Flushing question

[welshweed]

I'm still a few weeks away from that momentous day when I harvest my first grow, but I thought a bit of advanced knowledge wouldn't harm.

I'm reliably informed by various tutorials that I should be flushing my plants to get rid of nutrients about a week before I make "the chop". My intention is to harvest when trichomes are at their most potent, i.e. when they've all turned a milky white colour (although it's no big deal if some have turned a bit yellowish).

So the question is, given a full week of flushing, at what stage of development (colour) should the trichomes be when I start the flush?

[Larry1]

welshweed long time no talk to :-) trichomes up to you. What do you prefer. The more Amber trichomes the more couch lock you're going to get. As far as flushing I don't flush. I just make sure I get at least 10% runoff every time I water. I stop giving nutrients two to three weeks before chop. It also depends on your PPM. The higher your PPM the longer it's going to take to get the nutes out of the soil. I try to get my ppm's down between 2 and 400 by chop. That's just me. Hopefully that helps . Good luck and happy growing

[PeterMatanzas]

I usually don't flush either.

[Ellisk]

My brother lost a bet when a friend bet him he could do between 1 and 200 push ups in less than a minute. The guy did 2 push ups and demanded his money. Getting your ppm's down to 2 - 400 reminded me of this.

[DeadlyFruit]

Many flush but not everybody and the time spent flushing is also variable (I think there is a suggested range somewhere on GWE). I generally flush but for less than a week, not for any scientific reason. I have some flushing solution but these days I just use plain water. I start the flush about the time I am in the harvest window. I use it in part for insomnia so I want to see some ambers. Couchlock is my friend.

[PeterMatanzas]

oh hell, when I started grows I would take a plant into the kitchen and run the tap water thru the pot until I was tired of it. Then I'd add gallons of pH 6.3 , the number of gallons depending on pot size. Plants weren't bothered at all.

[kingfish]

I never flush. About 2 weeks before I harvest, I give them only water. No nutes.

[DeadlyFruit]

kingfish - apologies for not understanding - if you are giving them plain water for two weeks are you not flushing, or do you mean you never flush with a solution?

[kingfish]

No DeadlyFruit. I call that watering. Flushing is when you dump 3 times the size of your pot of water through you plant to to rid it of nutes or problems in your grow.

[DeadlyFruit]

Fair point. I suppose then what I do is a low speed flush, with smaller amounts of plain water stripping nutrients over time. That works better for me as I don’t tend to harvest all at once.

[PLreef]

I do the same. Stop nutes a few weeks before the chop. No major flushing.

[welshweed]

What I would really like to establish is a rule of thumb for:
"When should you stop feeding your plants nutes?"
For example, is it when you first notice trichomes developing on a bud?

[Welshboykev]

Hi I'm exactly at the same stage and not sure about flushing hope you don't mind me following a fellow welshy 😊

Ok so a few of you say you don't flush is there any difference in the smoke if you harvest and there's still neutriants

[welshweed]

Bore da, Welshboykev

[kingfish]

Hi I'm exactly at the same stage and not sure about flushing hope you don't mind me following a fellow welshy 😊

Ok so a few of you say you don't flush is there any difference in the smoke if you harvest and there's still neutriants

If you don't flush or you keep feeding it Nutes, your smoke will be harsh.

[Larry1]

welshweed it's just like Kingfish said the more nutrients in your smoke the harsher your smoke will be. Do you know what kind of trichomes you are looking for? Because every plant is different. Some will be done before others. I guesstimate:-) I like 10 to 25% Amber trichomes. My ppm's are about 1200 to 1500 at the end. So when I see about 5% Amber trichomes I don't feed it anymore nutrients. That way when I hit my 10 to 25% Amber trichomes my plant has had time to use up the nutrients. like I said before I cut my nutrients out two to three weeks before chop. I don't do a flush of three to five times the amount of water and flush the nutrients out. I let the plant use up the last bit of nutrients in the soil. With about 10% runoff everytime of just plain pH water. It can be a little nerve-wracking the first couple plants you grow but then it will become second hand. Again it all depends on what kind of trichomes you want how big the size of the pot you're growing in and how many PPM you have. For example my plants are in 2 gallon pots. I get about 2 waterings a week. So roughly 4to6 waterings to bring my ppm's down from roughly 1300 down below 400. I'm half asleep. Doing some midnight reading. Hopefully that makes sense.

[SoOrbudgal]

What I would really like to establish is a rule of thumb for:
"When should you stop feeding your plants nutes?"
For example, is it when you first notice trichomes developing on a bud?

Growing is learning and watching how the changes happen during the aging. It's like buying stocks, timing. Sure one can tell you do it when their all cloudy quit giving bloom. Then they can shoot new pistels and bulk up more, then one questions " did i stop giving nutes to soon" . Post a pic of the plant if you need better answers, give the strain and the first time you saw budlets date. This gives just a general idea of flower age but enviornment and lighting all dependent on eachother.

[welshweed]

Much appreciate all this info, guys. Being a first time grower, you can imagine it can get a bit confusing trying to assimilate and digest all the (sometimes conflicting) facts and figures being thrown at you!
I'm currently at the end of week six growing my autos - so a few weeks away from deciding when to stop feeding.
I know I'm bound to make a few mistakes first time round, But I think I must be doing something right when I walk into my growing room and the lovely aroma of cannabis hits my nostrils!

[SoOrbudgal]

Post a pic of them welshweed we'd like to see your progress.

[welshweed]

A bit diffident about posting my pics, SoOrbudgal but here goes...
First is Blodwyn -blueberry auto
2nd is Prunella - purple auto. You can see I've experimented with a bit of LST on her.
I nipped the tops off both about a week ago and started to give low nitrogen feed a few days ago.
Currently on a 20/4 light schedule, plus I open the skylight during the day for extra (northern) light.

[Larry1]

welshweed Nice looking girls. Your node spacing looks a little stretched. How far away is your light from the top of the canopy?

[welshweed]

Yeah Larry1 - re the stretchiness - the die was cast a few weeks back when I had lights positioned too far away. They've kind of settled down since I lowered the lights.
Entering their 7th week now, and I thought they might be looking a bit more "buddy" than this, especially the purple auto. But they seem healthy enough overall.