SOILLESS Would you feed right after a flush?

[azorahai]

Let's say you are growing in a soilless mix (coco coir, peat moss with perlite, etc.) which allows for easy drainage — i.e. it doesn't compact when heavily watered and won't suffocate the roots —, and your plants are experiencing a nutrient lockout from salt build-up/overfertilization. Would you flush them with pH'd water and allow them to dry thoroughly before feeding, or would feed them as soon as you've flushed with enough water? Or perhaps not feed it right after but still feed them before the mix dries completely (i.e. when you would normally water/feed them)?

It seems to me that the best approach in this case, seeing as a nutrient locked-out plant is effectively starved of nutrients for a while before it starts showing signs of a deficiency, is to remove as much salt/nutes as possible and feed them right after the water completely runs-off (which should be registering a very low ppm/ec). Waiting a little while seems unnecessary, and waiting days until it dries seems like it would continue to starve until you finally feed them. What are your thoughts?

[9fingerleafs]

You are correct. No need to repeat what you said. Spot on reasoning. I grow in coco and have many many plants so when I “flush” i actually drench using the normal nutrient water and catch all runoff (i place my plants on top of a rack above a tote) and at the end I use that water to water the rest of the plants. this removes salt buildup too and don’t waste anything because it’s given to other plants. Same with the water you flush with. You could flush with nutrient water but it would be a waste so yeah you got it figured out

[azorahai]

I try not to reuse the run-off in my cannabis plants because I have no idea which nutrients and in which proportion it still contains, but I usually just throw it in my regular garden plants, as they are being constantly flushed by the amount of rain that falls this time of the year here. So far, they've been enjoying it, but I try not to overdo it.

[9fingerleafs]

Very nice. I make 10 or 15 gallons of nutrient water every day so it’s a drop in a bucket the amount of variation because of a single plant. It’s mostly potassium because it’s naturally released by the coco