Dyna-Gro vs Advanced Nutrients Connoisseur (AK47 Grow)

homebrewer said:

That's a good question. In hydro I stopped using protekt during the last two weeks of flower. I just felt like it was unnecessary and a waste of protekt. I'm still playing with promix but I'll likely do something similar. It just depends on how 1/2ml/gal performs. I just recently started feeding with that new protekt dosage and will be harvesting the first plants from that 'tweak' in the next few weeks. So far I'm very happy with the feel of the leaves on this round of ladies.

Click to expand...

At a half ml i don't see why not. Most of us are at that 2.5 mark (i don't mean here, i mean grow circles), and not going past day 42 or even 35. The only reason i asked was because some one here mentioned something the other day in a lighting thread about adding K late for purposes of high heat and transpiration in the lights off cycle . Any way it was interesting and got me thinking is all.

homebrewer said:

I also use protekt at every watering, however, I noticed brittle leaves towards the end of flower which I thought was an accumulation of too much protekt during the plant's life. These days I still use protekt at every watering, I just stick to about 1/2 ml/gal, sometimes less.

Click to expand...

At this time im at 1ml per gallon with protekt. I took your advice HB and got rid of the cal-mag which reduced my ec by almost 200ppm. So i upped the FP a little more than 1.5ml per gallon im sitting at 450ppm. I feel like I'm not doing enough with an EC that low I did notice my leaves are very green and some of the plants 2 picky plants had a little leaf curl is it best to have leaf curl or yellowing leaves on the bottom?

Also another question hb I know you don't flush but do you feel you lose that much yield in the last week if you don't flush? why I ask is if you flush week 7 or 8 you're going to save money by not using nutrients what is your main reason for not flushing besides keeping them green? Thanks

supdro said:

At this time im at 1ml per gallon with protekt. I took your advice HB and got rid of the cal-mag which reduced my ec by almost 200ppm. So i upped the FP a little more than 1.5ml per gallon im sitting at 450ppm. I feel like I'm not doing enough with an EC that low I did notice my leaves are very green and some of the plants 2 picky plants had a little leaf curl is it best to have leaf curl or yellowing leaves on the bottom?

Click to expand...

I feed at every watering so I like the lower EC range. Just run some tests on your end to see what works best for you.

supdro said:

Also another question hb I know you don't flush but do you feel you lose that much yield in the last week if you don't flush? why I ask is if you flush week 7 or 8 you're going to save money by not using nutrients what is your main reason for not flushing besides keeping them green? Thanks

Click to expand...

Flushing implies that these plants don't need any food in the last weeks of their life. The fact that flushing induces deficiencies shows that these plants do have nutritional needs near harvest. My goal is to grow and harvest the healthiest plants possible because that's how one will achieve their best results. I can understand where people who chronically overfeed their plants would feel like they need to flush. Personally I think that if you've overfed a plant for 6 weeks, 2 weeks of straight water isn't going to do squat to correct the mistakes the grower made up to that point. If you don't overfeed, you shouldn't feel the need to flush. Your leaves should be soft, your flowers should be beautifully fragrant, and your herb should be tasty.

The fact that I don't flush isn't so much based on yield, but based on common sense and good gardening practices. What other plants are flushed at harvest? I can't think of a single one other than cannabis which happens to be often grown by complete morons. No offense to anyone of course. But in regards to how I treat plants near harvest, I will lower the EC slightly in the last week maybe? Either way, plant health is first and foremost.

homebrewer said:

DG with RO water, in my opinion, is THE way to grow with DG. My tap water isn't balanced and I get some funky leaf coloring if I try to use any brand of food with my tap water. I like DG because it has everything you need, calcium and Mg included, so it's pretty much plug-and-play in any medium.

Click to expand...

thx man.

In horticulture , 50ppm Si or 100ppm SiO2 is the recommanded dosage .....Fertilizer rate are always too high in my experience.AN posted tissue analysis, they found that Si was in the same amount or really close to Iron amount. http://www.growersunderground.com/PhosphorusMyth.pdf
Not sure 100% , since it comes from them but it make sense to me since it's a micro. 5-10ppm SiO2 is safe IMO.

wait... so your saying (HB) that with your ppm's at 500 or under for flowering you feed EVERY watering? Thats like three to four times a week correct? I thought you were doing water water feed?

Youngtree777 said:

wait... so your saying (HB) that with your ppm's at 500 or under for flowering you feed EVERY watering? Thats like three to four times a week correct? I thought you were doing water water feed?

Click to expand...

Most plants only need watered every third day. It just depends on the size of the plant I guess.

Yes, I used to feed, feed, water. That works too. Now I lowed the EC and feed at every watering. There is no correct or incorrect way as long as it's working for you.

Whats your new lowered ppm rate now a days ?

I noticed a tree lookiN a lil yella.

My ppm/EC rate is specific to my environment, watering frequency and strains. Do whatever gives you the best growth.

I agree hb. I like the method of keeping things simple as possible I've been following you since 09 since you started using Dyna Gro and you really helped me learn how to read my plants while using one the most versatile nutrients..Ty

supdro said:

I agree hb. I like the method of keeping things simple as possible I've been following you since 09 since you started using Dyna Gro and you really helped me learn how to read my plants while using one the most versatile nutrients..Ty

Click to expand...

Ultimately Uncle Ben inspired these tests as that's where I found out about DG but I'm glad you found some value in my comparison grows. It's been informative for me too

I understand how different plants have different needs but my question has a little more to do with the comparison of using nutes at a rate of 800 to 1500 compared to DG at 500. I dont want to burn em watering them three times a week at 500 ppm nah mean

So my question is did u go down from 500 or are you doin less than that in order to feed more maintenance. Which if I were to do so I would probably follow the directions @ 1/4 to 1/2 a tsp per gallon..
What you fellas tink ?

Youngtree777 said:

I understand how different plants have different needs but my question has a little more to do with the comparison of using nutes at a rate of 800 to 1500 compared to DG at 500. I dont want to burn em watering them three times a week at 500 ppm nah mean

So my question is did u go down from 500 or are you doin less than that in order to feed more maintenance. Which if I were to do so I would probably follow the directions @ 1/4 to 1/2 a tsp per gallon..
What you fellas tink ?

Click to expand...

There are different ppm scales so when you say 500ppm, that could be a different EC for a few different people. My plants like 0.4 EC, your plants might not.

Well... I am following the directions on the bottles.. Got me about 200ppms on nutes alone plus Si and my biocozyme and nothin burned yet.. so thats about a third plus some compared to the 500+ I was using once every third watering.. I dont have an EC meter or setting on my ppm meter so I'm gonna follow my instinct.

Thank you for all your help. Now pertaining to EC.. if say 500ppms can vary in EC then what causes this?? From what I understand from this thread ppm doesn't go hand in hand with EC correct?

Youngtree777 said:

Well... I am following the directions on the bottles.. Got me about 200ppms on nutes alone plus Si and my biocozyme and nothin burned yet.. so thats about a third plus some compared to the 500+ I was using once every third watering.. I dont have an EC meter or setting on my ppm meter so I'm gonna follow my instinct.

Thank you for all your help. Now pertaining to EC.. if say 500ppms can vary in EC then what causes this?? From what I understand from this thread ppm doesn't go hand in hand with EC correct?

Click to expand...

Check out this chart:

http://www.cannaversity.com/cannaversity/article.php?id=041

TDS meters don't actually measure total dissolved solids, they measure electrical conductivity (EC) and estimate the TDS. Since the EC<>TDS conversion ratio varies, using EC allows you to make comparisons without any conversion ambiguity.

Youngtree777 said:

Well... I am following the directions on the bottles.. Got me about 200ppms on nutes alone plus Si and my biocozyme and nothin burned yet.. so thats about a third plus some compared to the 500+ I was using once every third watering.. I dont have an EC meter or setting on my ppm meter so I'm gonna follow my instinct.

Thank you for all your help. Now pertaining to EC.. if say 500ppms can vary in EC then what causes this?? From what I understand from this thread ppm doesn't go hand in hand with EC correct?

Click to expand...

What causes the variation is the different PPM scale of TDS/PPM meters people use. Electrical Conductivity (EC) and Parts Per Million (PPM) are two ways of arriving at the same conclusion; the concentration of mineral in the solution.

EC is a direct reading, while PPM meters are calibrated conversions to one of three different popular PPM scales, listed in the link Homebrewer supplied. So the PPM to EC conversion will depend on what scale your TDS/PPM meter is calibrated to.

Using EC is a standard, kind of like saying if everyone used Greenwich Mean Time to tell time, we would never have to convert to time zones.

I bought a cheap Chinese TDS/PPM meter and was wondering the same thing. Nowhere did it say what scale it is calibrated to. I later discovered it is calibrated to the "Hanna" or "500" scale, because the calibration/buffer solution provided with it is labeled 1382ppm, which I learned is the calibration ppm for the 500 (Hanna) scale. I would think most Chinese knock-offs would be the same. If you got 1382ppm solution with it that would confirm.

Found this from a Hanna document:

"Hanna PPM Scales for Hanna Meters
1.Any meter that requires a calibration solution of
1500ppm is generally on the .7 calibration scale (called
the 442 scale)
2.Any meter that requires a calibration solution of
1382ppm is generally on the .5 calibration scale (
called the sodium chloride scale)..."

Learned all this right here man...

I'm confused...I'm using coco and use 3ml per gallon in veg for a ppm of around 550 and all the way up to 6ml per gallon in flower....how are you able to keep your concentrations so low?

Hello. Lots of reading. Read most. So forgive me if I missed something. This test was done in 2011. Was the range PH perfect back then ? I use AN simply because it's easy to use and I don't need to mess with PH adjustment. Is there anything out there cheaper that I can try where I don't need to adjust ph levels. ? I'm not lazy , I just spend enough time with my tomato plants already and want things to take less time.