Honey, the sweet gift from honeybees, is a versatile substance. It can be used in food, for medicinal purposes, or simply as a sweet treat for your sweet tooth. But did you know that this golden liquid complements cannabis in a great way?
No, we aren't talking about using honey after smoking up a joint, although that sounds heavenly. Instead, it's about using honey to grow amazing plants.
Many people assume that using honey enhances the taste of their cannabis buds. While that's true to a certain extent, honey can be used in many other ways to grow beautiful cannabis plants oozing with resin.
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Does Honey Really Help in Growing Cannabis?
Your cannabis plant needs many nutrients, including macronutrients and sugars, to grow healthy, and you'd be happy to know that honey can be a terrific source of the same for your cannabis plant. It acts as a sweet fertilizer that can have several benefits for your cannabis plant. It is rich in macronutrients, stimulates the development of roots, and regulates microorganisms within the soil.
Honey is a terrific natural fertilizer that is readily available and it contains many nutrients and bioactive compounds that your cannabis plant will thank you for. So, yes, honey does help in growing cannabis. But if you want to know the specifics, read on to know the benefits of honey in growing cannabis.
Benefits of Using Honey in Cannabis Cultivation
For most growers, honey is usually not the first thing that comes to mind as a viable supplement, but you'd be surprised to know how good it can be for your cannabis plants. Here are the top benefits of using honey for growing cannabis.
Source of Sugars
The most obvious benefit of using honey while growing cannabis is that it is a terrific source of sugar for your cannabis plant. While your cannabis plant can create its own sugars, adding more sugar through the roots gives it a healthy boost that will help it develop faster and grow better.
Source of Macronutrients
Apart from sugars, honey is rich in nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, which are the essential macronutrients that cannabis plants require for healthy growth. These macronutrients are required by your plant in the largest quantities for protein synthesis, enzyme activation, and various other processes.
Feeds Microorganisms in the Soil
Another benefit of using honey to grow cannabis is that it helps maintain a rich soil food web by nourishing various microorganisms like bacteria, nematodes, and protozoa in the soil. If the soil is rich and lively, it ends up benefitting the cannabis plant, so it's a win-win situation.
Deters Pathogens
Apart from feeding beneficial microbes within the substrate, honey also acts as a line of defense against harmful pathogens and microbes. This is because honey has various antimicrobial benefits that make the soil healthier and safer for your cannabis plants.
How to Use Honey to Grow Cannabis?
Honey has many benefits for growing cannabis, so why shouldn't you use it? And if you've decided to finally give it a try, you're probably wondering how to use it. Here's another benefit of honey — it can be used in various ways to grow cannabis plants. Let's take a look at some of the best uses of honey for growing cannabis.
Using Honey as a Rooting Hormone
If you clone cannabis plants, you need a healthy rooting hormone to dip your fresh clone cuttings into before they are transplanted into a container. This rooting hormone not only protects the cutting wound but also encourages better root development, so the clones can grow into healthy plants quicker and better.
Here, you can use honey as a rooting hormone. It is efficient, sustainable, and natural, compared to many other conventional rooting hormones that may be synthetic in nature. At the same time, honey offers various other benefits as a rooting hormone.
Honey's antimicrobial properties come into play here as it can help prevent pathogens and diseases from attacking the young clones, so your fresh clone cuttings will be less prone to diseases and fungal infections. Additionally, honey is rich in amino acids and enzymes that encourage better root growth. Lastly, honey is cheap — it is one of the cheapest rooting hormones you can use to clone cannabis.
Follow these steps to use honey as a rooting hormone while cloning cannabis:
- Take a fresh cutting from the mother plant with the help of sterilized pruning scissors
- Prune the lower leaves on the cutting
- Dip the cutting's end into organic honey for a minute or two
- Then, place the cutting into a growing medium of your choice, like vermiculite or rockwool
- Place the cutting in a warm and well-lit location and it will grow into a plant soon
Using Honey as a Fertilizer
As mentioned above, honey is rich in nutrients, including the three NPK macronutrients. Apart from the macronutrients, honey also contains calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc. So, you can also use honey as a natural fertilizer for your cannabis plants.
Here's how you can use honey as a natural fertilizer for your cannabis plant:
- Mix one tablespoon of honey into one and a half liters of water (protip: boil the water before use)
- Shake the mixture well until the honey is completely dissolved in the water
- Let the water cool down if you had boiled it
- Apply the solution as a soil drench as per your plant's irrigation cycle
Using Honey as a Foliar Spray
The third way you can use honey while growing cannabis is as a foliar spray. As a foliar spray, you can deliver the rich nutrients present in honey directly to the leaves, bypassing the root system entirely. When you spray it on the leaves, honey acts as a healthy fertilizer, especially if you want to give your cannabis plant a nutrient boost.
The foliar spray also has another benefit; honey as foliar spray aids the phyllosphere, which is the microbial community living on the plant's leaves.
If you want to use honey as a foliar spray, follow these steps:
- Mix two teaspoons of honey with five liters of water (preferably warm)
- Shake the solution vigorously until all the honey is dissolved
- Spray the mixture using a fine mister over the fan leaves, especially those that show signs of nutrient deficiency
For best results, it is recommended that you use honey as a foliar spray on cannabis at least once every two weeks.
Using Honey as Pest Control
You might already know the nuisance that pests can be while growing cannabis and one of the most recommended deterrents for pests is sticky traps. Well, honey is also a sticky trap against pests, and it's an effective yet cheap one.
Just leave a jar of honey close to your plant and watch it trap various pests like fungus gnats and slugs. Once the honey has collected many guests, you can discard it and replace it with a fresh jar of honey. You don't even need a lot of honey for this, just enough to last for a few days.
When Should You Use Honey on Cannabis Plants?
Ideally, you should use honey regularly, especially if you are foliar feeding or using honey as a supplement. However, if your cannabis plant is experiencing low sugar, you should use honey as a sugar or nutrient boost for your plant.
Sugar is crucial for your plant's cells, and if your plant fails to produce enough sugar, it can lead to various problems. Generally, low sugar content is a sign of poor photosynthesis or other underlying issues.
Here, you can measure the Brix to know if your plant is low on sugar. Brix is a scale of measurement of dissolved solids in a sample. It's a fairly reliable measurement of sugar levels in cannabis plants. You can measure brix throughout your plant's growth cycle and supplement it with honey whenever it is low.
To measure Brix, you'll need a Brix measuring device. Then, harvest some cannabis leaves, grind them in a mortar to extract the juice, and apply the juice to the screen. Ideally, your cannabis plant should have a Brix reading of 12 to 20. If it's lower, give your plant a sugar boost with honey.
How is Honey Different from Molasses?
When growing cannabis, many growers use molasses, but how is honey different from molasses and which one should you use?
Molasses, which is another type of sugar, is very popular in the cannabis community. Although it's not natural like honey produced by bees, using molasses can have a lot of benefits. Molasses is man-made. It's created as a byproduct of manufacturing sugar from sugar cane. It can also be made using other stuff like grapes, mulberries, etc. It has been used to grow plants for a long, long time.
Typically, molasses is used in the production of rum and to remove rust as well. Many people even add it to livestock feed to provide nutrition to their animals.
Yes, both honey and molasses are natural sweeteners, but they are quite different from one another in such ways:
- Molasses is a byproduct of boiling cane juice, which is why it is thick and dark, and honey is produced by bees naturally
- Honey has a sweet, floral taste, whereas molasses is sweet with a bitter aftertaste
- Molasses is thicker than honey, which comes in various consistencies but is usually runny
That's about it when it comes to differentiating honey and molasses. Ultimately, they are both excellent sources of sugar and nutrients for cannabis plants, so you can use either one of them, depending on your preferences and availability.
Can You Use Other Sugars Like Molasses to Grow Cannabis?
So, why should you use molasses to grow cannabis, anyway?
Well, not only does it encourage the beneficial microbes in the soil, but it also makes your cannabis plants strong. Growers specifically love using blackstrap molasses as it's an excellent source of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and many other nutrients your plants need. It also contains high amounts of sulfur, so your cannabis plants will get a serious makeover if you ever plan to use it.
In short, molasses acts as a quick source of energy for your plants when they are running low on fuel. Just like how we feel energized when we eat a sugary snack, molasses provides the same energy to your plants.
What Type of Honey Can Be Used To Grow Cannabis?
Technically, you can use any type of honey to grow cannabis, but be aware that there are numerous fake products on the market nowadays. As the population of bees declines, many companies resort to extracting the beneficial pollen and replacing it with fructose.
While this won't be detrimental to your plants, be careful if you're using it for other purposes. Try your best to source raw honey, but you may be put off by the prices since it's expensive. Nevertheless, inspect the labels thoroughly and purchase honey only from reputed manufacturers that give you a bang for your buck.
Summary: Can You Use Honey to Grow Cannabis?
Honey is rich in sugars and nutrients, especially macronutrients. So, it can work as a terrific fertilizer for your cannabis plants. You can either add it to the watering regimen or use it as a foliar spray, it will give your plant a nutrient boost and improve its growth. Additionally, honey can also act as a terrific rooting hormone and a pest deterrent.
So, what are you waiting for? Grab a jar of honey next time you visit the supermarket and start using it in your cannabis operation. The results will surprise you.
