Am I crazy? Nope…. molasses is a great way to help out your plants. Remember, I’m a proponent of feeding your soil, not necessarily your plants and molasses provide a good deal of benefit for the microorganisms which live in your soil.

The type of molasses you use is also important. Be sure to get an unsulfurred molasses as the particular type of sulphur used in sulphurred molasses is meant to kill microbes. Of course, we’re wanting to feed microbes and help them to thrive. I prefer horticultural molasses, as it is less refined, but any type of unsulfured molasses will work.

As far as the ratio of molasses to water, I generally use one tablespoon per gallon of water. Additionally, I pour this mixture lightly all over my plants, not just at the root base. The sugars in molasses will also speed up the metabolism of your plants a bit, helping them grow faster and have more vigor.

Once per week is the timing of my watering with this mixture as a supplemental watering period, specifically for feeding the soil. Generally, I will use a combination of a good organic compost and water the plant with my molasses mixture. This puts the right combination of sugars from the molasses and nutrients from the compost into the soil and helps the plant directly as well.

Give it a shot! Feed part of your garden with molasses and part without. See the results for yourself!