The Joy Of Growing - SweetSue Goes Perpetual

Can someone with more background in cultivation answer KodiakKid's question about molasses? I need to sleep, and I'd have to research it.

Thank you. :Love:
 
KodiakKid said:
Going back a ways SS, did I accurately pick up that that regular Molasses in flower leads to a magnesium deficiency?
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My experience in this applies to other crops than our on topic crop, however the same mechanisms hold true:

Whether you want to call what happens a "deficiency" I suppose, is dependent on your frame of reference. Deficiency in the plant due to reduced uptake yes, deficiency due to depletion in the soil no.

Some of what happens when you add molasses is you are feeding the microbes in the soil with carbohydrates. This causes them to multiply (lots of easily available energy). Normally this is a good thing. The increased number of microbes will start to consume and digest more organic matter - complex nutrients (lots of N), that are in a form not available to the plants.
When the excess carbohydrates have been consumed, there won't be enough food remaining to sustain the increased population of microbes who will subsequently die off, decay and release amongst other nutrients the N in the form of Ammonium. This then reacts in the soil (nitrification) to form nitrate, in the process releasing H+ ions, lowering Ph. All nice and good for the plant.

If one however were to use too much molasses the resulting microbe population explosion will consume massive amounts of nutrients (mostly N) leaving less for the plant initially. This will also cause an imbalance of other nutrients like an increase in available potassium (molasses is rich in K). This nutrient imbalance can cause selective nutrient lockout for example Mg.
When the huge microbe overpopulation starve and die, lots of N is released subsequently lowering Ph which may reach levels that also may cause a lockout situation on the uptake of for example Mg (as well as N, P, K, S, & Ca).
If the molasses is kept up at too high a level or too often (microbes don't die off) they will be locking up nutrients in themselves most likely leading to a reduction in available N.

So, the Mg is there in the soil, the plants just can't get at it.

Again, I have not used molasses in my C grows but I have/do use it in my vegetable garden, for potted peppers and tomatoes. In my experience all plants seem to prefer a molasses to water ratio of about 15-30ml per 5l.
 
Nice synopsis, OMeWan. Molasses and other easily metabolized carbohydrate sources can be good for the soil in small amounts but are not present in large amounts in healthy soils. Sue is actually adding sugars from three different sources; molasses in her water, coconut water, and malted (sprouted grains.) She is following the lead of a few other growers who do the same. The kit plants are not getting any of those things, I think.
 
:reading420magazine:
 
PeeJay said:
Nice synopsis, OMeWan. Molasses and other easily metabolized carbohydrate sources can be good for the soil in small amounts but are not present in large amounts in healthy soils. Sue is actually adding sugars from three different sources; molasses in her water, coconut water, and malted (sprouted grains.) She is following the lead of a few other growers who do the same. The kit plants are not getting any of those things, I think.
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I just pulled up this page and this was the first thing I read, so I'm missing the whole picture at the moment, but this hit me square up side the head. I keep going back to pictures of my initial grow. I hit it on all cylinders then and I'm working out in my mind what changed. Because I did the teas and drenches with that grow as well, with about the same scattered and irregular schedule.

Let me point out that the additives on those drenches are small quantities, and always have been, and their use is intended to add to the health of the community. I seriously do not believe that they have any detrimental effect on the soil community. However PeeJay, I went to bed last night with my closing thought being that you're so successful at what you do here that I'd be foolish not to listen closer to what you're saying. I believe my last post actually said that. If I recall I was explaining to someone why they should be consulting TOAST - that's right, it was Cy. I was telling him how proud I was that he actually took my advisc and went to TOAST.

As I expressed that joy I suddenly had it slam into me that the same thing could have been said to me about you. We're going to work the soil thing out here. I believe in my soil mix and the program of maintaining its health. It's not a system I came up with on my own. It's been proven over time and I will not question it again. But something happened here with these plants and indicators are it's something in the root zone. Let's progress carefully and see if we can't figure it out.

I've hinted at it before, but these two plants are the tail end of a mistake made with the soil. We may be chasing something that no longer applies.

8.5 hours straight of sound and restful sleep. Look out guys. I'm wide awake. I'm going for the Breakfast Brownie now, then into the shower and a loud and raucous playing of "Road To Joy" (left a link at The Spot)


LET'S F**K IT UP BOYS, MAKE SOME NOISE!!!
 
As strong as I've become over just the past two weeks it surprises me how devastating it can be to realize I once again missed getting something critical paid on time because my brain still hasn't come to grips with the fact that I wake up without him and he's not here, anywhere, anywh re........

I need to stop shaking before I come back
 
Sorry guys. I worry about you all worrying about me when I do that. It was a missed appointment with my lovely dentist that sent me careening through that emotional battleground. They graciously rescheduled me for this afternoon. I've just about stopped shaking and coffee is brewing. The tears will just have to fall silently. I don't have the emotional wherewithal to conquer them, but they're soft and easy ones, more resignation than panic. You learn to live with it. Well, I did.

Let me jump back and catch up now. But first. Really big hug. :hugs: :hugs: :hugs: :hugs: :hugs:




OK, I'm good now.
 
So I'm sitting cross-legged on the bed, uploading all these pictures of the beauties, the flap of the tent wide open, bathing the room in the beauty that is the LED sun, earbuds in, lost in "Sierra" (yeah, big surprise there, huh? :laughtwo: ) and the line that always stops me cold comes on

"Oh you played with his heartstrings, and you played without a care."

It makes me pause every time. What woman in her right mind would do such a careless thing? It pains me to even consider that I would be so foolish in life that I would be flippant with someone else's heart.

Just something that haunts me, since I listen to this song obsessively. It drives my posts. That might be a good thing. :laughtwo:

But it's wrong to be casual with people. Maybe that's just me.

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I'm taking the Auto Jock Horror x Auto Amnesia sometime this week. Decided to try a taste. Good Lord does this thing smell delicious! Now there's sticky sweetness on the iPad screen that I'll have to lick off. :laughtwo:
 
I decided to pull everyone in LOS out of the tent and throw them out into the natural light so I could try to approximate some semblance to true coloration in the pictures. It's a tricky business, reading our photos, given the playful nature of light, eh?

It's raining here today and the girls near giggled with delight to find they'd be treated to this rare event. In truth, they sometimes feel overlooked by their flashier and more aggressive kit counterparts. Objectively speaking, they are the healthier in appearance, so why are we so drawn to the bad-girl energy of the electrified Kit girls? Poor LOS girls play by the rules and get passed by.

Girls can be complicated emotional creatures to shepherd through life. Uncle Cannabis is watching and taking notice of how happy my pampered beauties are, and the girls hope that will somehow influence him to think of his own girls in more of the same manner. They were thinking a sleep-over? I told them the flight cost would be prohibitive, so you're off the hook this time. Next time the ball's in your court though.

From the playful tone of this post you should have determined that I have no concerns whatsoever as to the vigor of my crop nor the strength of the soil that assists my dreams of a bountiful harvest by taking such good care of my charges. I simply must reward these plots with some worms.

White Widow

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Kalashnikova Auto, Super Silver Haze, and Excalibur. The smell of that Haze..... Good grief!!

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Strawberry Blue

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Buddha Tahoe OG

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I see two plants ready for harvest.....

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..... and four clicking along on all cylinders.

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I pulled out the Unknown Seed, grown in kit soil, for comparison.

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Happy, healthy plants. Don't you wish you were here being this well-cared for??

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I think there's a serious oversight going on in the Office Of Universal Quality Control. I wake up alone. That's wrong on too many levels. I have a dentist appointment. I'm going to get my lonely butt there this time.

There isn't an emoticon to convey the frustration. Even understanding the temporary nature of the situation. It's wrong. It's just wrong.
 
Sorry about the meltdown guys. A bit if perspective might be in order. I couldn't have been happier with my choice of a mate. We were so perfectly matched in every way other than the ability to generate a decent and consistent income that it still takes my breath away.

He was aware from his first night in my bed that I was marrying him so I wouldn't have to sleep alone. You've been with me long enough to know what a challenge it is for me. It's a factor in this grieving process that frustrates me over the edge sometimes.
 
We grow the most beautiful flowers on the planet. I'm trying to decide if I want to quick dry or let it sit for two days first and dry out naturally. That'd give me the best sample, but quick dry give an essence right now. :hmmm:

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Mr Am4zin said:
Patience my sweet :Love:
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I'm leaning strongly in that direction. The brownies keep me pretty normal. It's not like I have a desperate need, and how good does it feel to be able to say that? :laughtwo:

I'm mostly curious. This one has bigger buds, more color, higher trichome development and stronger perfume than my first run of the strain. I want sooo badly to taste it.

Patience Susan. You can wait.
 
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