Ekoostik_Hookah said:
"It's the same thing with the molasses. If I gave any of you a blind test of weeds that had or had not been done with molasses, you wouldn't know which was which"
I am 100% positive that molasses works. It is a 100% proven Fact the Mollassas works, and is good for the plant. Molasses also provides a small source of Nitrogen. A very strong source of Potassium. It provides Trace elements. And it also Provides SIMPLE SUGARS!!! Which the plant can obsorb, uptake.
Just one dose of molasses supplys a week of simple sugars, 2 weeks of medium-high strength potassim release.
All of this feeds whatever microlife is surviving in your soil.
Stoney bud, i know u have been growing for over 40 years, and you may of heard some crazy bull poo; but growers have become alot smarter over the last 40 years, and certain practice has been proven to work...like the one i mentioned above.
I'm sorry man, but you're wrong about the plant using any sugars from the molasses. Plants are incapable of using sugars via the root system or any other system outside the plant. Sugars used by the plant are created within the plant as a result of photosynthesis. Read this information below and you'll understand more about what I'm trying to say. The information below IS proven by testing.
Let me explain what it is that I'm saying in more in depth.
The addition of molasses to SOIL will in some cases, help control the population of nematodes in the soil.
Trials for the control of nematodes have been done on several types of plants. Papaya, onions and cabbage are the most thoroughly tested crops.
In a papaya plantation on Maui where high and damaging populations of reniform nematodes had caused a reduction in fruit yield and quality, the molasses applications lowered nematode soil populations and resulted in marked improvement in the tree growth and harvestable fruit. When applied to Chinese cabbage, there was a decrease in the numbers of Heterodera nematode cysts following harvest.
Preplant applications of molasses to onions improved plant color and onion yield although no difference in soil nematode populations or in cyst number was observed. Molasses soil amendments supply carbohydrates and alter the C/N ratio. This affects the soil microbial ecology, usually resulting in lowered populations of plant parasitic nematodes as well as having other favorable effects on plant growth. The specific mechanisms involved are not well understood and vary with the crop, soil conditions, and nematode species present.
Soil populations of some microorganisms and of microbial enzymatic activity were also increased by the soil amendments. Under sterile conditions, molasses was not toxic to nematodes so the suppressant effect was probably due to antagonism by microorganisms, to changes in oxygen concentration due to microbial metabolism of molasses, or to the release of toxic compounds from decomposing molasses. Organic amendments such as molasses do not pose a threat to the environment that chemical pesticides do since they are readily decomposed in soil to CO2 and harmless organic products.
In summation to the above information, I can say that when a dilution of 1:20 (3 gal molasses per 55 gal water) is used in SOIL, the following benefits were noted in testing:
Alterations in the soil microflora favorable to plant growth.
Postharvest soil populations of Heterodera cysts were lowered.
The use of molasses would allow growing without nematicide applications.
Molasses provides a carbon source which alters the C/N ratio in soil and this affects the soil microbiota which in turn effects the available nutrients.
A difference between treated and untreated areas in the number of nematode cysts in the soil with lower numbers in the treated area.
There was also a visible difference in tree height and bearing between the two field areas tested. The effect of the molasses on the papaya trees and yield was remarkable. Trees regained their green color and leaves began to grow again. The trees also began to produce marketable fruits that had good shelf life and good taste.
The "good taste" and other beneficial end results that were noted were the result of the absence of harmful soil parasites, not by the uptake of sugars that are contained in molasses.
Plants do not use sugar supplied via the root system or from any means exterior to the plant.
The sugars present in molasses are not taken up by the plant. This is a common mistake among people new to plant biology.
Plant sugars, which are formed by the plant during photosynthesis, are an essential component of plant nutrition. Like water, sugar (usually in the form of sucrose, though glucose is the original photosynthetic product) is carried throughout the parts of the plant by the vascular system. Phloem, the vascular tissue responsible for transporting organic nutrients around the plant body, carries dissolved sugars from the leaves (their site of production) or storage sites to other parts of the plant that require nutrients. Within the phloem, sugars travel from areas of high osmotic concentration and high water pressure, called sources, to regions of low osmotic concentration and low water pressure, called sinks. (Osmotic concentration refers the concentration of solutes, or sugars in this case; where the concentration of solutes is highest, so is the osmotic concentration).
Sources
The nutrient-rich regions that supply sugars for the rest of the plant are called the sources. Sources include the leaves, where sugar is generated through photosynthesis. When they are high in supplies, the nutrient storage areas, such as the roots and stems, can also function as sources. In the sources, sugar is moved into the phloem by active transport, in which the movement of substances across cell membranes requires energy expenditure on the part of the cell.
Sinks
Sinks are areas in need of nutrients, such as growing tissues. When they are low in supply, storage areas such as the roots and stems cane function as sinks. The contents of the phloem tubes flow from the sources to these sinks, where the sugar molecules are taken out of the phloem by active transport.
Pressure Flow
The mechanism by which sugars are transported through the phloem, from sources to sinks, is called pressure flow. At the sources (usually the leaves), sugar molecules are moved into the sieve elements (phloem cells) through active transport. Water follows the sugar molecules into the sieve elements through osmosis (since water passively diffuses into regions of higher solute concentration). This water creates turgor pressure in the sieve elements, which forces the sugars and fluids down the phloem tubes toward the sinks. At the sinks, the sugars are actively removed from the phloem and water follows osmotically, so that conditions of high water potential and low turgor pressure are created, driving the pressure flow process.