Hey DG friends and DG experts! So as Maleovence stated, he and I have had issues with our pH swinging so rapidly in blooming cycle especially. I have been reading Uncle Ben's post and HB's threads on good ratios for DG products in dwc, and I'd say they are pretty much right on the button with ratios of DG Grow and Bloom.
However, after calling Dyna Gro today, I spoke with a bio-chemistry rep who offered some useful info for DWC growers, and I thought I would share with what he told me, which will probably be redundent for alot of you, but for those in DWC with Dyna Gro products, this info maybe useful, especially if you are having this canoe/ bear claw problem with high pH swings.
So other side info, I clean my buckets once every 5 days, I bleach them down, clean air hoses and stones by letting them soak in an h202 solution. I was running the heisenberg tea, but, I am wondering if the molasses is contributing to much with my anaerobic growth. I stopped using Mag-Pro a while back and wanted to try the Botanicare Sweet, which in my opinion is nice, but.... I think that the sugar and carbs, like the molasses is contributing to much too the bad bacteria (even with my res temps between 65-75 degres F).
This is my set up:
Basic grow room setup: 400 w HPS, 3.5 ft x 3.5 ft x 6 ft grow box. I am running 3 5-gal buckets with grow stones as my medium in 3.75 in net pots. I have a 6in inline exhaust with a 18in ossilator.
My nutes before the conversation:
Protek-3ml per gal , DG-Grow-1 ml per gal, DG-Bloom-2 ml/gallon, Botanicare-Sweet-5 ml per gallon.
Avg ppm in 3.5 gal of water in 5 gal bucket = (30 ppm x 3ml )+(120x1ml)x +(75 ppm x2) + (25ppmx5 ml) = 377 ppm +/- 2%
so as you can see, my feeding schedule for this plant is pretty light. but, I could not figure out why my pH was dropping a full 1.0 point in 24 hrs, ( I keep ph @ 5.9). Besides my pH swings and the bear claw, I have also been noticing that I have quite a bit of root particulates floating around in my bucket. Which, I am hypothesizing it may be the sugar/bad bacteria causing this. Even though I am NOT experiencing pythium or foul smells in my tank. (i.e. fishy smells)
So this is the info from Rafeal (like the Ninja Turtle), what might help fix our current problems, and guide us through better future grows. This is what he recommended:
1) Flush with plain pHed water for 1 week (this kind of threw me off a bit, but he said it would be the most sufficient ways of getting rid of the sugars). He also stated, that higher carbs/ sugars in a DWC medium, changes the osmotic pressure /tugo pressure, which basically dehydrates the plants. He stated that the sugars too would also splash onto my grow stones and contribute to bad bacteria as well.
- Since DWC is not a soil medium obviously, we do not have the plethora of various bacteria types ( good and bad) like soil mediums have, thus, even with our tea's we still will not have an amply diverse population that soil mediums have.
2) After a one week flush, he then statesd that we should do a res change, clean everything again, and start off with using 2.5 ml per gallon of KLN and 2 ml per gallon of ProTek for at least 5 days.
3)When you have approached your 5th day, change res and do a 50/50 mix of DG Foliage Pro with DG Bloom. Start with a low ppm and SLOWLY BUILD your way up.
4)Some other useful info, he recommended not to mix and match products from different brands because this could cause massive pH swings/ other grow issues. As far as Mag-Pro, he recommended using that sparingly, because of the high P, so 1 ml per gallon every 14 days is more than sufficient.
***Obviously this will effect your yield***** Live and Learn
Conclusion: Obviously, like I said, the info provided is redundant from the Uncle Ben/Homeberwer posts. But, sometimes instead of trying to cry to our DG fathers(not a gay joke about you UB and HB), it is good to contact the source and try and draw our own conclusions. Rafeal also stated that DG will becoming out with their own Sweetner soon and a few other products. They are also starting to phase out DG Grow formula and they are going to switch it too the FP forumla, and he highly recommended that we use Foliage Pro and Bloom together, opposed to DG Grow and Bloom, because the rations will be more in balance.
If you have any questions, Rafael said to give him a call about DG products, give hime a call @ 1-510-333-2333 , ext. 0254 . Aloha guys, and sincerest thanks to Uncle Ben and HB for guiding this padaewon growers and countless others.