Mega Crop vs Dyna-Gro comparison grow

[homebrewer]

In your experience, are there any shortcomings to a FP only grow in coco that incorporating bloom into might address? I think I even seen a video where the owner of DG said that for cannabis he recommends FP and Protekt from seed to harvest. I might have to try both with the same pheno side by side, as I know people personally who use bloom and have amazing flower but I also have seen like ten years of posts from you using DG, nobody else I know has been using it that long.

The only 'issue' with using FP in a coco and perlite blend is that in terms of watering frequency you're getting close to hydro and higher doses of N than needed tend to grow leafier, branchier plants. IMO, that's what we're seeing here with mega crop. If you know what you're doing you can prune the sh*t out of your plants to avoid the leafy, airy flowers that will inevitably be produced but if you don't do that well then yields can suffer. In this case with mega crop and in your situation where bloom might be added to foliage pro, a higher dose of P and K could knock back the N content to a more reasonable level and improve yields by focusing production on fewer, higher quality flowering sites.

I‘m growing on a fairly small scale, so I don’t mind having the extra work that comes with mixing FP and Bloom, getting the best end product in terms of quality is my main priority, yield matters but is hardly something I am worried about.

Bloom and foliage pro can be mixed together in their concentrated form. I actually have an 80/20 bloom/FP mix sitting around in a 4 ounce bottle for when I top off my reservoirs and add back some food.

Also, I am a newcomer to coco, I have typically fed water only for the first two weeks before adding any nutes, in a coco grow, how long,if at all, should I wait before I start feeding FP and do I need to be feeding anything in the meantime other than water?

I agree with @Wastei. Plants grown in coco need food from the get-go. In your case with DG's foliage pro, literally 1ml/gal is plenty.

 

[homebrewer]

We're at exactly 9 weeks today and I'll likely start chopping away tomorrow. I'm going to do a final wrap up once yield numbers are in but at this point I can comment on a few things. Overall I didn't love working with Mega Crop. It's a complete dry food that is just kind of dusty and dirty to work with. I didn't love weighing it, premixing it in a bucket with a few gallons of water, then lugging that bucket into my flowering area to mix with the rest of my reservoir. I'd suspect that MC required 15 minutes of additional work at every weekly res change as compared to just about any liquid food that I've ever used; DynaGro in this case. MC did dissolve completely but it did take about 10 minutes or so of stirring and settling, stirring and settling, and more stirring and settling. Once MC was in the reservoir it was consistent as it needed an initial pH adjustment and then one more a few days later. So overall fairly low maintenance to use. However, MC did grow branchier plants as compared to DG and did require lots of trimming and pruning for the first 3 weeks. Things do look chunky though and plant health really couldn't be better so the yield numbers should be interesting.

Mega Crop at harvest...



DynaGro at harvest...



Mega Crop resin...



DynaGro resin...



Mega Crop chunkiness (obligatory lighter picture)....




More Mega Crop chunkiness...



Floppy Mega Crop flower...

 

[swedsteven]

Megacrop Rock cant wait to see your smoke report

 

[homebrewer]

Megacrop Rock cant wait to see your smoke report

I can post a report but in my experience the quality of the flowers is a function of plant health and if you have healthy plants at harvest then that's about as good as it gets, regardless of what you've use to get there. Flavor can change a bit I guess? I vape out of a volcano so everything is tasty out of that thing.

 

[Kushash]

We're at exactly 9 weeks today and I'll likely start chopping away tomorrow. I'm going to do a final wrap up once yield numbers are in but at this point I can comment on a few things. Overall I didn't love working with Mega Crop. It's a complete dry food that is just kind of dusty and dirty to work with. I didn't love weighing it, premixing it in a bucket with a few gallons of water, then lugging that bucket into my flowering area to mix with the rest of my reservoir. I'd suspect that MC required 15 minutes of additional work at every weekly res change as compared to just about any liquid food that I've ever used; DynaGro in this case. MC did dissolve completely but it did take about 10 minutes or so of stirring and settling, stirring and settling, and more stirring and settling. Once MC was in the reservoir it was consistent as it needed an initial pH adjustment and then one more a few days later. So overall fairly low maintenance to use. However, MC did grow branchier plants as compared to DG and did require lots of trimming and pruning for the first 3 weeks. Things do look chunky though and plant health really couldn't be better so the yield numbers should be interesting.

Mega Crop at harvest...

View attachment 4417872

DynaGro at harvest...

View attachment 4417880

Mega Crop resin...

View attachment 4417873

DynaGro resin...

View attachment 4417883

Mega Crop chunkiness (obligatory lighter picture)....

View attachment 4417875


More Mega Crop chunkiness...

View attachment 4417876

Floppy Mega Crop flower...

View attachment 4417878

It would be interesting to know what elements dissolve slower or if they coat some elements to dissolve slower to avoid binding.

 

[dubekoms]

Awesome comparison and a great grow @homebrewer I'm excited to see the weight difference between the two, if there is any.

 

[homebrewer]

It would be interesting to know what elements dissolve slower or if they coat some elements to dissolve slower to avoid binding.

I think some of the Mega Crop crew would know. It's the 'balls' part of the food. I think that's calcium nitrate maybe? It just takes some minutes to fully dissolve.

 

[dubekoms]

I think some of the Mega Crop crew would know. It's the 'balls' part of the food. I think that's calcium nitrate maybe? It just takes some minutes to fully dissolve.

The balls (calcium nitrate)take the longest to dissolve ime. I dump it in, give it a stir, wait a few minutes and stir again which gets everything dissolved.

 

[Axion42]

Nice job on this grow. By the looks of it I say DG wins on weight and appearance.

 

[Kushash]

I think some of the Mega Crop crew would know. It's the 'balls' part of the food. I think that's calcium nitrate maybe? It just takes some minutes to fully dissolve.

I would have guessed calcium or phosphorus would be slow released while the other is quickly released to keep them from binding.
@horribleherk grinded up the balls a few weeks back in a blender. Any results from doing that?

 

[Madriffer]

I don't pre mix MC at res changes. Weigh, dump in res and use my wand to mix and stir while filling. First table flood will assure complete mixing. I used to make flurries, even tried my blender once. Made no discernable difference. I have 18, 27, 50 and 70 gal reservoirs, size doesn't matter either.
The extra branching with the MC intrigues me. I may have e to get some DG and check that out. I do NOT want the extra branching in my SOG. I gave up on the GG#4 for that very reason.

 

[Keesje]

the extra branching is because of the amount of N, so says @homebrewer

Always wondered how a nutrient could be the same for both veg and flower.
It might look handy but it also must have a downside. Guess the 'extra branching' is one of those downsides.

 

[homebrewer]

I don't pre mix MC at res changes. Weigh, dump in res and use my wand to mix and stir while filling. First table flood will assure complete mixing. I used to make flurries, even tried my blender once. Made no discernable difference. I have 18, 27, 50 and 70 gal reservoirs, size doesn't matter either.

I tried mixing it in my reservoir and while it did eventually mix, for me it took longer and required more effort as compared to a bucket.

The extra branching with the MC intrigues me. I may have e to get some DG and check that out. I do NOT want the extra branching in my SOG. I gave up on the GG#4 for that very reason.

It's not just MegaCrop, it's any food in hydro with a higher dose of N than needed. I've grown with DG's Grow (7-9-5) and their Foliage Pro (9-3-6) all the way through in hydro and saw leafier, branchier plants. If you ever try DG, hit me up for a good recipe.

 

[Nizza]

I loved using DG back in the world of hempy thread
Loving your threads and info too HB. I plan on using my sample of megacrop with my next grow in a hydroponic reservoir. Just have to decide which type of hydro system I'm going to use. I have only done passive hempy's before and want to do something a little more automated but still simple. As soon as I get my 5x5 flowering chamber figured out, I might take some clones and set something up with a few of them in my micro chamber. Do you mind if I tag you in there when I get to it so I can get some input?

 

[homebrewer]

I loved using DG back in the world of hempy thread
Loving your threads and info too HB. I plan on using my sample of megacrop with my next grow in a hydroponic reservoir. Just have to decide which type of hydro system I'm going to use. I have only done passive hempy's before and want to do something a little more automated but still simple. As soon as I get my 5x5 flowering chamber figured out, I might take some clones and set something up with a few of them in my micro chamber. Do you mind if I tag you in there when I get to it so I can get some input?

Feel free! I'm sure I'll be around.

 

[jdmcwestevo]

very interested to see final numbers thanks for such an awesome comparison

 

[lukio]

nice grow, dude.

whats the tipping from? ive had this on the last two MC grows at 0.9 ec. ive switched nutes

 

[tk240]

I watched the original threads Homebrewer did back around 2011. They were awesome and the whole forum was watching and commenting. I tried to message him for the results of the Great White test but I couldn't because my post count was too low (0). It has been almost 10 years I've had this account so when I happened to see this thread come up I thought what better time for a first post than now. Another great, infomative and honest thread, great job. Please let me know or PM me about the great white from way back when and how you feel about floralicious + and bring closure to this almost decade long mystery haha. Good to see you are still around man.

 

[ISK]

MC did dissolve completely but it did take about 10 minutes or so of stirring and settling, stirring and settling, and more stirring and settling.

Awesome thread Homebrewer, 2 thumbs up.

I use powder nutes (GH Maxi-Bloom) and had similar issues with mixing, stirring, shaking, settling, then do it again and again to get it 100% dissolved.

My solution is to use a food blender...I have an old Kenmore blender that is dedicated to mixing my nutes and it works extremely efficient.

I would suggest considering picking up an old blender if you ever decided to use MC again

cheers
ISK

 

[westcoast420]

Feel free! I'm sure I'll be around.

How do you find the density of the buds at this stage comparatively? Any difference in smell or terpenes?