Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey guys,
So I was recommended by someone to spray my plants down with a solution of MaxiCrop, Molasses, and Worm Tea every other day to keep my plants nice and healthy and keep some pesky bugs away. The guy who recommended it did not give measurement amounts, so I kind of just guessed. I really just poured and didn't use exact measurements, but if I were to guess I would say I added 3 tablespoons of molasses, 2 ounces of maxicrop, and filled the bottle (32oz bottle) up all the way with tank water. I sprayed my plants down and walked away.

The next day I come out and I see these nasty black dots all over my plants! The tomato plant has turned worse over hte past few days and looks pretty nasty. The culantro (Carribean cilantro, loves heat) is all speckled and nasty looking too, which sucks as you eat these leaves which are now tainted. I think/hope the culantro is just stained from the MaxiCrop, but is my tomato plant diseased or some type of burn? I only have this problem on two spots of my plant, both spots are where the tomato plant is touching a pepper plant. One is a Bell Pepper Plant and another a Banana Pepper plant. Should I cut these branches off?







Can anyone provide me a proper mixture amount for molasses and maxicrop? Or should I just not use this method at all?

I did a similar thing in my GB, I bought MaxiCrop with iron and put it directly beside the plants in the GB, two days later all the leaves on my pepper plants fell off and my tomatoes and cucumbers wilted. I don't think I'll be using this anymore!

The MaxiCrop when added to my FT to cycle through the system works great. I give it one good glug and everything seems to flourish. Haven't had any problems adding it to the water supply and I have used half of the container.

Never had any problems spraying maxicrop plus iron as a foliar feed but I don't add anything else and just follow the directions on the bottle for spraying on lawns (use two capfuls per gallon). I doubt using higher strength caused problems though. If you want to use Molasses for trace elements then About 1 ounce (2 T)per gallon of water looks like the normal rate for this but three would have been ok as well.

I'd remove the leaves on the tomatoes and dispose of them. I'm not sure what to tell you on the culantro.

Maybe the leaves didn't dry out fast enough so the mold had a chance to get going. Does it feel sticky like the mold grew on the molasses?

I wouldn't foliar feed this often. Maybe once every couple of weeks unless the plants look like they are showing signs of deficiency. Spray early enough so that the plants can dry out. Something to consider is that most fertilizers contain small amount of lead and other metals so it's best to use them when you see a problem and not use the more is better formula. What goes in the system, stays in the system, until it goes in your system

In comparison I was putting at least 4-5x more the recommended dosage. Obviously user error causing this. I diluted and poured the solution into some soil wicking beds.

Scotty - You mention fertilizers, lead, and chemicals. I am not using fertilizer just MaxiCrop w/ Chelated Iron and backstrap sugar cane molasses. Both are organic fertilizers. There are no chemicals and lead in these. I am not using any MiracleGrow type fertilizers.