What's new
  • As of today ICMag has his own Discord server. In this Discord server you can chat, talk with eachother, listen to music, share stories and pictures...and much more. Join now and let's grow together! Join ICMag Discord here! More details in this thread here: here.

last few weeks of flower...bud enhancer?

So I'm on the last few weeks of flower with some of my outdoor plants. By few I means 3 weeks or so. Wondering if I would still benefit from using some type of bud enhancer. This includes the many different types of enhancers you can find at the store (ie bud candy by AN) and also organic sources such as wholesome sweeteners organic molasses. I have 1-2 weeks on a couple of my plants that I probably shouldn't use them on, but will the plants with 2.5-3.5 weeks left benefit from any of these products? I'm mainly thinking about using the molasses but have heard that some stop in the last couple weeks and some go until harvest. Will using it this late in flower affect the taste of my bud? Thanks for any help.

-t4k
 
molasses and water or nothing else. like cannabisdog said gunna be a waste of money buying products at this point. i personally feed a lil molasses with my nutes from 12/12 to finish with a heavy molasses and water only feeding on the last few weeks.
 

Biatchzxz

Where am I?
Veteran
Lol Comon guys and gals. Obviously all depends on how they were grown also. If u gave em enough food throughout the grow and you prolly just need to give em PH water andor molasses but not to late on the molasses also cause it tends to make a harsh smoke if used to late and not properly flushed Beaides dude would u rather have Massive buds that taste and burn like a bag of assholes. Or bud that taste clean and enjoyable Me personally I'm passed that state of pumping plants up with unneeded stuff to get big buds that taste horrible. I'd rather settle for smaller properly grown clean tasting smoke.
 
I wouldn't waste money on anything at this point from AN. Maybe some molasses if you would like.

Yeah I never planned on buying anything from AN. I know a lot of people around here feel strongly about the nutes that they do/don't use so I was just using bud candy as an example of the type of product I might buy. I did end up going out and purchasing some organic blackstrap molasses at the local whole foods and I've been using it for a few days now. Thanks for the advice.

-t4k
 
molasses and water or nothing else. like cannabisdog said gunna be a waste of money buying products at this point. i personally feed a lil molasses with my nutes from 12/12 to finish with a heavy molasses and water only feeding on the last few weeks.

heavy molasses? To me that would mean 1 tbsp/gallon, to you it might mean 4 tbsp...how much do you use per feeding? How many days between molasses feedings? I went out and got some organic blackstrap that I've been using for a few days now, looking good so far. I never really planned on buying any products unless I was really convinced. I'm happy with how cheap the molasses is for it's purported usefulness.
 
Lol Comon guys and gals. Obviously all depends on how they were grown also. If u gave em enough food throughout the grow and you prolly just need to give em PH water andor molasses but not to late on the molasses also cause it tends to make a harsh smoke if used to late and not properly flushed Beaides dude would u rather have Massive buds that taste and burn like a bag of assholes. Or bud that taste clean and enjoyable Me personally I'm passed that state of pumping plants up with unneeded stuff to get big buds that taste horrible. I'd rather settle for smaller properly grown clean tasting smoke.

thanks for responding in a way that actually helps...couldn't agree with you more about having smaller dank buds rather than fat, harsh ones, "bag of assholes" was my favorite part. I decided pretty quickly that I wasn't going to use any type of bud enhancer, but I did pick up some unsulphured blackstrap molasses. I hear you on it possibly making the bud harsh, but from my understanding...when you water the roots with molasses in an organic soil environment, it feeds the microbial life which in turn feeds your plant faster. Logically, this would also aid in flush too by feeding the microbes which will feed on mineral salts and help leach them from your soil and create better tasting buds...what do you think? Thanks for the help.

-t4k
 
heavy molasses? To me that would mean 1 tbsp/gallon, to you it might mean 4 tbsp...how much do you use per feeding? How many days between molasses feedings? I went out and got some organic blackstrap that I've been using for a few days now, looking good so far. I never really planned on buying any products unless I was really convinced. I'm happy with how cheap the molasses is for it's purported usefulness.

once my girls start to flower, i will start them off at 10ml/gal molasses plus they're normal bloom feed. about midway, i bump them up to 20ml/gal molasses plus bloom feed and bloom boost. about 2weeks before i harvest, they get 30ml/gal of molasses and thats it. this is my flush, so the girls will get this 3x the vol of the containers. i also dont flush all at once, rather lil by lil over the 1st week. i think this helps the plant process everything so that they taste sweet and not harsh. my girls dont get a plain water flush cause i know this strain well and it doesnt get a harsh smoke. anymore molasses and i will be pushing it and my buds may not taste so good. its all about knowing your strain. i would start at 5-10ml/gal for feeds and 10-20ml/gal for flush and go from there. take good notes about taste and smells, as well as how well your bud burns. this will help you find your 'sweet spot' for your strain. it will take at least 3 cycles before you get a good idea of what your strain can and cant handle.
 

nugghead

Member
I used Miracle-Gro 15-30-15 "bloom booster." Also contains various micronutes including boron. Dosed 'em weekly for the last 2 months of flower but gave them two weeks off just before harvest.

The plants put most of their energy into bud growth during that time, showed no signs of deficiency, nor burn for that matter. I assume the fert helped, but nothing to compare to.
 
once my girls start to flower, i will start them off at 10ml/gal molasses plus they're normal bloom feed. about midway, i bump them up to 20ml/gal molasses plus bloom feed and bloom boost. about 2weeks before i harvest, they get 30ml/gal of molasses and thats it. this is my flush, so the girls will get this 3x the vol of the containers. i also dont flush all at once, rather lil by lil over the 1st week. i think this helps the plant process everything so that they taste sweet and not harsh. my girls dont get a plain water flush cause i know this strain well and it doesnt get a harsh smoke. anymore molasses and i will be pushing it and my buds may not taste so good. its all about knowing your strain. i would start at 5-10ml/gal for feeds and 10-20ml/gal for flush and go from there. take good notes about taste and smells, as well as how well your bud burns. this will help you find your 'sweet spot' for your strain. it will take at least 3 cycles before you get a good idea of what your strain can and cant handle.

great info, thanks for the detail. I'm feeding at the rate of 2 tbsp (6 tsp) per 5 gallons of water during flush right now. This would be roughly 6 ml/gal which is pretty mild compared to your suggestion of 10-20 ml/gal during flush. Sounds like I can safely up the dosage a little bit without hurting the plants... I'll probably start off at 10ml/gal and go from there. Thanks for the post.

-t4k
 
Also HempAlchemist, what kind of molasses do you use? Because if you're using regular and I'm using blackstrap, or even if we're using different brands of unsulphured blackstrap, we might have some variation. I'm using plantation unsulphured blackstrap molasses.
 
I used Miracle-Gro 15-30-15 "bloom booster." Also contains various micronutes including boron. Dosed 'em weekly for the last 2 months of flower but gave them two weeks off just before harvest.

The plants put most of their energy into bud growth during that time, showed no signs of deficiency, nor burn for that matter. I assume the fert helped, but nothing to compare to.

I've always heard bad experiences from people who used miracle gro on mj plants. With all the relatively affordable nutrients out there made for mj, I probably woulnd't try it myself but it sounds like it worked out alright for you. I am curious, how did the bud turn out?
 
Also HempAlchemist, what kind of molasses do you use? Because if you're using regular and I'm using blackstrap, or even if we're using different brands of unsulphured blackstrap, we might have some variation. I'm using plantation unsulphured blackstrap molasses.

good follow up question. i actually use grandma's brand regular unsulphured molasses. blackstrap is better but couldnt find it at the time and bought this instead. a lot of ppl use this exact brand so dont think the difference is that much.yea 10ml/gal should be fine, and like i said keep notes throughout your cycles. at best 3 cycles is like 6months and idk about you, but i cant remember much of what i smoke 6days out, let alone a 1/2 year lol. the key to using molasses is in keeping the micro life in check. if you see a bloom on the top soil or any bad smells, flush with a lil H2O2 and let dry out as long as you can.

side note on miracle grow:
i know there is a lot of misinformation and opinions on this subject, but from my own use of there products in the past, this is what i can say.
1. the salts are sourced from industrial byproducts which, to put a long story short, means the salts have a higher level of heavy metals.
2. these products are not complete nutrients. most are missing Mg, Ca, and/or a few trace elements. these products are designed for open garden beds where roots can just 'look' for more trace elements. container soil can work but you might have some deficiencies later on. hydro will fail if you dont supplement what your missing
3. a lot of the products have some time-release features that can cause complications for fast growing plants

all things aside, it will grow weed. you just need to supplement a lil here and there, it really depends on which product you use. boosters in general arent complete and are only meant to boost your base nutrient
 

nugghead

Member
I've always heard bad experiences from people who used miracle gro on mj plants. With all the relatively affordable nutrients out there made for mj, I probably woulnd't try it myself but it sounds like it worked out alright for you. I am curious, how did the bud turn out?

Too soon to tell! I'll get back to you in a couple weeks.

As far as HempAlchemist's comments: Miracle-Gro makes their heavy metals assay for each product available on their website. I calculate that I applied a few picograms of lead and arsenic to my garden. I like that better than an unknown quantity of lead and arsenic, which is what a lot of fert companies offer. I suspect a gallon of sulphured molasses, or for that matter my backyard soil, probably has a lot more of these contaminants, which are ubiquitous in industrialized nations.

The Bloom Booster has Mg, Ca, zinc and boron as well as NPK. It is not 100% complete but it has a lot of the main micronutrients. In my opinion there is a reason Miracle-Gro is the best selling consumer fertilizer, and it is not because they poison their customers nor produce an inferior product.
 
Top