Dyna-gro & Nutrient PPM Test Results

unohu69

Well-Known Member
I was curious what my PPM's are running because i dont have a meter. So I borrowed a buddys last night and wanted to do a couple tests. here are my results. I figure this might help out people who, like me just need some baseline numbers to work with.

The test consisted of 3 separate gallons of water. 2 of them had been bubbled for 24hrs, one of them was run through a brita pitcher filter.

Tap water tested out at 44 PPM
The Brita water 22-32 PPM (i had tested two diff runs)
Bubbled water 40 PPM


Next the nutes used...

Dyna-gro Grow 7-9-5
Dyna-gro Bloom 3-12-5
Dyna-gro Protek 0-0-3
AN Bud Candy
Hydro-Rush


Used a Hanna PPM meter, the little gray pen type. I wasnt to sure about the calibration of the unit, but I figure this is just a numbers test anyways.


I started by adding 1ml of the grow, bloom, protek to a gallon of water then taking a reading, then adding another 1ml then take a reading. Looking at the chart, going down the columns is what was added to each of the gallons, with the total PPM reading at that point. (sorry, i know nothing about spreadsheets)


PPM.png

So you can see that:

Grow added about 105PPM/ per 1ml
Bloom added about 75PPM/ per 1ml
Protek added about 13PPM/ per 1ml
Bud Candy added about 11PPM/ per 1ml



They hydro-Rush and the molasses were only done out of my own curiosity thats why I didnt do 1ml measurements.

Interestingly enough, The gallon A is how I would normally mix up a batch of nutes for my budding girls. I think the PPMs are to low. I also run a promix/perlite soil mix. Im not sure if this is considered soiless or what.
And I would be interested in knowing how to figure out the overall N-P-K ratio of the mixed nutes.

So hope this might help a couple people anyway. Good Luck.....:leaf:
 

unohu69

Well-Known Member
Yup, those are the numbers I came up with. Tomorrow Im gonna get my own PPM meter(damn store decided they need to have the day off today). Then I will redo the test, but only in the 2 gallons I normally need to mix.

Thats a sweet calculator. It would be nice if luciferX could incorporate something like that into HerbIQ.
 

squarepush3r

Well-Known Member
Check out HydroBuddy if you haven't already seen it
http://scienceinhydroponics.com/2011/01/the-first-free-hydroponic-nutrient-calculator-program-o.html

Also, an easier way possibly to run your tests, is to use 1 Liter of water, since you won't waste as much product as 1 gallon (3.75 liters per gallon), and also many companies base their dosage on 1 Liter standard so it would be easier to follow manufacturer instructions, although I believe DynaGro may use American system which is why you chose gallons as those were the main products you are using.

I just ran some tests on Botanicare Cal Mag, I can dig up some of those results if you were interested.
 

unohu69

Well-Known Member
Actually, I used gallons, because thats what I had on hand for containers. lol

I actually break my measurements into liters normally, as 4 liters of water will fit in a 1 gallon jug, and a gallon is close enough. there are so many variables in growing, i dont think .22 liters is gonna make a huge difference :) (actually my gallon says 3.78 liters)

Thats a sweet link you posted, I dl'd it, and will commence testing in a few minutes.

Please, by all means, if you have test data, id love to view it. Any one is free to post any data they might have that is relevant the the spirit of the thread.
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
Grow added about 105PPM/ per 1ml
Bloom added about 75PPM/ per 1ml
Protek added about 13PPM/ per 1ml
I'm on the .7 scale but your numbers seem to be proportionately the same. It's some concentrated stuff, that's for sure.
 

unohu69

Well-Known Member
Are those numbers considered concentrated? if one were to follow the directions and use, only 1/2 teaspoon, then your PPM would be around 220 +/- (just guessing). Doesnt PPM in the 200's seem way to low to you?

most people talk about running upwards of 1200PPM. seems to me to achieve those numbers Id have to dump quite a bit into say a 5 gallon mix. As iv said before im fairly new to using these types of nutes, I used to use guano's and other fertilizers, but now im having wonderful luck with DG. Im just wondering if im cutting it short by only using 3-4ml total ?

In the Pic above, gallon A is basically my usual mix, what do you think about it HB? growing in a promix/perlite mix. (I call it prolite).
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
Are those numbers considered concentrated? if one were to follow the directions and use, only 1/2 teaspoon, then your PPM would be around 220 +/- (just guessing).
Yes, grow and bloom are very concentrated compared to other brands. 1ml of GH micro on the .7 scale is 85ppm, floragrow is 60ppm and the GH florabloom is 35ppm. KoolBloom is 35ppm as well, talk about blowing though nutrients. Connoisseur A&B are like 60 and 80ppm respectively, not too bad but that's about where Botanicare's bloom and grow are if I remember correctly.

Doesnt PPM in the 200's seem way to low to you?
No, it doesn't. I veg plants at 200ppm in promix. My vegging plants only get 12-20 ounces of water so 1.5mls of grow feeds a number of plants.
most people talk about running upwards of 1200PPM. seems to me to achieve those numbers Id have to dump quite a bit into say a 5 gallon mix.
No offense but the 1200ppm crowd is a bunch of morons. Regardless, you'd use less DG to get to that number than other brands. Speaking of using a lot of nutes, in my 15 gallon res, I'd have to use 6 ounces of floraBloom to get to my feeding levels which are considered low by many. Add a few more reservoirs and all-of-a-sudden a only quart lasts 2-3 weeks. I had to buy that shiz in the 6 gallon drums just so I wasn't visiting the hydro store every month.

In the Pic above, gallon A is basically my usual mix, what do you think about it HB? growing in a promix/perlite mix. (I call it prolite).
In flowering, I really don't think you need more than 3mls of base nutes per gallon in promix. Do what works best for you though.
 

unohu69

Well-Known Member
Right on, I have no experience with other nutes. I used the foxfarm grow formula for a couple of weeks, then I found RIU and your comparison threads, iv used DG ever since.


I was using 3mils per your recommendations, i had only bumped it up looking to see if the plant responded. 3 of my plants have some other goodies mixed in the promix, the other is a straight mix test so i can determine overall effects of just running DG. the 3 are a real nice green, and the one is looking a little bit lighter green, I was thinking it might be a slight overall deficiency, but i dont really seem to be seeing it getting any darker.

I will stop trying to over think it. Its easy to fall into the "can it be better" trap.
 

unohu69

Well-Known Member
I just picked up this Dyna-gro Feeding schedule at my local grow store while grabbing my xnutrient samples.

Image (2) (Custom).jpg
Image (Custom).jpg
 

unohu69

Well-Known Member
I was mainly looking at the soil numbers, its rare to see DG soil numbers. the bloom could be scaled back easy enough in the flower side of things. BUT i dont think it would hurt the plants if one were to run with those numbers.

I do get that the hydro numbers might be high, given what we know about the effectiveness of DG products. So youd actually save more money using DG by using less than called for.

I also didnt realize KLN could be effective in soil, so im gonna score a jug of that soon.


* side note, the xnutrients I got today calls for 30ml of product ( 2 part grow/ micro nutes) per gallon of water ! seems like id burn right through that.
Im glad I found HB's threads and am a DG user...
 

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
there too strong but the ratio would be correct right homebrewer? im thinking to make things easier when eyeballing it maybe a 3-1 bloom/protect ratio?
I use enough protekt to put my pH in an ideal range and that's usually a 1:1 ratio of base to protect when feeding in the dirt. That's with RO so if you're using tap, YMMV.
 

tree king

Well-Known Member
I use enough protekt to put my pH in an ideal range and that's usually a 1:1 ratio of base to protect when feeding in the dirt. That's with RO so if you're using tap, YMMV.
i always forget about dirt. sorry about that i mean hydro. remember us talking about the problem i was having on the other forum? after i flushed with plain water the problem was fixed but i think i put too much silicate in and that caused the problem so i wanna make sure i dont make that mistake again
 
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