Below are the two processes in which plant roots select and deliver only minerals.
cell membrane of endodermis provides for selective absorption:
active transport proteins move minerals against concentration gradient
from water into cytoplasm
There are many people who strongly believe that they can change the flavour of their buds and there are also companies who sell so called products, but every Department of Biological Sciences, are satisfied that wanted flavourings are not absorbed through roots.
No one has added a flavoring profile to Cannabis through the roots, fertilizers will harsh it, I would love to add chocolate or rum flavor to my crop but it is just not possible through the roots. Orange or lemon oils will make a nasty flavor when it burns. Better to work with the best tasting profile nature provides
some companys use esters. esters are takin up into the plant but cannot be processed and they remain inside the plant, thus giving it the flavor of the ester. that is how some companys achive flavoring from there products.
Once i wanted to try sticking a hypodermic syringe with like apple or peach juice in the main stem of the plant, and hope some flavor comes out, but i dunno, never did it!
I have seen " guy" perfume his buds with fruit fragrances but that tasted like shit when the fire hit it, just grow it out as it is. Weed may be the only honest product out there. Unadulterated Mexican brickweed tastes better than anything fucked with. Imho.
Most of those “sweeteners” they sell at the hydro store are nothing more than carbohydrates for your beneficial bacteria and fungi to eat. That being said, I feel like if I use blackstrap molasses too late in flower that all my buds have this very generic sweet taste that I don’t like, no matter what strain it is.
You said it, and it is true. Plants can only absorb very simple nutrients, and not complex ones. You cannot just dump on complex terpenes, flavinoids and essential oil products and expect the plants to absorb them through the root system. Plants have chemical and physical barriers for keeping that from happening. Cannabis plants make their own terpenes and cannabinoids, and do not absorb them, as many seem to think. Molasses and sugar in the water will feed the fungi in the soil. Some people overdo that though, and get a huge fungal mass. You want to grow cannabis, or grow fungi? Fungi will grow without any added sugars though, and the plant root will feed the fungi sugars through the roots and the fungi will release micro nutrients in return that are taken up by the roots in a symbiotic relationship.