I have been saying for years now that feeding carbs to your plant is kind of a waste of time, unless you want to feed the microbes in the soil/medium.
When I look at all the sugar/sweetener products on the market I can only ask why do folks still pay good money for sugar water?
What are your thoughts on this topic?
Do you use a sweetener for your plants?
What benefits do you see?
I use a little molasses in my feed water occasionally - some magnesium, sulphur, and other micros donât hurt and I do love my microbes 
as for benefits I see, I canât say for certain because Iâve added a lot to my grows these past few years but last year I used it for the first time and did have a wonderful, aromatic crop. Iâd love to try a side by side with clones
I use a little molasses starting about week 4-5. Seems like too much could sludge up the soil.
Not sure of any real value I can quantify. I use it brewing AACT mostly.
I donât use them anymore, but if you do, you can mix your own for pennies on the dollar 
It is good for that but you can use table sugar/sucrose or whatever you have on hand.
The more natural the better.
All you moonshiners out there know the score.
You donât need the fancy bottled stuff.
You only need something to feed the microbes.
Now I noticedâŚWas it @MoBilly that recommended something special when the microbes stall?
Maybe he knows the answer even if it was not him.
My point is a specialized sugar can be helpful in specialized situations.
But your plant is not going to uptake the sugar/carbohydrates directly.
Some may askâŚ
âShag why do you start so many new threads?â
Yea, I can hear yaâ'll rumbling there in the background. 
I have learned so much over the years, I kinda forget what I learned unless I go over it now and again.
So when I review my notes as I do from time to time, it brings up some important points/facts most folks donât know as of yet.
I also like to bounce my thoughts off the world, very unexpected replies are usually given and you can really get a feel for how the world is thinking at any given moment.
I just hope it helps someone somewhere learn something.
There is a great quoteâŚI forget nowâŚ
The wealth of knowledge that is not shared is a huge waste of wealth.
Something like that anyhowâŚLOL
Hope you all are havinâ a great day! 
Shag
In a different life, I used to get annoyed when my knowledge was questioned. Then I found it necessary to explain why. âBecause it works, or itâs how I learnedâ is bullshit. If I canât explain it where the new guy understands too, I need to put my student hat back on, take my professor hat off.
Sharing knowledge keeps it fresh in my mind, while keeping me close to new ideas. I have much to learn.
@shag
The human beings biggest wealth is knowledge.
because it cannot be robbed and always increases by sharing"
-Sachin Ramdas Bharatiya-
I use Grandmaâs unsulphured original molasses at one tsp/gal every feeding. I have not run into any problem with âsludgeâ soil. I think a little goes a long way.
I have also used some compost/goat poop tea at around a week before flipping. It was a suggestion that I tried and saw no problems doing so. I actually think the plants went into flip stronger and raring to go by doing that but I canât say for sure. I had never grown Gelato before. I know they did gangbusters afterwards though.
How it all started for me wasâŚ
Every time I asked a fellow grower âWHYâ they would say "cause Jimmy says so and he grows good weed"
I wanted to know why I am doing something, I need to understand the why to think on my feet.
There is soo much new knowlege out there now with plant steering and such.
The new monitoring devices available to those with big cash is mind blowing. 
I am always learning new things, I enjoy helping folks like you @crownpoodle
To see you progress like you have and are now able to provide yourself with really good weed.
Thanks to all of the good friends you have made, nice work there! 
And to see you thinking on your feet, trying to read your plants and now helping others is such a pleasure to me it is hard to describe.
I feel the same as you!
Nice work @crownpoodle and keep on truckinâ brother.
That was not the one I was thinking ofâŚbut very close and a Dam fine quote none the less.
Feeding the micobes is a good idea, but if you have no microbes for whatever reason, the sugar is wasted, the plants themselves do not uptake the carbs.
Makes sense, poop is usually high in âPâ a boost of P at the onset of flower can be real helpful!
Good observation!
@MoBilly was it you that recommended the sugar boost for the stalled yeast over in the still thread, I may have to look?..LOL
Wasnât going to mention crop steering when flush chat went to gypsum.
Is that crop steering a new thread? Interesting stuff.
No, I donât think so, but we have done that several times with wine and mash as well. My brother will work his mash till itâs done and done, then add some more water and sugars to kick it in again. He says it brings more flavor in and smooths the edges. Then a very slow run when the second working is over. The alcohol kills off the yeast pretty quickly during that second working so itâs just a little sugar, honey, molasses⌠to get it working for another few days.
I use molasses throughout and megacrops sweet candy 0-27-27
Thanks for the reply @MoBilly
I can see now it was @Gpaw that saidâŚ
@Gpaw
Is there anything you can tell us about this product?
I wonder if it is a similar formula as these sugar products for cannabis?
Thanks
Shag
This video may help explain things betterâŚ
Molasses doesnât fit in with what I think are some main objectives of living soil growing: forcing microbes to rely on plants for carbon and forcing microbes to catabolize complex carbon sources for energy. If all the sugar they need is in the soil solution, what impetus do microbes have to do either of those things?
If you want to add âgoodâ sugars into the soil i would suggest a mix of fermented and rotten fruits. Mix it in the blender and use it as top dress. This will boost your microbal production in the soil and add healthy microbals to the soil. In my organic grows i did a top dress with this at the same time i flipped. It gave the soil a good boost until around week 7-8. This is one of the tricks i learned at university and it mimics what happends in nature when fruits and berries hit the ground in fall and are fermenting and rotting under winter to bring a top dress of sugars and other stuff that microbes love in the spring.
You dont need that much and its way better then feeling glucose to the microbes, since best microbes like fructose.
Pz 
I have a large muscadine vine Im gonna look into doing this. Makes alot of sense. Right now Im using Unsulphered Molasses and some Mycos WP to feed my micobes
Iâm curious what study he cited that you disagree with and why. Actually better yet show me a study where carbon is significantly taken up and used by the plant. Because everything that guy said makes sense and is supported. It jibes with everything I have learned in (my limited) education in plant biology. You canât just say âI donât believe itâ and that makes it true but I am more than willing to look at solid evidence
I donât think anyone will disagree that sugars are moved around a plant. Itâs how they got there. (Xylem comments)
I donât think overdosing something and killing a plant necessarily means that a plant is taking it up. Chemicals can antagonize others and/or create situations that will poison a plant. (PH, high salinity) Also LAB is a bacteria. Are you saying the bacteria are being uptaken by the plant?
Actually Iâm thinking this is just a massive troll after I wrote all this ÂŻ_(ă)_/ÂŻ ohh well.
Questioning is good, but the Internet is full of haters. Sometimes itâs hard to tell the difference until itâs too late. And even OG a great website has the odd hater whose only motive is to bash someone. Weed is a better topic than politics and social justice I guess.