Hi

I just popped into the health food shop and picked up some of this:



I'm using Essence as part of a regular preventative regime, but I'm running low on mollasses so wonder if this is suitable? Also what amounts should I be using?

I have some Vitax organic seaweed that I've been using but I'm not sure what sort of doses I should be using for that for different applications (i.e foliar, drench, cuttings/seedlings, mature plants etc)

Am I right in thinking that I can 'feed' the microherd that things like essence activates by using molasses + seaweed and if so what sort of dosages, preparations should I be using with these two products?


Advice gratefully received

I was wondering this, as i'm sure the one you have seems more like a syrup? Is that correct?
Just wondering as the molasses i got off Plant Magic seemed very different, almost like sticky bits of soil, can you use both?

Yeah its black treacle, which can be used, Pro Liberate used some in his essence recipe but it was a different brand and I vaguely recall reading something about some brands not being as suitable as others.

The 'bag' of molasses I got with my essence was like dark brown/muscovado sugar (wonder if u can just use that sort of dark sugar )

I'm basically double-checking the stuff I have is pure enough to use and what dosages to use with it and vitax

It's unsulphured blackstrap molasses . I stick about 1/2 a teaspoon per 6ltr water every 3rd or 4th watering/feed along with a glug (roughly 4ml/ltr) of Vitax, most of the way through Veg and Flower. I think that plants love it, and am sure I see visible affects on growth after a feed. I also use both in Essence brewing.

I also put in on my toast (sans seaweed extract) mmmmmmmm......

The Meridian product is treacle consistency but has less sugar than something like Lyles Black Treacle (I've used that before too and it does the job).

Billingtons sell a solid molasses sugar, which is probalbly a bit like what PlantMagic supplies or it may be animal feed grade molasses. I don't know if these are any better than the liquid molasses but the Meridian product will do you just fine.

Hi

I use this meridan molasses and my baby's seem to love it.

I use seaweed extract with a folier every now and again, and i use it when I repot up to settle in the new pot. seems to really aid in getting the roots going in the new pot.

as long as you dont use too much its all good imho.

rev

High chaps.
Just to confirm, the sugary moisty crystalline molasses is an evaporated version of the syrup. When refining sugar, to make it white, all the goodness and flavour gets left behind in the form of molasses. the varying types of soft brown sugars and cystalline sugars (like the Billington's range) are different stages of the refining process. Paler sugar has less nutritional value and less taste. It's why white sugar is just sweet without any real flavour and the darkest molasses sugar has that strong taste and is lovely in cakes!

Molasses definately improved the taste of my marijuana the last time i used it, everything just seemed sweeter!
So unsuphulured blackstrap is alright to use, thankoo!

i fed my tomatoes with molasses this year, everybody who has eaten them commented on the sweet taste.

Thanks for the replies folks

If this meridian stuff has less 'sugars' in it should I be using a bit more than 1/2 teaspoon/6litres? As for Vitax the strongest I ever used it at was 5ml/litre.

My plants look healthy so I better not push too hard in case I overdo it I'll throttle back on the 'extras' because I'm working them up to 1ml/litre grow : 1ml/litre bloom this week. Any thoughts on the need for essence as a preventative in flower? I was just going to give them one more treatment sometime before end of week 3 then I was just going to spray nothing on them after that unless I had to.

I'd use 1tsp per litre. I think that's the usual dose. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong please!

Meridian also do an organic version which I get at my local health food shop - £1.89 for a large jar that I have to pre-order.

I'm really sure it tastes better than the 'Natural' version, which is has a slight bitter tang to it and makes me suspicious as to whether sulphur has been used to ripen the canes or not since its not explicitly stated on the jar - glad to be wrong, but for 10p more people might want to see / ask if they can get the organic one.

I'm slightly addicted to it since I was fed a spoon of it daily when young (veggie) and have great difficulty not having a spoon for me an a spoon for the girls when they're fed, especially in my tea while watering.

OK let me get this straight...

the dose is 1 teaspoon/litre for the plants and 1 teaspoon for me, either on toast or in tea?


only kidding


What are the symptoms of the plants and I having had too much seaweed/molasses? fatness? tooth decay? late onset diabetes?

hahaha... seriously though, is there any visible signs I should watch for of a plant having had too much sugars?

Seaweed i don't know, as far as i was aware it gives it to the plant in compounds which it can take up straight away, i use alg-a-mic it's derived from seaweed and i just put a cap full in now, does no harm at all if anything more = better.

Molasses i used every other water when i did use it and never more than about a tablespoon per 5L.
I was worried about the build up of stuff in the soil etc.

It definately had an amazing effect on my buds though, 's why i'm switching to fishmix, molasses and mebby a little epsoms and nowt else.

been doing a little research into this as im looking to switch to a good compost/soil mix and organic using plantmagic too.

i have found a huge amount of info through google but cant post the site as its another forum, basicaly if you overfeed with molasses and the micro-heard in the soil arnt big/populated enough to process it, itll cause the roots to rot, on another forum someone did this and lost 5 girls in the last few weeks of flower.

GO TO THE SUPERMARKETS!
billingtons are doing an offer till the 25th of october, normal price of 500g is £1.80 ish and its selling for 85p in almost all supermarket stores (if their big enough to stock it... i went to M...)

i intend to use it when brewing the escence (not different from brewing beer yeast from what i gather) something like 3L water 300g sugar and 9g molasses should do a great starter to innoculate with, id guess as with brewing you could semi-boil this mix (before adding plant magic when its cooled below 30°c) to steralise and give the bacteria a better chance but i wouldnt think you'd need to unless you want to use alot less plant magic stuff.

id also probably feed 1g molasses per 1L water every week which seems the norm for most.

E2A:
"I also read that too high of a temperature for brewing molasses kills the essentail organsims."

Can I just check in with you, is that without other nutes like grow and bloom totally?

Heya , actually you're not to far wrong just tuther way round ,

What are the symptoms of the plants and I having had too much seaweed/molasses? fatness? tooth decay? late onset diabetes?
the tooth decay and diabetes type symptoms would show in the fungi/bacto as they would gorge and mass produce ,

is there any visible signs I should watch for of a plant having had too much sugars
initial over fert ie burt tips then under fert appearance as the compost will be drained from essential minerals as the population will be using up to much oxygen and consuming/converting minerals not needed so dumped , i believe canna likes its metals so medium dependant possibly a zinc def type symptoms

I was in the company of a dental hygienist recently , if i what nice white fungi/bacto free teeth dont use a straw to supply there food source directly unless you are intending to cultivate them , i must run that one past agito to see how far his love actually spreads , good luck .

I used one capful of Vitax Seaweed per Gallon of water on my outdoor plants. I used this concentration both as a foliar spray and root drench and the plants loved it. As I said that was outdoors mind straight in the earth...

~Satta

I've used blackstrap mollases on my last 3 grows, and seaweed since day 1, alongside Biobizz grow and bloom

Never had an issue, other than this last grow with a small spidermite problem (now cured).

I use a tablespoon of mollases to 5 litres of water. It also helps the buds pack on weight, more so in an organic grow, as it feeds the microherd with much needed carbs.

Seaweed, just follow the destructions on the bottle. I spray once a week with it, and use it for potting up as someone mentioned above, to help the roots, and reduce shock.