So is the "grandmas" molasses i pay $4 per pint labeled "unsulfered" have less and thus any better or worse than the 3 gal bulk inexpensive slightly sulfated molasses? Should i expect any problems using this farm grade stuff? How often are you applying this when you use 5-10ml/cc and in both veg and flower?
At nearly 500ml/cc per pint and using only 100ml/cc per week or about 1/2 pint per grow during flower which is a jar every 8 months,i dont know if id want 30 years worth of molasses just sitting around even if i do save 400% on each jar. May be ok to split it with 1-2 others though.
The beet sugar molasses has no sulpher other than what occurs naturally in the product, i.e. this type of molasses is neither un-sulphured or sulphured. It's neither. Use food grade molasses that you can buy from a food supply house or a bakery supply organization - it's the exact same thing as the $4.00 per pint. Exact. I use 1 tsp. per 5 gallons of water when brewing up an aerated compost tea because only bacteria can consume carbohydrates, i.e. fungai, nematodes and protozoa cannot consume sugars. What an excess of sugars do in the compost tea brewing process is cause an explosion of growth of bacteria (read Nirtogen assimilation) at the expense of the other micro-colonies. For a every-other-week soil drench, I add about 2 tsp. per gallon along with powdered seaweed extract (Acadian Seaplants) and Hi-Crop (a fish enzyme product which is not fish emulstion) to feed the micro-herd in the soil. I add 1 tsp. per gallon with the same seaweed and fish enzyme as a foliar spray 1 once per week in addition to 2x applications of neem seed oil. The amount of 'naturally-occuring sulphur' in ALL molasses products is helpful to stop/restrict the mildew issues. Some commercial greenhouses actually burn sulphur (complete with sulphur burners and the little sulphur cakes) in their facilities to completely arrest the spread of mildew. Way too strong for an indoor garden, IMHO HTH LD
LOL - true. It is a lot but then we use it on our 1,600 sf. of raised-bed organic gardening/farming deal so things get used up but your point is well taken! Make friends! Lots of them! LD
Im still in the 1st chapter,the last should be on tea brewing. How much does the farm 3 gal. cost again?? How long does your 3 gal. last you? Id be interested in whats inside your garden in some detail,equipment and plants?
Actually,my plans for a fully relandscaped backyard dedicated to nothing but one BBq,one table and surrounded with raised planters full of organic food should use up 3 gal. in short order. Any links on the 3 gal food grade stuff?
$11.50 for 3.5 gallons. The price went up a dollar! Dried molasses is $20.60 for 50 lbs. - no word on whether or not it's sulphured or unsulphured though. 3.5 gallons would last me long enough to give the remainder to my great-grandchildren. My set up is a P.L. Light Sytem 600 watt HPS ballast & their 'deep penetration' hood. These were the first horticultural lights developed in Holland in 1975 in conjunction with their partner Hortilux Schréder and a minor partnership/manufacturing agreement with Philips out of Holland as well. I'm using a new horticultural light from Philips currently. I generally run Hortilux but I'm giving this new bulb a try on this cycle. They're priced about in the middle of the higher-end HPS bulbs. About $90.00 for the 600 watt and $54.00 for the 400 watt HPS that I use in the veg cycle. SmartPots, organic soil mix, aerated compost teas and some minor 'nutrients' in the form of powdered seaweed extract and fish enzyme. I've been known to toss a bat guano tea on there when I think about it. Pretty simple system actually. Low maintenance at the very least. HTH LD
Food service suppliers (Shamrock Foods, SYSCO) and bakery industry suppliers. Here's an idea - when I first started learning how to bake artisan breads I had trouble finding the 1-lb. of fresh yeast. I stopped at a local bakery one day and asked the baker if he would sell me one which he did for less than $1.00 You might try that with a 'natural' or 'organic' bakery - ask them if they'd sell you some of their organic un-sulphured molasses. I'm sure that if you bring your own container they'll sell you some at a fair price. Couldn't hurt to ask! LD
You run a 400w. HPS for veg.? Do you also use that 400 in your 600w. ballast? My hortilux 1K is $70.00,i noticed the 1Ks are cheaper than the others,do you know why? What are SmartPots? I will try that,thanx.
There are many urban myths, some of which are stoutly defended by their practitioners. Another is that ferts can make MJ taste of fert, so they need ´flushing´ - that is as ludicrous as believing that molasses can make MJ sweet. Do farmers flush potatoes and cabbages? No. Do they taste of shit? NO.
I agree! I flush b/c I personally feel it improves the overall quality of the bud and illiminates the majority of nutes left in the soil so the flowers will use up what is left in the larger leaves. Molasses does not make the flowers sweet. There are many factors which effect taste; such as; genetics, the drying process, different methods of curing, maturity of the plant also plays a role. I sometimes allow a plant to go a couple weeks past it's time to get some male sacks for pollen so I can increase my female to male ration on strains I like to keep going. Often the flowers from this over mature plant have a very strong harsh taste when compared to the flowers I had cut earlier during it's peak. Anyone w/ any sense can see through most myths. Most nutes companies use urban myths to sell their products; Advanced Nutrients is notorious for this. LumperDawgz you are making some very good points and it has made this a very informative thread. There are many options to enhance our grows and often people seek mor ethan one source for their needs. I personally grow for personal/medical use, so a pint of Blackstrap lasts me forever. less
lessismore We have 20 raised beds for growing berries, herbs and tomatoes. Each bed is the standard 4' x 20' used in the so-called 'Bio-Intensive Growing Method' from John Jeavons (author of "How To Grow More Vegetables in Less Space Than You Ever Imagined" or something like that) which when that technique was picked by by George/Jorge Cervantes in his goofy 'how-to-grow-books' termed it 'Sea of Green' - wow! What insight, eh? At any rate the deal with bio-intensive farming is that you build the soil up with humus (compost) and little else other than kelp meal and some seed meals. Most of the 'nutrients' are applied via sprayers suspended above the raised beds. The mixtures are contained in a 55-gallon drum, concentrated, and dispersed using a Dosatron which allows you to adjust the mixing ratio for whatever it is that you're spraying or applying. Neem seed oil is a bitch and has to be applied via hand-sprayers mostly because the usage rate is only 1/2 tsp. per quart and it is an oil so getting it to mix without heating up the water is a non-starter. But the benefits outweigh the labor investment. HTH LD
Speaking of cannabis growing mythology, we'll have to start a thread to discuss the many and varied myths surrounding the use of kelp meal and seaweed products in general. Wee!
I jumped on the liquid seaweed bandwagon and found it really did not make much difference. However, I have found using a teaspoon per gallon for soaking rockwool cubes works well for my cloning, but as for a foliar or additive to my present feeding techniques, I found it to be a waste of time. I use a simple Grow, Bloom, and Boost w/ Cal/Mag Plus being my only additive other than Molasses. I'm picky about my soil also, at the moment I'm using a mixture of Happy Frog and Ocean Forest for my veg and flowering, and I use a very light almost soiless mixture to sprout and for seedlings. My passion is to grow the best quality bud I can and learn everything I can to improve it further. I have grown since the 80's, had a short vacation which I used to educate myself w/ books and knowledge of growing from other growers, and been growing indoors for about 7 yrs now. I enjoy reading info that makes sense and is useful b/c there is so much misinformation and right down bad info that goes around the internet. We should start a myth thread, and we can discuss the many myths of how to make the flowers taste better or give them a sweeter taste, etc... less
W.A. Stephenson founded Maxicrop after WWII in Great Britain. 20 years later he wrote a book titled Seaweed in Agriculture and Horticulture An excerpt is here for your reading pleasure. In the world of seaweed products it basically comes down to the liquid products (Maxicrop, Kelpak, et al) and the powdered products (Maxicrop, Acadian Seaplants and a plethora of products being exported from India and China). The product from Acadian Seaplants (out of Nova Scotia) produces one of the finest seaweed extract products available and is used by most of the organic nutrient manufacturers that you find in grow stores. It is the standard 'dark brown' when mixed with water. Products like Kelpak (out of South Africa) is a clear product and is produced by a mechanical process where the 'juice' from the kelp is removed, concentrated and purified. This is a favorite of the hyrdroponic nutrient manufacturers because it's clear. It is also made from a different type of seaweed than is Maxicrop or Acadian Seaplants' product lines. There is also 'clear' seaweed products out of Japan and South Korea using another type of seaweed. I opt for the Acadian Seaplants' product because it's 1/2 the price of powdered Maxicrop, contains more bio-activity and has been field-tested in the brewing of aerated compost teas. It has a track record that is verifiable and those results can be duplicated. Applied below the root line and seaweed products greatly enhance root development. Sprayed as a foliar spray and you get stronger branching, better leaf development, increased flower sites, etc. Kelp meal and/or seaweed extracts is the best organic source of micro-nutrients and has a very strong 'K' macro-nutrient profile as well. Good stuff. Couldn't grow without it, IMHO - or at least as well. HTH LumperDawgz
Correct - I ran the Philips Son-T Argo 430 watt HPS for almost 20 years and then switched to another Philips in the Son-T product line. Great lamps. Actually I still own and use my first 'professional' 400 watt HPS light from 1988 from the P.L. Light Systems out of Holland. I definitely got my money's worth out of that deal. None because there are far, far less 1000K bulbs manufactured than 400 or 600 lamps. Weird. SmartPots Well worth the money, IMHO LumperDawgz
From the Seaweed in Agriculture and Horticulture book is this passage: lessismore If you look at any product sold as a 'rooting agent' what you'll find is that the active ingredient in all of these products (Dip-n-Grow, Clonex, Olivias, etc.) is IAA Also, it was tested and proven as early at 1918 in university-level studies conducted in Great Britain that seaweed extracts were effective against spider mites. Not as a miticide, per se, but there are agents in seaweed which greatly limit the ability of the mite eggs to hatch. It's not a total solution but another weapon in the arsenal against spider mites. And powdery mildew - the bane of every person growing plants in the Pacific Northwest. HTH LumperDawgz
Dude! I came on here thinking you had a problem with moles and were calling them asses!..LOL You meant "molasses"....Be cool!
Infant!!! - my first grow was in 1968, grew for a while after. But I stopped doing anything like that when I was a Naval Officer from 1980 to 1996. But now the bastards pay me my pension, anything I can grow adds to that !!