Dyna-Gro Experiment

homebrewer

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
4nikator said:
HB,

I noticed in another thread your comment about Sativa. I planted from 20 yr old seed, a dozen pure sativa plants at the beginning of July. It's now nine weeks later and they are doing fine, but I have stressed them to keep the height down. One very large one showed male with little bunches of grape-like clusters last Friday. The rest so far look like females w/ just a hint of pre-flowers.

You mention the long flowering cycle of Sativa and I've seen others talk about 100 days or more in flower to harvest. That means I am looking at the middle of January at the earliest. The climate in Pennsylvania will have long killed off the plants by then. Aside from taking cuttings and making clones, which I have had very poor luck doing (out of 50 more only one cutting showed rootlets and that one was an Air layered lower branch. None that I severed from the plants have shown any inclination to root.

If I were to dig up several of them to get most of the root ball, and put them in my grow room by the end of October, do you think that would be the kind of stress that would make them all but useless?

I am still taking cuttings and trying to get more clones but I don't yet know how they are going to turn out. Do you take cuttings of your sativa and if so, how do you do it?

Any reply would be very helpful.
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Yeah, far-leaning sativas aren't going to finish outdoors in the north. Cuttings are a good idea and you could always try digging them up when it gets too cold but from a sanitation perspective I don't know if that's the best thing for your grow room. But hey, if they're not going to finish you might as well try.

As for cuts, I take all cuttings in the same way. I take healthy, well hydrated mother plants and cut a few 3 - 4 inch lower growth shoots, dip them in Dip-N-Grow, and then place in 1 inch rockwool cubes in a humidity dome. Keep the rockwool moist and you should get roots in a couple weeks.
 
4nikator

4nikator

Active Member
homebrewer said:
Yeah, far-leaning sativas aren't going to finish outdoors in the north. Cuttings are a good idea and you could always try digging them up when it gets too cold but from a sanitation perspective I don't know if that's the best thing for your grow room. But hey, if they're not going to finish you might as well try.

As for cuts, I take all cuttings in the same way. I take healthy, well hydrated mother plants and cut a few 3 - 4 inch lower growth shoots, dip them in Dip-N-Grow, and then place in 1 inch rockwool cubes in a humidity dome. Keep the rockwool moist and you should get roots in a couple weeks.
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Do you lower the ph in the r/w?? Or just tuck them in? Do you leave them in a container that has water in it or just rely on the humidity dome?

Any temperature concerns, like a heat pad?

thx for the quick reply.
 
homebrewer

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
4nikator said:
Do you lower the ph in the r/w?? Or just tuck them in? Do you leave them in a container that has water in it or just rely on the humidity dome?

Any temperature concerns, like a heat pad?

thx for the quick reply.
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I don't know that I could help you any more than maybe a how-to video on youtube. Moisture, temperature, and health of the mother plant are all very important.
 
Theophilus

Theophilus

Well-Known Member
homebrewer said:
In addition to FP, I'll use a small amount of protekt. It's not needed but it's beneficial. I've also been experimenting with the use of floralicious plus in promix just during flowering.
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That's exactly what I am doing. I have some Florablend that I am adding as well. Not sure if there will be much of a difference between using it or not using it in Pro-mix but I work at a Hydro shop so it doesn't cost me anything to find out.
 
4nikator

4nikator

Active Member
homebrewer said:
I don't know that I could help you any more than maybe a how-to video on youtube. Moisture, temperature, and health of the mother plant are all very important.
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I wasn't clear. When Cloning a mother, and you put the cuttings into rockwool, do you first adjust the Rockwool to a lower ph since it is usually alkaline?

Is there a temperature of the root and medium that you keep at a certain level for the cloning?
 
homebrewer

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
4nikator said:
I wasn't clear. When Cloning a mother, and you put the cuttings into rockwool, do you first adjust the Rockwool to a lower ph since it is usually alkaline?

Is there a temperature of the root and medium that you keep at a certain level for the cloning?
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I soak my cubes in a light mix of water and plant food. That's all I do there.

Temps for cloning should probably be around the low 80s?
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
Interesting. Might have to give it a look some time.
homebrewer said:
Floralicious Plus definitely increases aroma and flavor. It's a simple additive and a bottle goes a long way at 1ml/gal.
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Do you have any experience with DG's MagPro? Supposed to do the same thing.
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
homebrewer said:
Yes and Floralicious Plus is the better additive if you're looking for more aroma and flavor.
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Good to know. I've always liked GH's product line. Going to give their 3-part another shot on one of my flood tables. Going to try starting @ 1/4tsp a gallon a piece for the grow, micro, and bloom then go from there. I see GH's feeding schedule plays around with different ratios throughout the grow cycle but we all know thats not necessary. What do you think of mixing them at equal parts throughout? Should one (grow, micro, bloom) get more than the others?
 
homebrewer

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
DirtyMcCurdy said:
Good to know. I've always liked GH's product line. Going to give their 3-part another shot on one of my flood tables. Going to try starting @ 1/4tsp a gallon a piece for the grow, micro, and bloom then go from there. I see GH's feeding schedule plays around with different ratios throughout the grow cycle but we all know thats not necessary. What do you think of mixing them at equal parts throughout? Should one (grow, micro, bloom) get more than the others?
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The GH 3-part works well but the pH constantly drifts upward so I found myself using a lot of pH down when I used GH. I'd look into a weaker variation of the lucas formula if you're going to use GH.
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
homebrewer said:
The GH 3-part works well but the pH constantly drifts upward so I found myself using a lot of pH down when I used GH. I'd look into a weaker variation of the lucas formula if you're going to use GH.
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Tried the lucas formula 4-5ml micro 8-10ml bloom. Wasn't real happy with it. Thats what I was running before I tried this last run testing out the dyna-gro. So far dyna-gro is better so no need to revisit the lucas formula. I wanted to give the flora series a chance with the grow in there as well. To me, the grow bottle is more important then people give it credit for. It has a small amount of N just to add to, or require less of, the micro. It doesn't have much for P, which tends antagonizes with Ca and Mg but, probably most importantly, has a good boost of K.

I'm thinking it would allow better control of the NPK. High N and K but low P in veg then you could taper off the N and add more P but also keeping the K later in flower by using more of the bloom. The micro being somewhat of a constant throughout. Basically just swing from more of the grow in veg to more of the bloom in flower, if not eliminating the grow completely the last few weeks. Kind of just following their feeding schedule but cutting it way back and not swinging it quite so much, if at all. Just thinking of tinkering with it a little

Even at equal parts I think the 3 part would have a better NPK ratio then the lucas formula. imo
 
guerrilla medic

guerrilla medic

Well-Known Member
i use gh in all my rdwc set ups and i have had a lot of success using only the micro and bloom. 4:3 ratio micro to bloom until 2 weeks into flower and then just go lucas with it. i dont think anything with a higher K to N is going to be suited for coco.
 
guerrilla medic

guerrilla medic

Well-Known Member
theres a little bit of gravel rolling around in the bottom of my dyna-gro gallon. the stuff is working great. you guys think its anything to be concerned about. old nutes perhaps?
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
guerrilla medic said:
theres a little bit of gravel rolling around in the bottom of my dyna-gro gallon. the stuff is working great. you guys think its anything to be concerned about. old nutes perhaps?
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Yeah, I've noticed a little in the bottom of mine also. Calcium Phosphate? I don't really know either. I attributed mine to old nutes because my local hydro store doesn't sell many dyna-gro products. But if you have it as well... might keep an eye out on that in the future. Just ordered more grow and foliage pro, so we'll see...
 
DirtyMcCurdy

DirtyMcCurdy

Well-Known Member
guerrilla medic said:
i use gh in all my rdwc set ups and i have had a lot of success using only the micro and bloom. 4:3 ratio micro to bloom until 2 weeks into flower and then just go lucas with it. i dont think anything with a higher K to N is going to be suited for coco.
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Yeah, the whole coco potassium thing. I have been giving perlite a lot of thought here lately. You use strait perlite in your buckets don't you? The DG test plants are in coco, yes, and I'm going to finish that run on the DG but after that I am thinking of going back and putting more effort in my flood and drain set-ups and abandoning the drain to waste coco set-up I have going. Thought about perlite in something like a dutch bucket set-up. Top drip recirculating using perlite. Decisions decisions.
 
guerrilla medic

guerrilla medic

Well-Known Member
i have used pure perlite in cups before but lately been using coco/perlite mix since i have a bunch laying around. i still prefer rdwc but have been getting really good weight in the coco as well, even with some deficiencies along the way. the coco is straight up auto pilot once they're big enough to be on the irrigation system. there is not much to it. but the rdwc does crush coco in terms of veg times. i'm just going to keep half in rdwc and half in coco. pure perlite in flood and drain should be pretty easy once you dial it in. keep the pics and updates comin brother.
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guerrilla medic

guerrilla medic

Well-Known Member
just to comment on the earlier post i made about the hg aquaflakes: i was having all kinds of trouble keeping my clones healthy looking in coco, however this is not the case in dwc(maybe because they're made for dwc lol).while they did not work well for me in coco they are doing great growing the same cut in dwc......that is all.
 
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