click to expand...

Olive Drab Green said:

I disagree strongly with this. The only reason we don't use molasses in hydro is because it clogs and turns rancid in a ricirculating system. Coco is fine. Please don't look for my posts to criticize me I'm not wrong.

You and I will always disagree on molasses, and it seems most people agree with me, so I'm not going to tell anyone running organics not to use molasses, unless it is a pure hydro system.

Click to expand...

Olive Drab Green said:

We took a poll. 16 people agreed molasses works, with one in dissent. You even agree molasses works in AACTs. Which is thoroughly retarded, because if it works in AACTs, it will work straight in the soil as microbes break it down. You are talking a lot of horseshit, and showing you're full of shit by suggesting its use in AACTs and then saying it isn't useful. I'm sorry, Doc, but I'm blocking you, too. In finality, it wirks.

Click to expand...

Dr. Who said:

Just who were these 15 people? And who gives a rats ass about a "poll" on a website!

Didn't read the post by Dr. Nick did you!

As for you calling me full of shit and talking horse shit.

Whatever

Click to expand...

Gary Goodson said:

I use molasses for one thing and one thing only... AACT

Once you've inoculated the medium, you dont need to keep feeding them sugars. You want them breaking down the stuff in the soil, not being lazy and eating all the sweets. The 20% cal and 25% iron in my blackstrap molasses doesn't impress me one bit. My base fertilizer already has enough of both or it wouldn't be my base fertilizer.

So for the recorded, I would've voted nay on the molasses poll.

Click to expand...

Gary Goodson said:

You can't just do something and claim it worked because the plant didn't die lol

Click to expand...

Gary Goodson said:

So you're saying molasses has made your trichs fatter?

Have you ran a side by side? Can you explain what you think molasses is doing for your soil/plant?

I think you missed my point. I only use molasses to feed microbes in order to boost the population. In aact the molasses is used for food. So by the time I use my aact most of the sugars have been consumed. In soil your medium is the food.

So are you using molasses to feed your microbes? Or are you using it as a fertilizer? Or is it to sweeten up the final product?

Click to expand...

Gary Goodson said:

I use molasses for one thing and one thing only... AACT

Once you've inoculated the medium, you dont need to keep feeding them sugars. You want them breaking down the stuff in the soil, not being lazy and eating all the sweets..

Click to expand...

Gary Goodson said:

Click to expand...

Dankeh_fever said:

Ya, that is also my understanding and practice.

Click to expand...

Olive Drab Green said:

You have no practice, giddouddaheer.

And I don't use enough molasses that the microbes would spend more time on the molasses than the other organic matter in the medium.

Click to expand...

Dankeh_fever said:

I actually have a thoroughly tested practice. why would you speak out of your ass?
The purpose of cultivating a vibrant micro herd isnt only to decompose organic matter but also to process inorganic minerals. Trace elements and even macro nutrients are not "organic matter in the medium".

This might help you:
Inorganic materials In Soil - Geology For Kids - By KidsGeo.com

Click to expand...