Best Bud Sweetener: Bud Candy vs Molasses

Bud Candy Vs Molasses-Is Expensive Bud Candy Necessary?

Bud Candy (manufactured by Advanced Nutrient), and molasses have all been successfully used for cannabis bud sweeteners. Bud Candy, though as you can imagine, costs tons more than sulfured molasses. So, is Bud Candy worth the extra money, or would you do just as well with liquid molasses? To find out more, keep on reading.

What Are Bud Sweeteners? Carbohydrates, Flowering, And Carboload

Bud sweeteners are carbohydrates and sugars that are added to a cannabis plant in the later stages of flowering. These adding carbs and sugars help plants get the energy necessary to grow bigger, better, and tastier buds.

Sugar Quality Matters-Natural Vs. Artificial Sweetener

All types of sugar, even artificial and fortified sugar (sweeteners containing non-natural additives) types can make your weed taste better. However, depending upon the sources and quality of sugars and carbohydrates, they can also help with the following:

• Feed beneficial microbes
• Promotes Plant Growth
• Quickens Trichome Growth
• Develop an Overall Better Product

Store-Bought and Natural Sweeteners

Unsulphured molasses is the most common DIY natural sweetener that is used for a bud sweetener. Molasses’ sugar source is primarily cane or beets. Also, there are several market flower sweeteners. I.E. Bud Candy. These market sweeteners offer various different natural carb and sugar sources. For example, some sweeteners offer natural fruit sweeteners like this natural grape extract.

Manufactured Bud Sweetener

Intro to Advanced Nutrients-Bud Candy

Advanced Nutrients makes Bud Candy, and they are a veteran in the agricultural industry as they have been in business, in some form, since 1996. According to their website, their products are formulated by Ph.D. scientists that initially focused on hydroponic plant nutrients.

Advanced Nutrients also is award-winning. Their last company award was in 2013 at GrowMED. Additionally, on their front page, they brag that a cannabis grower, who used their product, won nine awards.

I can’t find anything about GrowMed on the internet. However, due to how young the MMJ and cannabis industry is; this may not necessarily mean anything.

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Hydroponic Only?-Advanced Nutrients only mentions hydroponic growing on their website. However, reviewers stated that it could be used for other growing mediums like soil, and coco coir. Also, other reviews never mention that you should only use it for hydroponic gardening. So, I feel you should be confident using it for growing marijuana in soil or coco coir.

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Bud Candy is a specialized, and expensive nutrient that contains multiple natural sugar and carbohydrate sources. For example, Bud Candy contains fruit extracts like cranberry and grape. Additionally, unlike molasses, it also contains multiple added amino acids and vitamin

In summary, based on its glowing reviews on Amazon and its popularity, Bud Candy is an excellent product. However, you can get similar results, with DIY organic products. So, the question is whether or not it is worth it or not?

Molasses and Other DIY Bud Sweeteners

Molasses is a very thick dark liquid made by boiling down sugar cane (or beet sugar) that turns it into a thick, sugary, and syrup-like substance. It is the primary, DIY flower sweetener, that is used for growing cannabis and other plants.

All Molasses Isn’t Equal

You can’t go to your local grocery stores and buy the first jug of molasses that you see on the shelf. The reason is that there are different types, and certain forms can even hurt your plants. So, you must make sure that you purchase the correct type. Above all, do not buy any with the preservative sulfur dioxide.

Sulfured molasses is fine for baking or other recipes. However, Sulfur dioxide also kills beneficial bacterium and microbes in the soil. So, adding sulphured molasses will might your plants instead of helping.

What Type of Molasses Should I Choose?

Unsulphured blackstrap molasses is a type of organic molasses that you should use. As the name implies, it does not contain any sulphur dioxide. Additionally, it is full of calcium, magnesium, iron, and potassium, and other micro-nutrients.

It provides the following benefits for soil, which in turn makes it an excellent bloom booster.

● Helps with soil structure

● Enables soil to retain water better

● Adds essential vitamins and minerals

● Reduces the chance of too much salt in the sand

● NOT PROVEN- Some say that it is even a natural insecticide

Other Benefits

● Less chance of overfeeding your plants than if you were to use other types of plant nutrients

● Tons cheaper than Bud Candy or other flowering stimulators.

● Said to increase the size of buds from 10 to 20%.

● Can use it during the vegetative growth stage

Where Can I Get It?

Unsulphured molasses is not edible. Therefore, you will not likely be able to get it at grocery stores. As a result, you can either buy it at your local gardening store or online. One popular choice is the pure raw cane molasses, Grandma’s Molasses. Click the picture below if you are interested in buying it on Amazon.

How Do You Apply Molasses To Your Garden?

Molasses is applied by way of a compost tea. One popular and simple recipe is to mix two tablespoons of liquid molasses per gallon of water per marijuana plant.

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Advanced Nutrients

Bud Candy Review

Bud Candy is an organic “flower booster” made by Advanced Nutrient and is designed to produce bigger buds. It can be used for both hydroponics and soil and it contains multiple types of simple and complex carbs. (Cranberry Extract, Maltose, Xylose, Raw Can Extract (AKA “Raw Cane Juice”), and Malt Extract, and More)

Carbs and sugars are especially needed and tend to be lacking in the flowering growth stage. This is the reason why they help increase your bud yield. Additionally, organic L-type amino acids are added. Advanced Nutrients claims that the additional amino acids are useful for maximizing the formation of proteins that will help your plants yield and health.

One limitation for Bud Candy is that it contains zero to minimal, trace elements of potassium, and phosphorus and it is only designed to be used in the flowering growth stage. To get added potassium and phosphorus you can purchase a PK Booster, like Big Bud.

Below is a link where you are able to buy a combo of Big Bud and Bud Candy.

Advance Nutrients claims that it does the following for flowering plants:

• Bigger flowers/Buds
• More Robust Roots
• Builds Plant immunity
• Helps Produce Essential Oils

Based upon its popularity, its use in the industry, and the reputable nature of Advanced Nutrients, I feel that Advanced Nutrients are among the best flowering booster additives available.

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Bud Candy V. Molasses

Bud Candy is an excellent product, as it is highly rated with over 1,000 reviews. However, many of its benefits are also done by the far cheaper unsulphured blackstrap molasses. Is it worth the extra price, or should you use molasses for boosting the buds/flowers of your cannabis plants? I will now go over the differences between Bud candy and then give you a final recommendation.

Bud Candy Ingredients

Bud Candy is man-made. Therefore, it can contain various ingredients that are not found in blackstrap molasses. For example, it has added L-form amino acids that help with plant health and increase crop yield rapidly. Molasses does not contain added L-form amino acids. However, though, unlike Bud Candy, it does contain potassium.

Bud Candy also has a variety of simple and complex carbohydrates. Some of the carbohydrates sources for Bud Candy are the following:

• Glucose
• Maltose
• Malt Extract
• Cranberry Extract
• Grape Extract

On the other hand, the carbohydrate source for unsulphured molasses is either beet sugar or raw cane sugar.

Miscellaneous

• Versatile -Molasses is more versatile as it can be used during all plant growth stages. Bud Candy, though, is only supposed to be used during the flowering stage. Additionally, though it has not been proven, many growers swear that it can serve as a type of organic pesticide, and does not claim that it repels pests.
• Worth The Money -Bud Candy is highly rated and has over 1,000 reviews. So, it is an excellent product. However, especially compared to the alternative, it is expensive. The main source of poor reviews on Amazon was that it is too expensive and can receive the same results with either plain molasses or cheaper nutrients similar to Bud Candy. I.E. One reviewer stated that Super Soil was superior.
• Attracts Bugs-If not properly managed or applied molasses can attract insects.

Final Thoughts and Recommendations

You cannot go wrong with either Bud Candy or Backstrap Molasses, which are both excellent plant nutrients. Bud Candy is more advanced, as it has amino acids and multiple types of simple and complex carbohydrates, and other beneficial additives. (Molasses is limited to either pure can sugar or sugar beets) As a result, you will likely get better results with Bud Candy than its natural alternative. Additionally, assuming you can follow simple instructions, Bud Candy is easier to use for newbie gardeners, and when you are a newbie gardener, you will want to keep it as simple as possible. Bud Candy will allow you to do just that.

In conclusion, if you can afford the premium price for Bud Candy without scrimping on essential grow gear and nutrients, I would recommend choosing Bud Candy over Molasses.