After a 24 hour brew, this 100% plant-based fertilizer is ready for application. Alfalfa is a great organic plant food, with many benefits above and beyond
just the N–P-K it can contribute to a soil mix or tea. We do plan to cover Alfalfa and it’s many uses in greater detail soon in yet another thread. We
prefer to mix our alfalfa meal directly into the tea, but many gardeners use the stocking”tea bag”method with great effectiveness, both work well, it’s
really just a matter of personal preference.
The alfalfa tea recipe we described can be used as a soil drench, and also as a foliar feed. And foliar feeding is the final use of molasses we’d like to
detail. Foliar feeding, for the unfamiliar, is simply the art of using fine mist sprays as a way to get nutrients directly to the plant through the minute
pores a plant”breathes”through. It is by far the quickest and
most effective way to correct nutrient deficiencies, and can be an important part of any gardener’s toolbox.
Molasses is a great ingredient in foliar feeding recipes because of it’s ability to chelate nutrients and bring them to the “table” in a form that can be
directly absorbed and used by the plant. This really improves the effectiveness of foliar feeds when using them as a plant tonic. In fact it improves them
enough that we usually can dilute our teas or mix them more “lean” - with less fertilizer - than we might use without the added molasses.
Of course it is possible to use molasses as a foliar feed alone, without any added guano or alfalfa. It’s primary use would be to treat plants who are deficient
in Potassium, although molasses also provides significant boosts in other essential minerals such as Sulfur, Iron and Magnesium. Organic farming guides
suggest application rates of between one pint and one quart per acre depending on the target plant. For growing a fast growing annual plant like cannabis,
we’d suggest a recipe of 1 teaspoon molasses per gallon of water.
In all honesty, we’d probably suggest a foliar feeding with kelp concentrate as a better solution for an apparent Potassium shortage. Kelp is one of our
favorite foliar feeds because it is a complete source of micronutrients in addition to being a great source of Potassium. Kelp has a variety of other characteristics
that we love, and we plan that it will be the topic of it’s own detailed thread at a future date. But, for growers that cannot find kelp, or who might
have problems with the potential odors a kelp foliar feeding can create, molasses can provide an excellent alternative treatment for Potassium deficient
plants at an affordable price.
That looks at most of the beneficial uses of Molasses for the modern organic or biological farmer. Just when you think that’s all there could be from our
beaks on the topic of molasses, that molasses and it’s sweet sticky goodness surely have been covered in their entirety, the birds chirp in to say, there
is one more specialized use for molasses in the garden. Magical molasses can also help in the control of Fire Ants, and perhaps some other garden pests.
Molasses For Organic Pest Control
One final benefit of molasses is it’s ability to be used in the control of a couple of common pests encountered in gardening. The most commonly known use
of molasses is it’s ability to help control Fire Ants, but we’ve also found an internet reference to the ability of molasses to control white cabbage moths
in the UK, so molasses could be an effective pest deterrent in more ways that we are aware. As we said before, there are several references we’ve run across
refering to the ability of molasses to control Fire Ants. Since we’re not intimately familiar with this particular use of molasses, and rather than simply
re-write and re-word
another’s work, we thought we’d defer to the experts. So for this section of the current version of the Molasses Manual, we will simply post a reference
article we found that covers topic in better detail than we currently can ourselves.
Molasses Makes Fire Ants Move Out
By Pat Ploegsma, reprinted from Native Plant Society of Texas News
Summer 1999
Have you ever started planting in your raised beds and found fire ant highrises? Are you tired of being covered with welts after gardening? Put down that
blowtorch and check out these excellent organic and non-toxic solutions. Malcolm Beck1, organic farmer extraordinaire and owner of Garden-Ville Inc., did
some experiments that showed that molasses is a good addition to organic fertilizer (more on fertilizer in the next issue).
When using molasses in the fertilizer spray for his fruit trees he noticed that the fire ants moved out from under the trees. “I got an opportunity to see
if molasses really moved fire ants. In my vineyard, I had a 500 foot row of root stock vines cut back to a stump that needed grafting. The fire ants had
made themselves at home along that row. The mounds averaged three feet apart. There was no way a person could work there without being eaten alive! I dissolved
4 tablespoons of molasses in each gallon of water and sprayed along the drip pipe. By the next day the fire ants had moved four feet in each direction.
We were able to graft the vines without a single ant bothering us.”
This gave him the idea for developing an organic fire ant killer that is 30% orange oil and 70% liquid compost made from manure and molasses. The orange
oil softens and dissolves the ant’s exoskeleton, making them susceptible to attack by the microbes in the compost, while the molasses feeds the microbes
and also smothers the ants. After the insects are dead,
everything becomes energy-rich soil conditioner and will not harm any plant it touches. It can be used on any insect including mosquitoes and their larvae.
Break a small hole in the crust in the center of the mound then quickly!!! pour the solution into the hole to flood the mound and then drench the ants on
top. Large mounds may need a second application. Available at Garden-Ville Square in Stafford, it has a pleasant lemonade smell. According to Mark Bowen2,
local landscaper and Houston habitat gardening expert, fire ants thrive on disturbed land and sunny grassy areas. “Organic matter provides a good habitat
for fire ant predators such as beneficial nematodes, fungi, etc. Other conditions favoring fire ant predators include shading the ground with plantings,
good soil construction practices and use of plants taller than turfgrasses.” He recommends pouring boiling soapy water over shallow mounds or using AscendTM.
“Ascend is a fire ant bait which contains a fungal by-product called avermectin and a corn and soybean-based grit bait to attract fire ants. Ascend works
slowly enough to get the queen or queens and it controls ants by sterilizing and/or killing them outright.”
Malcolm Beck also did some experiments with Diatomaceous Earth - DE - (skeletal remains of algae which is ground into an abrasive dust) which confirmed
that DE also kills fire ants. He mixes 4 oz. of DE into the top of the mound with lethal results. According to Beck, DE only works during dry weather on
dry ant mounds. Pet food kept outdoors will stay ant free
if placed on top of a tray with several inches of DE
1Beck, Malcolm. The Garden-Ville Method: Lessons in Nature. Third Edition. San Antonio, TX: Garden-Ville, Inc., 1998.
2Bowen, Mark, with Mary Bowen. Habitat Gardening for Houston and Southeast Texas. Houston, TX: River Bend Publishing
Company, 1998.
As we had also mentioned earlier, while researching the uses of molasses in gardening, we also came across a reference to it’s use in the control of white
cabbage moths. Here’s what we found on that particular topic.
“I came across this home remedy from the UK for white cabbage moths.
Mix a tablespoon of molasses in 1 litre of warm water and let cool.. spray every week or every 2 weeks as required for white cabbage moth..they hate it..and
I thinkit would be good soil conditioner as well if any drops on your soil.. It works for me...but gotta do it before white butterfly lays eggs...otherwise
you might have to use the 2 finger method and squash
grubs for your garden birds..
"nutNhoney" wrote in message
news:
[email protected]...
> To the kind soul who posted the tip for spraying members of the cabbage
> family with a molasses solution, thank you so much. Today, I noticed a
> white moth hovering around my brussel sprouts. I quickly made up a
> solution of molasses and rushed back to the garden to spray. The moth
> did not land! It seemed to be repelled by the molasses. I sprayed the
> broccoli too for good measure. I think I will spray again for the next