In a blow against fertilizer empire giants hell bent on world domination that might have been better titled, Sweet Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope, the 3LB??s first posted our Molasses Manual at Overgrow and Cannabis World close to five years ago. Since then it??s been reposted and regurgitated at dozens of websites across the world wide web. In our eyes, this was a significant victory for our small rebel alliance of educated organic growers in the battle against corporate domination in the world of Horticulture.

We??ve all known the ag giant empire would attempt to discredit our efforts to teach growers. Just because a fertilizer or additive is advertised as some kind of special ??magic bullet? for growers, it doesn??t mean there aren??t effective alternatives available at the supermarket or feed store, but please don??t remind the executives at Advanced Nutrients we are teaching that as gospel, it upsets two things. Their ulcers and their bottom line.

The have let the 3lb??s know in no uncertain terms that they don??t like us telling growers that most, if not all, ??carboload? products marketed to growers are really just an overpriced and overhyped repackaging of molasses. And now, in the AN forum at PlanetGanja, they??ve resorted to obvious attempts to mislead growers as a part of their effort to reap ever greater profits and market share for their ??magic bullet? carboload product.

Here??s the question that was asked of ??Advanced? - the European distributor of AN??s product line:

is carboload black trap molases? whats it consist of? i had a bottle way back and found it very sugar beet like. great stuff,but i found regular molasses to work similar.

thanx in advanced.

Despite the spelling and grammar errors, it would seem to be a legitimate question.

Here??s the reply from ??Advanced?:

Carboload contains 5 simple and complex carbohydrates in the ratios that our favourite plants utilize. The ingredients are:

Arabinose
Dextrose
Glucose
Maltose
Xylose

Black strap molasses or black treacle is made from a blend of cane sugars.

Almost any form of sugar would be a good additive but according to the R&D scientists at Advanced, the Carboload ingredients and ratios worked better.


At the time ??Advanced? originally posted that denial, we honestly didn??t notice. That post was made at PlanetGanja in Feburary, 2007, more than a year ago without much of anyone noticing. Then, last week, a friend of the flock brought it to the 3LB??s attention, and our rooster and hen research team of Foggy and Tweedy began to take a critical look at the purported ingredients of AN??s Carboload.

At first glance we noticed one glaring problem, the listing of the ingredients Glucose and Dextrose. The R&D scientists from AN must be trying to pull the wool over somebody??s eyes, listing those as two separate ingredients in order like that, because glucose and dextrose are two different names for the same thing! At least they were smart enough to avoid wording it that way on their current product label, but they certainly aren??t above using synonyms in their ingredient list on marijuana message boards.

Here??s a little blurb documenting glucose and dextrose as synonyms, just so you don??t have to take the 3LB??s word for any of the facts presented here:

Definition of Dextrose
Dextrose: Better known today as glucose, this sugar is the chief source of energy in the body. Glucose is chemically considered a simple sugar. It is the main sugar that the body manufactures. The body makes glucose from all three elements of food, protein, fat and carbohydrates, but in largest part from carbohydrates. Glucose serves as the major source of energy for living cells.


It??s hard to believe that anybody worth their salt who has earned the title ??scientist?, wouldn??t actually know that dextrose and glucose are synonymous. To confirm our suspicion, it took us a grand total of a minute and a single google search to find dozens of sources that document this simple truth about dextrose/glucose. With that in mind, we had no other real option than to conclude that this was an deliberate attempt to make AN??s Carboload ingredient list look longer and more impressive to the uninformed.

It really doesn??t get any better the further we move down the list either. Every sugar on the list provided by ??Advanced? is a plant derived sugar, all but Maltose are simple sugars, and there??s no reason they needed to try and hide that other than to try and mislead the public about the cost and effort that goes into manufacturing this product.

Again, for the record, we??ll document those facts for our Cannabis Chronicles readers:

Definition of Arabinose
Arabinose: (Science: biochemistry, chemical) a pentose monosaccharide that occurs in both D and L configurations.

D arabinose is the 2 epimer of D ribose, i.e. Differs from D ribose by having the opposite configuration at carbon 2. D arabinose occurs inter alia in the polysaccharide arabinogalactan, a neutral pectin of the cell wall of plants and in the metabolites cytosine arabinoside and adenine arabinoside.

That??s the most ??obscure? sugar on the ??Advanced? list, and all that scientific speak might not be easy to decipher, so we??ll try to hit the high points here quickly. Arabinose is sugar that??s present in the cell walls of all plants. Arabinose is a pectin.

That name might ring a bell, rather than being something exotic or uncommon, pectin is what grandma (and Welch??s) uses to thicken jams and preserves. Since pectins are something all plants seem to manufacture quite well on their own, we began to wonder if it??s use in Carboload might be to thicken a watered down product to seem to give it more substance?

Definition of Maltose

Maltose is made from two glucose units: Maltose or malt sugar is the least common disaccharide in nature. It is present in germinating grain, in a small proportion in corn syrup, and forms on the partial hydrolysis of starch. It is a reducing sugar. The two glucose units are joined by an acetal oxygen bridge in the alpha orientation. To recognize glucose look for the down or horizontal projection of the -OH on carbon # 4. See details on the galactose page towards the bottom.


Maltose is the only sugar on the ??Advanced? list that??s not a simple sugar, however it??s not anything terribly exotic, or even unique to AN??s Carboload product. Malted barley is one of the primary ingredients in the beer brewing process, and Earth Juice uses wheat malt as one of the ingredients in their ??Catalyst? product.

As was pointed out in the definition, it??s even present in Corn Syrup, which might very well explain it showing up in a plant Carboload product. Corn Syrups are often less expensive to procure than Molasses, adding one important ingredient for fertilizer manufacturers, an increase in their bottom line.

Definition of Xylose

xylose Pentose (five-carbon) sugar found in plant tissues as complex polysaccharide; 40% as sweet as sucrose. Also known as wood sugar.

and/or

Definition of D-Xylose

D-xylose, commonly called wood sugar, is a natural 5-carbon sugar (pentose) obtained from the xylan rich portion of hemicellulose from plants cell walls and fibre.

In some circles, xylose is being touted as a ??healthier? sugar than sucrose (common table sugar) and it is true that humans absorb xylose through a different mechanism than we do glucose or fructose (the two simple sugars that make up sucrose). However, that doesn??t mean it??s an exotic or costly ingredient in a carboload product, as one of the common dietary sources for xylose includes corn.

That??s a little more of the story behind the attempts by the Ag empire to strike back at the growing number of individuals who prefer molasses as a sugar source for use as a plant fertilizer. When it??s all said and done, it would appear that the claims by Advanced Nutrients for their carboload product, that it isn??t solely molasses based, is likely true. By all accounts, including their own labeling, the majority of the sugars involved appear to be potentially directly related to, or derived from, corn syrup.

A little common sense detective work by our rooster and hen research team leads us to believe that AN is very likely using some sort of corn syrup as a base for their carboload product, since the sugars present in carboload also are inherent in corn. We don??t believe that corn syrup derived sources of carbohydrates have any advantages over molasses based sweeteners, in fact quite the opposite.

Corn sweeteners do not offer the rich mix of trace minerals offered by molasses. We can??t find any documented evidence that corn syrup will serve as a chelating agent like molasses. And, we??ve never heard about corn syrup deterring fire ants either. For more details about all those benefits of molasses, please read the other articles in the 3LB Molasses Manual.

Farm smart everybody, live and love well, and remember, if you are learning as you grow, then you are growing too!
texas grass Reviewed by texas grass on . 3lb article: sweet wars episode v-the empire strikes back In a blow against fertilizer empire giants hell bent on world domination that might have been better titled, Sweet Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope, the 3LB??s first posted our Molasses Manual at Overgrow and Cannabis World close to five years ago. Since then it??s been reposted and regurgitated at dozens of websites across the world wide web. In our eyes, this was a significant victory for our small rebel alliance of educated organic growers in the battle against corporate domination in the Rating: 5