Dyna-Gro vs General Hydroponics (Dumpster Grow)

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
what do you think about dyna-grows feeding chart? in a recirulating system they say to use as much as 15ml of bloom. i will be using coco and if you are using much lower levels for your recirculation i can only imagine i would need to use even less in coco.



i have decided to do this late Jan. i will be trying DG, CNS, and either connie or jacks hydro + CalNit
The best way to figure out a feeding schedule is use your TDS meter and feed at about 1.5 EC. You may find some strains can handle more but you certainly wont run deficient. Personally, I think the recommended DG schedule is too strong, but it's a generic schedule and even if it was made for cannabis, strains vary. Their nutes are pretty concentrated so with 5mls of protekt and bloom per gallon, 1ml of grow and magpro per gallon, I'm close to 1000ppm which also includes my base water. The plants love it and so does my wallet ;). Additionally, I only feed my DG dirt girl 3mls of bloom per watering. She's doing very well and at 3mls/gallon, that plant will cost about 50 cents to grow.
 

cbrob

Member
Homebrewer,
what happens to the roots in your ebb and flow table? are they contained in the plastic wrap on the cube, or are they just hanging out on the tray?
thx
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
Homebrewer,
what happens to the roots in your ebb and flow table? are they contained in the plastic wrap on the cube, or are they just hanging out on the tray?
thx
The roots are contained in the rockwool cubes and the plastic wrap around the cubes keeps the roots from traveling too far. That and the lack of moisture outside of the cubes keeps the roots contained.
 

sharl

Active Member
thanks for all your posting. really so informative!
question for you, if you dont mind. got some plants in sushine mix, some in flower for two weeks, some just flipped today. been feeding them some growmore brand (sort of greenhouse industry nutes with pretty good ratios). been feeding at about 2.3 ec. just flushed em all and am about to start my dyna nutes. got grow and bloom plus proteckt stuff. no magpro though. i do have cal mag by botanicare. the difference being calmag has iron but no extra sulphur. think thatll be a problem? using ro and mostly go for 5mls a gallon with it. somewhere around 150 to 200 ppms i think. also, youre using 3mls or so on your dirt plants or so and i was a little confused about all this conversion talk. i got a hanna (.5 conversion), do i just use you numbers for guidelines as stated or .......? just cause i read you had a .7 conversion and got all mixed up. not sure if thats a silly question. thanks for all your time and hopefully for a response.
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
thanks for all your posting. really so informative!
question for you, if you dont mind. got some plants in sushine mix, some in flower for two weeks, some just flipped today. been feeding them some growmore brand (sort of greenhouse industry nutes with pretty good ratios). been feeding at about 2.3 ec. just flushed em all and am about to start my dyna nutes. got grow and bloom plus proteckt stuff. no magpro though. i do have cal mag by botanicare. the difference being calmag has iron but no extra sulphur. think thatll be a problem? using ro and mostly go for 5mls a gallon with it. somewhere around 150 to 200 ppms i think. also, youre using 3mls or so on your dirt plants or so and i was a little confused about all this conversion talk. i got a hanna (.5 conversion), do i just use you numbers for guidelines as stated or .......? just cause i read you had a .7 conversion and got all mixed up. not sure if thats a silly question. thanks for all your time and hopefully for a response.
My meter is on the 442 scale or a .7 conversion (http://www.hydroponics.net/learn/debate_over_ec_and_tds.asp). So in dirt, 3mls of nutes is looking like plenty based on my tap water.

Calmag should be a decent sub for magpro given RO water. I don't use RO water and use 1ml/gallon of magpro in my hydro res. For the record, I think 1.5-2 EC is plenty for a lot of plants. Hopefully yours are doing ok at 2.3.
 

sharl

Active Member
My meter is on the 442 scale or a .7 conversion (http://www.hydroponics.net/learn/debate_over_ec_and_tds.asp). So in dirt, 3mls of nutes is looking like plenty based on my tap water.

Calmag should be a decent sub for magpro given RO water. I don't use RO water and use 1ml/gallon of magpro in my hydro res. For the record, I think 1.5-2 EC is plenty for a lot of plants. Hopefully yours are doing ok at 2.3.
hey thanks for your reply. yeah, maybe 2.3 is a little high. so far so good though. the slightest tip burn. both strains seem to be able to function well right about there. ill back it off a bit though with the new food. still thinking 1/2 and 1/2 bloom/veg to start or 1/3 to 3/4. oh yeah and just curious, i think you mentioned it, you feed, feed, water? ive been just feeding and flushing once a month but not sure if thats the wrong way to go. been getting a pretty good ph drop by that time. thanks for your time.
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
hey thanks for your reply. yeah, maybe 2.3 is a little high. so far so good though. the slightest tip burn. both strains seem to be able to function well right about there. ill back it off a bit though with the new food. still thinking 1/2 and 1/2 bloom/veg to start or 1/3 to 3/4. oh yeah and just curious, i think you mentioned it, you feed, feed, water? ive been just feeding and flushing once a month but not sure if thats the wrong way to go. been getting a pretty good ph drop by that time. thanks for your time.
I start with about 1/2 bloom and 1/2 grow, but later in flower I scale back the grow formula. That's what I've been doing with the dirt plant and the hydro girls. Seems to be working fine until I iron out the kinks.

For dirt, I feed, feed, water, normally but when talking to DG on the phone, they said just feed at every watering. So that's what I've been doing but I think a flush every once and a while is beneficial. Just do your best to read your plants and flush when they need it or feed when they look hungry. You may get an ugly leaf here and there but that's no biggie.
 

sharl

Active Member
I start with about 1/2 bloom and 1/2 grow, but later in flower I scale back the grow formula. That's what I've been doing with the dirt plant and the hydro girls. Seems to be working fine until I iron out the kinks.

For dirt, I feed, feed, water, normally but when talking to DG on the phone, they said just feed at every watering. So that's what I've been doing but I think a flush every once and a while is beneficial. Just do your best to read your plants and flush when they need it or feed when they look hungry. You may get an ugly leaf here and there but that's no biggie.
thanks. yeah, im working hard on the reading part. thats the most difficult part of all im finding. too much nutes? too little? hard for me to tell, but getting better.thanks for your help. so 1.5 and 1.5 about huh?
 

bob stine

Member
do you think you even need the grow formula (dyna-gro) if your using cal-mg? i'm just saying since the calcium nitrate gives 2% nitrogen is all i know one thing pro-tek for potassium is a must i'd say ...i always though dyna-gro lacked it thanks for any reply
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
do you think you even need the grow formula (dyna-gro) if your using cal-mg? i'm just saying since the calcium nitrate gives 2% nitrogen is all i know one thing pro-tek for potassium is a must i'd say ...i always though dyna-gro lacked it thanks for any reply
The DG bloom formula doesn't supply my girls enough nitrogen early in flowering so IMO, the grow formula is a must. I would personally never sub calmag for a grow formula, they're different formulas and serve different purposes.



how often do you flush your plants? and what do you use to do so ?
I flush every 3 weeks. It's something I've been experimenting with. I'm not flushing for flavor or to clear the plant of food or whatever people think flushing does, I do it to leach salts from my rockwool and roots so they're both in good condition to receive food. I use clearex.
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
What up Homebrewer? You got another journal up yet?
I haven't really had time. Maybe I'll do one next month with some AK47 grown with DynaGro and some beneficials. I'm testing some Great White right now so if this turns out well, I'll start a journal up to document the benefits. I'll post something on here when I do. Thanks for your interest.
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
did the ak's in soil finish?
Not yet, should be done in about 1 week or so. The AK47 tray with DG nutes and floralicious plus finished and I have some final yield numbers, I'm just waiting for a short cure and then I'll be able to put together some smoke reports. My final yield was only 14.2 ounces, but that's almost 2 more ounces than I've ever yielded off that strain. The AK47 is a newer strain for me as I've only done a few rounds with it. I don't know it as well as Dumpster so I'm not sure how indicative the yields are. The strain seems to really benefit from some training and some lower branch pruning so were the better yields from the nutes or the trimming? I can't say for sure. What I do know is that the yields again were every bit as good as GH and the smoke report should provide some more insight into the contribution of the nutrients.
 

Imaulle

Well-Known Member
I gave my babies one feeding of great white and the results are amazing.. the plants doubled in size in a few days over a few plants that I did not feed it to.

great white + dyna-gro ftw!!
 

Dahighone

Member
Just put dyno flower into 1 of my 3 dwc buckets... The runt of the 3 even. I didnt read this thread till after I got back from the hydro store lol.. would have purchased the grow and protek also. Anyways tomorow is day 30 hope its not too late for flowering nutes. Ive been using a 14-14-14 mix until about 4 days ago I have been flushing them since. I dont change the water in my non circulated dwc unless I get algae... is this a bad thing? should I switch it out 1 time a week? I see your not using dwc but you know what your talking about on every other lvl it seems. Thanks in advance
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
Just put dyno flower into 1 of my 3 dwc buckets... The runt of the 3 even. I didnt read this thread till after I got back from the hydro store lol.. would have purchased the grow and protek also. Anyways tomorow is day 30 hope its not too late for flowering nutes. Ive been using a 14-14-14 mix until about 4 days ago I have been flushing them since. I dont change the water in my non circulated dwc unless I get algae... is this a bad thing? should I switch it out 1 time a week? I see your not using dwc but you know what your talking about on every other lvl it seems. Thanks in advance
DG makes a 7-7-7 which I think could be used from seed to harvest. You may not be getting your best yields off that and running really green plants at the end, but if you used that for the first 30 days and used bloom (3-12-6) for the last 30, you'd be in great shape. Personally, I run 1ml of grow and 6mls of bloom for weeks 5 and 6, then switch to bloom only for roughly the last 2-3 weeks. The 3-12-6 will slowly turn your plants light-green with some yellow leaves here and there and initiate a slightly higher rate of leaf-drop which isn't necessarily a bad thing during the last few weeks. I'm still tweaking my own schedule but this is where I'm at thus far.

In regards to not switching out water, I think some people get away with doing that with good results. Personally, I'd change the water with fresh nutes once per week. You can add back nutes each week using a TDS meter to gauge how much food you should add back, but you're not starting with a clean slate which I think could get a little confusing as the nutritional needs of the plant change throughout flower. Switching out water and food once per week is worth the effort in my opinion. Then again, you're talking about DWC which is a different animal to manage than flood and drain.
 

venacular

Well-Known Member
DG makes a 7-7-7 which I think could be used from seed to harvest. You may not be getting your best yields off that and running really green plants at the end, but if you used that for the first 30 days and used bloom (3-12-6) for the last 30, you'd be in great shape. Personally, I run 1ml of grow and 6mls of bloom for weeks 5 and 6, then switch to bloom only for roughly the last 2-3 weeks. The 3-12-6 will slowly turn your plants light-green with some yellow leaves here and there and initiate a slightly higher rate of leaf-drop which isn't necessarily a bad thing during the last few weeks. I'm still tweaking my own schedule but this is where I'm at thus far.

In regards to not switching out water, I think some people get away with doing that with good results. Personally, I'd change the water with fresh nutes once per week. You can add back nutes each week using a TDS meter to gauge how much food you should add back, but you're not starting with a clean slate which I think could get a little confusing as the nutritional needs of the plant change throughout flower. Switching out water and food once per week is worth the effort in my opinion. Then again, you're talking about DWC which is a different animal to manage than flood and drain.

Haha, I read this and started thinking "that's exactly what I am experiencing". I am using 1mil grow and 4mil bloom for weeks 5 and 6. I also feed Beastie Blooms in that same week. When I feed with BB I only add molasses. I alternate the two nutes for weeks 5 and 6. Then by the last 2-3 weeks I am at 5ml bloom.

As far as the DWC, I have 3 in DWC/Drip cross. In grow I let one plants go 3 weeks without a cleaning/drain. There were no adverse affects. The plants growth noticeably slowed but it never went diff. I will be draining/cleaning biweekly early in bloom, then change to weekly near the end.
 
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