Probably you’ve heard of carbo-loading and amino acid supplementation
for endurance athletes. Now, plant scientists studying marijuana have
discovered that your hydroponics plants have more energy, vigor and
yield when you feed them carbohydrates, vitamins and amino acids through
their roots.
In the good ol' days of Colombian Gold that sold in the USA for $20
an ounce, Colombian farmers poured sugar, vanilla, cinnamon or molasses
into their marijuana root zone, hoping to sweeten their crops.
Nowadays, your hydroponics store offers several formulas that contain
carbohdyrates in various forms. Some are said to boost plant energy.
Others are said to boost bud taste and aroma. Only one of those formulas
was designed for and tested on hydroponics marijuana.
One product that growers'll tell you to avoid is Brix Plus. Its maker
recommends spraying it on your crops a few days before harvest. Some
people use it after harvest. It's supposed to add weight and make crappy
weed taste better. What it really does is clog leaf openings (stomata)
that your marijuana plants breathe through. Dealers use it to pad their
weed weight.
Because marijuana growers are always looking for miracle methods that
increase bud size and potency, you see lots of information about
hydroponics carbohydrates. But how accurate is this information? Let's
look at an article about spraying carbohydrates on plants. The article
is in the
December, 2010 issue of Maximum Yield hydroponics magazine, and is authored by Craig Gribble.
Gribble's article, titled
Plant Potential: Maximum Growth Through Foliar Feeding, claims
that foliar feeding carbohydrates is far better than root feeding. But
we all know plants evolved to take water and nutrition in through their
roots, and that the only inputs our plants evolved to take in through
their leaves are light and C02. So why would Craig Gribble say
otherwise?
Perhaps Gribble believes what he is saying, but many suspect he has a self-serving agenda for his article. You see,
Maximum Yield lists
Craig Gribble as author of the article, but fails to identify him as a
leading official with Dutch Master, a hydroponics nutrients company.
Dutch Master makes foliar spray products.
Their product names are cool (Liquid Light, Saturator, etc.), but Dutch
Master provides only a few tidbits of information about their stuff,
with not enough detail to prove how or whether their foliar products
even work.
