Dyna-Gro vs General Hydroponics (Dumpster Grow)

kingofqueen

Well-Known Member
I don't think karma has any micros: http://www.americanagritech.com/supplements/liquid-karma

It's a humic acid type additive that I used to use in the dirt but after switching to DGt, I don't even bother with liquid karma anymore.

EDIT: It's just one of those additives that isn't really needed IMO. I currently use floralicious plus in my hydro system and while I wont swear by it, I do find it to provide some ascetic benefits.
Thanks . I read the label before but it's been awile . I'll have to just go ahead and Get some Dyna Gro . Thanks:)
 

Merciless_One

Well-Known Member
Homebrewer....great info here. I recently switched to using the GH nutes and I gotta say i'm really happy. I can only imagine how awesome the DG nutes are ;) Once I use these up I will give DG a try.

I have a quick question that maybe you can answer.

I purchased the nutes based on the "Keep it simple Recirculating Program" ( http://www.genhydro.com/genhydro_US/feeding_charts/GH_KeepItSimple_Recirculating.pdf )

- grow
- bloom
- micro
- liquid koolbloom
- floralicious plus

However, when I went to the store I saw a GH feeding pamphlet and grabbed it and figured I would read it later. When I looked at it, I noticed that it's essentially the same thing, except with the addition of "Flora Blend".
IMG_1285.jpg

So, my question is this...how important is it to use "Flora Blend" and what benefits does it serve , in your experience ? Is there anythign else that is comparable to it? The feeding chart sasy to feed the girls quite a bit of this stuff..but the one on the website does not mention it.

Oh, I guess I have 2 questions...lol. I also have a bottle of Technaflora "Sugar Daddy" Have you ever used it ...is this something that I can use in conjunction with the GH nutes that I have ?

Also, I had a bit of input regarding the whole "Aggressive" formulas. I spoke with a rep and basically if your plants can take it, you can use the "aggressive" formulas INSTEAD of the regular formulas...but it's not meant to be a "stage" of the development...like going from bloom to "aggressive" bloom...to ripen. Hopefully I'm making some kind of sense, lol. So in normal conditions, you would never use the 'aggressive' formulas..you would just use the "bloom" formula for the entire flowerign period until the "ripening" stage.

Thanks again! It's awesome that you take so much time and effort to help everyone out. It definitely doesn't go unnoticed or unappreciated!
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
So, my question is this...how important is it to use "Flora Blend" and what benefits does it serve , in your experience ? Is there anythign else that is comparable to it? The feeding chart sasy to feed the girls quite a bit of this stuff..but the one on the website does not mention it.
Flora blend is a vegan compost tea and I'm not going to pretend like it's magical or even justifies it's price. I use it because I have it sitting around and I don't always remember to use it, that's how important it is to me. I found that it provides certain ascetic benefits which are similar to floralicious plus like slightly better resin production and better aroma. It doesn't improve flavor or potency necessarily and if I run out, I don't know that I'd scramble to the store immediately to buy more. Personally, I like to use a rock soild, balanced nutrient along with an 'organic-ish' type additive. Right now if I run out of florablend, I'll just use floralicious plus.




Oh, I guess I have 2 questions...lol. I also have a bottle of Technaflora "Sugar Daddy" Have you ever used it ...is this something that I can use in conjunction with the GH nutes that I have ?
Never heard of it and based on the name, I'd never buy it. If I saw it in the store, I wouldn't even think about seeing what's in it or what they're claiming it does.

Also, I had a bit of input regarding the whole "Aggressive" formulas. I spoke with a rep and basically if your plants can take it, you can use the "aggressive" formulas INSTEAD of the regular formulas...but it's not meant to be a "stage" of the development...like going from bloom to "aggressive" bloom...to ripen. Hopefully I'm making some kind of sense, lol. So in normal conditions, you would never use the 'aggressive' formulas..you would just use the "bloom" formula for the entire flowerign period until the "ripening" stage.
The number one thing anyone can do to get better potency and yield is to keep plants healthy at all times. Give them what they need, when they need it. For me, this concept is much easier to accomplish in hydro as I know exactly what my plants are getting at all times based on what I put in the res. Do. Not. Overfeed. Ever. People think slamming nutes down your plant's throat is the best way for big yields but the truth is that if you make 'what plants need' available to them at all times, then they'll pull up what they need, when they need it.

In my most recent journal, I fed my plants at 1.2 EC or low 800's for ppms and yielded better than I have ever yielded off of AK47. What this tells me (which is what I've suspected for a while now) is that my plants have enough nutrients in the water at 1.2EC and anything higher than that is actually harming my plants and hurting my yield.

I once thought my Dumpster strain was a 'heavy feeder' and would run her at 1400ppm or 2.0EC. My last round I ran her at 1100ppm or 1.6 EC and again yielded more than I've ever yielded with her (an improvement of 1-2 ounces). This round I'll go even lower.

In regards to the aggressive feeding schedules, those are for beginners.
 

Merciless_One

Well-Known Member
Flora blend is a vegan compost tea and I'm not going to pretend like it's magical or even justifies it's price. I use it because I have it sitting around and I don't always remember to use it, that's how important it is to me. I found that it provides certain ascetic benefits which are similar to floralicious plus like slightly better resin production and better aroma. It doesn't improve flavor or potency necessarily and if I run out, I don't know that I'd scramble to the store immediately to buy more. Personally, I like to use a rock soild, balanced nutrient along with an 'organic-ish' type additive. Right now if I run out of florablend, I'll just use floralicious plus.




Never heard of it and based on the name, I'd never buy it. If I saw it in the store, I wouldn't even think about seeing what's in it or what they're claiming it does.

The number one thing anyone can do to get better potency and yield is to keep plants healthy at all times. Give them what they need, when they need it. For me, this concept is much easier to accomplish in hydro as I know exactly what my plants are getting at all times based on what I put in the res. Do. Not. Overfeed. Ever. People think slamming nutes down your plant's throat is the best way for big yields but the truth is that if you make 'what plants need' available to them at all times, then they'll pull up what they need, when they need it.

In my most recent journal, I fed my plants at 1.2 EC or low 800's for ppms and yielded better than I have ever yielded off of AK47. What this tells me (which is what I've suspected for a while now) is that my plants have enough nutrients in the water at 1.2EC and anything higher than that is actually harming my plants and hurting my yield.

I once thought my Dumpster strain was a 'heavy feeder' and would run her at 1400ppm or 2.0EC. My last round I ran her at 1100ppm or 1.6 EC and again yielded more than I've ever yielded with her (an improvement of 1-2 ounces). This round I'll go even lower.

In regards to the aggressive feeding schedules, those are for beginners.
Thanks for the info re: Flora Blend. I sorta was thinking it was something that I didnt' have to be concerned that I was not using.

As for the feeding charts, over nuting..etc...I agree totally. I am pretty much a novice, but I've gone through the process a few times now and went through that "OMG I gotta pump these babies up with nutes!" stage. You can imagine how it turned out ;) I've actually found that my plants are happiest using about 1/2 of the recommended dosage in that "Keep it simple" program with my Hydrofarm buckets.

However, I think i will switch over to the Dyna-Grow once I use these nutes up. I'll just give away the Sugar Daddy...it was a free sample anyways ;)
 

defcomexperiment

Well-Known Member
ive been using dyna-gro and probably will never switch to anything else... my regimen is pretty much:

dyna-gro foliage pro or bloom depending on photoperiod
dyna-gro protekt
botanicare liquid karma
hygrozyme
and that is it.
 

Merciless_One

Well-Known Member
HB..sorry...one more quick question. Do you prefer any particular flavor of "sweet" from botanicare ? They have several flavors...I was thinking of just going with the raw. Does it affect the flavor or smell...or is that just something that they want u to think ?
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
HB..sorry...one more quick question. Do you prefer any particular flavor of "sweet" from botanicare ? They have several flavors...I was thinking of just going with the raw. Does it affect the flavor or smell...or is that just something that they want u to think ?
I used 'berry' and 'grape' and even tested those against Floranectar and none of them ever contributed any kinda of aroma or flavor specific to their 'flavor'. Sweet has a good dose of sulfur which [FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]contributes to odor and taste in some vegetables and I found sweet to slightly enhance the natural aroma of the strains I have. Would I notice a difference between a final product where sweet was use vs not used? I seriously doubt it. Sulfur is the desirable ingredient in that product, not the aminos or the simple sugars.

Currently I'm using magpro which has a similar dose of sulfur and magnesium so I don't use sweet anymore.
[/FONT]
 

Merciless_One

Well-Known Member
I used 'berry' and 'grape' and even tested those against Floranectar and none of them ever contributed any kinda of aroma or flavor specific to their 'flavor'. Sweet has a good dose of sulfur which [FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]contributes to odor and taste in some vegetables and I found sweet to slightly enhance the natural aroma of the strains I have. Would I notice a difference between a final product where sweet was use vs not used? I seriously doubt it. Sulfur is the desirable ingredient in that product, not the aminos or the simple sugars.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Currently I'm using magpro which has a similar dose of sulfur and magnesium so I don't use sweet anymore. [/FONT]
Awesome...good info to know, thank you very much ;) I know I went off topic a bit, I appreciate you bearing with me.
 

SandstormGT

Active Member
a few questions for you homebrewer, I have read all the way through your thread but missed this info if you have posted it previously.

1. How many times are you flooding your tray per day, I'd imagine 1-2 depending on what stage but just wanted to see what you were using.

2. How high do you flood your tray, basically, how high do you think the water line needs to come up on the 6x6 blocks for them to saturate?

3. When you flush with clearex, do you just run it like normal for several cycles or do you top feed the blocks to help it leech out the bottom?
 

jeeba

Well-Known Member
Ive smoked a few doobs of dumpdter I like it.Why does it only get a 6 on the strain review?
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
1. How many times are you flooding your tray per day, I'd imagine 1-2 depending on what stage but just wanted to see what you were using.
A minimum of 2 but that depends on the stage of growth and how much the ladies are drinking.
2. How high do you flood your tray, basically, how high do you think the water line needs to come up on the 6x6 blocks for them to saturate?
Just a few inches. The rockwool will wick up the water.
3. When you flush with clearex, do you just run it like normal for several cycles or do you top feed the blocks to help it leech out the bottom?
I don't use clearex anymore. I run water for 2 hours and top feed a few times to leach out salts. After 2 hours, the res is drained and fresh nutes and water are added.
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the link. It looks like the strain rating was based on one review which is copied below:
For this strain we got input by 1 user(s). Here a short overview:

Flowering Time Indoor: 63 - 77 days (~70 days)
Yield / Quantity Indoor: The crop of this strain is very high.
Strength / Lasting Effect: The weed affects slightly above average.
General Impression Indoor: is all together absolutely ordinary.
Votings of our users: Dumpster gets 6.33 of 10 possible Points in the average!
I would disagree with everything from the flowering times to his overall rating. Based on my preference for sativa dominant hybrids, Dumpster is my least favorite strain that I have right now but I keep it around because the patients that love indica-dominant strains LOVE this. It's just a heavy, intense, body and mind numbing indica which glues you to the couch and makes you slur your words. That's not my cup-of-tea but it's preferred by patients over the sativa-dominant varieties that I have.
 

brownbearclan

Active Member
Just thought I'd share a comment I received at another forum yesterday, someone told me to, "Throw that shit in the garbage (referring to Dyna-Gro) and go buy yourself some General Hydroponics nutes." I explained that I had actually choose the DG over GH on purpose because I wanted to keep it simple and inexpensive. This comment was made because I have rust on only ONE of all my babies. (My PH was too low for Calcium uptake apparently, had it at 5.8 and lowered to 5.5, seems to have resolved it). So I commented with a link to your 2 DG threads and said 'check this out' and haven't heard a word since. Thanks again HB. =)
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
This comment was made because I have rust on only ONE of all my babies. (My PH was too low for Calcium uptake apparently, had it at 5.8 and lowered to 5.5, seems to have resolved it). So I commented with a link to your 2 DG threads and said 'check this out' and haven't heard a word since. Thanks again HB. =)
5.5 is lower than I prefer to operate. If you have a link to a picture of your plants, PM me, maybe I can figure out what's going on because these are the signs of a Ca deficiency:

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Inhibition of bud growth; roots can turn black and rot; young leaves are scalloped and abnormally green; leaf tips may stick together; cupping of maturing leaves; blossom end rot of many fruits, pits on root vegetables; stem structure is weak; premature shedding of fruit and buds[/FONT]
 

gdahustla

Member
excellent thread, almost lifechanging for a noob like me lol by profession I am a system analyst and professional sports investor always learning and perfecting my technique. I have been researching the best product range of nutes for hydro out there and to me there was one stand out nutrient company and that was advanced nutrients. that was until I read this thread , wow didn't realise the firm and likes of were taking me for a complete fool. ha no longer. thanks again homebrewer, ur da man!!!

I'm gonna do a physical comparison like you to prove to myself with 1 dyna tray and 1 AN tray that AN is just basically dyna broken down into 20 well marketed bottles. will probably do a journal too but I don't think ill have enough time to do a great one but will post nutrients used and feeding schedule and a few pics. I will be comparing yeild , taste and looks. all three are very important to me , even looks. it has to be full package. ill keep you posted when I start in around 7 weeks.

I'm in the UK and my water is around ph 7.5. do you think ill need the cal-mag. how can I verify for sure???
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
I'm gonna do a physical comparison like you to prove to myself with 1 dyna tray and 1 AN tray that AN is just basically dyna broken down into 20 well marketed bottles.
Actually, even if you combined all the bottles AN offers, it still wouldn't be as complete as one bottle of DG's grow or bloom. Try it for yourself.

do you think ill need the cal-mag. how can I verify for sure???
Don't use calmag unless you see a deficiency in one or the other. Make sure you diagnose correctly too as 90% of the time growers think their nutrients are causing a problem, it's actually just operator error. That can happen with DG too so use it correctly ;).
 

burrr

Active Member
I've been running the dynagrow since I first read this journal. It's been about 6 weeks now that I've been using it in a RDWC setup.
For me, the mix seems really "hot". I have a group of 3 plants, about 5 weeks into flower that have been on dynagrow since mid veg. I have a sativa, indica, and a hybrid.
I started running my mix at 700 ppm, already way below the suggested feeding. I saw nute burn on the hybrid, and nitrogen overload on the indica.
The sativa looked 100% happy.
I've been dropping the levels even more, since I realized that I was seeing nute burn and not some deficiency. I'm now down to 375 ppm, and the hydrid is finally looking happy. It has some new white hairs popping out of the tops. The Indica has been really weak on the bud production, and looks overly green and leafy.
I was also seeing daily drops in PH from 5.9 to 4.9
I had better luck running my old GH, and yesterday I switched back to it.
Do you think the ammonia based nutes are my problem?
 
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