Arthur Olson Jr
- Dec 5, 2021
- 2 min read

Molasses For Your Grasses

What is Molasses?

Molasses- The thick, dark brown syrup you might buy at the grocery store, is found naturally in sugar beet and sugar cane plants and is a co-product of sugar refining. During the refining process, it is separated from the sugar crystals by spinning the sugar in a centrifuge. The first spin produces light molasses, while later spins produce darker molasses

Now are you wondering why I would be talking about Molasses in Lawn Care?

Well if you didn't know, Plain ole Molasses is actually AMAZING for your Lawn!! Yes you heard that right, Let me explain...

If you know anything about Hippie Fertilizing then you might know I like to keep things SIMPLE & SAFE. Molasses does just that for feeding the lawn, your flowerbeds, your vegetable gardens, and basically your entire landscape.

How is something you can buy at Grocery Store good for your Lawn?

Crazy right?!

Molasses is a byproduct in the production of cane sugar. The funny part is, it’s the healthier part of it because it has iron, calcium potassium magnesium magnesium zinc and B vitamins.All while of course it having sugars! So what does all this do for you, your soil and your lawn?

Let me give you a quick rundown of why these things matter.

Let’s start with Calcium:

Calcium is an essential nutrient that helps with the uptake of nitrogen. It's also a key component in cell walls and plays a large part with enzymes as a signaling molecule and helps to transport nutrients across the cellular membrane.

Iron:

Not only does Iron help Green up grass, but it helps with respiration and oxidation reduction reactions. It serves as carriers of electrons and the electrons can easily be passed around between the iron atoms.

Zinc, Manganese and Magnesium

All play a vital role with enzymes chlorophyll and photosynthesis.

Potassium

Having Potassium in Lawns assist in better water and nutrient uptake while helping synthesize proteins and starches. It also helps the grass build thicker cell walls allowing it to stay healthy and strengthen the plant so It can withstand various stressors such as hot & cold weather.

B Vitamins

Although there really isn’t very much information on the vitamins for lawns specifically, what B Vitamins are used for in the body, is to help convert food into energy thus promoting a better metabolism. Thus being, I would make the same assumption that this information plays a very similar role in plants and turf.

Now for the SUGARS..

Sugars FEED bacteria! Now, I know that sounds gross... Bacteria is extremely important! Bacteria is also considered as Microbes in the soil. Microbes are responsible for allowing minerals, enzymes, and nutrients available to plants. They essentially eat them and solubilized them all while giving it a form that’s acceptable and more healthy to the plant so it can function properly.