RastaMonsta
Active Member
update? bump
The only reason I bought the grow (7-9-5) was because I was only using the Bloom (3-12-6) and that wasn't enough to keep things green. My AK47 tray off camera is another experiment where I'm going half and half until day 30. Doing so gives a 1-2-1 ratio which is far from too much nitrogen, but I know 1-4-2 isn't enough. Trial and error my man .Looking good homebrewer!
I'm glad to hear you got a TDS meter. That will make things much easier in the long run, and it sounds like you've already discovered quite a bit that can now be adjusted to improve your grow and prevent future burns. I always questioned a lot of the labels out there and their mixing instructions in the past.
A while back I did make an observation that your plants seem to have darker than normal leaves. I just realized your note that you've been feeding DG Grow formula throughout bloom up until now. This has to be why your leaves are so dark, and honestly it looks like they have been given a bit too much Nitrogen because of it. Next time around, I would recommend cutting off the grow after Week 2 of bloom. I've found it's always great to have grow formulas ready to rock incase your leaves start to lose their rich green color and go light, lime green. But typically, the bloom formulas have enough N to support the plant, as after Week 2 the plant has completed most of it vertical growth & branching and greatly reduces it's N intake. If you continue to feed this too far into the bloom phase, excess N can easily cause nutrient lockout and start blocking all that much needed PK.
Anyway, keep it up and keep us updated!
Cheers
What a clown!!! That shit is epic around here. Dumpster, lemon g, darkstar!! Ohio only strains.You named it right. Dumpster... That's where I'd put it.
You named it right. Dumpster... That's where I'd put it.
Fatman said many times that DG really is not a perfect option for a recirculating hydro system, but best for a DTW system. His reasoning for this is because of the amount of ammonium nitrate (or is it the other one) that can really mess up pH when is recirculated. He did say it is entirely possible to use, which is exactly what you have proven - but will require maintenance.Having cut back the nutes last feeding (to what I found was 1350ppm), the pH remained stable and the buds lost that hint of nutrient smell. For those of you just joining the grow, the pH is something that needs checked regularly with DG, but practically never adjusted. The 3 or 4 times I’ve adjusted it over 50 days now were probably when I was overfeeding due to not having a TDS meter. But anyone who has worked with hydro before can definitely appreciate the easy of not having to mess with the pH.
Yes there is one you should know about! And I suspect this may be happening. Some conversions are based on a .5 scale while others are on a .7 scale. I know very little on exactly how to convert from each other but i know one will show a lower ppm while another will be extremely high. If you were to use a .5 conversion meter and try to go off of .7 scales you will really screw up your plants. I would check your manual, and if it doesnt say do some googling. Usually certain brands stick to a certain conversion rate.Unless there is some kind of ppm conversion I should know about
this is what i fear is a mistake. if you are indeed using a .7 conversion meter. and if what i have said so far is correct (people please speak up if i am wrong, i am still learning) then you are underfeeding by a considerate amount. I'm sure nothing very bad would come from it since you are underfeeding and not overfeeding, but you might not be feeding the plant to its max potential.I’ve cut the grow formula out as it appears that less and less nitrogen has been needed after about week 4 and I’m feeding with about 10mls of bloom, 5 of protekt and 1ml of magpro. This puts me at around 1300ppm.
I remember reading that and I think it was in reference to the ammoniacal nitrogen and somewhere under 15% is desirable and since DG is below that, I think he was arguing that it was intended for hydro, not soil? Myself and another on this forum are currently testing it in soil. All of our plants look fantastic thus far. But in regards to DG's pH stability, it's rock solid. My comment was more of an explanation as to why I've had to adjust it at all (just 4 times in nearly 2 months) and that was in all likelihood due to over-feeding. In contrast, I adjust the GH pH 4 times per week.Fatman said many times that DG really is not a perfect option for a recirculating hydro system, but best for a DTW system. His reasoning for this is because of the amount of ammonium nitrate (or is it the other one) that can really mess up pH when is recirculated. He did say it is entirely possible to use, which is exactly what you have proven - but will require maintenance.
CNS grow and bloom look 'complete enough' and like you mentioned, it has a good veg ratio. I'm not crazy about the bloom ratio as I like a 1:1 N to K ratio, or at least somewhere close. 2-2-5 doesn't look good on paper, though it could be fine in practice. Their coco bloom is 2-2-3 and that would be interesting to try. As far as price, CNS looks to be half the price of DG, but the real question is; how potent is CNS? I'm finding that DG is giving me the following ppm values (1 ml/gallon):I have been looking at the DG line for months, especially the Foliage Pro because of the 3-1-2 ratio. Just recently I discovered that the Botainicare CNS17 coco grow is also a 3-1-2 NPK ratio. CNS17 is also way cheaper compared to Dyna-Gro believe it or not! The only problem is CNS17 does not come loaded with all the macros that foliage pro does. But this certainly can be fixed with another product - i have not settled on which one would be best perhaps someone could help.
The DG pH is rock solid. If you're not trying to feed your plant more than it can handle, you can throw away your pH up and down, seriously.With that said, it seems like you have perfected the ratios using the dyna-gro, can you give a bit more detail on exactly how much of fluctuations if pH you have found? You stated that it requires daily checking but you dont have to add pH up or down too often?
Having almost one DG grow under my belt (so take that for what it's worth), here is what I am feeding my AK47s off camera in mls/gallon:I am extremely interested in the feeding schedule you have came up with.
My meter is a .7 conversion I believe, maybe someone can verify if they have one (http://www.hidhut.com/catalog/oakton-ecotestr-tds-low-p-2325.html ). Regardless of the conversion, if there is such a thing, the GH feeding schedule that my plants have done well on turns out to be around 1450ppm. So using that as a max value, I've mixed DG nutes to reach that value so I can now feed accordingly.@homebrewer
Yes there is one you should know about! And I suspect this may be happening. Some conversions are based on a .5 scale while others are on a .7 scale. I know very little on exactly how to convert from each other but i know one will show a lower ppm while another will be extremely high. If you were to use a .5 conversion meter and try to go off of .7 scales you will really screw up your plants. I would check your manual, and if it doesnt say do some googling. Usually certain brands stick to a certain conversion rate.
EDIT:
from notes i took on the lucas formula it seems that:
@ 0.5 1200ppm = @ 0.7 1800ppm
so according to this it seems that if dyna-gro calls for a 1400ppm they are using a 0.5 conversion and since your meter reads a 2000ppm you are using a 0.7 conversion so i would say you are spot on and i would not scale back as you will run deficient.
essentially:
@ 0.5 1400ppm = @ 0.7 2000ppm
but...from what I have read MJ usually likes to sit around the 1200ppm @.5 and 1800ppm @.7 From the looks of your pics i see very slight nute burns on the edge of the leaves. perhaps you should scale back just a tiny bit to ~1800ppm on your meter. but definitely do not go to 1400ppm.
this is what i fear is a mistake. if you are indeed using a .7 conversion meter. and if what i have said so far is correct (people please speak up if i am wrong, i am still learning) then you are underfeeding by a considerate amount. I'm sure nothing very bad would come from it since you are underfeeding and not overfeeding, but you might not be feeding the plant to its max potential.
Aren't you using Sweet for the GH tray also? I think that may also be providing some extra sulfur related to better resin production on the GH tray? I have been using DG in my dirt plants and they love it I have started using both GH Flouralicious and Sweet and have noticed an increase in resin production over not using them in just a very short amount of time. After seeing your results and mine in dirt I am confident you have found a possible replacement for that advanced and troublesome GH schedule you have now. Thanks for helping me decide on what nutes to start with and for sharing your results.Today is day 56 of 60 and I think I’m going to let these girls go another full week. Normally with GH nutes, I use a product at the end called KoolBloom dry which really does seem to quicken the flower time by a few days. This has always been a 60 day strain but I think 63ish days should be good enough in this case.
You may notice a few colas missing from the group picture. I had to harvest a few early this week as this strain gets so dense and resinous that it’s susceptible to mold. So during a normal grow, around day 50 I’ll start checking the insides of the largest colas for that grayish blue mold that can form. I saw the smallest start to mold in one cola and decided to error on the side of being safe. I’ve literally lost several ounces before due to mold and I’m pretty convinced that there isn’t much you can do to stop it with this strain. Good airflow, a clean grow room and humidity below 50% are a few things that will normally prevent mold. But with this strain, the insides of the colas are leafy, dense and resinous and when those small leaves transpire, there is no where for that moisture to go. So that being said, I took down nearly 2 ounces in dry weight of colas and will post pics when they’re totally dry. To be safe, I threw away just a few grams of bud that had that grayish blue lint-looking mold on them as I would not smoke that myself.
As we’re approaching the end here, I think there is a decently obvious resin difference between the GH dumpster and the DG dumpster. I don’t know if this will equate to a difference in smoke quality but I’ll certainly let you guys know in the next 2 weeks. In the defense of DG, those plants are being grown with just the essential elements, whereas the GH tray is and has received in the past sea kelp and fulvic acid products. I personally believe these products to be the culprit for the resin difference. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m currently using Floralicious Plus in a res off camera with DG nutes and I’ll post pics of that AK47 crop to compare it to some of the pics below. The floralicious Plus seems to have zero affect on the pH stability of the DG nutes as well. In regards to pH stability, I’ve found that depending on my ratio of base nutes to Protekt, I’ll sometimes need to do one initial pH adjustment at the time of my res change. The Protket has a higher pH and if you’re running lighter nutes at the end of your flowering cycle, the lower pH in the base nutes can’t quite balance the higher pH of the Protekt to rest the res at 5.8. Sometimes it’ll rest at 6.1-6.3. A few mls of pH down on the day of your res change seems to be the only adjustment needed for the entire week.
My next update will probably be when I start to harvest and I'll try to get a few pics posted before I do so. I'll certainly post some final buds shots for a final comparison along with my thoughts on DynaGro. Not sure about you guys, but trimming 1 pound takes me about 8 hours of non stop work .