Keeping in mind that molasses has been suggested as a cure for about everything from gout to grey hair, it probably makes little to no difference which you spray on your lawn. Molasses is a sugar, maybe with some small nutritional value that diluted does about as much good as rain. Compost and organic matter would be much better for your lawn.

kim is clueless as usual. Ignore her/him.

I'd go with blackstrap unsulfured type. Compost is too expensive. It's better to go with molasses to help soil microbes multiply many times which will in turn improve the soil for you. Works the same as compost but a lot cheaper.

Again ignore Kim. I've never found her/his posts any useful. Nothing but compost. The reality is that most of us can't even afford it nor have the space to make enough compost to make it worthwhile. Fertilizing every few month with organic fertilizer will have the same effect but better. If you had already applied compost in the past, there's no need to do it ever again unless you got flooded for a week or use anything that ends with -icide.

Compost is expensive only if you buy it. If you use the waste vegetative material generated on your premises it is not only cheap but actually saves you money because you need not pay to have it removed. You do, unless you own a sugar mill, have to buy molasses. Some people think you need to put compost on your soil 3 or 4 times a year, just as the commercial fertilizer people tell you their products need to, but I find, as do many others that garden organically, once a year or three is sufficient.

I'm with kimmsr on this one Lou. I have questioned HIM several times on HIS use of compost and HE always had the same answer - one that I sort of poo-poohed. I've done a little more reading since then and...it turns out, he was a lot more right than I was.

And on molasses, the OP is asking about the molasses I use. I got mine for $0.10 per pound which brought the price to $1.10 per gallon if I brought my own jug. I guess the price has gone up. Now having said that, my results with molasses are identical to my results using water. If I used enough water with the molasses I got a watering effect, but no apparent microbial population spurt. I don't know if that has anything to do with the sulfur in it or not, but no concentration of molasses has had any effect that I can see. My rationale is that I already have a large population of microbes after years of organic fertilizers and no use of chemical anything. Still I have friends I trust around the country that swear to the beneficial effects of using molasses - sort of the way kimmsr swears to the use of compost.

The best, and most inexpensive way to get the benefits of biological activity in your soil is to spray compost tea on the lawn. I would avoid spraying concoctions of livestock molasses on your lawn....wouldn't be really messy and sticky?

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Lawns for America

There is a certain ick factor in using molasses. For spraying individual plants I usually mix it first (2-3 ounces per gallon) and spray the mix. For the lawn you'll want to use an Ortho adjustable hose end sprayer. I did not dilute the molasses first but set the dial for 3 ounces per gallon and sprayed. It seemed to flow fine. Oh I did take the filter screen off the down tube inside the sprayer. When you are finished spraying you can pour any leftover molasses back into the bottle. If you sprayed it all out, and you may as well, you can just unscrew the bottle and spray the inside until it is clean.

With compost tea you need a brewer...which I just happen to have a link to if anyone is interested. The full design is in a PDF file. Parts used to cost about $25 back in 2005 when I posted that website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Deuley's Little Texas Tea Maker

dchall_san_antonio, I just read that PDF. Very interesting. What would you suggest using if pond water is not available?

Bird bath water. Small fountain water (large commercial fountains are usually chlorinated). Dog water - we leave about a 2-gallon Tupperware piece out in the garden that our dog drinks out of. We watch it for mosquitoes in summer but they would go right into the tea if I was making it.

I don't think you need to use a whole 4 gallons of pond water. You are just inoculating the tea with it.

Thanks, dchall_san_antonio. I think I'll be making some of this soon. :-)