If you are an experienced gardener, then you’ve already discovered that strange, unexpected items can be used to fertilize your garden. For example, we have written about milk and fish emulsion as an ideal fertilizer. Here’s one more –- molasses.
(Courtesy: Jill at flickr.com)
Molasses is the by-product of beating sugarcane, grapes, or sugar beets into sugar. The dark, sweet liquid is often used as a sweetener in baking, as a natural remedy for many disorders, and it is also a substance that is added to animal feed.
What’s so good about it as a fertilizer is that it includes vitamins and minerals ideal for the health of your plants.
Blackstrap Molasses
One particular variety of molasses that is great for plants is blackstrap molasses. This is made from the third boiling of sugar in the refinement process of making the substance.
Blackstrap molasses is ideal as a fertilizer because it has a lot of calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, sulfur and a whole lot of micronutrients. This type of molasses offers plants a quick surge of energy and inspires the growth of beneficial microorganisms.
As A Fertilizer
Unsulphured blackstrap molasses has traditionally been used as an additive to organic fertilizers and offers plants carbohydrates and traces of minerals they need to be healthy. It can be added to organic liquid fertilizers like compost tea, alfalfa meal tea, and kelp.
When molasses is added to organic fertilizers it provides food for healthy microbes in the soil, which are important to the health of plants. In fact, the greater amount of microbial activity in the soil, the healthier the plants.
Mixing molasses to organic fertilizer is as simple as mixing 1 to 3 tablespoons of the stuff to a gallon of fertilizer. You can also add it to water and spray it on plant leaves or pour on the soil. When sprayed directly on the plant’s leaves, the nutrients and sugar of the mixture are absorbed quickly.
There is an additional benefit to molasses. It actually helps battle pests that can damage your garden. The plants have increased vitality due to the molasses making them less susceptible to the pests.
It is recommended that you use a molasses and water mixture every two weeks as well as the molasses fertilizer for optimum results.
(Source: Gardeningkowhow.com)
