Dyna-Gro vs Advanced Nutrients Connoisseur (AK47 Grow)

Just to clarify longer cure does not mean more THC, when dried, cured, and stored properly the bud has already lost all the moisture it's going to lose. A longer cure with any unfavorable conditions is only going to break down the THC. Maybe people aren't drying/curing right so a longer storage is causing more decarboxylation than they are used to which gets them more high and feels like it's more potent. I'm not sure how they are using it or what is happening with the bud but logically there is no way a properly dried, cured, and stored bud could gain any more than it had from when the plant was ready to be smoked.

From wet bud to dry it 'gains more potency' only because there is less water weight so THC content/weight of bud is higher.

HB- know it's sort of a dumb question, but do you use a paper or plastic bag. I've seen people use paper, but the way you describe the sweating it sounds like you might use plastic. I like mason jars- and experimented vacuum packing them with a foodsaver and tossing in the freezer for long term storage once cured- and I can honestly say that a over a year later it's just like the day I put it in there... Sometimes I even think it helps add a touch to the cure.

Trichy Bastard said:

HB- know it's sort of a dumb question, but do you use a paper or plastic bag.

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I use plastic. They don't make 5 gallon mason jars which is what I'd need. My personal meds are in jars, however.

they do make some nice 1 gallon cookie type jars with a screw on lid....found em at wally-world.....

yo hb go to your local bar (hole in the wall) ask them for their olive jar, the jars i get are 5lb glass jars for olives.they are just going to throw them out anyway.

homebrewer said:

I use plastic. They don't make 5 gallon mason jars which is what I'd need. My personal meds are in jars, however.

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Thanks HB- and Maphisto's right- the cherry jars are usually the same size as well. I used to give them away all the time to people for all sorts of uses, so it raises no suspicions- not that a bartender cares anyway

Another excellent thread by Homebrewer, if you keep throwing out all this good information on your threads OP your gonna be the next uncle ben. At the beginning of this thread you mentioned that for pro mix on your straight water days you add 3 ml of cal/mag. Obviously you find this is enough for your plants but I was wondering if you use it throughout the grow or if you use it only for flower? What brand of cal/mag do you use? I would also like to know if youve given some thought as to what your next thread might be because I doubt I'm the only one wondering. Long time lurker, first time poster. Thank you

ssh420 said:

At the beginning of this thread you mentioned that for pro mix on your straight water days you add 3 ml of cal/mag. Obviously you find this is enough for your plants but I was wondering if you use it throughout the grow or if you use it only for flower?

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I use RO water so the calmag on 'water days' adds back a desirable mineral content. I'm more-or-less mimicking good tap water as mine in the winter is 300+ ppm. During the summer, I just skip the calmag and use my 200ppm tap water on 'water' days.

What brand of cal/mag do you use?

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Botanicare because I had it sitting around. Actually bought it years ago when I had no idea why it was even needed. I learned pretty quickly that with my tap water, it's not needed. With RO, I now have a use for it in the dirt...occasionally.

I would also like to know if youve given some thought as to what your next thread might be because I doubt I'm the only one wondering. Long time lurker, first time poster.

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Thanks for the support. To be honest, I may be dipping out after this thread as the constant stream of bad info around here is annoying to me. People get into this hobby without ever tending to a veggie garden and without that common sense gardening experience, newbs tend to be easily brainwashed which is why the same stupid thread topics get brought up all the time. Defoliation? Are you kidding me? I guess the cannabis growers around here were outside smoking weed in their cars instead of attending their high school Plant Biology class.

...I mean, don't get me wrong. I like helping people out. I get a lot of PMs and respond to them as soon as I can. But when common sense is met with closed minds and straight up ignorance in threads, that gets old.

homebrewer said:

To be honest, I may be dipping out after this thread as the constant stream of bad info around here is annoying to me. People get into this hobby without ever tending to a veggie garden and without that common sense gardening experience, newbs tend to be easily brainwashed which is why the same stupid thread topics get brought up all the time.

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Harsh but true. It would be a loss for the community for sure- as then we are only left with a greater imbalance of bad information. I joined this site out of all the others because of your work- and I am sure that I'm not the only one... You've taught me to use common sense when it comes to this topic, and although I still have much to learn, I think most of it will come easier now. Hope knowing the time you spend makes a positive difference in at least a few people's lives who are listening and learning. There comes a point when you have to ask what you're getting out of it for yourself though- and I can see where it becomes a bit one sided.

Hey- I think I read somewhere you were giving the beneficial mites a shot- if so, how is it going so far?

Trichy Bastard said:

Hey- I think I read somewhere you were giving the beneficial mites a shot- if so, how is it going so far?

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I actually saw the stethorus bugs eating mites and their eggs, but after a few days, I don't know where they disappeared to. I also picked up some spider mite predators and I don't think they did squat. Maybe I didn't buy enough? Maybe they fell into my flood tables during a flood? I think if there are any mites around after my azamax treatments, I'll give lady bugs a try. I'd highly recommend the stethorus bugs but they're expensive and you'll need a lot of them.

This will be one of the final picture updates of the journal as I believe today is day 64 and these ugly ladies will be getting the chop either tomorrow or Saturday. Good thing too because I’m tired of these yellow plants in my garden . Leaf curl, deficiencies, leaf drop (not too bad actually), tip burn at modest feeding levels, that pretty much sums up these AK47s being grown with Connoisseur. This has not been an easy fertilizer to work with and I think the plants show exactly that. For comparison purposes, there are a few pics below of another flood table with my purple strain and some Kali mist plants. I know the kalis streeeetched too much but it’s the first time they’ve been in the hydro setup (I had no idea they’d quadruple in height) and this is also the first time I’ve run my purple strain with DynaGro in hydro. Notice the difference in plant health and both trays are the same age. My sativa tray will go another 2 weeks or so but you get my point.

So the AKs don’t look good but I will say this; resin production looks excellent and the buds smell as you’d expect. I wouldn’t call the yield ‘chunky’ but there are some decent sized buds in the mix and with the plants all laying on the trellis netting, there is some weight there too. Once the yellow leaves are all trimmed off and the buds manicured, I’d say I’ll have some good looking product at the end of this. I’ll probably give them a couple weeks to dry and sweat before I take some final harvest numbers but as it stands, this experiment with Advanced Nutrients’ Connoisseur doesn’t *look* like it’ll be costing me a whole lot of weight.

For comparison purposes, there are some ‘dynagro in the dirt’ pics as well as a few from my tray of sativas being grow exactly next to my Connoisseur tray.


Chronic – Day 52 – Harvest day – DynaGro in the dirt:



Connoisseur day 64:





DynaGro day 64:


Connoisseur day 64:









DynaGro day 64:









Sativa tray – Day 64 – DynaGro – My purple strain and Kali mist



My purple strain, first time in hydro with DynaGro, day 64 which is about 2 weeks from harvest…



My personal all time favorite, the stretchy Kali mist with DynaGro, day 64 which is about 2 weeks from harvest…

Wow as always it looks amazing. I'll be looking forward to the final pics in a few weeks!

Again, cheers to you hb for the journey.

Everyone is a pro grower around here eh HB
The dyna grow tray looks decent. The connie trays looks like mexican swag.
Not much bag appeal there. Try using an a/c for more dense and round buds. Or keep the temps in the mid 20's (good advice)
Looks frosty tho. ive kinda learnt from your mistake. Need to cut back on N the last half of the cycle for flood N drain.

Very nice- even with the less than ideal conditions for the comparison... I'm sure that Kali is gonna be great when it finishes up ...
I noticed your hygrometer/barometer/thermostat in the background. I was curious if you have found any need to adjust feeding or other parameters based on differing levels of readings from these instruments. I know these paramaters do indeed affect transpiration, but was curious if it translated into something real world you made changes based on- even before noticing any changes in the ladies. If so- what would be the general things you look for, and adjustments you make accordingly?

The results are +/- about the same with C and DG. What is the difference in costs for this grow?

Trichy Bastard said:

Very nice- even with the less than ideal conditions for the comparison...

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Less than ideal? My conditions are always the same.

I noticed your hygrometer/barometer/thermostat in the background. I was curious if you have found any need to adjust feeding or other parameters based on differing levels of readings from these instruments.

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I'm only looking at humidity. My dumpster strain will mold if the humidity is too high late in flower so when I have a tray of it, I just turn my dehumidifier up to get the humidity under 50%.

I know these paramaters do indeed affect transpiration, but was curious if it translated into something real world you made changes based on- even before noticing any changes in the ladies. If so- what would be the general things you look for, and adjustments you make accordingly?

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I have control over everything and when the day and night temps are in the 70's, that causes my dirt pots to take a looooong time to dry out which will cause root issues. Same applies to my rockwool blocks. You want the plants to cycle through water and food and they do that at a slower rate at lower temps. When I've experimented near 90*, that was too high. I shoot for 80-85 during the day and 75-80 during the night.

budhuger

The results are +/- about the same with C and DG. What is the difference in costs for this grow?​

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I agree, +/- a few ounces. The cost difference is one factor, how about the time it took to adjust the pH multiple times per week or the health of the plants or the yield difference?

homebrewer said:

Less than ideal? My conditions are always the same.

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Sorry- I should have been more specific- just meant in using the Connoisseur for the first time. Thanks for all the other info man...

You can clearly see that the extra N took its toll on the Connoisseur grow. i am amazed at the results I'm getting using dynagrow at very weak concentrations, My girls in mid flower are completely happy at .9 EC, and the mature girls are coasting along at .5EC. at day 58 I'm showing a little yellow in the fan leaves as you would expect so close to harvest. I have not been adding any extra N to the bloom mix. I encourage everyone to have a go at running very low nute levels, I know I was pleasantly surprised. My buds look the best of anything I've ever grown.
HB has really sped up my learning curve by pointing me in the low nute level direction. I could have continued feeding at a normal 800 ppm and chased my tail trying to figure out whats wrong. I look back on feeding at 1200ppm, and getting signs of calcium and magnesium def. I even thought I had tobacco mosaic virus while burning my girls at "normal feeding levels".


Question for HB
I know you like to add the 1ml of grow to your bloom nutes to give a little extra N. I remember you commenting in one of your earlier journals that the lower leaves were showing some yellow and started adding N to correct this. Do you think that the yellow may have just been from low light at the bottom of the canopy, and not a N deficiency. My grow was a little less dense than yours with just 3 plants under the 600watt, and never showed the pale undergrowth.

burrr said:

Question for HB
I know you like to add the 1ml of grow to your bloom nutes to give a little extra N. I remember you commenting in one of your earlier journals that the lower leaves were showing some yellow and started adding N to correct this. Do you think that the yellow may have just been from low light at the bottom of the canopy, and not a N deficiency. My grow was a little less dense than yours with just 3 plants under the 600watt, and never showed the pale undergrowth.

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As much as I love DynaGro and the results I get from them, I don't think their bloom formula (3-12-6) has enough N to keep plants totally green early in flower. The easy fix was to add a couple mls per gallon of 'grow' into the mix which corrected any yellowing and premature leaf drop earlier on in flower. I don't think it was a light issue as I have not had that 'yellowing' issue since I started mixing grow and bloom.

EDIT: If you notice up at the top of the page, the DynaGro tray is starting to turn light green and would eventually work it's way to yellow. I will sometimes cut out the grow all together during the last two weeks just to see how the plants react. It doesn't take long for those leaves to lighten color when 'grow' isn't in the mix. It depends on each one of our setups but I'm a big fan of supplementing a touch of grow formula during flower.

homebrewer said:

As much as I love DynaGro and the results I get from them, I don't think their bloom formula (3-12-6) has enough N to keep plants totally green early in flower. The easy fix was to add a couple mls per gallon of 'grow' into the mix which corrected any yellowing and premature leaf drop earlier on in flower. I don't think it was a light issue as I have not had that 'yellowing' issue since I started mixing grow and bloom.

EDIT: If you notice up at the top of the page, the DynaGro tray is starting to turn light green and would eventually work it's way to yellow. I will sometimes cut out the grow all together during the last two weeks just to see how the plants react. It doesn't take long for those leaves to lighten color when 'grow' isn't in the mix. It depends on each one of our setups but I'm a big fan of supplementing a touch of grow formula during flower.

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How much grow formula you put during flower?
And how much bloom formula?
And theres any point during flower that you cut the grow formula or just keep it all the way to finish?
Thanks!!!