Feeding Plants Sugar

I know you can feed plants molasses towards the end of flowering. Has anyone tried Sugar In The Raw? I’m very tempted to sprinkle some on top of my soil.

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No!!!

It’s a big bug attraction. The molasses works because it breaks down into a simple compound the plant is able to readily absorb, sugar however wouldn’t work the same way. I too thought about it, but it makes a big bug theme park. It’s like, if your plants are already doing well you may risk harming your roots by adding the sugar water as the plant won’t absorb it.

Let’s ask the mad scientist @TheMadFlascher.

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Thanks. Just an idea that popped in my head while making coffee this morning. :rofl: That makes a lot of sense.

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I thought about Dr. Pepper weed, Blue Tampico weed, Chock Full o’ Nuts coffee weed. These are not good ideas.

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Yeah that’s pretty out there bro. :rofl::joy:

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You can feed sugar or molassas to the soil microbes all through your grow. Advanced Nutrients has a sugar product that has several different sugar compounds in it called Carbo Load, it is Glusose and Xylose if I remember right. The plant doesn’t directly use it, the microbes in the soil do. So if you add an innoculant to your soil that has bacteria and fungus in it, they will use the sugar to reproduce. But don’t over do it. Inoculants such as Recharge already have sugar (Molassas) in it in a dry powdered form.

Marty

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@Skinnyhb and @sssportsmfg are absolutely correct!

ANY molasses (black strap molasses with its mineral content is the best) or sugars applied to your soil media are ONLY utilized by your soil microbes!
I kinda grin whenever I read blogs claiming that your buds are ‘sweeter’ because of immense amounts of sugar or molasses applied to your plants! No doubt, there are benefits to maximizing your microbial activity, however it’s ludicrous when you think about it!!!

Why don’t strawberry growers ( or grape, apple, peach, tomato) just dump a bunch of molasses on their crops ?! Plant metabolism of nutrients is quite complex and I’m afraid it just doesn’t work that way! It’s actually Potassium levels that provide brix (sugar content) in plants!

So certainly, use some molasses to stimulate your media microbes but there is NO BENEFIT to overdoing it !

Mad scientist??? LOL, no way I’m a mellow ole fart!!

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I feed small amounts (AN Bud Candy) to the microbes during veg, but mostly start during flower. During veg I like the plant and myco to form their symbiotic relationship…plant uses light + water + CO2 to produce sugars for growth and also shuttles to the roots to feed microbes, which in turn break down and store nutrients in the soil to feed the plant.

@sssportsmfg makes a very important point, there are a whole host of 5 and 6 carbon sugars, some being more important that others for certain metabolic pathways in the plant, plus feeding the microbes in the medium. Molasses contains more saccharide and minerals components than table sugar (mostly sucrose) and hence is more effective as a natural sugar source (Bob’s point regurgitated by me).

But yeah all that was off point, everyone above said it best table sugar is a bug party invitation!

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Thanks everyone! I will make sure not to put any bug food in my plants. :green_heart::call_me_hand:

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Nice to see you again @jaxsonl5 !

It’s been a minute, I hope life’s been good to you in the interim !!

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Good to see you too @TheMadFlascher, it’s been give and take but i’m still truckin’ :wink:

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Awe poor bugs…

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