Andre CampbellIf you’ve looked at recipes for compost tea, you might have spotted people recommending adding molasses. This might seem a bit strange, but this substance can have many benefits for your soil.
Molasses is an excellent addition to your organic gardening. It has nutrients and beneficial sugars that can help your plants thrive.
What is Molasses?
This substance is a byproduct of sugar production. It is what gives brown sugar its distinctive color and flavor. A few types are on the market, but you only want unsulfured blackstrap molasses.
Blackstrap has more nutrients that boost plant energy and encourage growth. Dried molasses is much easier to use in gardening.
Can Plants Use this Sugar?
Plants can’t take up the complex sugars in molasses, but they can take up what the microbes in your soil break it down to.
Remember, plants make their carbohydrates when they photosynthesize. The sugar in molasses will help your soil. It will feed beneficial microbes that pass on essential nutrients.
You can also add it to your compost to increase the amount of nutrients it contains and boost it, like compost starters.
Garden Benefits and Uses
Horticultural molasses has many benefits for plants and organic gardens. Its liquid form is mainly added to water or liquid fertilizers to make them more nutritious.
The dried version can be sprinkled to benefit soil and compost. It doesn’t need to be added more often than any other fertilizer treatment.
If you’re adding it to the soil generally, you only need to do so once a year and twice if your soil is very poor.
1. Improving Soil Health
Healthy soil is the foundation of a good garden. Ensuring your soil provides all the nutrients your plants need can give you a rewarding gardening experience.
Harmful pests will target weak or sick plants, but keeping plants healthy can help prevent many infestations.
Potassium, which this substance contains, is essential to healthy growth. If lacking, you will notice lethargy and plants that cannot handle the cold or poor weather when they should be just fine.
Keeping helpful microorganisms alive allows them to break down nutrients from molasses into a form that your plants can use. This product can help by providing nutrients and sugar that help feed these microorganisms.
Sprinkle 10 to 20 lbs of dried molasses per 1,000 square feet of garden or lawn and water generously. Alternatively, use 1/2 cup of liquid molasses in water for the same space.
2. Fertilizer
Molasses liquid is high in potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and other essential micronutrients. Adding it to your soil as fertilizer helps your plants gain more nutrients.
Combining it with organic liquid plant fertilizers or compost teas can also boost the nutrients it already has. It adds extra iron, which produces chlorophyll.
The extra potassium also strengthens the plant’s ability to fight diseases and improves crop yield. Many recipes for liquid fertilizers already include molasses.
Some gardeners have also had good results using molasses for tomato plants. It gives the plants a boost of energy and makes the tomatoes sweeter.
Other plants that benefit from molasses include melons, cannabis, peppers, and eggplant. However, when diluted with milk, it works best on eggplant, melons, and peppers.
To make molasses fertilizer, mix two tablespoons with 1 gallon of water. Apply it once a week by pouring it on the soil or spraying it on the plant leaves.
You can also mix it with Epsom salt to make homemade fertilizer, improving plant root health and producing more flowers. Combine two tablespoons of liquid molasses with one tablespoon of Epsom salt and two gallons of water.
Let the mixture dissolve, and use it to fertilize your plants.
3. Add to Compost
The sugar in this product is excellent for feeding beneficial bacteria.
You can add it to your compost to help start it. Adding it occasionally will also encourage good bacteria to stick around.
Dried molasses is the easiest to use here; just occasionally toss a handful into your compost pile. You can also add a small amount of the liquid form to water and sprinkle it on.
4. Add to Water
To mix molasses with water for your plants, combine two tablespoons of liquid molasses with a gallon of warm water. This recipe makes a good mixture, as the ratio is 1 to 3 tablespoons per gallon of water.
Feed the solution directly into the soil around individual plants or spray it over a large area in addition to regular watering. Plain molasses water will give your plants an extra boost of energy.
How often should you apply it to your plants? Molasses water is applied to plants every two weeks, in addition to regular fertilization.
5. Pest Control
Molasses can be used as a natural insecticide. Just 1.3 mL in one liter of water makes a tremendous insecticidal foliar spray that won’t harm your plants or any animals that visit your garden.
Due to its high sugar content, sugary treats kill many garden pests. Some insects, such as aphids and mealybugs, become utterly dehydrated after consuming them.
Eating the product will kill the insect. It will draw water from its gut, dehydrating it.
Besides, spreading 10 to 20 pounds of dried molasses per 1,000 square feet of lawn or garden bed can help control pests like grub worms and root-knot nematodes. It will also keep out animals like moles and armadillos that eat grubs.
6. Weed Control
Molasses can help control difficult-to-control weeds like dallisgrass.
For this molasses spray recipe, use one cup of liquid molasses in a gallon of vinegar or water, then spray the solution over the crown of the plant.
The mixture increases microbial action, preventing seeding and breaking down stubborn root systems.
Why Dried Molasses?
Dried molasses is easier to handle and use for agricultural purposes than liquid molasses, which is very sticky and can be hard to measure.
The dried stuff has all the benefits of the liquid in a much easier-to-handle form. You only need about ¼ teaspoon for most compost tea recipes, which means it should last a long time.
Where can I buy molasses for plants? You can find it in dried and liquid forms online or in some gardening stores.
Takeaway
Now that you know how to apply molasses to plants, don’t be afraid to try it. It can be a great addition to your gardening routine.
Sasha Campbell
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