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To flush or......???

T

TheGreenGiggler

New member
So I am looking for discussion on the topic of flushing, so lend me your thoughts. I stumbled across a bit of chatter where someone was asking for the justification of flushing, and the point expressed was “isn’t that like starving the pant in its peek?” Which I had some trouble discounting in my feeble mind.... so here’s my request....

Help me understand if it’s needed and why? In theory if your treating your plant properly is there a need? If so I’d also like opinions on how much or how long for soil grows with nutrients.

Best,
me
 
I think of flushing pots as a gardening practice in much the same way that I think of the ancient practice of bleeding patients as a medical practice: it's popular and people attribute beneficial properties to it, but unless the plant has been overfertilized, it's unnecessary at best and harmful at worst.

There are a lot of folk remedies and practices in cannabis gardening that people swear by but that are not scientifically validated and that are actually pretty loopy if you think about them a little bit.

Give your plants the light, water, air, and nutrients they need and not a lot expensive extra stuff in fancy bottles with colorful, sexy labels and then leave well enough alone.
 
Morning giggler, you need to read Nebulas articles on flushing, some do some dont, but if you cut back on nutrients at the end that will help alot. Most of the time I grow in supersoil, so I don't flush sometimes ,but not always.
 
I find flushing useful on two occurrences One when plants stop feeding (lockout) if you flush then you are washing away the problems and as a final flush ,if you start decreasing nute around week 7 and just give them Molasses and water for 3 or 4 watering then flushing is not needed but if you use nutes right up to harvest week then you need to Flush
 
Ok, can some one explain flushing in detail? Is it a one time thing? Is it a daily? I am interpreting it as one of two things. A full drench to create a significant run off from the soil, as a one time event. Or is it just watering with out any nutrients for a period of time, ie 7 days to 14 days in soil....?? ( or is it drenching for 2 weeks with large run off....)

little more help? (Thanks for all the input thus far gang!)
 
Thanks D.A.A.S.69, I might be a little dim.... I don’t know if I understand the steps of some of the tutorials I have read... does one hose them down daily to run off or just use water in the same amounts as a normal watering for a few weeks? Is there anything to do around shortening the time frame?
 
There are products to add to your water to help strip the salts and nutes out without having to run tons of water threw your pots. I use flora kleen from gh
 
I grow in coco, with GH nutrients. So this pertains to coco with GH nutrients.

Runoff PH determines when I flush. The runoff PH will drop over time as salt builds up in my coco. I generally will flush (5 gallons of PH'd water, with FloraKleen as directed), for each 5 gallon smart pot of coco.
I grow in 32oz cups, and then 1 gal pots, then 5 gal pots. This way I am not building up salts in a 5 gallon pot when the plants are small.
I will probable flush at about 5-6 weeks of flower, the same way.
Then when I determine I have about 2 weeks to go I flush with every watering (about 3 times), but this is with plain PH'd water, not the FloraKleen.

I have flushed, and I have not flushed. Flushed is much better imo.

True living organics, in soil, no flush necessary. Pretend organic grows with 'organic' bottle nutrients, I do recommend a flush. my 2c.
 
TheGreenGiggler The brand doesn’t matter, as long as it’s unsulphured. Also, I don’t see a reason for stopping nutes early or using less. That’s seems like missed opportunities. I feed full strength nutes(emerald harvest) then a week and a half flush. When I used 1/4 or 1/2 strength nutes I didn’t flush. I watered with a good bit of run off though. And by FLUSH I mean feed with ph’d water and molasses. That’s what I do.
 
The term “flushing” gets used for both. oldjarhead100 explains it in a few comments up. Your preharvest flush is a 2 week long process in which time you will give ph’d water with no nutrients at the time you would regularly feed. Maybe molasses.
 
That's almost exactly the same way I feed mine Garrett, same as you. You want fat buds you gotta feed them, I use Advanced Nutreints but I use molasses the whole grow.
 
Thanks all! Going to read the articles now!! Is there any scientific testing that outlines the differences? Forgive me for how I will ask this part..... by scientific testing, I mean lab quality type stuff rather than anecdotal evidence?
 
That might take me some time to poor over, thanks for suggesting the articles alt! Might be week minded, but the way I read so far has me leaning one way atm. If I expressed a view on that would you all mind gently pointing out the parts I misinterpret or fall short of thinking through to all of the available considerations?

My thoughts chain together like this.

All living things need food to continue, this includes at points where they are significantly ageing. A plant will burn food as part of its live cycle. A plant will not burn all stored foods if they exceed its normal needs for production or continued living. A plant will also not burn injested material that can not be considered food, meaning excess amounts of “food/nutrients” and/or foreign elements would build up with in the plant. Flushing could potentially blend down this stored excess stored foods as the plant would begin using its stored foods, but it would not wash out excess foods and unusable stored elements as this would not be a possible outcome. Am I getting this right so far?

If it’s the plant using it’s stored material, how much could their be? I would imagine their would be a density ratio that limits the amount of material, Think anyone is or has looked into how much fertilizer a plant can internalize for a period of time and how long a plant can take to burn a fully saturated plant?
 
ok Green you nailed it ,the purpose of flushing is to wash out the unused food/nutrients from soil, then the plant uses up its stored nutes so you do not have a bad taste in the buds.

If you lower the amount of nutes you feed the plant it starts to use the stored food while its still growing
 
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