Black Strap Molasses & Hydro- My conclusion

Hi guys,
Ok, before I start here, I would like to say I fully expect to get shot down in flames here as this is one of the more controversial topics. Molasses in hydro.
I have been intrigued by the posability of using molasses since I read this thread http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5149 about it. Fascinating stuff and since I am an old hippy, the thought of being able to use something fairly organic in my otherwise chemical setup gave me a warm hippy glow inside.
Anyway, back to the point. My biggest fear was clogging up pumps & drippers etc, especially the drippers since they are the smallest bore.
The setup I used was what we call a Wilma system in the UK. It is a flood & drain table but the plants are kept in pots, which allows for movement, addition/subtraction etc, more flexibility that straight flood & drain. Each plant/pot has its own dripper, fed from a submersed pump.
Feed for the system I use is 15 mins 6 times a day including one in the middle of lights off. The growing medium I use is clay pellets (hydroton), which I like because they can be reused. It is this last point that made me think molasses may work, the fact the plants have a medium surrounding most of the root mass, meaning there would be bacteria in there and it is those I was targeting.
Lights, ventilation etc are not really important for my purposes here but the light is a 600w hps in a cool tube with 6" ducting. Extraction is from a powerful 6" Ruck inline fan (715cfm) giving me 3x air exchange per min and a carbon filter. An oscilating fan providing air movement.
Nutes were An Sensi A+B, with Big Bud and Overdrive. B-52 and Voodoo Juice had been used previously.How much molasses, well I disolved about 20 ml into a litre of boiling water and added it to a 20L res which makes it about 1000:1 concentration if my maths is any good.

Ok, down to what I was looking to achieve, objectives. I just wanted to see what effect adding molasses would have on a, my plants and b, my equipment.
Today was cut down day, 30% amber on both plants so it had not delayed anything, having grown about 20 of each of these strains, I know more or less what to expect now from them and 53-56 days is when they hit the magic 30%.
Basically, I was disappointed with the plants, I ran this test during the final week of flowering since I did not want the plants to be harmed. The two I chose had had problems at various stages, including me dropping a 4-tube, 4foot T5 HO on the Strawberry Cough, almost chopping it in half. The other had been my original Blue Cheese clone I had kept hold of as an insurance policy so whatever they produced was going to be a bonus.

A couple of days ago, I noticed if the buds were touched, then you tasted the residue on your fingers it was extremely sweet, having never done this before, I have no comparison and do not know if this was down to the molasses or is what usually happens. The other thing of note was the stability of the plants. I have had to support branches of both plants as the buds were weighing them down a little (yippeeeee) but 2 days ago, the SC was falling over from the roots, something I have never seen before from one so it concerned me. It started happening yesterday with the BC. Also yellowing. I know late in flower to expect some yellowing of the leaves but these plants have been very green until 4 days ago. Is 3 days with molasses enough to cause this? I dont know.
So thats the plants, overall some concerns without seeing much in the way of benefits. I do not believe any extra weight was gained, if anything, I think it caused a slowdown.
As for the equipment, nothing of note. There was a bit of gunk in the res and there had been a lot of frothy bubbling on the surface (I use an airstone in the res) but the pump did not clog up, the drippers were all relatively clean and I would be happy to let the stuff near my equipment again.
Conclusions, well the effect on the plants on its own, enough to make me not want to use M again! Which is odd because my main worry had been the equipment, that was all fine and dandy, just needed a clean. I clean everything through at least once a fortnight and if you are as fastidious as me, then go ahead and use molasses in your hydro, it wont kill it! But it may kill your plants!
Depending what kind of hydro you use, flood & drain, Wilma, Ebb & Flow, NFT, RDWC fine, there are pumps involved in all those and I would say it will not clog up if you clean regularly. On the other hand, DWC with just an airstone, I think you may have problems, even with air rushing through the stone I think the temptation is to let things go a little longer without cleaning which could f... sorry, mess things up.
So, would I recommend Black Strap Molasses to a hydro grower? No but not for the expected equipment reasons. Having read this thread today http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55296&highlight=molasses and the link between plants not feeding while sugar is present in their food stick to pouring it on your pancakes.

woodydude said:

stick to pouring it on your pancakes.

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Now yer talkin!

but isnt molasses main purpose to feed the microbes in the soil, not the plant itself?

if what i believe to be true is indeed true i wouldnt see any point in using it in hydro. JMO

Great post and test, Woody, THANKS!!! I'll continue to pour it to my gals...in soil LMAO!

There was a bit of gunk in the res and there had been a lot of frothy bubbling on the surface.....but the pump did not clog up, the drippers were all relatively clean and I would be happy to let the stuff near my equipment again,

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The reason for the pumps and stuff not getting gunked up but your rez did is due to the chelating properties of molasses.

Molasses can be used as a chelating agent to remove rust where a rusted part stays a few weeks in a mixture of 1 part molasses and 10 parts water.

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hXXp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molasses

In nature

Virtually all biochemicals exhibit the ability to dissolve certain metal cations. Thus, proteins, polysaccharides, and polynucleic acids are excellent polydentate ligands for many metal ions. In addition to these adventitious chelators, several biomolecules are produced to specifically bind certain metals (see next section). Histidine, malate and phytochelatin are typical chelators used by plants.[5][6][7]
[edit] In biochemistry and microbiology

Virtually all metalloenzymes feature metals that are chelated, usually to peptides or cofactors and prosthetic groups.[8] Such chelating agents include the porphyrin rings in hemoglobin and chlorophyll. Many microbial species produce water-soluble pigments that serve as chelating agents, termed siderophores. For example, species of Pseudomonas are known to secrete pyocyanin and pyoverdin that bind iron. Enterobactin, produced by E. coli, is the strongest chelating agent known.
In geology

In earth science, chemical weathering is attributed to organic chelating agents, e.g. peptides and sugars, that extract metal ions from minerals and rocks.[9] Most metal complexes in the environment and in nature are bound in some form of chelate ring, e.g. with a humic acid or a protein. Thus, metal chelates are relevant to the mobilization of metals in the soil, the uptake and the accumulation of metals into plants and micro-organisms. Selective chelation of heavy metals is relevant to bioremediation, e.g. removal of 137Cs from radioactive waste.[10]

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hXXp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelation


If applied in very minute amounts there "may" be a benefit in hydro using molasses for the chelating effect but that would be the only benefit I could see. Going by the science of it. it would not be 10:1 thats for industrial application...more like 1:200 or greater. Would be my guess...i'm not hydro, but molasses i've read enough on LOL

Stick to using it as a microbe cocaine, making Rum, and baking...sorry just the thought of it on pancakes is nasty....Pa maple syrup all the way!! LOL

I hear ya Mutt,
This discussion has been around a few times but when I have raised it, all I saw was "no benefit" or "gunked up my stuff" so I thought an experiment was in order. Funny how I found the opposite and what you said about cheleating agent goes against the common misconception of gunking stuff up.
Now I can say for sure, I wont use it in hydro (maybe soil one day though) and back up my reasoning with experience, not just "it makes stuff fticky".

As for feeding the microbes, because of the type of hydro I used, I thought there may be some gain but alas not. Thankfully it didnt cost me much to try out £3 for bsm inc postage and maybe a lighter crop.
Stay frosty. W

and maybe put a lighter to the crop...oh, you said lighter crop. My bad...

I thought this was interesting.

When plant cells are placed in concentrated sugar solutions they lose water by osmosis and they become "flaccid" (limp); this is the exact opposite of "turgid"(stand up to light). If you put plant cells into concentrated sugar solutions and look at them under a microscope you would see that the contents of the cells have shrunk and pulled away from the cell wall: they are said to be plasmolysed.

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purchon.com/biology/osmosis.htm

AND
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasmolysis

That is what I was referring to when I mentioned my plants needed supporting, not the branches but the plants themselves.
Of course, I only did this for a week so there may be a benefit to a longer term trial but it is not something I will be repeating.

Those two were the last of my grow with that method, all new plants are in RDWC, one reason for that change was so I could get dirty with dirt and grow in soil for a change every now and again so I will use BSM again, just not in hydro.