Ask Erik

Honey contains glucose, fructose and sucrose. The chemical composition of these sugars contains carbon. There may also be other beneficial substances in honey, particularly if un-pasteurized. It would seem honey is a source of readily available bio-energy. The qualities of the honey will naturally vary from the sources of the pollen collected.

Triacontanol, a naturally occurring substance in beeswax and alfalfa extracts has some hormonal-like properties to plants. Some research demonstrates increased yields and essential oil production in crops that receive some levels of triacontanol during the growth of the crop.

The difference between attempting to supplement your crop with carbon and sugars from home sources versus manufactured products is often consistency. When you buy a manufactured supplement, it is typically the same from batch to batch. Also provided are specific instructions as to how and when to apply the product, and most importantly, at what dosage. This way you are using a product that is proven for your application, and can help to give you consistent results from application to application and from crop to crop.

You may have to do some experimentation as to how much to use, and when the best time to apply it is. Determining if it is suitable in hydroponics or soil only will also require some trial and error. If you go ahead with it, I would recommend giving a few different test plants different dosage rates, and perhaps replicate the dosage on another set of plants but vary the times that you added the honey.

Keep your eye out for any potential increased insect attraction to your honey-sweetened growing system and plants.

I have had organic soil growers report adding small amounts of honey to their waterings in the final phase of cropping, during the flush period. They felt that it helped improve the taste of the material harvested.

Well, that’s the buzz…

Cheers, Erik Biksa